Flying Humvees In the Military's Future?

Generals may be notorious for always wanting to fight the last war but if true, there will be no shortage of tomorrow's weaponry they'll be able to choose from. At least in the U.S.

Earlier today, the New York Times ran a big piece on a new class of weapons that can hurl conventional payloads with precision accuracy at a target from thousands of miles away. Or at least that is how it's being billed at this point.

For obvious reasons, that could turn into a very big deal. But with all the attention lavished on Prompt Global Strike, another story got lost in the shuffle that has the capacity to have an equally transformational effect on the U.S. military.

The Defense Advanced Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Defense Department's research arm, has decided to go ahead with what it calls the Transformer (TX) program. The idea is to enable soldiers to go into battle riding a four-person flying car that also function like an airplane. The vehicle, which will be able to drive 250 miles on a tank of fuel, will not need a runway to get airborne.

According to LiveScience, the vehicle should be able to to the following:

• Carry a 1,000-pound payload
• Perform on a variety of surfaces like an SUV
• Rapidly take off and land vertically while being able to fly as high as 10,000 feet
• So far, the Pentagon has put aside $54 million to spend on a working prototype.
• Oh, and it's all supposed to be ready the 2015.