Content tagged with “military” under “The Interesting List”

“ At a testing center in Upstate New York, the US Air Force has mounted a bunch of planes upside down to test their antennae and communications systems. ”

“ There are ‘bar codes’ printed on the ground in multiple places around the United States, used to calibrate spy satellites. ”

“ In 1986, the Air Force flew a human heart a long distance, very, very fast, so it would survive until it got implanted. ”

“ The US Navy owns an entire forest to source a rare wood to repair the historic USS Constitution. ”

“ A South Korean company is bottling water from the demilitarized zone between North and South, claiming purity because that land has been uninhabited for almost 70 years. ”

“ The U-2 spy plane is so difficult to land that they need fast chase cars to follow it down the runway to tell the pilot how things look. This is a video from one of those cars. ”

“ Russia would absolutely love an independent Scotland, because its withdrawal from the NATO has a shockingly large impact on world security and the world’s economy. ”

“ A man with access to a lot of classified information disappeared in 1983. He was finally found and arrested in 2018. ”

“ A damaged plane jettisoned a nuclear bomb off the coast of Georgia in 1958. It has never been found. It has been confirmed to contain enriched uranium, but may or may not be capable of detonating. ”

“ The psychological operations unit in the US Army produced their own recruiting video which explains what they do in a very unexpected style. ”

“ There is a shadowy Soviet system that can automatically launch nuclear missiles if it detects a nuclear explosion on Soviet soil. It is still in operation today. ”

“ A photo gallery and description of how the mothballed USS Kitty Hawk gets from Washington state to a salvage yard on the Texas coast. ”

“ Soldiers studying for protocol exams have inadvertently revealed nuclear secrets by creating online flashcards for them. ”

“ Limited range makes jet packs impractical for most uses, but they come in handy for boarding ships, as demonstrated in this training exercise. ”

“ In 1945, there was an hours-long Japanese ‘attack’ on Los Angeles that was very likely the result of wild imaginations and nervous trigger fingers. ”

“ Back in 2017, an incident in the Black Sea, and a bunch of Pokemon Go players, revealed that Russia can spoof GPS coordinates. ”

“ The US literally forgot how to make a critical component of nuclear weapons. This resulted in years of maintenance delays and cost tens of millions of dollars. ”

“ There was once a shoulder-launched thermonuclear weapon. ”

“ Two professional CrossFit athletes take on a U.S. Army obstacle course. ”

“ Some fighter jets have a false cockpit painted on the bottom of the fuselage to make it harder to figure out its orientation and direction. ”

“ A plane attempting to land on an aircraft carrier snaps the arresting cable, thus demonstrating why pilots momentarily go to full power at the instant they catch the cable. ”

“ When the US military needs to move an active nuclear warhead, they take precautions. This was filmed in Great Falls, Montana. ”

“ There are several sunken Russian nuclear submarines – some with leaky reactors – in the Arctic Ocean that the country is going to attempt to raise and bring home. ”

“ There exists a low-frequency radio transmission of an alternating ‘buzz’ sound, sprinkled with the occasional Russian word. No one knows why this exists. It’s been going on for decades. ”

“ All the details behind how the most famous flying gun in the world works. Hint: it’s as simple as possible, and designed to do one thing really well. ”

“ A detailed description of how naval torpedoes actually work. ”

“ The size difference demonstrated between a Soviet-era Mil Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter and a more common passenger helicopter. ”

“ A good explainer of ‘numbers stations,’ which are radio frequencies that broadcast series of numbers on a schedule. It’s assumed they’re communicating to spies in the field, but no one knows for sure. ”

“ In late 2018, a photographer spontaneously captured a picture of Air Force One over the UK. He posted it to social media, and unwittingly revealed a secret presidential trip to Iraq. ”

“ In 2004, the Navy encountered something off the coast of California that it still can’t explain. And there’s video, despite what might be a cover-up. ”

“ A backstory behind a seemingly successful penis transplant, and the complications and ethical questions it raises. ”

“ The process of ejecting from a fighter plane is far more intricate than you would think. More violent, too. ”

“ In 1983, an inexperienced pilot in British Harrier couldn’t locate the aircraft carrier he was supposed to land on, and had to set down on a Spanish cargo ship before he ran out of fuel. ”

“ The U.S. military uses Internet Relay Chat a lot, perhaps most importantly to run tactical operations in real-time. IRC is a very old – but still quite popular – technology, dating to 1988. ”