Drones that look and move like real birds

Hi-tech drones that look and move like real birds have already flown

If you’ve ever looked up to the sky and enjoyed the sight of a bird gliding above, be warned: it could be a Chinese drone monitoring your every move.

The idea might seem far fetched, but robotic birds are very much a reality, and China has been using them to surveil people across the country.

Sources told the South China Morning Post that more than 30 military and government agencies have deployed the birdlike drones and related devices in at least five provinces in recent years.

One part of the country that has seen the new technology used extensively is the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in China’s far west. The vast area, which borders Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, is home to a large Muslim population and has long been viewed by Beijing as a hotbed for separatism. As a result, the region and its people have been subjected to heavy surveillance from the central government.

The new “spy birds” programme, code-named “Dove”, is being led by Song Bifeng, a professor at Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xian, capital of northwestern China’s Shaanxi province. Song was formerly a senior scientist on the J-20 stealth jet programme and has already been honoured by the People’s Liberation Army – China’s military – for his work on Dove, according to information on the university website.

Yang Wenqing, an associate professor at the School of Aeronautics at Northwestern and a member of Song’s team, confirmed the use of the new technology but said it was not widespread.

“The scale is still small,” compared to other types of drones in use today, she told the South China Morning Post.

“We believe the technology has good potential for large-scale use in the future … it has some unique advantages to meet the demand for drones in the military and civilian sectors,” she said.

Unlike unmanned aerial vehicles with fixed wings or rotor blades, the new drones actually mimic the flapping action of a bird’s wings to climb, dive and turn in the air.

Another researcher involved in the Dove project said the aim was to develop a new generation of drones with biologically inspired engineering that could evade human detection and even radar.

The machines in China’s current robot flock replicate about 90 per cent of the movements of a real dove, the person said, adding that they also produce very little noise, making them very hard to detect from the ground, and are so lifelike that actual birds often fly alongside them.

The team conducted almost 2,000 test flights before deploying the drones in real-life situations, said the researcher, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the programme.

One experiment in northern China’s Inner Mongolia involved flying the birds over a flock of sheep – animals that are well known for their keen sense of hearing and ability to be easily spooked. The flock paid no attention whatsoever to the drone flying above, the person said.

Although the technology is still in its early stages of development, its wide range of possible uses – not only for the police and military, but also in the fields of emergency response and disaster relief, environmental protection and urban planning – means the market for the drones could be worth 10 billion yuan (US$1.54 billion) in China alone, the researcher said.

Humans have been obsessed by the idea of flight since the dawn of time. And in the century or so since Wilbur and Orville Wright briefly took to the skies at Kitty Hawk, engineers and scientists have been trying to decode the secrets of bird flight to improve aircraft performance.

Birds are incredibly efficient fliers. The bar-tailed godwit, for instance, despite weighing only 290 grams (10 ounces) flies 11,000km (6,800 miles) non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand every autumn. The epic journey takes just eight days.

In comparison, the Dove drones weigh 200 grams, have a wingspan of about 50 centimetres (20 inches), and can fly at speeds of up to 40km/h (25mph) for a maximum of 30 minutes.

Each machine is fitted with a high-definition camera, GPS antenna, flight control system and data link with satellite communication capability. The flapping mechanism comprises a pair of crank-rockers driven by an electric motor, while the wings themselves can deform slightly when moving up and down, which generates not only lift but also thrust to drive the drone forward.

Specially designed software helps to counter any jerky movements to ensure the on-board camera achieves sharp images and stable video.

The Dove drones’ ability to seemingly melt into the background has attracted a lot of interest in military and government circles.

Professor Li Yachao, a military radar researcher at the National Defence Technology Laboratory of Radar Signal Processing in Xian, said the movement of the Dove’s wings was so lifelike it could fool even the most sensitive radar systems.

The use of camouflage – perhaps even real feathers – on the drone’s outer body could distort the radar signature still further, he said.

Aware of the dangers such stealth drones pose to conventional detection systems, radar scientists have been looking at new ways to spot and track small, low-altitude targets flying at slow speed.

These include the holographic radar, which is capable of producing three-dimensional images of flying objects and has been hailed as a significant step forward in detection technology.

However, “there is no guarantee” that even a holographic radar – or any of the other new technologies in development – would be able to detect a drone with a wing-flapping pattern that was almost identical to those found in nature, and “especially if it was surrounded by other birds”, Li said.

“It would be a serious threat” to air defence systems, he said.

The Dove is not the only avian drone to have been developed in China. In 2012, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics released “Tian Ying”, a robotic bird about the size of an eagle.

Also, according to information on government websites, the Harbin Institute of Technology, China’s top university for defence research, is developing a bird drone with a large wingspan and the ability to operate in the thin air found on high plateaus.

But China is not alone in developing robotic birds

In 2013, the US Army bought more than 30 drones from Florida-based Prioria Robotics that were designed to look like birds of prey.

Their likeness to raptors was only cosmetic, however, as they were propelled by turbofans and their wings did not move.

A far more convincing robotic raptor, appropriately named “Robird”, has been developed by Dutch tech firm Clear Flight Solutions. Although it looks and flies like a real bird, the drone, which is currently available only for demonstration purposes, requires an operator for take-off and landing, and its battery lasts less than 10 minutes.

According to the company’s website, the device’s primary use is scaring birds away from airports and crops.

In 2011, Germany’s Festo Corporation developed “SmartBird”, a robotic herring gull that had the ability to take-off, fly and land without the need for human intervention.

Although it was one of the most lifelike robotic birds ever built, it was never released to the market and the company was cited by Science magazine as saying it had no interest in making the technology available for military applications.

According to a recent government document seen by the Post, China’s military has tested the Dove system and is impressed with it.

An evaluation of the system by an unspecified military research centre concluded that the drone, with its ability to stay in the air for more than 20 minutes and travel 5km, had “practical value”.

Gan Xiaohua, chief engineer at the PLA Air Force Equipment Research Institute in Beijing, said Dove’s unique design meant it could convert electrical power into mechanical force with “high efficiency”.

It is “the world’s only bionic micro drone capable of carrying out a mission all by itself”, he was quoted as saying in the government document.

Although the Post was unable to reach project leader Song for comment, in an April interview with the Chinese academic journal Aeronautical Manufacturing Technology, he confirmed that Dove and other devices had been deployed in Xinjiang and other provinces.

“The products … have stimulated change and development in sectors including environmental protection, land planning … and border patrol,” he was quoted as saying.

Despite the technological advances made on the Dove project, China’s bird-like drones were still far from perfect, Song said.

Besides being unable to travel long distances or maintain course in strong winds, their performance could be badly hampered by heavy rain or snow, he said.

Also, the absence of an anti-collision mechanism meant the drones were prone to crash into things when flying at low altitude, while their electronic circuitry was vulnerable to electromagnetic disturbance.

Nevertheless, researchers were working hard to resolve these problems, and with advancements in artificial intelligence technology, such as deep learning, Song said he hoped the next generation of robotic birds would be able to fly in complex formations and make independent decisions in the air.

When that day comes, the Doves would be able to “match or surpass the intelligence of creatures found in nature”, he said.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Robotic birds take surveillance to a new height

Some scientific explanations for alien abduction that aren’t so out of this world

Accounts of mysterious flashing lights in the sky, spacecrafts and encounters with “real” aliens reflect high levels of public interest in UFOs and the belief that there is “something out there”. However, many psychologists are less convinced, and think they can provide more down-to-earth, scientific explanations.

Belief in aliens has increased steadily since the birth of modern alien research in the 1940s and 1950s, following the news surrounding a classified US military project at Roswell Air Force Base, New Mexico. Surveys in Western cultures estimated belief in aliens to be as high as 50% in 2015. And despite the fact that it is considered rare, a significant number of people also believe they have experienced alien abduction.

Present day awareness of alien abduction dates to the 1961 case of Betty and Barney Hill, who witnessed odd lights and experienced “missing time” and “lost memories” while driving. The reported consequences of abduction are often loss of memory, missing time, and problems such as sickness, sleepwalking, nightmares and psychological trauma. Following their experience, Betty and Barney experienced psychological problems and subsequently sought therapy.

Although the accuracy of the numbers is questioned, a poll by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research conducted 30 years after this account said that around 3.7m Americans believed that they too had experienced alien abduction.
Sceptics argue that alien-related encounters are merely hoaxes created for financial gain or social advantage. Perhaps Roswell is the most famous example. Initial reports from the 1940s left sufficient gaps of explanation for Ray Santilli to release in 1995 what he claimed was film footage showing an alien autopsy from the time, further confusing the issue. He later admitted it was a hoax. The incident sparked controversy and prompted claims that an alien craft had crash-landed in the New Mexico desert and that US authorities were involved in a cover-up.




The theory that alien abductions are hoaxes may be true in a few cases, but there is no reason to assume that the majority of “experiencers” are frauds. In fact, psychologists have come up with a number of plausible, scientific explanations for people’s supposed alien encounters.

Personality traits

One explanation is that when people believe they have had an experience of alien abduction, they have misinterpreted, distorted and conflated real and imagined events. Hence, sceptics of alien encounters explain them away in terms of psychological processes and personality characteristics.
Several studies report that experiencers do not typically differ from non-experiencers on objective psychopathological measures – those that assess psychological well-being and adjustment – and have no history of mental instability. However, one characteristic that is associated with abduction experiences is a proclivity for fantasy.

Mixed evidence supports the theory that fantasy-prone people engage in elaborate imaginings and often confuse fantasy with reality. There are also other psychological explanations, such as dissociation – where an individual’s mental processes detach from each other and from reality, often in response to extreme or stressful life events. A tendency towards being fantasy-prone and dissociation has been linked in studies to childhood trauma and hypnotic suggestibility.
Psychologists argue that hypnosis encourages the creation and recall of detailed fantasies. For example, Betty and Barney Hill’s account was typical of reported alien encounters: medical examinations or procedures, communication with alien captors, a powerful, mystical feeling, tours of spaceships and journeys to other planets before being returned to the car. And it was under hypnosis that these “missing memories” were “recovered”.
It’s for these reasons that it’s believed alien abduction experiences may arise from a combination of personality characteristics and susceptibility to false memories.

Brain sensitivity

Studies suggest that neuropsychological theories, particularly sleep paralysis and temporal lobe sensitivity, also could explain claims of alien abduction.
Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move, which occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep.

Many encounters occur in sleep, much like sleep 

paralysis and associated hallucinations. Shutterstock.

Experiencers’ claims share characteristics with sleep paralysis: a sense of being awake, not dreaming, and realistic perceptions of the environment. The inability to move, a feeling of fear or dread, and the sense of another presence – perhaps evil or malevolent – are common symptoms. Also common are a feeling of pressure on the chest and difficulty breathing, and of being held or restricted to a lying position: most sleep paralysis attacks occur while the individual is lying on their back.

Sceptic Michael Shermer once collapsed from sleep deprivation following an 83-hour bike race and his support team rushed to his aid. Shermer was caught in a “waking dream” and so perceived them as aliens from the 1960s television series The Invaders. It also explains some ghost sightings, such as the “night hag”, often experienced by those who suffer from sleep paralysis.

the conversation

Temporal lobe sensitivity is a theory that suggests the temporal lobes of some people’s brains are more vulnerable to influence from low-level magnetic frequencies. Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University in Canada, is among those who believes that increased temporal lobe activity can explain paranormal experiences such as alien abduction. His theory is that magnetic fields stimulate the temporal lobes, resulting in hallucinatory experiences similar to those reported by alien abductees.

None of this is to say that many people who believe they have experienced alien abduction are liars, merely that their accounts and experiences can be explained through recourse to theories with a scientific basis. There are many logical, plausible scientific explanations, none of which rely upon the existence of aliens. However, it should also be noted that not all reported alien abduction experiences can be easily explained by any of these scientific theories – and this throws up many more questions.

Do ghosts really exist? What lies behind ghosts, demons and aliens – according to sleep researchers

Psychologist claims most late-night paranormal experiences are simply down to sleep paralysis and exploding head syndrome

If you believe in the paranormal you might not be surprised if you hear stories of deceased loved ones appearing during the night, huge explosions heard just as someone is drifting off with no obvious cause, and other peculiar occurrences. But what if you don’t?
My interest in the paranormal started with an impromptu coffee with a colleague, Chris French, who researches reports of paranormal experiences. He told me stories of countless people who had recounted such events. These experiences tended to start while lying in bed. Then something unusual would happen – perhaps a demon would appear or the environment would seem strange or there would be a sensed presence. The person having this experience might also report being glued to their mattress, tarmacked into the bed, totally unable to move.

It’s unsurprising that people who experience such things might interpret them as paranormal. But certain phenomena such as sleep paralysis provide an alternative to paranormal explanations for such occurrences. Hence my interest in the subject, as a sleep researcher.

Sleep paralysis

When we sleep, we cycle through different stages. We start the night in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep – which gets progressively deeper. We then cycle back until we hit rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. During REM sleep we are most likely to have vivid dreams. At this stage we are also paralysed, perhaps as a safety mechanism to stop us acting out our dreams so that we don’t end up attempting to fly.

But during sleep paralysis, features of REM sleep continue into waking life. Those who experience it will feel awake yet might experience dream-like hallucinations and struggle to move. This experience is pretty common, occurring in around 8% of people (although estimates vary dramatically depending on who we are asking). It’s even possible to induce sleep paralysis in some people, by disrupting their sleep in specific ways.

Certain researchers, French among them, believe that this explains a huge number of paranormal accounts. Information about sleep paralysis is finally seeping into public awareness, but we now need to understand more about this common complaint.
Our preliminary work, which I recount in my new book Nodding Off: The science of sleep from cradle to grave, hints at possible genetic and environmental explanations for why some people are more likely than others to experience sleep paralysis. This now needs to be replicated using much larger samples. Reviewing the literature, we have also highlighted a host of other variables associated with this common experience, including stress, trauma, psychiatric difficulties and physical illnesses.

The worst dreams. Creativa Images/Shutterstock.com

 

Exploding head syndrome

Sleep paralysis aside, how else are sleep researchers helping to explain paranormal experiences? People sometimes describe experiencing huge explosions during the night which simply can’t be explained. There is no sign that a shelf has fallen down or a car has backfired. There is no one playing the electric guitar next to their head.
Again, this can be linked to our sleep - this time explained by “exploding head syndrome”, a term coined relatively recently by the neurologist JMS Pearce. When we fall asleep, the reticular formation of the brainstem (a part of our brain involved in consciousness) typically starts to inhibit our ability to move, see and hear things. When we experience a “bang” in our sleep this might be because of a delay in this process. Instead of the reticular formation shutting down the auditory neurons, they might fire at once.
As with sleep paralysis, this phenomenon is also under-researched. For this very reason, in 2017 my colleagues and I joined forces with BBC Focus and Brian Sharpless, a leading expert on this phenomenon, to collect data on this topic.

Imps and ghouls

Finally, what might scientists make of precognitive dreams? We might dream of a friend we haven’t seen for years only to have them call us the very next day. French thinks science can provide an explanation for this too. Referencing work by John Allen Paulos that focuses on probabilities, he explains how such an occurrence may be surprising on any single day, but over time, quite likely to occur.
Researching my book, I spoke to Mrs Sinclair, who is 70, and lives alone. She told me about what she had thought was a ghost living in her house, an imp throttling her during the night and other things that had left her petrified. Having scientific explanations provided her with immense comfort and she no longer believes in paranormal explanations for the things that she experienced.
Our hope is that scientific explanations of paranormal experiences might help others by lowering anxiety. Decreasing anxiety has also been hypothesised as a potential method by which to reduce sleep paralysis. So, perhaps providing more information about these unusual experiences might even mean that things are less likely to go bump in the night.

The 'stealth sheets' that can hide soldiers and even vehicles from infrared cameras

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a 'stealth sheet' that can effectively hide humans, cars and other objects from detection by a drone's infrared camera

A team of researchers have developed a device that can make soldiers and vehicles disappear. 

Called the 'stealth sheet,' it's a paper-thin device that can obscure objects from being detected by a drone's infrared cameras. 

The sheet measures less than a millimeter wide, making it about as thick as 10 pieces of paper, but it can effectively make objects invisible from a drone's view.

It's made out of bendable silicon and can hide about 94% of the infrared light it encounters, according to the study, which was authored by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

They hope that it eventually will be used to help soldiers and their gear stay safe on the battlefield.

'What we have shown is an ultrathin stealth "sheet",' Hongrui Jiang, a co-author of the study, said in a statement. 

'Right now what people have is much heavier metal armor or thermal blankets.'

Warm objects like the human body or a car's engine give off heat as infrared light, which is something that a drone can pick up on. 

Other technologies have been developed to obscure these heat sources, but can be cumbersome or expensive.   

The 'stealth sheet' can make objects undetectable by night-vision goggles or a drone's infrared cameras. Researchers hope the cloak could have real-life applications on the battlefield

The stealth sheet improves from these other devices by being able to absorb light in the 'mid- and long-wavelength infrared range,' which is the type of light emitted by objects that are the same temperature as the human body, according to the study.

Researchers also equipped the material with electronic heating elements that can 'trick' infrared cameras. 

Hongrui Jiang, an author of the study (pictured), said real-life adoption of the sheet will depend on cost and ease of use

'You can intentionally deceive an infrared detector by presenting a false heat signature,' Jiang said.

'It could conceal a tank by presenting what looks like a simply highway guardrail.'

To do this, the researchers used black silicon to make the sheet, which is created by harvesting silicon crystals on a silicon wafer, according to New Scientist.

This creates the appearance of a 'forest' of silicon needles, called nanowires, which reflect very little light. 

The nanowires are created using tiny particles of silver, which are etched into a silicon wafer. 

Warm objects like the human body or a car's engine give off heat as infrared light, which is something that night-vision goggles or a device's infrared camera can pick up on

 

WHAT ARE INFRARED CAMERAS AND HOW DO THEY WORK? 

An infrared camera uses infrared radiation to form an image. 

Unlike traditional cameras, they can detect visible light, as well as other wavelengths. 

They detect infrared energy, or a heat signature, and convert it into a signal.

That signal is used to calculate a mathematical calculation, which is then used to create a color map of an object's temperature. 

The colors are then processed on the camera's display as an image.  

Air prticles were then built into the black silicon to keep it from overheating. 

The light waves bounce back and forth between the needles, which prevents light from escaping. 

Black silicon has been known to trap visible light, but the researchers realized it could also trap infrared light.  

'We didn’t completely reinvent the whole process, but we did extend the process to much taller nanowires,' Jiang said. 

Now, Jiang and the researchers are working to 'scale up their sheet for applications in the real world. 

The stealth sheet improves from these other devices by being able to absorb light in the 'mid- and long-wavelength infrared range,' which is the type of light emitted by objects that are the same temperature as the human body

They've already tested the sheet on a model of the human body, as well as a model of a jeep. 

Researchers found that the objects were 'virtually undetectable' during the tests, according to New Scientist. 

Now, they're focusing on working out the object's weight, cost and ease of use. 

'If you have someone hidingin the  bush or you have a tank running with a hot engine, and someone is trying to detect these objects with a thermal camera, this is a counter measure,' Jiang told the New Scientist. dailymail 

Read more:

• 'Stealth sheet' hides hot objects from prying infrared eyes - College of Engineering - University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Stealth sheets can make you appear invisible to infrared cameras | New Scientist

World’s economic problem of people with IQ below 83

Jordan Peterson described how the US military determined that people with an IQ below 83 (1 in 10 people in the USA) could not be trained for anything at any level of the organization that was not counter-productive.

* the military is highly motivated to bring as many people as possible into the organization
* the military has used 100 years of statistical analysis to determine that bringing in people with IQ below 83 is a net negative
* if the military is as cognitively complex as the rest of society, then this means US society has a problem determining what to do with 10% of the population



India and Africa have more with IQ below 83 because of brain damage from malnutrition and disease

Nextbigfuture will point out with global economic competition that India, large parts of Africa and some other nations that have problems with malnutrition, high disease levels and stunting cause less brain development and lifelong IQ loss. This increases the number of people with IQ below 83 sometimes as high as 50% or more.

India has made some progress against stunting from 48% of children a decade ago to about 38.6% today.
They are improving stunting prevention by about 2.2% per year. Stunted children age and become stunted adults. Their brains remained damaged.
Stunting reflects chronic undernutrition during the most critical periods of growth and development in early life.

It is defined as the percentage of children, aged 0 to 59 months, whose height for age is below minus two standard deviations (moderate and severe stunting) and minus three standard deviations (severe stunting) from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards. In India, 38 per cent of children younger than five years of age are stunted, a manifestation of chronic undernutrition. Stunting and other forms of under-nutrition are thought to be responsible for nearly half of all child deaths globally.

India has the highest number of stunted children in the world, (46.8 million children) representing one-third of the global total of stunted children under the age of five.
Stunting starts from pre-conception when an adolescent girl and who later becomes mother is undernourished and anaemic; it worsens when infants’ diets are poor, and when sanitation and hygiene are inadequate. It is irreversible by the age of two. Child survival and health is inseparably connected to reproductive and, maternal health.

As high as 70 per cent of adolescent girls in India are anaemic and half of adolescents are below the normal body mass index, which has an impact on the health of their future pregnancies and children.

Child Survival is linked to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
A lack of adequate food is a primary cause of death, under-nutrition and stunting; but the story of child mortality and malnutrition in India is not just one of poor diets. The lack of water, sanitation and hygiene practices – which leads to illnesses and life-threatening diseases like diarrhoea – is thought to cause of up to 50 per cent of all child malnourishment. 2.5 billion cases of diarrhoea in children under-five are recorded worldwide every year.

The avoidable deaths in the developing world are still about 14 million people per year from diseases of poverty and malnutrition. Many who survive are unhealthy and partially brain damaged.
The Health Initiative, Observer Research Foundation wrote Stunting, Malnutrition And Its Impact On India’s Workforce in 2017 and it was published on NDTV. The article was the second in a four-part series discussing key issues on providing nutrition in India. It is a joint effort by scholars from the Observer Research Foundation – Oommen C Kurian, Priyanka Shah, Tanoubi Ngangom and Dr Malancha Chakraborty – with inputs from the International Food Policy Research Institute.



India’s stunting situation is worse than in poorer countries in Africa. Data on over 168,000 children show that, relative to Africa, India’s height disadvantage increases sharply with birth order. They posit that India’s steep birth order gradient is due to favoritism toward eldest sons, which affects parents’ fertility decisions and resource allocation across children. Researchers show that, within India, the gradient is steeper for high-son-preference regions and religions.

China mostly avoided mass malnutrition and stunting and had high levels of literacy prior to economic catchup
China had 91% adult literacy by 2000. India is currently at about 72% adult literacy which is about China level in the 1980s.
China was in the range of 10% of the population being stunted and it is now down to about 4.6%.

What do these statistics mean ?
It is massively difficult to uplift people from poverty. It seems impossible to uplift unhealthy poor people with IQ below 83.
Unhealthy and malnourished populations will be a permanent underclass throughout their lives.
The world is trending to even greater economic competition with more Artificial Intelligence and robotics putting pressure on the global competition for jobs.
This means rising levels of capabilities will be needed to remain productively useful.

SOURCES-  Jordan Peterson – Youtube Interview, Northwestern University, Health Initiative, Observer Research Foundation, Unicef, World Health Organization, American Economic Review Why Are Indian Children So Short? The Role of Birth Order and Son Preference By Seema Jayachandran and Rohini Pande

Inside America's Armageddon bunkers

The site of a former nuclear bunker known as Mount Pony, where the Federal Reserve secretly stockpiled billions of dollars in cash, which they planned to use to replenish currency supplies in the wake of Armageddon, in Culpeper, Virginia. In 2007, the facility was converted to the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation; it now provides underground storage for the Library's vast collection of films and audio recordings.

These astonishing images offer a glimpse inside the bunkers built by the United States government that were designed to withstand a nuclear war.  

Though officials keep the details of the country's post-doomsday planning classified, evidence of their decades-long effort - some abandoned, some active - are hidden in plain sight around Washington DC, and beyond.   

In Washington terminology, it's known as 'continuity of government,' or COG - and it's meant to ensure that America continues to operate as a constitutional democracy with its 'leadership visible to the nation' and its military able to defend the US 'against all enemies, foreign and domestic.'

It was first developed during the Truman Administration, in the early days of nuclear weapons development. COG measures expanded greatly during the Cold War. 

The US government built secret doomsday bunkers for federal employees in Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.   

They constructed nuclear-hardened communications towers throughout the Washington region, so the White House could reach other top-level survivors.

And they also developed weaponry with 'second-strike capability' that would launch post-doomsday to prevent further attacks, a strategy known as mutually assured destruction, or MAD.  

The room that would have served as the House of Representatives in the event of a nuclear war inside a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The 112,544-square-foot (34,303-square-meter) bomb shelter, completed in 1961, included enough beds and supplies to accommodate all 535 lawmakers, as well as one staffer each. There were also decontamination chambers, an intensive care unit and a communications briefing room, all surrounded by three to five feet (one to one and a half meters) of concrete

A dormitory for lawmakers inside a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia 

The north entrance portal - part of a two-mile long tunnel blasted through solid granite - serves as the primary entrance for the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) facility inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, 10 May 2018. The secret government complex is built 2,000 feet beneath the summit of the mountain, in a bunker that can withstand a 30-megaton nuclear bomb, an electromagnetic pulse, and chemical, biological, and radiological attacks 

Lyle Goodman closes the door on a former US Army munitions bunkers, which a developer is repurposing into a doomsday community for civilians called Vivos xPoint, near Edgemont, South Dakota. Vivos estimates that its 575 bunkers can hold 5,000 people, making it 'the largest survival community on earth'

The B entrance portal into Raven Rock Mountain Complex, a massive, 650-acre nuclear bunker and national security site built inside a hollowed-out mountain near Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania. Constructed during the Cold War, the facility was conceived as a backup for the Pentagon and built to house military leadership, as well as the president, in the event of a nuclear disaster. Entry is through one of four portals, each protected by a 34-ton blast door 

Former US Army munitions bunkers, which developer Robert Vicino is repurposing into a doomsday community for civilians called Vivos xPoint, near Edgemont, South Dakota

A nuclear-hardened communications tower and bunker known by the codename 'Corkscrew,' atop Lamb's Knoll near Park Hall, Maryland. Corkscrew was one of a network of towers secretly built during the Cold War to facilitate communications between the White House and other continuity of government facilities, such as Raven Rock and Mount Weather, in the event of a nuclear disaster. The tower has since been deactivated and the site is now used by the FAA

The intensive care unit inside a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The 112,544-square-foot (34,303-square-meter) bomb shelter, completed in 1961, included enough beds and supplies to accommodate all 535 lawmakers, as well as one staffer each. There were also decontamination chambers and a communications briefing room, all surrounded by three to five feet (one to one and a half meters) of concrete

An incinerator that could handle 'pathological waste,' a kind way of saying the remains of dead lawmakers, inside a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

A passing truck's headlights and taillights color a long exposure image of the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center, near Bluemont, Virginia. The top-secret, 564-acre facility includes underground bunkers, which would serve as a relocation site for members of the executive branch, including those from Homeland Security, in the event of a nuclear war. Though no journalists have visited the site, they became aware of its existence in 1974, when a TWA airliner crashed into the mountain, killing all 92 people aboard

The north entrance portal - part of a two-mile long tunnel blasted through solid granite - serves as the primary entrance for the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) facility inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado

A little green alien inside a glass jar adorns the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) alternate command center inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado

One of two 23-ton blast doors that serve as the primary entrance for the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) facility inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado

More than 300 people work inside Cheyenne Mountain, which they access via a two-mile long tunnel, and two 23-ton blast doors. NORAD is tasked with aerospace control of North America, including the detection of an incoming missile attack

The entrance to the North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) facility inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado

A military aid (R) carries the so-called nuclear football in his left hand as he follows US President Donald J. Trump across the South Lawn of the White House toward Marine One in Washington, DC. The satchel, which has a small antenna protruding from the back, contains a black binder with nuclear strike options, a list of classified bunkers for the president to take shelter, and a plastic card with nuclear launch codes

North American Aerospace Defense Command's (NORAD) alternate command center inside the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA, 10 May 2018

An armored and unceremonious exit (R) from the White House in the back of the Treasury Annex, now known as Freedman's Bank, in Washington. The bank connects to the White House via two tunnels - one under Pennsylvania Avenue to the Treasury Building (L), the second under East Executive Avenue from the Treasury Building to the East Wing of the White House. According to the White House Historical Association, the escape tunnel to the Treasury, which was built shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, went out of favor with the construction of the bunker-hardened Presidential Emergency Operations Center beneath the East Wing of the White House 

A black tarp blocks drivers' views of the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center along Blue Ridge Mountain Road near Trapp, Virginia

The press briefing room inside a once-secret Cold War nuclear bunker built for members of Congress beneath the Greenbrier, a four-star resort near White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia

The curious case of the reappearing Dark Sword

    Dark Sword/Anjian

Images of a remotely piloted fighter jet designed by Chinese aircraft makers caused immediate paranoia on Tuesday at Business Insider, which dubbed the aircraft a “nightmare for the US.”

The Dark Sword jet brings several threats to the table, BI reported. For example, the aircraft has supersonic flight performance, as indicated by "F-22-style vertical stabilizers," air combat expert Justin Bronk of British think tank Royal United Services told the outlet.

The US Navy initiated an unmanned combat aircraft program in the early 2000s, but it was eventually terminated. Northrop Grumman's X-47B aircraft demonstrator conducted flight tests in 2013 from an aircraft carrier, but the Navy decided to develop a drone to perform aerial refueling missions for carrier operations instead. That program, now known as the MQ-25A Stingray, aims to put drone tankers onto carriers by the mid-2020s.



In addition to its speed, Dark Sword could give China an edge by relieving Beijing from having to train so many pilots, Bronk said, especially if the fighter-style drones can be mass produced. Large numbers of Dark Swords could "at the very least soak up missiles from US fighters," he said. "If you can produce lots of them, quantity has a quality of its own."

Dark Sword debut at the Zhuhai Airshow in 2006

Sub-scale remote model of the vehicle, fly in 2011

The curious case of the reappearing Dark Sword/Anjian 🤔 pic.twitter.com/5uQd7WZPb3

— Rick Joe (@RickJoe_PLART) June 5, 2018

"At the very best," the supersonic plane would become a viable fighter aircraft in its own right, Bronk noted, in which case the US could be confronting a massive force of remotely piloted supersonic aircraft that might even exhibit greater maneuverability than manned adversaries since there is no pilot physically inside the plane whose vitals must be protected, BI reports. Piloted aircraft are limited in their maneuverability by g-forces exerted on the pilots inside, as too sharp a turn can force blood out of the pilot's head and cause loss of consciousness.

Nevertheless, the expert said that since "we only see what the Chinese want us to see," the plane's specifications on paper don't imply its actual fighting capabilities.