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DEFENSE SYSTEMS DIGEST – 30 JULY 2019

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DSIAC JOURNAL
SEPTEMBER 02, 2020

Daunting Challenge of Drone Defense

INTRODUCTION The proliferation of an unmanned aircraft/aerial system (UAS) spreads beyond military and remote control (R/C) hobbyist markets in the last decade, spearheaded...

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 22, 2020

National Defense Strategy

The National Defense Strategy (NDS) provides a clear roadmap for the Department of Defense to meet the challenges posed by a re-emergence of...

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JUNE 10, 2020

Ensuring the Reliability of Munitions

YUMA PROVING GROUND, AZ– Whenever the U.S. military fires an artillery round, the reliability of that round was meticulously proven at U.S. Army...

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
MAY 29, 2020

Tiny Nuclear Reactors Could Help Us Get to Mars

Elon Musk’s SpaceX may be dominating the public imagination in 2020, but countless companies around the world are also working on spaceflight, or even...

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
MAY 29, 2020

Training to Defend

March 22, 2020 — Standing watch is a large part of a deployed sailor’s life. At any given time, there will always be...

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
MAY 27, 2020

Getting Serious About Interoperability

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan— Pacific Air Forces don’t have many F-35s. Yet. However, within 5 years, there will be more than 200 Joint strike...

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

U.S. Army Taps Persistent Systems to Develop Secure Comms for Robotic and Autonomous Systems

Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”) announced today that it has been awarded a $5.4M contract by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command C5ISR Center to develop Protected Communications for Manned-Unmanned Teams (MUM-T). The Army envisions a next-generation optionally manned fighting vehicle (OMFV) that can be networked with up to four unmanned remote combat vehicles (RCVs)

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

No Laser for You: The Pentagon Wants to Destroy Enemies” Laser Weapons

As militaries around the world race to develop powerful combat lasers, the Pentagon has something else in mind. It wants to destroy those lasers. The U.S. military worries that high-energy laser (appropriately known as HEL) weapons can destroy or damage surveillance satellites, sensors, aircraft, and vehicles or injure personnel. Despite challenges, such as generating sufficient

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Simple, Fuel-Efficient Rocket Engine Could Enable Cheaper, Lighter Spacecraft

It takes a lot of fuel to launch something into space. Sending NASA’s Space Shuttle into orbit required more than 3.5 million pounds of fuel, which is about 15 times heavier than a blue whale. But a new type of engine — called a rotating detonation engine — promises to make rockets not only more

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

NDIA Policy Points: Sonic Devices Demand Greater Research

Throughout history, sound has been used to enhance the effectiveness of conventional and psychological military operations. Today, Warfighters use sonic devices for a wider variety of functions, including clear communication in the field at standoff distances, warning civilians away from bases, and nonviolently deterring potential enemy combatants. The Joint Nonlethal Weapons Program sees the near

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

The Senseless Danger of the Military’s New “Low-Yield” Nuclear Warhead

Sometime in the past 2 months, the U.S. Navy has deployed a new type of nuclear warhead in some of its Trident submarines. Called the W76-2, it is a “low-yield” warhead, which would explode with the blast power of about 8 kilotons—far less powerful than the Tridents’ other warheads, which have an explosive yield of

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Thousands of Army Bradleys Don”t Have the Power to Use New Active Protection Systems

The vast majority of the U.S. Army”s Bradley Fighting Vehicles cannot be fitted with a new Israeli-made active protection system for one simple reason—they cannot generate enough power to operate it. The Service is in the process of upgrading a number of Bradleys to a new configuration with an auxiliary power unit that will enable

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Rifle Designed for Aircrew Ejecting in Hostile Regions Delivered to the Air Force

Air Force gunsmiths recently completed delivery of a new M4-style carbine designed to break down small enough to fit under most pilot ejection seats. The Air Force Gunsmith Shop has completed delivery of the 2,700 GAU-5A Aircrew Self Defense Weapon, a 5.56-mm carbine that can be quickly assembled in emergency situations, according to a recent

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 25, 2020

Leaders Discuss Nuclear Modernization, Hypersonics Development

The nuclear triad of intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines, and strategic bombers, as well as the nuclear command and control system, are at the core of U.S. defense strategy, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command told a Senate panel. “These capabilities are foundational to our survival as a nation,” Navy Adm. Charles A. Richard told

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 19, 2020

U.S. Army Developing Process for Using 3-D Printing at Depots and in the Field

WASHINGTON — “The U.S. Army has an overarching concept for how it wants to use 3-D printing and subtractive manufacturing, but now it must develop a process for using the capabilities across the Service from arsenals, depots, and plants and then down to the tactical level,” said Gen. Gus Perna, the head of the Army

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Army General to Lead New Pentagon Unit to Counter Drone Strikes on the Battlefield

WASHINGTON — U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Sean Gainey will lead a new 60-person team for the Defense Department to develop new methods to counter drone strikes, which are increasing on the battlefields of the Middle East and Afghanistan, Pentagon officials announced earlier this week. “The idea is to take all of the effort in terms

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

AFRL, Partners Develop Innovative Tools to Accelerate Composites Certification

In partnership with industry, a team of U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory/Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) personnel are developing the capability to accelerate certification of advanced manufactured composite structures. Creating a new materials characterization subfacility, known as the Materials Solutions Network, will drive composite manufacturing into a physics-based exact science that can be predicted

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

DARPA Is Testing Drones It Can Launch From a Plane—Then Collect Mid-Air

The news : The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has conducted the first test of a new type of drone that can be launched from a plane in a swarm and recovered in mid-air when it has done its job. How it works: A military transport or bomber plane releases a series of drones

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Assessing Israel’s Tactical Laser Breakthrough

Until recently, the military application of relatively high-energy lasers has been more science fiction than reality. That is starting to change. Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced on January 8 a “breakthrough” in its development of laser technology to intercept aerial threats. This technological milestone promises to strengthen Israel’s lower-tier missile defense and provides another opportunity

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

U.S. Space Force Gets Upgraded Satellite Communications Jammers for “Offensive” Operations

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will deploy a new version of a ground-based communications jammer used to block adversaries’ satellite transmissions. The Counter Communications System (CCS) was first introduced in 2004. An updated version, called CCS Block 10.2, has completed tests and will be ready for initial operations sometime in 2020, the Space and Missile

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Superhero-Like Technology Lets Law Officers Wrap up Suspect

A second local police department is considering buying new technology designed for officers to use when a suspect needs to be stopped but is not armed. It acts like a device typically used by fictional superheroes. Representatives of Wrap Technologies demonstrated the BolaWrap on Friday to more than a half-dozen central Ohio law-enforcement agencies at

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Navy, Industry Pursuing Autonomy Software, Reliable HM&E Systems for Unmanned Ships

ARLINGTON, VA – As the U.S. Navy moves forward with unmanned surface and undersea vessels in a range of sizes for myriad missions, some things remain constant among the vehicles: they will all need to continue making improvements in autonomy, the will all need parts that are reliable enough to go without human intervention for

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

Pentagon Report: DoD Needs to Test How Satellites Would Perform Under Attack

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Defense”s (DoD”s) Director of Operational Test and Evaluation warns in a new report that the military today is not able to assess the durability of its satellites if they came under attack. The DoD plans to invest at least $100 billion in space systems over the next decade, “and

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
FEBRUARY 11, 2020

AFMC, ACC Expand Weapons System Collaboration

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OH – A new weapons system collaboration program aims to synergize communication between program offices and operational wings, ensuring Warfighters have the right technology to meet current and future Warfighting needs. Gen. Arnold W. Bunch, Jr., Air Force Materiel Command Commander and Gen. Mike Holmes, Air Combat Command Commander, signed a

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

Dedrone Introduces Radio Frequency Sensor, RF-160 for sUAS Detection and Threat Mitigation

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Dedrone, a leading global provider of counter-small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) capabilities, announced the release of their radio frequency (RF) sensor, the Dedrone RF-160. The RF-160 is an upgraded version of the company”s RF sensor, the RF-100, and includes new and advanced features such as increased detection range, streamlined installation process,

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

UH-60 Blackhawk Training Operations at Fort McCoy

FORT MCCOY, WI – An aircrew operated a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter at the Sparta-Fort McCoy Airport during training operations December 16, 2019, at Fort McCoy. The UH-60 Blackhawk has been the Army”s frontline utility helicopter for the past 40 years, and it shows no signs of letting up, said service officials at Redstone Arsenal, AL.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

Maine Entrepreneur Developing “Less-Lethal” Projectiles, Launcher System

FRYEBURG, ME — A Fryeburg entrepreneur has received four Maine Technology Institute grants totaling almost $22,000 to develop a “less lethal” weapon: an air-powered grenade launcher that can shoot specialized projectiles at a safe velocity whether the target is 10 feet away or 300. Kurt Boeker is hoping it someday becomes a police department staple

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

Carbon Nanotubes to Boost Communications

The quantum technology may improve everything from 5G to tactical radios. High-frequency radios may be more resilient, military sensors more sensitive, and 5G communications more versatile because of a technological breakthrough initiated by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Carbon nanotubes, the exotic material that offers a broad scope of promises, can now be fabricated

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

The U.S. Army Wants Pulsed Lasers to Slice Missiles in Half

The U.S. Army wants a deadlier laser weapon that won’t just burn a target but rather slice it up. Instead of low-power continuous wave lasers that emit a steady stream of energy, the Army wants pulsed lasers that shoot intermittent, but intense, bursts that can quickly destroy a target. Pulsed lasers are already used commercially

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

Navy Acquires Underwater Drone for Mine Sweeping

The U.S. Navy and the Defense Innovation Unit selected L3Harris Technologies to provide an unmanned undersea vehicle for expeditionary undersea missions, particularly mine sweeping.The Next Generation, Small-Class, Maritime Expeditionary Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (MEMUUV) program took delivery of one Iver4-900 UUV for testing. Later will come two field-swappable modular payload sections to include real

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

Highest-Throughput 3-D Printer Is the Future of Manufacturing

Northwestern University researchers have developed a new, futuristic 3-D printer that is so big and so fast it can print an object the size of an adult human in just a couple of hours. Called HARP (high-area rapid printing), the new technology enables a record-breaking throughput that can manufacture products on demand. Over the last

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

Marines to Get New Lightweight Polymer Ammo for “Ma Deuce” Machine Gun

The Marine Corps has inked a $10 million contract with ammunition-maker MAC LLC for new lightweight polymer machine gun ammunition, a major step forward in an effort to lighten Marines” battlefield load. The contract was awarded to the Mississippi-based company Thursday, Marine Corps Systems Command officials said in a news release. According to the announcement,

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 22, 2020

Navy Strategy Fast-Tracks New Weapons for “Offensive” Attack

Arlington, Va.- Senior Navy leaders say the service is fast-tracking a handful of key emerging weapons systems such as new destroyers, Tomahawk missiles, lasers and hypersonics as part of a new “offensive attack” maritime combat strategy. “Today we are moving to the offensive. We are already moving out on an increase in lethality,” Vice. Adm.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

Neuro-Symbolic A.I. Is the Future of Artificial Intelligence

Picture a tray. On the tray is an assortment of shapes: Some cubes, others spheres. The shapes are made from a variety of different materials and represent an assortment of sizes. In total, there are, perhaps, eight objects. My question: “Looking at the objects, are there an equal number of large things and metal spheres?”

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

Army Introduces Weld Automation for Next Generation Combat Vehicles

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD — To prepare for the future battlefield, the Army has defined a concept for its next generation of combat vehicles. These vehicles, encompassing a family of new platforms, will have advanced capabilities to ensure continued overmatch against adversaries for decades and beyond. Enhanced survivability is critical for these vehicles and will

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

Fleet Commander Directs U.S. Navy’s Surface Force to Develop Concepts for Unmanned Ships

WASHINGTON — The head of the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Forces Command has ordered the Service’s surface force to develop a concept of operations for both the large and medium, unmanned surface vessels in development, according to a December 19 message seen by Defense News . The message, which was coordinated with U.S. Naval Forces Europe

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

Laser Pulse Creates Frequency Doubling in Amorphous Dielectric Material

Researchers have demonstrated a new all-optical technique for creating robust second-order nonlinear effects in materials that don”t normally support them. Using a laser pulse fired at an array of gold triangles on a titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) slab, the researchers created excited electrons that briefly doubled the frequency of a beam from a second

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

China Tests Micro Propulsion Technology for Space-Based, Gravitational-Wave Detection

Chinese space engineers have tested a micro propulsion technology on a recently launched satellite, which could be used in future space-based, gravitational-wave detection. Experts from the China Academy of Space Technology, under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said they tested the variable thrust propulsion at the micronewton level on the Tianqin-1 satellite, which

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

Police to Consider Adding Tasers to Crime-Fighting Arsenal

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Law enforcement could soon be outfitted with tasers as the Royal Bahamas Police Force considers adding less-lethal force weapons to its arsenal. Minister of National Security Marvin Dames announced yesterday senior officials are preparing to meet with Arizona-based Axon Enterprise, formerly TASER International, an industry leader in weapons and technology development for

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

AEDC T-3 Engine Test Cell Receives Upgrades for Future Tests

ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TN –The Arnold Engineering Development Complex T-3 turbine engine test cell at Arnold Air Force Base is undergoing several modifications to prepare it for future testing. Built as part of the Engine Test Facility, or ETF, at Arnold in the early 1950s, the T-3 test cell was designed for testing small

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

CCDC’s Road Map to Modernizing the Army: Soldier Lethality

Today’s soldiers require advanced capabilities to be effective on future battlefields. Advances in technology have produced better weapon optics, imaging devices, and body armor, as well as many other types of specialized protective and offensive gear. Body armor that could protect soldiers against rifle fire, for example, was not available during World War II, the

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EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JANUARY 14, 2020

New Weapons System Completes First Live Mission

After 4 years of planning, the 752nd Operations Support Squadron (OSS) has successfully completed their first live mission on the AN/TYQ-23A weapons system at Tinker Air Force Base (AFB). The 752nd OSS received the AN/TYQ-23A Tactical Air Operations Module weapons system in September 2019 after beginning the acquisition process in the summer of 2015. The

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

The Hyper-Enabled Operator

Recent technological, socioeconomic, and geopolitical trends, coupled with the reemergence of great power competition, complicate the future environment in which U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) must operate. SOF professionals will need to operate not only across traditional physical domains such as land, air, and sea but also in the virtual and cognitive domains. In particular,

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EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

Manufacturing—Layering on the Strength

A team, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and University of Tennessee researchers, demonstrated a novel 3-D printing approach called Z-pinning that can increase the material’s strength and toughness by more than three and a half times compared to conventional additive manufacturing processes. They demonstrated Z-pinning with polylactic acid, or PLA, and carbon fiber-reinforced PLA

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

Scaled Robotics Keeps an Autonomous Eye on Busy Construction Sites

Buildings under construction are a maze of half-completed structures, gantries, stacked materials, and busy workers — tracking what’s going on can be a nightmare. Scaled Robotics has designed a robot that can navigate this chaos and produce 3-D progress maps in minutes, precise enough to detect that a beam is just a centimeter or two

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

Boeing Achieves Significant Milestone With New Laser Weapon System

The world’s largest aerospace company, Boeing, announced that its Compact Laser Weapon System (CLWS) recently completed a series of key demonstrations with the U.S. Air Force and Army. The high-energy 5-kW CLWS successfully completed several demonstrations of its capabilities, validating its readiness for deployment, according to a recent company news release. Test operators used handheld,

Concept design for an aircraft propelled by ionic wind (image credit: MIT Electric Aircraft Initiative).

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

How the World’s First Solid State Aircraft Achieves Propulsion With No Moving Parts

Last year, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) made the first sustained flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft with no moving parts. It was propelled by electroaerodynamic propulsion, which requires no moving parts and was, by many definitions, the first ever solid state flight. This article explains exactly how it works and what the

(Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a30140489/shark-skin-darpa-suit/)

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

DARPA’s Next-Gen Environmental Suits Could Be Inspired by Shark Skin

The Pentagon’s research arm wants a better suit for those responding to chemical and biological warfare attacks. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, says it wants a less clumsy suit that does an even better job of protecting soldiers, first responders, and researchers from deadly biological and chemical weapons. The suit could even

New less-lethal beanbag shotguns were introduced to the Rockport Police Department on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019 (photo: Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times).

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

South Texas Police Chief Gets All Officers Less-Lethal Weapons to Help Save Lives

A South Texas police department added another weapon to its arsenal. Only this one was designed to cause less harm than a typical firearm. Rockport Police Chief Gregory Stevens showed off a 12-gauge shotgun, parts of which were bright orange, during a training session for the city”s police force. When fired, a bean bag-filled round

Image: iStock

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

Blockchain Tech Has Numerous Applications for Defense

The use of blockchain technology is gaining traction in all industries. The federal government has taken notice and has been exploring ways in which the technology may be used for its benefit. While widespread use of blockchain in government likely will take time, it may be jumpstarted by the adoption of these capabilities by government

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

Argonne’s Advanced X-rays Are Beaming the Way to Smarter Helmets

Researchers from Argonne National Laboratory, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and Northwestern University are collecting and deciphering data from high energy x-rays beamed onto human skulls to better grasp bone mechanics and develop smarter, more protective military helmets. Argonne’s X-ray Science Division group leader and physicist Jonathan Almer told Nextgov how the lab’s advanced photon

(Source: Jonathan Snyder/DVIDS)

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 31, 2019

The Air Force Wants to Unleash a Robotic “Golden Horde” on Adversaries

Golden Horde is designed to incorporate to the Air Force’s three most urgent technologies: precision-guided weapons, artificial intelligence, and communications networking. Precision-guided weapons, united by secure communications links and endowed with artificial intelligence, would be launched en masse at the enemy, with missiles aimed at preplanned targets. If a target is assigned three incoming missiles

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

A New Electronic Warfare System for the Army Is Getting Closer

The Army is moving into the final phase of bringing its electronic warfare visualization and planning tool to the entire force. The system is a command-and-control planning capability that allows commanders and soldiers to visualize the potential effects of electronic warfare in the field. It also helps chart courses of action to prevent jammed capabilities.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Carnegie Mellon System Locates Shooters Using Smartphone Video

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a system that can accurately locate a shooter based on video recordings from as few as three smartphones. When demonstrated using three video recordings from the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 people dead and hundreds wounded, the system correctly estimated the shooter”s actual location

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Weapons of Mass Control, Tactics of Mass Resistance

As the showdown between police and protesters in Hong Kong has intensified, officers have used increasing force, deploying an arsenal of crowd-control measures and weapons, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, sponge grenades, and bean bag rounds. Protesters have also stepped up their actions, hurling petrol bombs, vandalizing mainland Chinese banks and businesses believed

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Under Pressure, Navy’s Top official Pledges to Solve New Carrier”s Problems

The new acting secretary of the Navy said Thursday that President Donald Trump”s concerns over persistent problems with the first Ford-class aircraft carrier have prompted him to make fixing those problems one of his top priorities. “I was on the [carrier Gerald R. Ford] last week; the Ford is something the president is very concerned

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

How the Army Is Girding for Electronic Warfare

There’s no doubt that electronic warfare will become increasingly commonplace. That’s why the Army is vigorously testing its flying platforms, such as the Apache helicopter, to ensure they can withstand both current and evolving threats. FCW talked with Ralph Troisio, the division chief for Electronic Warfare, Air, and Ground Survivability at Army’s C5ISR Center in

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Just In: New Road-Mobile Missiles “Instrumental” for Army Strategy

SIMI VALLEY, CA — New road-mobile missiles that are under development will fundamentally change the Army’s offensive capabilities, the head of the Service said December 7. The types of systems in the works were previously banned under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia. The treaty was brokered in 1987 in the waning years of

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Navy Engineer Invents “Flash Corridor,” Improves Burn Profile of Ammo

A U.S. Navy engineer has invented a tiny plastic tube that adds a flash corridor to cartridge ammunition, giving the propellant an improved burn profile. In contrast to traditional rounds that burn back to front and forcing some propellant into the firearm’s barrel, when ammunition with a flash corridor is fired, the primer causes molten

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Cubicure Unveils New Flame-Retardant Material for Hot Lithography 3-D Printing

Cubicure, the Vienna-based startup behind Hot Lithography technology, has developed what is said to be the first flame-retardant material for SLA 3-D printing. Known as Evolution FR, the material is a halogen-free photopolymer that achieved a V0-classification in the UL 94 plastics flammability standard. Previously reserved for materials used in material extrusion or powder bed

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Army Scientists Work on Urban Combat Robot That Can Be Controlled With Hand Gestures

New technologies being developed by the United States and its partners seek to tackle age-old challenges that troops face when they enter the multidimensional nightmare that is urban combat. One such device that technicians put through its paces is a robotic platform that soldiers or Marines can guide by using hand and body movements to

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 17, 2019

Allison and U.S. Army to Upgrade Propulsion Systems of M113 Vehicles

Allison Transmission has partnered with the U.S. Army to equip the M113 armored personnel carrier family of vehicles with upgraded X200-4A propulsion systems. Under the partnership with the Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM), Allison will upgrade propulsion systems of the Army’s tracked military vehicles. The upgrade is intended to provide improved propulsion for the vehicles.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 10, 2019

New Data on Laser-Plasma Instabilities Could Improve Predictive Models for Fusion Experiments

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 3, 2019 — New research from the University of Rochester could lead to more accurate computer models for simulations of laser-driven implosions. Researchers at the the university’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), along with their colleagues at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, have demonstrated how

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

Army Project May Improve Military Communications by Boosting 5G Technology

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC (Nov. 21, 2019) — An Army-funded project may boost 5G and millimeter-wave technologies, improving military communications and sensing equipment. Carbonics, Inc., partnered with the University of Southern California to develop a carbon nanotube technology that, for the first time, achieved speeds exceeding 100 GHz in radio frequency applications. The milestone eclipses

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

Stunner: The U.S. Marines Want a Taser That Can Shoot Over 300 Feet

A bullet that zaps you with an electric jolt like a Taser.That’s what the U.S. Marine Corps wants as a non-lethal munition that can be fired from a regular small arm. The U.S. military has been trying to develop a Taser-like bullet for 12 years but has yet to succeed. This time, the Marines hope

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

The U.S. Navy Doesn’t Have Enough Spare Parts to Keep Its Fighter Jets in the Air

The U.S. Navy lacks the parts and materials it needs to keep hundreds of fighter jets operational, which could affect the nation’s ability to fight future wars. That’s the key takeaway from an audit released this week (pdf) by the Department of Defense Inspector General (DODIG), which is focused on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet—the

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

Tubulane-Inspired Ultrahard Polymers Are Full of Holes, but Stop Bullets Better Than Solid Materials

Theoretical tubulanes inspire ultrahard polymers: Rice University-printed sample is full of holes but stops bullets better than solid materials. A lightweight material full of holes is nearly as hard as diamond. The mere dents left by speeding bullets prove it. Researchers at Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering and their colleagues are testing polymers based

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

The Air Force”s BLU-12 Bomb Is Like a Sniper in the Sky

Key point: This weapon brings additional attack flexibility to the battlefield. The Air Force is revving up production of the air-dropped, precision-guided BLU-129 bomb increasingly in demand by war zone commanders – so accurate, lethal, and precise, it is called “the world’s largest sniper accuracy.” The often-requested weapon, described as an adaptable carbon fiber bomb,

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

Threat From China Requires Innovative Approach, Says DoD Official

Alan Shaffer, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, Acquisition, and Sustainment, discussed the threat from China and what the U.S. must do to respond to the threat. He spoke at the Professional Services Council-sponsored Defense Services Conference in Arlington, Va., on 21 November 2019. ””We’ve been in conflict with China for 10 years and I”m not

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

Soldiers Soon to See Robotic Mules and Tougher Bomb Bots in the Field

The Army recently picked a couple of new robots to help troops in the field. One is a new heavy robot designed to help bomb technicians and another “robotic mule” to carry a squad’s load on dismounted patrols. Both are some of a larger effort to bring robotics technology into nearly every area of Army

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

Terahertz Laser to Power “T-ray” Vision and High-Bandwidth Communications

As the military, science agencies, and communications firms compete for scarce spectrum resources, researchers at Harvard, MIT, and the Army have developed a compact, room temperature, widely tunable terahertz laser that offers the potential for high-bandwidth communications, ultrahigh-resolution imaging, and precise long-range sensing for radio astronomy. Until now, the terahertz section of the electromagnetic spectrum,

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
DECEMBER 03, 2019

U.S. Air Force, for the First Time, Develops In-House Small, Expendable Turbine Engine

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), for the first time, designed, assembled, and tested exclusively in-house a small thrust class size expendable turbine engine. This propulsion system, the Responsive Open Source Engine (ROSE), responds to the U.S. Air Force”s (USAF”s) desire for rapid demonstration of new technologies and faster, less expensive prototypes, according to

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Robotic Submarines: How the Navy and Boeing Could Make History image

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 20, 2019

Robotic Submarines: How the Navy and Boeing Could Make History

The U.S. Navy has ordered from Boeing four huge robotic submarines, potentially signally an effort to deploy a large number of crewless undersea boats alongside traditional, manned submarines. The Navy”s $43 million purchase of four Orca Extra Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicles, or XLUUVs, comes as the fleet struggles to build enough new manned submarines to

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Physicists Look to Navigational “Rhumb Lines” to Study Polymer’s Unique Spindle Structure

From the intricate patterns of pollen grains to the logarithmic spirals of nautilus shells, biology is full of complex patterns, shapes, and geometries. Many of these intricate structures play important roles in biological function, but can be difficult to create in a lab without state-of-the-art equipment or expensive and energy-consuming processes and materials. A new

(Source: https://www.militaryaerospace.com/computers/article/14069370/artificial-intelligence-ai-machine-learning-battle-management?oly_enc_id=4436I6846612D9I)

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Air Force Considers Gaming-Developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning for Battle Management

ROME, NY – U.S. Air Force researchers are asking for industry”s help in developing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to planning systems that help commanders adapt quickly to changing conditions on the battlefield. Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory”s Rome Research Site in Rome, NY, issued a broad agency announcement (FA875020S7007) on Thursday

Should the Military Treat the Electromagnetic Spectrum As Its Own Domain? image

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Should the Military Treat the Electromagnetic Spectrum as Its Own Domain?

Military leaders are reluctant to treat the electromagnetic spectrum as a separate domain of warfare as they do with air, land, sea, space, and cyber, even as the service increasingly recognize the importance of superiority in this area. At the Association of Old Crows conference on October 30, representatives from the U.S. Army, Navy, and

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Kilometer-Long Space Tether Tests Fuel-Free Propulsion

A massive cloud of space junk—containing more than 23,000 pieces larger than 10 cm across—is currently zooming around Earth with an average speed of about 36,000 km per hour. And as companies such as SpaceX and OneWeb plan to launch tens of thousands of new satellites over the next few years, this hazardous clutter will

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

NASA Surveys Industry for Atmospheric Monitoring CubeSat That Will Push the Bounds of SWaP in Spacecraft

HAMPTON, VA – U.S. space researchers are surveying industry for companies able to build a small constellation of orbiting CubeSat satellites, each about the size of a shoebox, to monitor aerosols, ozone, and other components of the Earth”s atmosphere. Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA, issued

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Marines Test Non-Lethal Mortar Round for Crowd Control

QUANTICO, VA — They may not be deadly, but some of the non-lethal weapons the Marine Corps is working on look pretty devastating. The Marine Corps Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate is currently testing an 81-mm mortar round that delivers a shower of flash-bang grenades to disperse troublemakers. There is also an electric vehicle-stopper that delivers

Retired F-16 Fighting Falcons sit at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group’s Aircraft and Missile Storage and Maintenance Facility on Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, on August 2, 2017. The AMARG is the largest aircraft storage and preservation facility in the world (U.S. Force photo by Staff Sgt. Perry Aston).

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Old Airplanes Find New Life in Tucson”s Famed Boneyard

As boneyards go, this place is pretty lively. Before many Tucsonans have even started their morning commute, a pair of aircraft mechanics are already crouched over the open cockpit of an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet, disarming the ejector seat and removing the explosives. Nearby, a towing crew pulls a Navy P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft over

Making Soldiers Safer: Milwaukee Institutions Continue Developing ‘Blast-Test’ Dummy image

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 19, 2019

Making Soldiers Safer: Milwaukee Institutions Continue Developing “Blast-Test” Dummy

Three Milwaukee institutions — Marquette University, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and the VA Medical Center — are continuing their work on a “blast-test” dummy. The dummy could help reduce harm to U.S. armed forces caused by explosions under their military vehicles. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on or near roadways continue to kill or wound

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

Will America’s Next Long-Range, Air-to-Air Missile Match up to China’s?

The U.S. military, and the U.S. Air Force (USAF) in particular, invests in and places considerable store by superior technology to prevail against peer rivals. The service is also disinclined to allow its near-allies to field capabilities it does not also have access to. In the Air Force’s slipstream, U.S. industry is often first to

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

German Tech Bends Glass Sheets at Right Angles

Ordinarily, if a window goes around the corner of a building, it”s made of two flat panes of glass that are joined together by a metal rail or glue. Now, though, German scientists have developed a method of bending a single sheet of glass to a 90-degree angle – without affecting its optical properties. Although

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

Army Developing Robotic Trauma Care System

The U.S. Army is working on an autonomous robotic trauma care system that can treat wounded soldiers on the battlefield. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Carnegie Mellon University were each awarded 4-year contracts totaling over $7.2 million to develop the system, according to a news release. The trauma care in a rucksack,

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

Researchers Transmit Energy With Laser in “Historic” Power-Beaming Demonstration

It was the second day of a 3-day-long tech demonstration at the David Taylor Model Basin at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Bethesda, MD, where attendees had gathered to stand around in the dark to look at something they mostly couldn”t see. It was a long-range, free-space power beaming system—the first of its kind.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

Rocket Lab Aims for the Moon and Beyond With New Photon Satellite Platform

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab is shooting for the moon, literally. The small-satellite launch startup announced today (October 21) that its new Photon satellite platform will be able to fly small spacecraft on deep-space missions to the moon and beyond. The plan will combine Rocket Lab”s workhorse Electron rocket with Photon, a vehicle designed to provide

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

The Small Sat Solution to Hypersonic Weapons Explained

Hypersonic weapons break all the rules of the missile defense game. With speeds surpassing Mach 5 and the ability to maneuver mid-flight, hypersonic weapons defy the missile defense status quo, potentially making the United States’ current defenses obsolete. China and Russia are vigorously pursuing hypersonic weapons, and the United States is desperate to neutralize them.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

WPD Unveils New Non-Lethal Tool to Stop Criminals

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Wilmington police have a new non-lethal tool to stop criminals in their tracks called the BolaWrap. The handheld device discharges an 8-ft Kevlar cord which wraps around the subject’s body, anchors to their clothing, and prevents them from advancing toward police or running away. The BolaWrap offers a pain-free solution for

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

AUSA NEWS: Oshkosh Incorporates JLTV Upgrades Into Production

Oshkosh Defense has begun upgrading the joint light tactical vehicle (JLTV) in response to a critical Pentagon report issued earlier this year, a company executive said on October 15. The Defense Department”s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation Robert Behler said in his 2018 annual report published in January that the JLTV was “not operationally

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
NOVEMBER 05, 2019

Swarm Hell: Can the U.S. Army Stop Hundreds of Drones Armed With Explosives?

(Washington, DC) They can form swarms of hundreds of mini, precision-guided explosives, overwhelm radar, or simply blanket an area with targeting sensors. They can paint or light up air, ground or sea targets for enemy fighters, missiles, or armored vehicles, massively increasing warzone vulnerability. They can instantly emerge from behind mountains to fire missiles at

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

Insensitive Munitions: Where Are We Now?

Anyone involved in weapons systems development during the past 30 years should be familiar with the seemingly contradictory term “Insensitive Munitions” (IMs).  According...

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

The Pursuit of Persistent ISR

INTRODUCTION The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Pennsylvania State University (PSU), and Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), in conjunction with the Marine Corps Expeditionary Energy...

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

A New Design for a Better Bunker Buster

INTRODUCTION The 5,000-lb class BLU-113 “Bunker Buster” bomb was designed to hit multilayered, hardened underground targets during Operation Desert Storm. During testing, the...

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

Warfighter Trust in Autonomy

INTRODUCTION In response to rapid advancements in the fields of autonomy, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, the Department of Defense (DoD) has prioritized...

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

Reliability of UAVs and Drones

Introduction Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), such as those pictured in Figure 1, have been the subject of active development and use...

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

American “Astrologistics”

INTRODUCTION When addressing the National Space Council on June 18, 2018, President Trump made clear his spacefaring vision for America when he said:...

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Testing Gas-Turbine Aircraft Engines (source: dreamstime.com)

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

Testing Gas-Turbine Aircraft Engines

INTRODUCTION Gas-turbine aircraft engines, such as those used in nearly all modern aircraft (fighters, attack, helicopters, and transports), must be tested by the...

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

Soft Coatings for Armor Enhancement

INTRODUCTION Conflict dates to the beginning of mankind, and along with it has come the need for protective systems. Archeological records show that, from...

DSIAC JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 02, 2019

Laser Power Beaming

INTRODUCTION Methods of wireless delivery of electric power have been discussed for over a century.  Only in the last decade have such systems been...

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

NASA Engineer Proposes “Helical Engine” for Interstellar Travel With No Propellant

An engineer who works for NASA has put forward a proposal for a new way to travel through interstellar space—a “helical engine” that could, potentially, push a spacecraft forward without the need for any propellant at all. David Burns, from NASA”s Marshall Space Flight Center, presented his idea on the space agency”s Technical Reports Server,

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

Why the Navy Needs to Speed Backfit its SPY-6 Super Radar on Destroyers

Earlier this year, the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral P. S. Davidson, sent a letter to Congress and the Pentagon urging accelerated modernization of warfighting technology in his area of responsibility. That area encompasses 52{1f71c8e63fc312dbb7e68cbee9f84746085cdcbce567c037f7e85e4e98c84910} of the Earth’s surface, including the Pacific Ocean, parts of the Indian Ocean, and Australia. However, Davidson made

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

Navy, Marines Express Interest in “Stackable” Modular Offensive Grenades for the Future

Several new types of grenades, including one that can be stacked to create a larger explosion, have garnered interest from the U.S. Department of the Navy. The Crane, Indiana-based Naval Surface Warfare Center issued a request for information about the modular grenades last month, along with several other early-stage procurement notices about several flash-bang grenade

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

3-D Printing for Ecological Sustainability in Marine Applications

In the recently published “Recycled Sustainable 3D Printing Materials for Marine Environments,” the authors—involved in the Bio-Shelters Project—venture into the realm of sustainability and recycling in 3-D printing, but they also heavily explore the ever-growing science of materials during a three-phase project made up of not only designers and architects but also experts in materials

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

BAE Systems Develops New Countermeasure System to Shield  Ground Vehicles From Missiles

BAE Systems, a global leader in electronic warfare, unveiled the new RAVEN countermeasure system designed to protect ground vehicles from anti-tank missiles. The RAVEN is a proven directable, infrared countermeasure capable of defeating anti-tank guided missiles, protecting ground vehicles and their crews, and improving mission effectiveness without the use of kinetic countermeasures. The new laser-based

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

U.S. Army Research Uncovers Pattern in Progression of Weapons Technologies

Anticipating the technology and weapon systems of our future Army might not be entirely daunting, new Army research finds. Trends in the progression of weapon systems from the early crossbowman to a musket to a military tank might help predict our future systems, according to a new study to be published in the Journal of

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OCTOBER 22, 2019

SPECIAL REPORT: ARL Director Focused on Top 10 R&D Priorities

This is part 1 of a 2-part special report on Army R&D. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is zeroed in on key initiatives aimed at giving soldiers an edge on future battlefields against advanced adversaries. There are only 10 efforts that have been deemed essential research programs, ARL Director Philip Perconti noted in an

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

Controlling Complex Pattern of Superconductivity Within an Exotic Metal

​Superconductivity has fascinated scientists for many years since it offers the potential to revolutionize current technologies. Materials only become superconductors — meaning that electrons can travel in them with no resistance — at very low temperatures. These days, this unique zero resistance superconductivity is commonly found in a number of technologies, such as magnetic resonance

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 22, 2019

Sink or Swim? Us Navy Codes Swarm-Tac Decision Support for Hostile Fast-Attack Craft

The U.S. Navy has patented a new software system called SWARM-Tac that can help ships decide to evade or destroy swarms of small boats like those used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy in the Persian Gulf. Matt Ward, researcher at the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Port Hueneme Division, developed the SWARM-Tac software, which is

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

DARPA’s Mosaic Warfare — Multi Domain Ops, But Faster

WASHINGTON: Just when you thought you understood Multi-Domain Operations (MDO), along comes the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s “Mosaic Warfare.” It’s sort of MDO on steroids: an all-encompassing “force design” — that includes everything from military organization to operational concepts to weapon systems to tactics — to underpin a new U.S. way of war targeted

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

Basalt Fiber-Reinforced ABS: Researchers Develop Thermoplastic Composite for Use in Space

In the recently published “Development and Mechanical Properties of Basalt Fiber-Reinforced Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene for In-Space Manufacturing Applications,” we learn more about materials necessary for building in space; for example, a habitat on Mars would most likely be built out of a combination of materials from Earth as well as what is naturally found there,

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

SOCOM Ramps Up Efforts to Develop “Cutting-Edge Data Techniques,” Opens New Data Engineering Lab

U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is ramping up its efforts to develop “cutting-edge data techniques” like artificial intelligence (AI) to boost readiness and minimize costs. As part of that initiative, the Command unveiled its new Data Engineering Lab located at the SOFWERX facility in Tampa, FL, on Wednesday. SOFWERX was established under a partnership intermediary

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

Counter-Swarm Electromagnetic Weapon Developed by AFRL

A Tactical High-power Operational Responder (THOR) is a counter-swarm electromagnetic weapon that the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) developed for airbase defense. The system provides non-kinetic defeat of multiple targets. It operates from ground power and uses energy to disable unmanned systems. A demonstration system has been built and tested on military test ranges

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

NASA Wants to Send Nuclear Rockets to the Moon and Mars

Just north of the Tennessee River near Huntsville, AL, there’s a six-story rocket test stand in a small clearing of loblolly pines. It’s here, in a secluded corner of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, that the U.S. Army and NASA performed critical tests during the development of the Redstone rocket. In 1958, this rocket became

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

Researchers Testing Method to Build Temperature, Heat-Flux Sensors for Hypersonic Vehicles

Harsh environmental conditions—such as surface temperatures reaching thousands of degrees Fahrenheit—make it challenging to accurately measure temperatures and heat flux on hypersonic flight systems. But a mechanical engineering associate professor at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) believes a new additive manufacturing technology can withstand those conditions and may be used to provide reliable

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

Pentagon’s Non-Lethal Weapons Office Pushing Gray-Zone Warfare Tools

MARINE CORPS BASE, QUANTICO, VA – The Pentagon’s Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate is hoping to reframe the talk about non-lethal weapons amid a push by the Defense Department to boost lethality for high-end warfare. The office’s director, Marine Corps Col. Wendell Leimbach, instead wants to talk about capability gaps in an era of gray zone

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

The U.S. Army”s Legendary M1 Abrams Tank: RIP or Ready for War?

Back in the 1990s, I recall reading Tom Clancy’s loving paean to the M1 Abrams, Armored Cav, in which he related that the unkillable tank had never been knocked out by hostile fire. The Abrams’ 120-mm cannon effortlessly peeled the turrets off of T-72 tanks in the Gulf War, while Russian anti-tank missiles and 125-mm

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
OCTOBER 08, 2019

U.S. Army Seeks New Ruggedized Displays for Remote Weapon Systems

The U.S. Army Contracting Command has released a draft request for proposals for contractors interested in new functional ruggedized displays for a Common Remotely Operated Weapon Stations. In a recent Federal Opportunities notice, the Army announced plans to modify the M153 Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (CROWS). United States military operations take place worldwide and

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

U.S. Army Begins Testing New BLADE Counter-Drone System

The U.S. Army has begun testing the newest ballistic, Low-Altitude Drone Enga gement, or BLADE, prototypes mounted on a Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle, according to a recent U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center news release. The BLADE can detect, track, identify, and take down drones with electronic attack, according to the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

U.S. Navy Looks to Replace or Improve F/A-18 Super Hornet”s ATFLIR Targeting Pod

The U.S. Navy is seeking qualified sources that can provide an Electro Optic/Infrared ( EO/IR) air-to-air and air-to-surface targeting pod capability focused on reducing the overall operating and support cost on its Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters. According to the post of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), “In an effort to enhance sustainment capabilities

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Army Eyes Pearls in Innovative Project to Bolster Body Armor

Could pearls help save a soldier’s life? Scientists are looking at pearls in an innovative U.S. Army research project to bolster body armor. Researchers at the University of Buffalo have simulated mother of pearl, or the outer coating of pearls, to create a lightweight plastic described as 14 times stronger and 8 times lighter than

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Ammo Firm Unveils 6.8mm Cartridge for Army’s Next-Gen Squad Weapon

A Texas-based ammunition company recently unveiled its new 6.8mm cartridge, which the Army will consider for the Next-Generation Squad Weapon (NGSW) effort designed to replace the 5.56mm M4A1 carbine and M249 squad automatic weapon in close-combat units. True Velocity”s 6.8mm composite-cased cartridge will be part of the NGSW auto-rifle, rifle and ammo prototype package being

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

NEWS FROM ASC: Global Strike Command to Prepare New Force Development Concept

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Air Force Global Strike Command will help modernize the Pentagon’s nuclear command-and-control architecture by creating a new force development concept, according to a senior official. The Pentagon is concerned that peer adversaries such as China and Russia could put today’s systems at risk with anti-satellite weapons, electronic warfare tools, and other

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Engineers Develop Multimaterial Fiber “Ink” for 3-D-Printed Devices

A new method developed by MIT researchers uses standard 3-D printers to produce functioning devices with the electronics already embedded inside. The devices are made of fibers containing multiple interconnected materials, which can light up, sense their surroundings, store energy, or perform other actions. The new 3-D printing method is described in the journal Nature

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

The Army Is Already Building Robot Vehicles, Futuristic Helos Into Its Battle Simulations

The U.S. Army just completed a large-scale simulation that revealed the service must find ways to train and equip combat leaders to stay ahead of the enemy if units are to survive the new, fast-paced age of warfare on the horizon. From Aug. 5-23, officials from the Maneuver Battle Lab at Fort Benning, Georgia, oversaw

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Most Powerful Laser in the US to Be Built at U-M

ANN ARBOR—The United States is upgrading its laser capabilities with ZEUS, a new three-petawatt system to be built at the University of Michigan. Three petawatts is equal to three quadrillion watts, or a 3 followed by 15 zeros. Funded with $16 million from the National Science Foundation, the facility will enable both basic and applied

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Researcher Calculates Optimal Trajectories to Mars and Mercury for a Spacecraft With Electric Propulsion

RUDN University mathematician has proposed a method for calculating the optimal trajectory of spacecraft with electric propulsion, whose thrust is thousands times less than chemical one has, but it is able to work for years. These motors are best suited for interplanetary missions. Mathematicians calculated the flight parameters of the space probe with such motor

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Quantum Radar a Game Changer for Offensive Stealth Operations

Military radar has remained largely unchanged since its development over 100 years ago. Working as an active-duty airman in the U.S. Air Force, my primary responsibility was the repair and maintenance of the complex radar system onboard the E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft. The radar lessons I learned in tech school, however, were exceedingly simple: a

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

Police Test “Spider-Man” Device as Alternative to Taser

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With 49 people killed last year after being shocked by Tasers, police departments across the United States are trying out a “Spider-Man”-like device that fires a tether that entangles and restrains the suspect. Called Bolawrap, the device fires an 8-ft (2.4-m) bola-style tether at a suspect to entangle his legs and

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

Quantum Magnetometer Senses Its Place

Scientists continue to search for new technologies to serve the positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) mission. One novel way to augment GPS comes from a newly developed technology involving a quantum magnetometer. Researchers at Lockheed Martin call it Dark Ice; it uses magnetic sensing as an alternative means of determining location without use of satellite

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019

CAE’s MAD-XR Next-Gen Magnetic Anomaly Detection System Enters Production

CAE announced the company has started production of the CAE Magnetic Anomaly Detection-Extended Role (MAD-XR) system. CAE also announced that the government of Canada has purchased the first unit under the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP). CAE MAD-XR is a highly sensitive magnetometer designed to sense changes in the earth’s magnetic field. Because of

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

Aerojet Rocketdyne Opens New Facility

Aerojet Rocketdyne has opened a new advanced manufacturing center to produce rocket propulsion products for missile defense programs. The 136,000-square-foot facility in Huntsville, AL, was declared operational in June, according to the company. It will be used to produce hardware for military programs such as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD. Additionally,

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

These Tactical Glasses Could Give Marine Grunts an F-35 Pilot”s View of the Battlefield

Marine infantrymen may soon be able to see through the floor of an MV-22 Osprey and track terrain features as they approach their attack objective. It sounds like science fiction, but Marine Lt. Col. Rory Quinn of the Pentagon”s Close Combat Lethality Task Force says it could become reality if the Marine Corps decides to

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Astrobotic Is Going to Use a Vulcan Rocket for Its Lunar Lander in 2021

In May of 2019, NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) selected Astrobotic to fulfill a contract to deliver 14 payloads to the Moon by 2021. The Pittsburgh-based aerospace company plans to do this using their Peregrine Lander, a robotic lunar spacecraft that is capable of delivering payloads to the Moon for the competitive price of

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Non-Lethal Weapons? Will Marines Ever Use This Capability?

Aug. 1, 2019 (Col. Wendell Leimbach) — I used to believe that a question had an obvious answer. The United States military is the world’s most feared and lethal fighting force, with the Marines being among the most aggressive warriors within that force. Beyond crowd control during peacekeeping in lieu of (ILO) operations, considering the

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Alerts Sound on Maritime Logistics: Several Experts See Seriously Lacking Sealift Capability

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are aggressively changing course and refocusing their resources and training to prepare the fleet and expeditionary forces for a “Great Power Competition” with China and Russia. But a growing number of Navy officers and defense analysts are warning that current and planned maritime logistics capabilities are seriously inadequate to

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

ANTI-RPG Warhead Phases II and III: An Aircraft Protection Solution

This article, which is an update to work previously published in the summer 2018 issue of Aircraft Survivability [1], presents test and analysis results for warheads designed to dismember and/or dud incoming rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) while simultaneously meeting stringent active protection system (APS) collateral damage requirements. As discussed [1], the near-field-velocity liner warhead technologies previously

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

The Next Generation of High-Performance Explosives Developed by LANL and Army Research Lab

For more than 100 years, trinitrotoluene (TNT) has been the go-to explosive for military, construction, demolition, and mining uses. But during TNT’s long reign, concerns have arisen over its toxicity, safety, and performance. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared the removal of TNT a priority. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Soldiers Shape the Battlefield With Next Generation of Terrain-Shaping Munitions

PICATINNY ARSENAL, NJ — Shaping the battlefield, and thus shaping the terrain, has been doctrine for how to execute large-scale ground operations. Obstacles play a vital role in this process, providing friendly forces the freedom of maneuver while limiting the enemy”s ability to do the same. The Product Manager for Terrain Shaping Obstacles (PdM TSO),

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

AFRL, Boeing, Thermwood Apply Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing to Autoclave Tools

The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Manufacturing and Industrial Technology Division (ManTech) is collaborating with Boeing and Indiana-based machinery manufacturer Thermwood to produce low-cost responsive tooling using additive manufacturing. As part of AFRL’s Low-Cost Attributable Technology (LCAAT) program, the partners are leveraging Thermwood’s Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) machine to 3-D print autoclave tools for

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

DARPA to Develop Advanced Tiny Chip-Scale Atomic Clocks for Military PNT Applications

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is presently working on an advanced version of its first-generation, battery-powered, miniature chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) with 1000x performance improvements for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) applications. DARPA’s Atomic Clock with Enhanced Stability (ACES) program aims to build the next-generation atomic clock owing to the limitations of the now

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 10, 2019

Air Force Looking Into DE Weapon Prototypes for Counter-Cruise Missile Experiment

The Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office is exploring fieldable prototypes of directed-energy (DE) weapon systems that can participate in an anticipated demonstration for counter-cruise missile airbase defense. The office released a notice on Federal Business Opportunities today requesting information from the Pentagon, other government agencies, and industry on high-energy lasers or high-powered

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 09, 2019

Russia, China Alliance on Navigation Satellites Threatens GPS

Russia and China have been increasingly moving toward greater synergies between their respective satellite navigation systems since at least 2015. The stated goals of the two powers have been ensuring compatibility and interoperability of GLONASS and BeiDou navigation systems; augmentations, including mutual allocation of measuring stations within the territories of Russia and China; global navigation

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 07, 2019

Directorate Wants to Change View of Nonlethal Weapons

Modern warfare is often characterized by heavy firepower such as guns, tanks, and attack aircraft. But as the United States faces operations in the “gray zone” — actions that remain below the level of conventional armed conflict — there is an increasing need for nonlethal options. In charge of the Pentagon’s effort to develop such

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 06, 2019

Army Tests Multi-Function AR Goggles

With a year under its belt and a full staff, the Army Futures Command showed off some of its most promising projects. The Synthetic Training Environment cross-functional team has developed an all-in-one heads-up display for the tactical environment. The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) looks like a pair of heavy-duty goggles, but it is a

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 04, 2019

DARPA Solicitation: FOcal arrays for Curved Infrared Imagers (FOCII)

DARPA Eyes Curved High-Performance Infrared Focal Plane Array Sensors for Military and Aerospace Uses The FOCII project seeks to curve large- and small-format, cryogenically cooled, medium-wave and long-wave infrared imagers with extreme radii of curvature. Arlington, VA – U.S. military researchers are asking industry to develop curved, large-format, cryogenically cooled, infrared focal plane array electro-optical

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 04, 2019

Library of Spider Silk Could Hold Secrets for New Materials

With two pairs of fine-tipped tweezers and the hands of a surgeon, Cheryl Hayashi began dissecting the body of a silver garden spider under her microscope. In just a few minutes, she found what she was seeking: hundreds of silk glands, the organs spiders use to make their webs. Some looked like mashed potatoes, others

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 02, 2019

Marines Use Armored Vehicle to Defend Navy Ship From Small Boats Off Iranian Coast

As sailors and Marines are sailing in more contested waters, the blue-green team is getting creative about how to defend amphibious assault ships from enemy small boats and drones. Members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were photographed sailing through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf this week with a light armored vehicle

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
SEPTEMBER 01, 2019

Cessna-Turned-Drone Foreshadows Future Unmanned Opportunities

A recent successful Air Force Research Laboratory flight demonstration brings the service closer to a future that could rely more heavily on machines than human pilots. For the first time on August 9, AFRL and DZYNE Technologies flew a real plane—a 1968 Cessna 206—equipped with ROBOpilot, a system that can temporarily convert a manned aircraft

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 31, 2019

South Korea to Acquire More Anti-Missile Radars, Aegis Destroyers to Counter North Korea

South Korea has unveiled plans to acquire two more ground-based, anti-missile, early-warning radars and three Aegis-equipped destroyers as a part of its five-year defense blueprint for 2020-2024. The announcement comes amid heightened tensions, with North Korea test firing a series of new missiles in the past week. According to the defense ministry, the new acquisitions,

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 30, 2019

Innolith Claims Energy Dense Battery Tech Breakthrough

As more systems look toward better electricity storage, a harmless, durable, and non-flammable battery could be the way forward, Stuart Nathan reports. We are living in an electric age. Our energy carrier of choice is the zipping electron in a conductor. And this trend is increasing. As we develop more and more systems which rely

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 28, 2019

Small Businesses Sought for Space Accelerator Program

The Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate is reaching out to small businesses to explore space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance technologies. The service is looking for companies that can fill technology gaps by working alongside the Catalyst Space Accelerator program, which is a public-private partnership. KiMar Gartman, director of the accelerator, said the research

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

Why China Can”t Target U.S. Aircraft Carriers

Critics of U.S. aircraft carriers have been arguing for decades that the survival of the world’s biggest warships will increasingly be at risk in an era of long-range, precision-guided, anti-ship missiles. In recent years, China has typically been identified as the military power most likely to drive U.S. carriers from the sea. But the U.S.

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EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

DoD Conducts Ground Launch Cruise Missile Test

On Sunday, August 18, 2019 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) conducted a flight test of a conventionally-configured, ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, CA. The test missile exited its ground mobile launcher and accurately impacted its target after more than 500 kilometers of flight. Data collected and

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

Revolutionary Way to Bend Metals Could Lead to Stronger Military Vehicles

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC — A U.S. Army project discovery upends previous notions about how metals deform and could help guide the creation of stronger, more durable materials for military vehicles. For nearly 100 years, scientists thought they understood everything there was to know about how metals bend. They were wrong. Materials science and engineering

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

The U.S. Army Is Creating Artillery Rounds Guided By AI

The U.S. Army is working on a new artillery shell capable of locating enemy targets, including moving tanks and armored vehicles. The shell, called Cannon-Delivered Area Effects Munition (C-DAEM), is designed to replace older weapons that leave behind unexploded cluster bomblets on the battlefield that might pose a threat to civilians. The shell is designed

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

Digital Arsenal: Army Inches Forward on Electronic Warfare

The Army wants to jam, spoof, and hack enemy electronics with such subtlety the target doesn’t even realize what’s going wrong. That takes both high-tech equipment and highly trained personnel to use it. But the Army largely disbanded its electronic warfare (EW) corps after the Cold War, and the rebuilding takes time. The service is

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

NASA”s Orion Spacecraft Has Passed a Critical Propulsion Test

What happens if a spacecraft encounters problems in the vacuum of space? While space travel can be very dangerous, there are plenty of fail-safes. NASA, in fact, is carrying out tests to make sure the Orion spacecraft is ready to safely carry crew on an alternate mission profile in the unlikely event that problems occur.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

To Prevent Cyber Snooping, the U.S. Navy Is Relying on WWII-Era Communications

The U.S. Navy, anticipating a future when a high-tech enemy could read its electronic communications, is going back to a hack-proof means of sending messages between ships: bean bags. Weighted bags with messages inside are passed among ships at sea by helicopters. In a future conflict with a tech-savvy opponent, the U.S. military could discover

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

Military Researchers See Non-Lethal Role for Talking Lasers

Say what? Laser plasma balls that can talk? The Pentagon? How, and for what? The answer is that instead of beaming a flashing light or shouting over a loudspeaker to keep people away from sensitive areas, new technology is being developed that could allow troops to fire a laser that can form a “plasma ball”

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

The Corps’ JLTV Achieves Initial Operational Capability

QUANTICO, VA — The Marine Corps’ joint light tactical vehicle (JLTV) is officially ready to deploy and support missions of the naval expeditionary force-in-readiness worldwide. Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Combat Development and Integration declared the JLTV program—part of the Light Tactical Vehicle portfolio at Program Executive Officer Land Systems—reached initial operational capability, or IOC,

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 27, 2019

New Army Small Arms to Boost Soldier Lethality

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — A slew of new weapons that will increase the lethality of troops is coming down the pipeline, according to Army officials. “The systems — which include everything from the next-generation squad weapon to machine guns — are within sight,” said Lt. Col. Steven Power, the Army’s product manager for individual weapons. Speaking

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 21, 2019

Great Power Competition Extends to Arctic

This is part 1 of a 2-part special report on the Pentagon”s Arctic strategy. For years the Arctic’s harsh environment has prevented countries from mining its rich natural resources and accessing prime shipping routes. But as the climate warms and thick barriers of ice continue to melt, the region is now becoming a hot spot

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 19, 2019

Israel Unveils New Ground Forces Concept: Fast & Very High Tech

The first demonstration of Carmel was held Aug. 4 before the Ministry of Defense Director General, the IDF Deputy Chief of General Staff, commander of the Ground Forces, the head of the Directorate of Defense Research and Development, and other senior defense officials. TEL AVIV: A version of the F-35 pilot’s helmet in a fighting

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 18, 2019

Conflict and Diplomacy in the Middle East: External Actors and Regional Rivalries

The Middle East’s geographical and strategic uniqueness has made every great power in history to seek to advance its interests in the region. Yet, the region constitutes the greatest single reserve of oil in the world, which has made it a regular source of foreign interference in the post-World War II era. In addition to

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 17, 2019

Astro Robo-Dog Packs an AI-Enabled “Brain” in its 3D-Printed Head

Astro utilizes a deep neural network to learn new tasks through a process of trial and errors and could find use in applications such as the detection of guns and explosives, guiding the blind, exploring hazardous environments, or assisting soldiers on the battlefield. We”ve already seen several dog-like quadruped robots, which move by walking with

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 16, 2019

Liveness Detection Can Help Defense and Other Agencies Improve Detection and Tracking of Threat Personnel

Liveness detection using techniques such as eye or lip movement analysis is a detection/sensing/security feature that can ensure biological identifiers are from the proper user or target of interest and not from someone else. As biometric authentication slowly becomes incorporated into security and law enforcement applications, increasing attention has been paid to the quality and

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 14, 2019

Navy Preps Littoral Combat Ship for Massive ”Blue Water” Warfare

Destroying enemy helicopters on the open sea, hitting attacking enemy drones and countering opposing surface ships from safer stand-off distances are all combat missions now being emphasized by the Navy as it prepares its Littoral Combat Ship for massive “blue water” warfare – an effort designed to widen the ship’s attack potential and build upon

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

Boeing Opens V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor Aircraft Factory

Boeing has opened a new facility outside Philadelphia to build fuselages for the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and modernize the MV-22 fleet for the U.S. Marines (USMC). The company has invested $115M in the new 350,000 ft² facility to improve safety and productivity as well as reduce operating costs. Boeing Vertical Lift Vice President and

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

Navy Improves Helicopter-Fired Laser Weapons to Counter Mines

The U.S. Navy is looking at ways to improve its now operational airborne laser system designed to track enemy mines from low-flying helicopters and expand the surface area from which mine detection takes place and no longer rely purely upon more narrowly configured, mechanized, or towed mine detection systems. The system, called Airborne Laser Mine

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

New U.S./Japanese Missile Readying for New Generation of Threats

WASHINGTON: Raytheon is hoping to wrap up several multiyear contracts for the Standard Missile 6 and SM-3 Block IB interceptors in the coming weeks, deals that would give the industrial base some stability and lock in production pipelines for missile interceptors at a critical time, even as North Korea and Iran test new medium-range ballistic

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

A Novel Robotic Jellyfish Able to Perform 3-D Jet Propulsion and Maneuvers

As a source of inspiration, aquatic creatures such as fish, cetaceans, and jellyfish could inspire innovative designs to improve the ways that manmade systems operate in and interact with aquatic environments. Jellyfishes in nature propel themselves through their surroundings by radially expanding and contracting their bell-shaped bodies to push water behind them, which is called

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

AFRL Achieves Record-Setting Hypersonic Ground Test Milestone

A U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Air Force Test Center ground test team set a record for the highest thrust produced by an air-breathing hypersonic engine in Air Force history. “AFRL, in conjunction with Arnold Engineering Development Complex and Northrop Grumman, achieved over 13,000 pounds of thrust from a scramjet engine during testing

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

3D Printed Body Armor: An Upcoming Invention of the U.S Army Research Laboratory

With this 3D printing body armor innovation, the U.S. Army will be able to print custom-made armor on the spot. According to a recent research on 3D printing technology, it is believed that the U.S. military would be able to print body armor for soldiers in the near future. The new technology would enable army

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

Army Tests Robot-Force Attack on Enemy “Tank Ditch, Minefield”

Surging into heavy enemy fire, navigating rigorous terrain, and forward-placing sensors and weapons close to enemy targets, teams of U.S. Army robots conducted a “deep assault through a breach” during an exercise intended to prepare the service for a new kind of man-machine drone warfare. Fox News reports the Army exercise, which pitted groups of

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

Air Force to Deploy Ground-Based Lasers in First Field Test of “Directed Energy” Weapon

The Air Force announced Friday it will soon deploy two ground-based laser weapons to an undisclosed location to test how they can be used against small drones, the Service’s first “operational field test” of an experimental “directed energy” weapon. On Friday afternoon, the Air Force announced a $23 million sole-source contract for two of Raytheon’s

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

AFRL Investigating Space Weather Effects on Satellite Materials

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), in partnership with several universities, has investigated the effects of space weather damage to polyimides, materials used extensively in spacecraft construction due to their high heat resistance. The researchers determined the previously unknown chemical and physical effects of electron bombardment in Earth”s

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

Military Working to Make Its Autonomous Technology Smarter

Keeping soldiers safe continues to be the main reason the military enlists unmanned vehicles into its ranks, especially for resupply missions. The U.S. Army has been tinkering with ground robotics and automated technologies for decades, yet there are still no real systems in the military field that are fully autonomous. Nevertheless, the Army wants to

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 13, 2019

“Talking Lasers” That Beam Messages to Our Ears in the Works: Pentagon

Hold on to your tinfoil hats because there’s certainly a conspiracy theory a-brewin’ here. The Pentagon has confirmed it’s testing lasers that can talk. Huh? Weapons researchers at the U.S. Department of Defense have been working on less deadly means of warfare, including this laser weapon that can send brief messages — in the form

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 12, 2019

LightSail 2 Just Deployed Its Sails in Space, and It”s a Glorious Moment for Science

LightSail 2 has successfully deployed its solar sails. Shortly after 12:00 pm PST (19:00 UTC) The Planetary Society tweeted that the sails were deployed, and that the spacecraft was sailing with sunlight. We can all enjoy their success and start to wonder how solar sails will fit into humanity”s plans for space exploration. This is

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
AUGUST 07, 2019

U.S. Withdraws From Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty

The United States has officially withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, an agreement with the Russian Federation that limited the types of weapons systems the nations involved could pursue. “Russia has failed to comply with its obligations under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and as such, the United States has withdrawn from the INF

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EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 31, 2019

Marines Test AI, Autonomous Systems for Battlefield Intel

Operationalizing AI and autonomous systems as true warfighter partners to augment complex combat decision making. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency took some of its Squad X equipment to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, Calif., for a test run. The Squad X program aims to provide warfighters with lightweight, intuitive

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 30, 2019

Pentagon Scientists Are Making Talking Plasma Laser Balls for Use as Non-Lethal Weapons

Instead of beaming a flashing light or shouting over a loudspeaker to keep people away from sensitive areas, new technology being developed could allow troops to fire a laser that can form a “plasma ball” that talks to the potential intruders. The Laser-Induced Plasma Effect program is part of the Joint Non-lethal Weapons Directorate program

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 30, 2019

The F-35 Has a New Problem That Won’t Be Easy to Solve

The U.S. military”s growing fleet of F-35 stealth fighters will fall short of the 80 percent readiness goal that former Defense Secretary James Mattis instituted before quitting in protest of President Donald Trump”s foreign policy in January 2019. Former Secretary of the Army Mark Esper, who is Trump”s nominee to replace Mattis, in mid-July 2019

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 30, 2019

How 3-D Printed Body Armor Is Useful for Both American Forces and Terrorists

U.S. Army researchers have devised a method to produce ceramic body armor, lightweight but strong, from a 3-D printer. Except that 3-D printers are meant to print out knickknacks, not flak jackets. Which meant that engineers had to hack into the printer to get the job done. Ceramic armor, light but hard, provides great protection

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 30, 2019

“Intelligent-Rail” Software Destined for Next-Gen Squad Weapon

The Army has approved an upgraded software and hardware system that will be integrated into its next-generation squad weapon. “T-Worx, a technology innovation company based in Sterling, Virginia, is a component supplier and provides the I-Rail to all of the next-generation squad weapon competitors,” said Ben Feldman, the company’s chief engineer and I-Rail developer. “The

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 30, 2019

U.S. Army Wants World’s Largest, Fastest Metal Powder 3-D Printer

3D Systems has been awarded a $15 million contract by the Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, also known as ARL, to create the world”s largest, fastest, most precise metal 3-D printer. This printer will revolutionize key supply chains associated with long-range munitions, next-generation combat vehicles, helicopters, and air and missile defense capabilities. 3D

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 30, 2019

Quantum Tech Developments by NRL Could Advance Lasers and Sensing

WASHINGTON. Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) developed a new technique that could enable future advancements in quantum technology.The technique squeezes quantum dots, tiny particles made of thousands of atoms, to emit single photons (individual particles of light) with precisely the same wavelength and with positions that can be less than a millionth

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 29, 2019

Why Nuclear is an Emerging Technology for the Space Economy

Nuclear energy has played a key supporting role in historic missions to Mars, Pluto, and across the Solar System for the last 50 years. On January 1 2019, the nuclear-powered New Horizons flew by the most distant object ever observed up close – Ultima Thule, after it having already flown by Pluto in 2015. Nuclear

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 25, 2019

Deep Learning Research by NSWC Crane Engineer to Help Electronic Warfare Capabilities

CRANE, Indiana. – Research on how to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) for electronic warfare applications was completed by a Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) employee. David Emerson, a NSWC Crane engineer, defended his research that makes use of deep learning to process images and determine distances between objects in a scene. “Self-driving

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 25, 2019

The Air Force’s Five Principles to Advance Artificial Intelligence

“The Air Force has been on an almost 3-year journey to integrate artificial intelligence into operations, and that effort will soon be more apparent as the Service plans to declassify its artificial intelligence strategy,” Capt. Michael Kanaan, the service’s co-chair for artificial intelligence, said June 26 at the AI World Government Conference in Washington, DC.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 24, 2019

Parachute Validation: An Unlikely New Step On the Road to Drone Delivery

Here”s a scenario for you: It”s ten years in the future and you”re walking down the street when a delivery drone malfunctions while toting a five-pound package. The high-pitched whine overhead changes octaves, you look up, and it”s clear this hurdling projectile is going down. Unfortunately, it”s a scenario that”s bound to play out. As

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

Just In: Navy Chief Anticipates 3-D-Printed Nuclear Weapons

Other nations could use 3-D printing to develop atomic arsenals, according to the Chief of Naval Operations. “Much is changing here in the nuclear world,” Adm. John Richardson said July 2 during remarks at a breakfast in Washington, DC, hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “There are more nations seeking to join the

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

Algorithmic Warfare: DARPA’s “AI Next” Program Bearing Fruit

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) made headlines last fall when it announced that it was pledging $2 billion for a multiyear effort to develop new artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “Months later, DARPA’s ”AI Next” program is already bearing fruit,” said Peter Highnam, the agency’s Deputy Director. “DARPA — which has, for decades, fostered

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

Navy Arms Destroyers With New High-Powered Laser – Changes War Tactics

(Washington, DC) If swarms of enemy small attack boats armed with guns and explosives approached a Navy ship, alongside missile-armed drones and helicopters closing into strike range, ship commanders would instantly begin weighing defensive options – to include interceptor missiles, electronic warfare, deck-mounted guns, or area weapons such as Close-in-Weapons System. Now, attacks such as

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

AFRL Puts New Technologies Into Space Aboard World’s Most Powerful Launch Vehicle

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) — The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) successfully put new technologies into space, June 25, as part of the Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP-2) mission, managed by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket,

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

Warfighters Need Trusted Sensors

More and more warfighters around the globe are starting to carry commercial smartphones. Helping to fuel this widespread adoption are a number of apps for warfighting and individual soldier support, many of which leverage the smartphone’s sensors to provide features ranging from blue force tracking to encrypted calling. But as we’ve learned from the Pentagon’s

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

Army Futures Takes Key Step in Enabling Interoperability of Multinational Power Systems

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (June 26, 2019) — Army Futures Command, or AFC, has developed an intelligent power and energy architecture that enables the interoperability of multinational power systems during coalition operations. AFC”s subordinate command, the Combat Capabilities Development Command, integrated a tactical microgrid with Italy and Canada this June during Capable Logistician 2019, a

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

U.S. Navy Began Testing Advanced Version of Long-Range Electromagnetic Weapon

The U.S. Navy has confirmed that it began testing an advanced version of long-range electromagnetic weapon at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM. The new weapon system is a long-range electromagnetic railgun that fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants. Last month, the U.S. Navy has reported that engineers and technicians at the Naval

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

Designs of Experiments (DOE) in Survivability Testing

The purpose of survivability testing is to provide decision-makers with relevant, credible evidence, conveyed with some degree of certainty or inferential weight, about the survivability of an aircraft. In developing an experiment to accomplish this goal, a test planner faces numerous questions: What critical issues are being addressed? What data are needed to address them?

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 16, 2019

Meet “THOR,” the Air Force”s New Drone-Killing Microwave Gun

It”s built to negate swarms of drones,” said Program Manager Amber Anderson. “We want to drop many of them at one time without a single leaker getting through.” U.S. military bases across the globe may soon have a New Mexico-made, high-powered microwave weapon at their disposal to instantaneously down swarms of enemy drones. The U.S.

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 12, 2019

QinetiQ chooses ad-hoc networking from Persistent Systems for Army Common Robotic System-Individual UGVs

U.S. Army ground robots integrate the Persistent Systems network Wave Relay MANET module as communication network on QinetiQ robot for CRS(I) program. Unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) experts at QinetiQ North America in Waltham, Mass., needed mobile ad-hoc networking capability for the company”s involvement in the U.S. Army Common Robotic System-Individual program. They found their solution

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 10, 2019

FAA Moves Ahead on Commercial Drones

The Federal Aviation Administration has signed off on two approvals for key commercial unmanned aircraft projects. On June 5, the agency granted a “special airworthy certificate” to Amazon for its Prime Air drone-based package delivery service, an FAA spokesperson said in a statement emailed to FCW. The certificate allows Amazon to “operate its MK27 unmanned

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 08, 2019

A Polar-Bear-Inspired Material for Heat Insulation

For polar bears, the insulation provided by their fat, skin, and fur is a matter of survival in the frigid Arctic. For engineers, polar bear hair is a dream template for synthetic materials that might lock in heat just as well as the natural version. Now, materials scientists in China have developed such an insulator,

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 06, 2019

Russia Plans to Build Four Submarines Armed with Nuclear Drone-Torpedoes

For decades, submarine nuclear deterrence has been uniquely provided by the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), designed to loft missiles from beneath the waves into space before releasing multiple nuclear warheads that rain hellfire on cities and military bases below. SSBNs can remain submerged basically indefinitely thanks to their nuclear reactors, and are thus unlikely

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 05, 2019

Four-Winged Flying Insect Robot Weighs Under a Gram

Solar-powered winged robot has become the lightest machine capable of flying without being attached to a power source. Weighing just 259 milligrams, the insect-inspired RoboBee X-Wing has four wings that flap 170 times per second. It has a wingspan of 3.5 centimeters and stands 6.5 centimeters high. The flying robot was developed by Noah Jafferis

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 03, 2019

DOD Builds Jetson Laser Vibrometry System to ID Remote Subjects by Heartbeat

The Jetson prototype can pick up on a unique cardiac signature from 200 meters away, even through clothes. Everyone’s heart is different. Like the iris or fingerprint, our unique cardiac signature can be used as a way to tell us apart. Crucially, it can be done from a distance. It’s that last point that has

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 02, 2019

Sailors Get a Firsthand Look at the Navy”s New SPY-6 Radar System

It took two cranes and a flatbed truck to deliver it, but sailors and other spectators got an up-close look at the new air- and missile-defense radar being added to Navy ships. Raytheon”s SPY-6 next-generation scalable radar system was on display at this year”s Sea-Air-Space expo outside Washington, DC. The radar was transported from Portsmouth,

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 02, 2019

Here’s How the Army Wants to Stop Bad Guys Without Killing Them

Picture this: a tank commander is challenged by a protestor blocking the tank’s path. The tank must move forward but the protestor maneuvers left and right, blocking the tank’s path. Using the large gun against the protestor is foolish, and so is driving over the protestor, as PLA tanks did at the 1989 Tiananmen Square

EXTERNAL GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 02, 2019

Pentagon, Lockheed Martin Failed to Ensure Proper Parts for F-35

A major contractor and the Pentagon’s top management office came in for criticism from an inspector general for cutting corners in assuring that the massive Joint-Service F-35 stealth fighter is equipped with ready-for-issue parts. In a report dated June 13, the Defense Department watchdog found that parts for the department’s largest acquisition—with an estimated $406

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 02, 2019

Nearly 40 Percent Lighter Body Armor Coming to Marines in 2020

The Corps is gearing up to field its new lightweight body armor plates, designed to be worn in the Corps’ low intensity or counterinsurgency style conflicts. On Friday, the Defense Department announced the Navy awarded a nearly $216 million contract to Point Blank Enterprises for the purchase of up to 680,706 of the new lightweight

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 02, 2019

SpaceX Set to Launch Defense Department Space Experiments On Board Florida Falcon Heavy

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy spacecraft surged into space late Monday night, June 24, carrying 24 satellites on a mission considered among the Hawthorne-based rocket builder’s most challenging missions yet. Lift-off occurred at 11:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday) from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The mission, called STP-2, is led by the U.S. Air Force

EXTERNAL NON-GOVERNMENT SOURCE
JULY 02, 2019

Researchers Can Now Predict Properties of Disordered Polymers

In a new study, scientists used a combination of theory, experiment, and simulation to read patterns on long chains of molecules to understand and predict the behavior of disordered strands of proteins and polymers. The work offers detailed insights on the physics behind the precise sequence of charged monomers along the chain and how it