If the three-strikes-rule were in effect, the Air Force would be out of luck for testing its X-51A Waverider cruise missile as the supersonic rocket failed again to activate its scramjet propulsion system. The project has cost $300 million so far and there may not be enough budget (or will power) left for a fourth test. As part of the US Air Force’s “prompt global strike” initiative, the missile was supposed to give the military the ability to strike targets anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes. As a cruise missile, it would not be perceived as a nuclear threat and accidentally prompt a nuclear…

Hey there. This is a photographic collection of pixels whose purpose it is to show you what the 33rd-largest computer in the world looks like. I hope it’s doing its job. Seriously, though, this thing is a beast. Made of 1760 Playstation 3s, the behemoth harnesses the power of “168 separate graphical processing units and 84 coordinating servers” to help the US Air Force perform AI research, process maps and enhance radar functionality. But even this killer rig is practically obsolete, with the Air Force’s Mark Barnell admitting that he’s “looking forward to working with the next generation of…

If ever there was a time to be concerned about where your tax dollars are going, it’s now. The US Air Force is up in arms because the new Sony Playstation 3 firmware messed up their high score on Halo 3. The last organization you’d hope were messing around with consoles is the Air Force, but apparently they serve a higher purpose than taxing the WoW skills of our boys in green. The Air Force has 1700 PS3s hooked up into a 500 TeraFLOP processing cluster (Can anyone say SkyNet?). Thankfully, the Air Force doesn’t simply integrate household electronics into the national defense grid without any modifications….