Behold: The Bolivian Navy You Never Knew You Wanted to Know About

So I recently and randomly was thinking about Navies in other countries. I can't really say why; maybe it was one of those free-association shower ruminations that I have so frequently. And I got to wondering about those Third World, landlocked countries that still boast a Navy. Because they exist.

Most of these countries have a "Navy" for "brown water" operations, namely the traversing and patrolling of rivers and lake within their territory.

And so I came across the Bolivian Navy. I think it's the only landlocked country with a website devoted to its navy. And it's awesome. Almost as awesome as this inspiring video:

You see, the Bolivian Navy serves a grander purpose than simply patrolling Lake Titicaca and Amazon tributaries. Indeed, the Bolivian people are proud of their rich naval heritage. Their navy is symbolic of their national desire to reclaim the coastline taken from them by Chile in the War of the Pacific in the late 1800s. One day, they believe, they will have the opportunity to reclaim their access to the sea and once again proudly sail the Pacific. They even have a national festival to celebrate their desire for this vindication: Día Del Mar (Day of the Sea). The festival is marked by an hours-long parade in the capital of La Paz.

And hats that are effective at keeping the sun out of both your eyes and mouth.

So let's tip our own hats in salute to the awesomest Navy-without-a-sea in the world. May you one day regain the port you so rightly crave.

US Navy starts up sense and avoid project for UAVs

Umm....does this mean we're going to have unmanned drones patrolling our own skies? Scary...

US Navy researchers have announced a new contract aimed at developing a "sense and avoid" system that would allow unmanned air vehicles to fly in airspace regulated by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is asking bidders to submit white papers by 1 April 2010 and full proposals by 3 August. Each document must describe how the bidders propose to solve one of unmanned aviation's biggest technical challenges and barriers to future growth.

The autonomous collision avoidance system must fit inside a 4.5-6.8kg (10-15lb) package, consume no more than 500W at peak power and not increase the UAV's drag.

The sensor system must provide spherical coverage of between 5km (2.7nm) and 10km around the UAV, but focus especially on "non-cooperative" aircraft, which lack transponders, flying towards the aircraft's nose.

The ONR plans to install the sense and avoid system on small tactical unmanned air systems (STUAS). With a major contract to supply the STUAS/Tier II system for the US Navy and US Marine Corps still in competition, the office has selected the AAI RQ-7 Shadow UAV and Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter for its demonstration.

Bidders will be allowed to use the mission sensors already installed on the Shadow and Fire Scout air vehicles as part of their sense and avoid packages.

via flightglobal.com

 

Navy: A Global Force for Good

Very cool Navy TV spot.

BOOM!

Hear that? It's the sound of the space weapons industry kicking into high gear.

The U.S. Navy today successfully intercepted its derelict spy satellite with a modified three-stage missile launch from a Pacific-based Aegis cruiser, handling a closing speed of over 22,000 mph! The old analogy of a bullet hitting a bullet doesn't do this accomplishment justice. Simply incredible.