According to a new study from the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, military sonar causes temporary deafness in dolphins. Luckily for the dolphins, this isn't always the case - the source of the sonar pings has to be nearby, and deafness is only caused by repeated exposure - but this study only confirms what the US military have suspected since the early part of the decade, when they accepted blame for the beaching of 16 whales in the Bahamas due to trauma brought on by sonar.

Given that the US Navy has already decided that threats to marine life won't change their sonar usage, it's unknown what effect if any this new study will have on the potential for more dophin disaster lying ahead.

Military sonar blamed for deafness in dolphins [New Scientist]

The report, written by the Navy's Office of Naval Research is, according to the London Times, "the first serious work of its kind on military robot ethics" - And if that sentence alone doesn't ring alarm bells, I don't know what will - and places an emphasis on teaching military robots an ethical code to make sure that they don't rise up against us:

"There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do," Patrick Lin, the chief compiler of the report, said. "Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when . . . programs could be written and understood by a single person." The reality, Dr Lin said, was that modern programs included millions of lines of code and were written by teams of programmers, none of whom knew the entire program: accordingly, no individual could accurately predict how the various portions of large programs would interact without extensive testing in the field – an option that may either be unavailable or deliberately sidestepped by the designers of fighting robots.

The solution, he suggests, is to mix rules-based programming with a period of "learning" the rights and wrongs of warfare.

I don't know whether I'm more disturbed about life following this particular art, or just discovering that a military report really admits that no-one is actually in control of their technology.

Military's killer robots must learn warrior code [Times Online]

Once each year, the Office of Naval Research holds a conference where they explain what they're currently working on. This year, the ONR detailed several weapons systems that seem like they were lifted straight out of your favorite military sci-fi novel.

Solid state fiber lasers could be mounted in "pods" on aircraft, able to deliver 100 kW blasts. Free Electron Lasers will begin development in 2010, and will hopefully have the ability to take out incoming ordinance or even small attack (or suicide) boats. The lasers don't stop there - helicopters could be equipped with laser terrain finding gear to help them land in "brownout" conditions.

Lasers not sexy enough? How about directed microwave weapons? I've been dreaming of one of these for years, to take out the thumping audio systems of cars that drive past my house. The Navy would rather use them to fry the electronics in enemy equipment.

The ultimate naval weapon might be the hyper-velocity railgun. It could propel projectiles up to 230 miles with killer accuracy at speeds close to Mach 7. The Navy holds a world record for "highest electromagnetic muzzle energy launch of a projectile" using such a weapon. I have no idea what that means, but I know I wouldn't want to get hit by one. These megaguns aren't without their flaws, though. That kind of muzzle velocity tends to destroy the barrel of the gun, and each firing draws something like three million amps. Image by: U.S. Navy.

Navy Wants Lots of Lasers [Defense Tech]