It's part tank, part salamander, and ready for combat

A new amphibious vehicle that moves just as well on land as it does in the water looks kind of like a salamander. That is, if a salamander had eight wheels, a six-cylinder turbodiesel engine and weighed about 20 tons.

Defense contractor Lockheed Martin designed and built the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV) to replace the U.S. Marine Corps' aging fleet of swimming tanks, which have been in use for more than four decades. The versatile new ACV was officially unveiled last Sept. 22 at the Modern Day Marine trade show in Quantico, Virginia.

Amphibious vehicles are very useful to Marines, who use the hybrid boat-tanks to travel safely between giant ships at sea and dry land. However, because they have to work in such varied environments, designing these machines can be a complicated (and expensive) process, according to David Hunn, technical director of Lockheed's ACV program. [7 Technologies That Transformed Warfare] 

"For military amphibians, you don't have the benefit of swimming in calm lakes or canal ways and then driving on smooth roads," Hunn said in a statement. "You’re swimming through, oftentimes, big waves, ocean currents, nighttime and storms — and then operating in rough, off-road land conditions."

To build a vehicle that can handle all of these conditions, engineers first have to figure out one very important thing: how to get a 20-ton tank to float. To do this, Lockheed engineers have to ensure that the volume of water the ACV displaces weighs the same or more than the ACV itself. If the vehicle is less dense than the water, then it will float.

Guns for good: The Remington Great Americans Shoot

Patriot Americans from around the country brought their shotguns to Texas on Saturday, raising more than $1 million for military-related charities.

The largest charity fundraising shooting event of its kind ever held in America, The Remington Great Americans Shoot managed to surpass its remarkable inaugural fundraising from last year , reaching more than $1.4 million. Last year, the event raised nearly $1.2 million for military charities.

This national shoot was sponsored by Remington Arms and pays homage to the warriors who have served and are serving in the U.S. military’s Special Operations.  

Folks brought their favorite shotguns out to the beautiful Providence Plantation near Houston. The event is an opportunity to have a lot of fun shooting clays and also to do a lot of good. The funds raised benefit the Special Forces Charitable Trust as well as other military non-profits to benefit active duty service members, veterans and their families.

Texan entrepreneur and renowned philanthropist Mike Reynolds founded the Shoot event. “The original idea was to find a way to allow normal citizens the opportunity to sit with some of these truly amazing men and women and say more than just a thank you,” he explained, in a press release. “It’s a chance for us to put our arms around someone who has been to battle for this country, whose family has given so much, and say how much we appreciate the security you bring to my family’s life.”

The Teams

More than 118 participants and over 2,098 donors – more than double the inaugural year - were involved in the shoot.

Some 18 teams of five shooters plus a sixth man from the forces took part in the competition, with each shooter committing to raise or write a check for a minimum of $10,000. Each team also had a “sixth man” shooter – either a veteran or an active duty service member.

Cold War weaponry and modern military hardware: Inside the ISIS arsenal

In January the U.S. Central Command announced that U.S. and coalition airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria destroyed some 184 Humvees, 58 tanks and nearly 700 other vehicles. The number of ISIS military vehicles destroyed may seem significant, but is really just a drop in the bucket compared to the militants' overall firepower.

While specific numbers are difficult to come by, reports suggest that ISIS has a huge fleet of vehicles – including tanks - its possession. Last year, for example, the jihadists captured 2,300 Humvees from Iraqi forces when they captured the city of Mosul, some of which were then converted to armored vehicles.

Unlike traditional nation states ISIS doesn't produce tanks or other weapons in factories, and unlike past insurgent forces that were supported by a nation state ISIS isn't being armed or equipped by a major power either. Yet the group's fleet of vehicles continues to grow. In May ISIS captured U.S.-built equipment, including M1A1 tanks after the group took control of the town of Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. The militants’ haul reportedly included about 100 wheeled vehicles and dozens of tracked vehicles.

Army tests remote-controlled weapons systems for base security

The U.S. Army is testing remote controlled weapons systems for base perimeter security.

The tests at Fort Bliss, Texas, involve unmanned, weaponized towers, which aim to make more effective use of military personnel. Using the remote controlled systems, two soldiers inside the base camp tactical operation center can do the security work once done by 10, explained Lt. Col. Raphael Heflin, commander, 142nd Combat Service Support Battalion (CSSB), 1st Armored Division, in apress release. "Every Soldier I have assigned to securing the perimeter is one I don't have that can execute support missions," he said.

Related: Cold War-era weaponry in pictures

The systems, and the “expeditionary towers” they are mounted on, are known as containerized weapons systems. One expeditionary tower "can be put together by six Soldiers in less than an hour, with minimal training," said Capt. Robert Scott, officer-in-charge of the 142nd CSSB's base defense operation center, in the press release. When it's time to pack up and leave, everything fits neatly back inside the container.

Tests at Fort Bliss have used a Browning M-2 50-caliber machine gun and a 338 Lapua sniper rifle mounted on towers, although most types of gun system can be mounted.

The weapons can be raised, lowered, rotated by 360-degrees and fired remotely, according to Scott, who noted that they are controlled using Joint All Hazard Command Control System software. The software serves as the brain of the sophisticated “Tower Hawk System” for base surveillance, he added.

New military radio uses soldiers’ bones to send messages

A new radio technology lets warfighters talk to each other by harnessing their bones to transmit and listen to messages.

The technology leverages the human body’s natural ability to transmit sound through bone. It takes the bone-transmitted messages and then delivers them directly to the inner ear through the warfighter’s helmet.

Warfighters can both listen to messages and send messages this way – and the tech is the mere weight and size of a small coin.

Related: Navies could harness 3D-printing to build military vessels, report says

Made by BAE Systems, the prototype will be on show at the Defence and Security Equipment International show in London next week. The biennial four-day event is the world’s biggest defense and security trade show. More than 30,000 visitors from 121 countries walked the floors at DSEI in 2013.

Communication 2.0

Radios are an essential tool that forces use to communicate with each other and understand the environment where they are working. In the battlespace environment, radios need to be effective amid loud noises from explosions and gunfire – warfighters also need to defend their hearing against the noise volume by wearing sound protection.

With this cutting-edge bone conduction tech, warfighters still send and receive messages while wearing sound protection for their ears.

‘The Martian’ director Ridley Scott explains his Mars fascination

The sci-fi adventure “The Martian” has landed in theaters starring Matt Damon as an astronaut forced to find ways of surviving on Mars solo after being left behind by his crew. The film is based on the popular book by Andy Weir and provides many science based explanations of how he could live on the red planet.

When FoxNews.com spoke with Director Ridley Scott at the Toronto International Film Festival we asked him about this Mars fascination. “I think because Mars really is the nearest planet, you discount the moon, which is only five days away, five days flight,” he said. “Mars, according to where you are, is between 50 million and 130 million miles away, according to its trajectory. After that, you got to learn to hibernate for years and you got to fly at the speed of light to get to the next planet. You’d be flying for 40 years.”

Related: Mars has flowing liquid water, NASA confirms

Scott describes manned Mars exploration as “a quantum leap”, further fueling our fascination with the planet. “NASA now knows that there is a massive glacier and therefore several massive glaciers of pure water underneath the sand on Mars,” he said. “So one does ask the question - 'a billion years ago, was Mars like us'?”

Now with the recent discovery of flowing liquid water on Mars, scientists may be closer to answering that question than ever before.

Scott also discussed how he came up with an on-screen Mars that audiences can see in both 2D and 3D. The director said he had plenty of material to help him design the cinematic planet. “I looked at all the stuff, the material that they’d had coming off Mars over the last 30 years, quite a lot actually, and they got a lot of assets lying up there or still working assets,” he said.

Antarctic scientists may face breathalyzer tests in attempt to curb drunkenness

When you’re working in Antarctica, you can only play so much Xbox before the walls begin to close. However, a recent safety audit released by the National Science Foundation Office of the Inspector General has sounded the alarm regarding over consumption (and in some cases, creation) of alcohol at U.S. Antarctic research bases. 

From May 2014 to March 2015, the organization conducted an audit of the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP) at three research stations – McMurdo, Amundsen-Scott South Pole, and Palmer. Around 3,200 people participate in USAP every year, including contractors, subcontractors and researchers, as well as U.S. military personnel, NSF staff and visitors.

According to the report, some participants flout the alcohol rules fairly openly. 

Although both the USAP and contractor Lockheed Martin prohibit drinking on the job, officials on a visit to a science lab uncovered, “large quantities of bottled beer stored under a desk and in the refrigerator.” It doesn’t end there. Investigators learned that, “a researcher was brewing the beer at the station, which is also prohibited by the USAP Alcohol Policy.” 

Curtailing drinking on the job is only one challenge. The report continues, “NSF officials acknowledged that alcohol consumption in the USAP can create unpredictable behavior that has led to fights, indecent exposure, and employees arriving to work under the influence. However, we noted that breathalyzer tests are rarely administered to determine if employees are intoxicated.”  

In terms of over imbibing and its aftermath, auditors interviewed HR managers for three contractors that account for an estimated 90 percent of the contractor and subcontractors, only one sent an employee for alcohol testing. “Similarly, we interviewed the physicians at all three stations and the USAP Chief Medical Officer, and only one physician recalled a situation, in which an HR manager asked the medical staff to perform a breathalyzer test,” the report added.

Related: Scientists watch enormous iceberg drift away from Antarctic glacier

Auditors called for more effective use of breathalyzers in the bases. “Since alcohol abuse does occur in the USAP program, workplace safety could be enhanced if breathalyzer tests were administered to all USAP participants endangering themselves or others due to the influence of alcohol,” it said. “We recommend that NSF review the legality of a requirement for breathalyzer for all USAP participants and establish and enforce a requirement to the extent it is legal.”

The National Science Foundation has not yet responded to a request for comment on this story from FoxNews.com. Lockheed Martin referred FoxNews.com to the National Science Foundation for comment.

NASA to announce 'major science finding' about Mars Monday

The scientific community is in speculation overdrive ahead of a scheduled Monday announcement by NASA of a "major science finding" related to Mars.

The specific nature of the discovery won't be revealed until a scheduled 11:30 a.m. ET press conference at NASA headquarters in Washington. However, the roster of participants includes two authors of a paper that claimed images taken from orbit show flowing water on the surface of the Red Planet, prompting rumors that the announcement relates to the possible discovery of water in its liquid form.

Those authors — Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment at the University of Arizona in Tucson — published their paper on the subject in 2011, when Ojha was still an undergraduate at the University of Arizona. 

Scientists have long known that there is frozen water at Mars' poles, but they have never discovered liquid water. Any such discovery would have huge consequences for future expeditions, including NASA's goal of sending a manned mission to Mars by the 2030s.

"If they’re announcing that they’ve found easily accessible, freely flowing liquid water under the surface — which is one of the theories we’ve been hearing for years and years — that has massive implications both for the potential for life on that planet and sustainability of humans," Doug McCuistion, the former head of NASA’s Mars program, told the Boston Herald. "That would be highly enabling and might be the game-changing trigger for both finding life and hurrying up and getting people to Mars."

Mars has flowing liquid water, NASA confirms

NASA has confirmed the existence of flowing liquid salty water on Mars, fueling the possibility of life on the Red Planet.

“Today, we’re revolutionizing our understanding of the planet,” said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, during a press conference Monday. “Mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past - under certain circumstances, liquid water has been found on Mars.”

Speculation has been mounting that NASA’s announcement would involve flowing water. Scientists have long known that there is frozen water at Mars' poles, but they have never discovered liquid water. The discovery could have huge consequences for future expeditions, including NASA's goal of sending a manned mission to Mars by the 2030s.

Scientists have based their findings on an analysis of the mysterious dark streaks on Mars’ surface called Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL). The streaks have intrigued scientists for some time, fading during cooler months and recurring annually at nearly the same locations. “The dark streaks form in late spring, grow through the summer and disappear by the fall,” explained Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters.

European astronaut uses 'the Force' to control rover from space

Demonstrating one small step for rover operations, a European astronaut successfully maneuvered a machine on Earth in precision operations from his perch 248 miles high on the International Space Station.

Sept. 7, the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Andreas Mogensen helped demonstrate the first "force feedback" using a rover controlled from space. With the help of a system that let him feel forces pressing against the rover's arm, Mogensen remotely inserted a small, round peg into a "task board" that offered just a fraction of a millimeter of clearance.

"Andreas managed two complete drive, approach, park and peg-in-hole insertions, demonstrating precision force-feedback from orbit for the very first time in the history of spaceflight," experiment leader André Schiele of ESA's Telerobotics and Haptics Laboratory said in a statement. [Video: Space-Borne Astronaut Runs Robot On Earth]

"He had never operated the rover before, but its controls turned out to be very intuitive," Schiele said in the statement. "Andreas took 45 minutes to reach the task board and then insert the pin on his first attempt, and less than 10 minutes on his follow-up attempt, showing a very steep learning curve."

Clever engineering allowed the astronaut to "feel" his way around the hole despite there being a 1-second delay between his movements and what was happening on the ground. The team — which included members from the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) and graduate students from Delft University of Technology, both in the Netherlands — created software models to compensate for the lag.