🏹 UK’s new UAV killer uses 13-cent shots to destroy drones, Caltech develops tech to translate thoughts into words, and farmer finds 88-pound piece of SpaceX debris

The United Kingdom Government has announced the development of a new drone killer that can knock out multiple targets at once for around 13 cents (10 pence) a shot.

The new directed energy weapon will be developed and built entirely in the UK and will use radio waves to render drones’ electronics useless. This weapons system could have near unlimited ammunition.

According to the UK government, the weapons system would be capable of detecting, tracking, and engaging with targets across land, sea, and air. For more on this development, check out today’s Must-Read.

🔥Today’s job of the day as featured on jobs.interestingengineering.com:

> Engineer III - Collaboration & Messaging
> Avionics Systems or Software Engineers

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MUST READ

🏹 UK’s new UAV killer uses 13-cent radio energy shots to destroy drones

At just 10p per shot fired, the new weapons system, dubbed Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon (RFDEW), provides an alternative to traditional missile-based air defense systems with a significant cost saving.

“The war in Ukraine has shown us the importance of deploying uncrewed systems, but we must be able to defend against them, too,” said James Cartlidge, UK’s Minister for Defence Procurement.

RFDEW can be installed on various military vehicles and will leverage a mobile power source to generate sequenced pulses of Radio Frequency energy in a beam.

💡 Caltech’s tech translates thoughts into words for those who can’t speak

Researchers at Caltech have developed brain implants that can decipher internal speech. This technology could transform the lives of individuals with severe paralysis or those who have lost the ability to speak.

This brain-machine interface (BMI) records signals from individual neurons in the brain in real-time, focusing on a specific brain region known as the supramarginal gyrus.

The team implanted their device into this region of the brains of two participants with spinal cord injuries. While the device recorded a 79% accuracy rate in one participant, the second could only achieve 23%. The team says that their technology is still in its nascent stages.

🚀 88-pound piece of SpaceX spacecraft debris crashes on a farm in Canada

A farmer and his son made a surprising discovery on their canola field: a charred piece of heavy metal. Astronomy professor Samantha Lawler examined the debris and suggested that these fragments were most likely from the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station on February 7 earlier this year, returning its crew to Earth. The reusable crew capsule splashed safely off the coast of Florida. Its disposable trunk module, which was left to reenter on its own, is likely what landed on the farm.

The incident has raised concerns about space debris and the minimal, but not entirely ruled out possibility of casualties caused by uncontrolled return.

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