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Navy testing hybrid Marine recon vehicle

Marine recon may soon get some new wheels: a vehicle with a hybrid electric and diesel drive. Fast, quiet, and with excellent off-road performance, the Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Targeting Vehicle (RST-V)?less formally called the Shadow?last month successfully completed a 1000 mile test of its performance and reliability. It successfully sustained highway speeds over its extended drive through mountain passes, rain, snow, and rough construction zones.

Navy wants ‘affordable’ weapons for war on terrorism

Cruise missiles have proven themselves in combat many times since the Gulf War, but the Navy would like to drive their cost down–the ones currently in service cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has a program to use commercially-based equipment to build a “cruise-like” missile with good performance at a price ten times less than the norm. The new missile is called, appropriately, the Affordable Weapon.