The Navy and Marine Corps announced Oct. 5 its plan to deploy the service's first cargo unmanned aircraft system to Afghanistan next month.

Adm. Bill Shannon, program executive officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons, approved Lockheed Martin/Kaman's K-MAX unmanned helicopter for a six-month deployment to augment Marine Corps ground and air logistics operations.

"I am very excited to deploy a system that will keep our Marines and Sailors out of harm's way and ultimately save lives," said Shannon.

Video by Navy Visual News Service

LaRue OBR PredatAR 7.62
The PredatAR 7.62 is designed for those who are searching for a lightweight, ultrareliable and accurate 7.62 mm NATO rifle for home defense, competition shooting or hunting. The PredatAR takes the highly accurate OBR 7.62 “Heavy” design, and lightens it in every possible way with the least possible impact to the accuracy for which the standard OBR is known. By contouring the barrel, skeletonizing the handguard, lowering and simplifying the upper rail, and using a low-profile gas block, LaRue was able to remove roughly two pounds from the standard OBR 5.56 rifle.

The 9x19mm NATO (Luger, or parabellum) cartridge continues to hold high ground in the defensive pistol community, in spite of the trend toward larger, heavier bullets, namely the .40 S&W and timeless .45 ACP rounds. The reason for this popularity is due to several factors: more than a century of tradition of the 9x19mm cartridge, its relatively high magazine capacity, its low recoil impulse and the great increase in projectile performance during the last 25 years.

"These are designed to blow up," said Albert Bacon a field service representative for R4PM IED Defeat. "They really work."

Bacon helps coalition forces in Afghanistan install mine rollers on the front of tactical vehicles. He has traveled across the country providing support to Soldiers and assisting with the installations of the mine rollers.

It's a good piece of equipment," said Spc. John Rollins, from Trent, Mo., of the 548th Transportation Company. "It does its job."

To increase the accuracy and speed of decisions made on the most critical points of the battlefield, the Army is providing Soldiers with the same mission command capabilities in a mobile platform that they have at their home base.

Marines from various units within III Marine Expeditionary Force trained with the first optics system specifically designed for the Mk-19 and M2 .50-caliber Browning machine gun at Range Two on Camp Hansen Sept. 14.

After refining requirements during a two-year technology development phase for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Army developers are poised to conduct full and open competitions geared towards recapping Humvees and producing JLTVs, as part of a synergized Light Tactical Vehicles strategy.

The Army-led program is planning to accelerate the developmental timeline of the next phase of the JLTV program, said Col. David Bassett, project manager, tactical vehicles.

Army officials announced the winners of its greatest inventions competition Aug. 23. Earlier this summer a panel of combat veteran Soldiers reviewed and voted for the most innovative advances in Army technology.