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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Social media platforms and other online services operating in the UK are facing new regulations. Ofcom, the UK's communication services regulator, has released over 40 safety measures that applicable organizations must carry out by mid-March 2025. The new guidance follows last year's passage of the Online Safety Act, which implements new protections for children and adults online. Ofcom's role includes providing compliance codes and guidance for relevant companies.

Ofcom introduced new measures tackling areas such as fraud, moderation and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Online services must take steps like nominating a senior person who is accountable for complying to its duties for illegal content, complaints and reporting. Moderating teams must be "appropriately" trained and have enough resources to quickly remove illegal content. Plus, relevant companies, such as social media platforms, should improve their algorithms to limit the spread of illegal content.

The regulator's required anti-CSAM safety practices include hiding children's profiles and locations, not allowing random accounts to message children and using hash-matching and URL detection to quickly find and shut down CSAM.

The Online Safety Act includes "organizations big and small, from large and well-resourced companies to very small 'micro-businesses.' They also apply to individuals who run an online service," Ofcom states. It gets a bit vague, though, with Ofcom adding the business must have a "significant number" of UK users or have the UK as a target market. The Act covers "user-to-user services," such as social media, online gaming and dating sites. It also impacts "search services" and online businesses that show pornographic content.

Ofcom has the power to fine non-compliant sites £18 million ($22.7 million) or 10 percent of their qualifying global revenue, if a higher number. In "very serious cases" Ofcom can seek a court order to block a site's UK presence. Ofcom plans to release further guidance across the first half of 2025.

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fliptop writes:

Just two decades ago, China had little capacity to make cars, and owning one was considered novel. Today, China produces and exports more cars than any other country in the world:

President-elect Donald J. Trump has promised to impose new tariffs on China. Many countries, including the United States, already levy extra tariffs on China's electric vehicles. But with all of the advantages China wields in automaking, this pushback is unlikely to undercut China's dominance.

China's home market for car sales is the world's largest — almost as big as the American and European markets combined.

As China's domestic market grew, so did its production capacity, propelled by massive government investment and world-beating advances in automation. Yet in recent years, the pace of sales has fallen behind as consumer spending slows in China's economic downturn. The result is that China today has the capacity to make nearly twice as many cars as its consumers need.

[...] But China's trading partners say that China's exports of both electric and gasoline-powered cars imperil millions of jobs and threaten major companies. Earlier this year, the United States and the European Union put significant new tariffs on electric cars from China. Governments are concerned because the auto industry plays a big role in national security, producing tanks, armored personnel carriers, freight trucks and other vehicles.

Also at ZeroHedge.

Related:

• VW Turns on Germany as China Targets Europe's EV Blunders
• US Senator Calls For China EV Ban

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An Anonymous Coward writes:

Years ago, a lady in New York randomly received the automobile license plate number NCC-1701, an identifier well known to Star Trek fans.

Around 2020, she began losing eyesight, stopped driving, sold her car and surrendered her license plates.

Later people began buying novelty license plates with this ID, placing them on their cars, and, when these people got OCR issued tickets for traffic violations, the bills got sent to this poor woman. Hundreds of them.

The issue seems to have been resolved, but it does raise the question of how much trust we can put in automated identification systems and automated traffic fines.

The YAHOO story about this can be found here.

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fliptop writes:

An Idaho mine will be the only US source of the key mineral antimony after 18 years of permitting:

The Chinese government in recent weeks expanded its ban on exports of a handful of minerals found in critical military and energy technologies in America. The move puts a spotlight on America's domestic mineral supplies, many of which are locked in years-long federal permitting and regulatory reviews.

One such case is a project located at an abandoned gold mine in the heart of Idaho. That mine contains some of the nation's largest known deposits of the rare mineral antimony, which is among those affected by China's export restrictions. But after a staggering 14 years, the federal government has yet to give the Idaho project a green light to begin production.

Perpetua Resources, the developer of the Stibnite gold mine in Valley County, Idaho, first initiated study, engineering, and community engagement on the project in 2010. Since then, it has faced mountains of permit filings and lengthy environmental reviews conducted by at least five separate federal agencies.

Experts and legislators say the federal regulatory and permitting behemoth with which developers like Perpetua must contend is both costly and detrimental to American national security. And they have pointed to the project as an example of why they say Congress must take up permitting reform legislation as soon as possible.

"China has weaponized the world's mineral supply chains," Rich Nolan, the president and CEO of the National Mining Association, told the Washington Free Beacon. "Again and again, Beijing has reached for the minerals lever to exert geopolitical leverage."

[...] Antimony, like the other minerals targeted by China, has significant defense and energy applications—it is a key component of munitions, night-vision goggles, and military uniforms and is required for both utility-scale and electric vehicle batteries.

The United States, though, imports 100 percent of its antimony supplies, 63 percent of which comes from China. China supplies the international market with about half of its antimony.

According to Perpetua, the Stibnite mine—which contains roughly 67,000 metric tons of antimony—could account for 35 percent of the nation's antimony demand in its first six years of production and fulfill long-term defense needs.

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JoeMerchant writes:

https://defence-blog.com/russia-follows-ukraine-in-creating-drone-forces/

Russia plans to create a new branch of its military dedicated to unmanned systems, the "Unmanned Systems Forces," by the third quarter of 2025.

The announcement was made by Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, signaling an intensified focus on drone warfare amid rapidly evolving military technologies.

"In accordance with the directive of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, it is proposed to form a new branch of the military—the Unmanned Systems Forces. With your approval, we will complete its establishment by the third quarter of next year," Belousov said during a defense briefing.

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Meanwhile: https://breakingdefense.com/2024/09/russia-should-know-better-than-to-put-an-anti-satellite-nuke-in-space-norad-chief-says/

Belousov highlighted the extensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by Russian forces, stating that over 3,500 drones are deployed daily and that this number "continues to grow." According to the Russian Defense Ministry, their air defense systems have intercepted more than 27,000 drones in 2024 alone, underscoring the growing role of UAVs in modern conflict.

Russia's move to formalize its drone operations into a separate branch comes in the wake of Ukraine's pioneering efforts in this domain. In the summer of 2023, Ukraine became the first country to establish an independent military branch dedicated to drone systems, the Unmanned Systems Forces. This initiative has been pivotal in Ukraine's defense strategy, reflecting the technological advancements and challenges posed by its ongoing war with Russian forces.

Ukraine's early adoption of an unmanned systems branch demonstrated the strategic advantages of a specialized force, particularly in countering traditional military tactics and enhancing reconnaissance, targeting, and precision strikes. The effectiveness of such forces has likely influenced Russia's decision to create its own equivalent.

For Russia, this move not only reflects its acknowledgment of the success of unmanned systems in Ukraine but also its aim to maintain technological parity in an increasingly competitive field.

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taylorvich writes:

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-gravitational-memory-effect-core-collapse.html

Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity, has passed all tests with predictions that are spot-on. One prediction that remains is "gravitational wave memory"—the prediction that a passing gravitational wave will permanently change the distance between cosmic objects.

Supernovae—collapsing stars that explode outward—are thought to be generators of gravitational waves, though none have yet been definitively detected by the gravitational wave interferometers on Earth. Nor has the gravitational wave memory effect been seen, from mergers or supernovae, due to the limited sensitivity of interferometers below wave frequencies of 10 hertz.

But now a new study presents an approach to detecting the effect using currently existing gravitational wave observatories. The paper is published in Physical Review Letters.

To-date, all the gravitational waves that have been detected originated from black hole-black hole mergers, neutron star-neutron star mergers, or mergers of one of each. But collapsing supernovae of mass greater than about 10 solar masses are expected to emit gravitational waves as well, though of lower wave amplitude and with a different signature in a gravitational wave interferometer.

In such supernovae, called "core-collapsing supernovae" (CCSN), the core of a massive star undergoes sudden collapse when the energy generated from its fusion energy can no longer counteract the star's own gravity.

This results in an outgoing shock wave from the implosion. Some of the outward energy will be in the form of gravitational waves due to the star's changing quadrupole moment—with total energy of about 10⁴⁰ joules—unless the star's matter is spewed isotropically. (Unlike electromagnetic waves, gravitational waves have no dipole moment due to conservation of momentum.)

Emitted as well are visible light and neutrinos, opening up the possibility of a multi-messenger detection when they arrive at Earth.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The European Space Agency (ESA) has just signed a €10.6 ($11.1) billion contract to build the IRIS constellation. It’s the EU’s most ambitious space program in a decade and is designed to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink network. The contract will last 12 years, and the first launch is expected in 2029.

IRIS, which stands for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite, will consist of almost 300 satellites launched by European rockets. It’s built on top of two other EU satellite constellations, Copernicus and Galileo, the largest Earth-observation program and most accurate GPS system, respectively. Though most of the satellites’ work capacity will be used to provide commercial broadband services, a significant part is dedicated to security and crisis management. Most of the satellites are planned for a low earth orbit, but some will be in a medium earth orbit.

Of the €10.6 billion, €6 billion comes from the EU, while the ESA is forking over €550 million. The remaining €4 billion will come from the private sector.

The ESA is partnering with the European Commission through SpaceRISE, an industrial consortium led by European satellite operators SES, Eutelsat and Hispasat. Other members include Deutsche Telekom, Airbus and Thales, according to the Financial Times.

Since IRIS is many years away, Starlink will likely dominate the current satellite internet market. Recently, SpaceX completed the first direct-to-cell satellite constellation, which will allow phones to be connected even in remote areas.

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taylorvich writes:

https://gizmodo.com/the-famous-bering-land-bridge-was-more-like-a-swamp-geologists-say-2000539043

During the last Ice Age, modern-day Siberia and Alaska were connected by a landmass that allowed animals—and ancient humans—to migrate across what is now the Bering Sea. While scientists have long assumed that the now-submerged topography resembled the Ice Age landscape of these two regions, recent research paints a more complex picture.

Geologists suggest that between 36,000 and 11,000 years ago, the Bering Land Bridge may have been less an arid steppe grassland and more a boggy ecosystem crisscrossed by rivers. This complicates scientists' understanding of the iconic landmass and how its landscape would have facilitated or impeded the spread of different species. The scientists presented their work at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual Meeting last week.

"We've been looking on land to try to reconstruct what is underwater," Jenna Hill of the U.S. Geological Survey, who took part in the research, said in an AGU statement. "But that doesn't really tell you what was on land that is now submerged between Alaska and Siberia."

It's worth noting that the name "Bering Land Bridge" is often misleading. The landscape was not a literal bridge that necessarily compelled ancient humans and animals to cross it—it was a sprawling region in its own right that allowed for species to spread between Siberia and North America when sea levels were about 400 feet (122 meters) lower than today. It was a viable habitat in its own right.

In 2023, Hill and her colleagues conducted sonar readings and extracted sediment cores from regions of the Bering Sea floor where previous research had indicated the likely presence of prehistoric lakes.

"We were looking for several large lakes," said Sarah Fowell, a paleogeologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who was also involved in the research. "What we actually found was evidence of lots of small lakes and river channels."

In addition to highlighting the rapid change from freshwater to marine sediment, the cores revealed prehistoric lake sediments, fossils, pollen, and DNA left behind in sediments. Specifically, the pollen indicated the presence of woody trees, while the fossils hinted at widespread freshwater across the Bering Land Bridge.

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upstart writes:

Engineering the Impossible: Scientists Solve 200-Year-Old Polymer Puzzle:

A groundbreaking new polymer design developed by scientists at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science has overturned the longstanding belief that stiffer polymeric materials must be less stretchable.

"We are addressing a fundamental challenge that has been thought to be impossible to solve since the invention of vulcanized rubber in 1839," said Liheng Cai, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and chemical engineering.

That's when Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered that heating natural rubber with sulfur created chemical crosslinks between the strand-like rubber molecules. This cross-linking process creates a polymer network, transforming the sticky rubber, which melts and flows in the heat, into a durable, elastic material.

Since then, it's been believed that if you want to make a polymer network material stiff, you have to sacrifice some stretchability.

[...] "This limitation has held back the development of materials that need to be both stretchable and stiff, forcing engineers to choose one property at the expense of the other," said Huang, who first-authored the paper with postdoctoral researchers Shifeng Nian and Cai. "Imagine, for example, a heart implant that bends and flexes with each heartbeat but still lasts for years."

Crosslinked polymers are everywhere in products we use, from automobile tires to home appliances — and they are increasingly used in biomaterials and health care devices.

Some applications the team envisions for their material include prosthetics and medical implants, improved wearable electronics, and "muscles" for soft robotic systems that need to flex, bend and stretch repeatedly.

Stiffness and extensibility — how far a material can stretch or expand without breaking — are linked because they originate from the same building block: the polymer strands connected by crosslinks. Traditionally, the way to stiffen a polymer network is to add more crosslinks.

This stiffens the material but doesn't solve the stiffness-stretchability trade-off. Polymer networks with more crosslinks are stiffer, but they don't have the same freedom to deform, and they break easily when stretched.

"Our team realized that by designing foldable bottlebrush polymers that could store extra length within their own structure, we could 'decouple' stiffness and extensibility — in other words, build in stretchability without sacrificing stiffness," Cai said. "Our approach is different because it focuses on the molecular design of the network strands rather than crosslinks."

Instead of linear polymer strands, Cai's structure resembles a bottlebrush — many flexible side chains radiating out from a central backbone.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The Intel 4004, the first commercial microprocessor, was released in 1971. With 2,300 transistors packed into 12mm2 [sic], it heralded a revolution in computing. A little over 50 years later, Apple’s M2 Ultra contains 134 billion transistors.

The scale of progress is difficult to comprehend, but the evolution of semiconductors, driven for decades by Moore’s Law, has paved a path from the emergence of personal computing and the internet to today’s AI revolution.

But this pace of innovation is not guaranteed, and the next frontier of technological advances—from the future of AI to new computing paradigms—will only happen if we think differently.

The modern microchip stretches both the limits of physics and credulity. Such is the atomic precision, that a few atoms can decide the function of an entire chip. This marvel of engineering is the result of over 50 years of exponential scaling creating faster, smaller transistors.

But we are reaching the physical limits of how small we can go, costs are increasing exponentially with complexity, and efficient power consumption is becoming increasingly difficult. In parallel, AI is demanding ever-more computing power. Data from Epoch AI indicates the amount of computing needed to develop AI is quickly outstripping Moore’s Law, doubling every six months in the “deep learning era” since 2010.

These interlinked trends present challenges not just for the industry, but society as a whole. Without new semiconductor innovation, today’s AI models and research will be starved of computational resources and struggle to scale and evolve. Key sectors like AI, autonomous vehicles, and advanced robotics will hit bottlenecks, and energy use from high-performance computing and AI will continue to soar.

At this inflection point, a complex, global ecosystem—from foundries and designers to highly specialized equipment manufacturers and materials solutions providers like Merck—is working together more closely than ever before to find the answers. All have a role to play, and the role of materials extends far, far beyond the silicon that makes up the wafer.

Instead, materials intelligence is present in almost every stage of the chip production process—whether in chemical reactions to carve circuits at molecular scale (etching) or adding incredibly thin layers to a wafer (deposition) with atomic precision: a human hair is 25,000 times thicker than layers in leading edge nodes.

upstart writes:

Airborne observations identify major source of US landfill methane emissions:

A team has found via testing from airplanes that landfill work faces tend to be responsible for the biggest share of methane emissions in U.S. landfills.

[...] The primary gas causing climate change is carbon dioxide. This is due mainly to the sheer volume of the gas being pumped into the atmosphere. Methane actually insulates more heat than carbon dioxide but has received less attention due to lower overall emissions. Still, environmentalists have been growing more concerned about the gas as more sources of it have been found in recent years.

In this new effort, the research team focused their efforts on methane emissions from landfills. Landfills tend to release methane through the decay of plant-based material, usually discarded food waste. To learn more about methane released from landfills, the researchers chartered planes and flew as low as possible over 217 landfills in 17 states, using air-quality measuring devices. They found measurable amounts of the gas from half of them.

The research team found a surprising source—most of the emissions they detected were coming from so-called work faces—the parts of a landfill where fresh waste is dumped. Very little came from other parts of the landfills.

The researchers also found most of the landfills using gas-capturing technology were still emitting measurable amounts of the gas into the air. This, they suggest, is because these landfills are usually the largest and therefore emit the most methane. Despite efforts to capture it, substantial quantities are emitted into the atmosphere. The team was also surprised by the high number of landfills that were not emitting any measurable amounts of methane at all.

More information: Tia R. Scarpelli et al, "Investigating Major Sources of Methane Emissions at US Landfills", Environmental Science & Technology (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.4c07572

Original Submission

Frosty Piss writes:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd605e48q1vo

A chatbot told a 17-year-old that murdering his parents was a "reasonable response" to them limiting his screen time, a lawsuit filed in a Texas court claims. The same chatbot gleefully described self-harm to the same user, telling a 17-year-old "it felt good." Character.ai - a platform which allows users to create digital personalities they can interact with - is already facing legal action over the suicide of a teenager in Florida.

Google is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which claims the tech giant helped support the platform's development. The suit argues that the concerning interactions experienced by the plaintiffs' children were not "hallucinations," a term researchers use to refer to an AI chatbot's tendency to make things up. "This was ongoing manipulation and abuse, active isolation and encouragement designed to and that did incite anger and violence."

The lawsuit seeks to hold the defendants responsible for what it calls the "serious, irreparable, and ongoing abuses" of J.F. as well as an 11-year old referred to as "B.R." Character.ai is "causing serious harms to thousands of kids, including suicide, self-mutilation, sexual solicitation, isolation, depression, anxiety, and harm towards others," it says.

See Also:

• https://www.npr.org/2024/12/10/nx-s1-5222574/kids-character-ai-lawsuit
• https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/23/character-ai-chatbot-sewell-setzer-death

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upstart writes:

Worthy of a Science Fiction Movie: NASA's Juno Probe Captures an Image of a Dolphin on Jupiter's Surface:

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, continues to astound scientists and space enthusiasts alike. NASA's Juno probe, launched in 2011 and orbiting Jupiter since 2016, has captured a remarkable image that seems straight out of a science fiction film. This captivating photograph reveals a dolphin-shaped cloud formation swimming across Jupiter's turbulent surface, showcasing the planet's dynamic atmosphere and the incredible capabilities of modern space exploration technology.

The Juno mission, spearheaded by NASA, aims to unravel the secrets hidden beneath Jupiter's dense cloud cover. Since its arrival in 2016, Juno has provided scientists with unprecedented views of the gas giant's interior, atmosphere, and magnetosphere. Marissa Vogt, a researcher involved in the mission, emphasized the importance of these observations in understanding Jupiter's formation and evolution.

Juno's advanced instruments have allowed researchers to :

• Study Jupiter's gravitational field
• Analyze the planet's atmospheric composition
• Investigate its powerful magnetic field
• Observe its intense auroras

These scientific endeavors have not only expanded our knowledge of Jupiter but have also contributed to our understanding of gas giants in general. The mission's success has paved the way for future exploration of our solar system's outer planets, much like how the Hubble Space Telescope has revolutionized our view of distant galaxies.

Among the plethora of stunning images captured by Juno, one particular photograph has captured the imagination of both scientists and the public. This image, taken of Jupiter's south temperate belt, reveals a cloud formation resembling a dolphin gracefully swimming through the planet's tumultuous atmosphere.

This fascinating phenomenon is an example of pareidolia, a psychological tendency to perceive familiar patterns or shapes in random stimuli. While common in cloud-watching on Earth, observing such formations on distant planets adds an extra layer of wonder to our exploration of space.

The "cosmic dolphin" is formed by a group of clouds representing Jupiter's massive storms. However, due to the planet's highly dynamic atmosphere, this formation may have been fleeting, possibly dissipating moments after the image was captured. This transient nature highlights the ever-changing face of Jupiter and the importance of continuous observation.

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Better treatments have also prevented cancer deaths in the last 45 years

Colonoscopies and other cancer screening tests, paired with preventive measures and better treatments helped save nearly 6 million lives from cancer from 1975 through 2020. [About 160,000 per year. --Bytram] .

Nearly 6 million deaths from five common cancers were avoided through prevention, early detection and better treatments, a new study reveals.

Biostatistician Katrina Goddard from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD, and colleagues used statistical modeling to estimate how many lives would have been lost in the United States to each of the five cancers if survival rates had remained at 1975 levels, before major advances in cancer control strategies were implemented. The team also calculated how many deaths were avoided by improvements in prevention measures, screening and treatments.

Of the 5.9 million cancer deaths averted from 1975 through 2020, 80 percent were avoided thanks to screening and prevention, the researchers report December 5 in JAMA Oncology.

Some specific highlights:

• About 3.45 million lung cancer deaths were avoided, almost entirely because of smoking cessation.
• All of the 160,000 cervical cancer deaths avoided were due to Pap testing and human papillomavirus screening. (The model did not include cervical cancers prevented by the HPV vaccine, which is reducing deaths among young women (SN: 11/27/24).)
• Better treatments accounted for 75 percent of the more than 1 million avoided breast cancer deaths. The remainder were from mammogram screening.
• Of the 940,000 averted deaths from colorectal cancer, most (79 percent) were caught early or prevented by removal of polyps during colonoscopy screening. Better treatments were responsible for avoiding 21 percent of colorectal cancer deaths.
• Screening prevented 56 percent of prostate cancer deaths, while new treatments averted the other 44 percent.

Still, not enough people are getting screened or adopting cancer-prevention measures, such as quitting smoking. “There’s opportunity to improve the uptake of these strategies,” and to develop new treatments, early detection methods and ways to avoid getting cancer in the first place, says Goddard, who directs NCI’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. “We should definitely consider the whole cancer-control continuum when we’re thinking about how to reduce the burden of cancer.”

Reference (Abstract): https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/article-abstract/2827241

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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The British Army has successfully destroyed flying drones for the first time using a high-energy laser mounted on an armored vehicle. If perfected, the technology could form an effective counter-measure against drone attacks.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that soldiers from 16 Royal Artillery had conducted tests against flying targets – although the word it used was "hovering" – at the Radnor Range in mid-Wales.

This latest development follows the first firing of the laser weapon from a British Army combat vehicle at a Porton Down firing range, operated by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), earlier this year.

In that instance, the 15-kilowatt infrared laser was found to be capable of "neutralizing" targets at distances greater than 1 km. In both tests, the weapon was mounted on a Wolfhound, a six-wheel armored truck operated by the army as part of its Tactical Support Vehicles (TSV) group.

According to defense contractor Raytheon, which is part of the trials, this was the latest stage of the MoD's Laser Directed Energy Weapon (LDEW) demonstrator program involving its High-Energy Laser Weapon System (HELWS), and soldiers successfully tracked and neutralized – that word again – moving aerial targets.

[...] The army isn't the only part of UK military trying to get in on the laser action. The Royal Navy has its own DragonFire program to develop a laser for its upcoming Type 26 frigates sometime in the early 2030s to protect against threats such as drones.

The Royal Air Force has also tested a laser self-protection system with the intention of fitting it to aircraft such as the A400M Atlas transport, and there has also been talk about the future Tempest fighter being equipped with lasers.

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