US Navy – In late September and early October, two experimental vehicles will come together ó probably at the Navyís test ranges off Southern California ó for a series of demonstrations that will comprise a snapshot of the fast, highly automated platforms indicative of what Navy senior officials envision for the 21st century.

• Sea Power: Fire Scout UAV is Poised as Sensor, Shooter for Littoral Combat Ship

Background – History – “As far as I know, the guns at Filipstad are the only ones of their kind left in the world today. And what guns they are. Two 15-inch, cast-iron, muzzle-loaded smoothboresó”Dahlgrens”óeach weighing some 42,000 pounds (21 tons) and capable of firing a 450-pound solid shot. They were the terror of the American Civil War. So what are these mammoth specimens doing in Filipstad, V‰rmland, in rural Sweden?”

• Internet Journal of Naval History: The Guns at Filipstad: Some Reflections on the John Ericsson Bicentennial

Background – Afghanistan – An analysis of some of the possible policies for the US to pursue in Afghanistan.

• US Army War College Parameters: Afghanistan: From Here to Eternity?