In the late 19th century, the Howell torpedo was an incredibly advanced piece of military equipment, a breakthrough device in the United States' quest to achieve naval dominance. But only one surviving Howell torpedo was known to exist—until Navy dolphins nosed up another.

This darling kiddo wanted a Star Wars-themed birthday party where he got to play Luke Skywalker. His cousin was cast as Darth Vader, but when that black helmet came off, this little Luke got a glimpse of his father, who is in the Navy and wasn't expected home until December. After not seeing his son for three…

We loved Battlestar Galactica's nuanced approach to foreign affairs, wartime politics, and classicism, but how likely is it that its portrayal of a futuristic aircraft carrier will translate into our spacefaring military future? Foreign Policy interviewed naval analyst and former U.S. Naval War College research…

Add another eerily lifelike robot to the military's rapidly expanding android army. This one is, of all things, a mechanical firefighter. And not only can it climb ladders like its flesh-and-blood counterparts, it's designed to interact with human handlers in a kind of human/robot bucket brigade.

A Navy laser set fire to a small ship bobbing in unruly seas this week, the first at-sea demonstration of one of the Navy's ray guns. Check out the Navy's video of a fire slowly consuming the inflatable boat's outboard motors.

The Navy's death ray weapon keeps burning through laser records, on its way to the ultimate goal of searing through 2,000 feet of steel per second.

Apparently so: as PopSci reports, "communications are vital" for vessels at sea, but deck space for "all the large antennas necessary for long-range (and often encrypted) communications" can be hard to come by.

The U.S. Navy is looking towards the world of 2030, when its newest recruits will be just retiring. There'll be lasers, remote-controlled planes... and eye surgery to help you see in the dark.

Dolphins aren't the only aquatic mammals fighting human battles. The US Navy has long been training sea lions as equipment retrievers and underwater sentries. Now they plan to outfit a naval base with mine-sweeping, diver-trapping sea lions.

In 1924, Earth saw its closest Mars opposition in over a century, and some thought our Martian neighbors might use the event to attempt contact. So for one night, US Naval and Army stations scanned the skies for extraterrestrial transmissions.