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US military news, discussions and history

Yes, I've been deployed to European and Asian bases as well as sea-assets, but I can't disclose my actual deployment arrangements. I'm on a rotating deployment scheduled.

Getting ready to deploy again in several months:(.
Shouldn't we quit trolling a nice thread and take conversation somewhere else
 
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Upgraded Arleigh Burke-class USS Curtis Wilbur destroyer completes sea trials
Upgraded Arleigh Burke-class USS Curtis Wilbur destroyer completes sea trials - Naval Technology

The US Navy's Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) has completed sea trials following a DDG midlife overhaul extended dry dock shipboard repair availability (EDSRA).

The 335-day EDSRA is said to be the longest and most extensive DDG overhaul in the history of Forward Deployed Naval Forces (FDNF).

The US Naval Ship Repair Facility in Yokosuka, Japan, conducted and led the first ever availability of DDG EDSRA to upgrade the destroyer's systems and weapons, as well as perform other necessary repairs.

USS Curtis Wilbur combat systems officer fire controlman 1st class Deffey Moore said: "It is incredibly important right now for the junior sailors to work with senior personnel to learn not just about their new equipment but underway life in general."

Built by Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine, USS Curtis Wilbur is the fourth of seven Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers assigned to Destroyer Squadron 15. Curtis was commissioned in Long Beach, California, on 19 March 1994.

The destroyer is permanently forward-deployed to Yokosuka in Japan where it supports the security and stability of the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

Curtis Wilbur commanding officer, commander Hans De For said: "Curtis Wilbur worked with all of the ships on the waterfront to get our Sailors underway during the avail.

"With their help we were able to successfully complete this yard period with enough qualified watch standers to excel during sea trials."

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An Air Force In Transition Adjusts for the Cyber Age
An Air Force In Transition Adjusts for the Cyber Age | Military.com

A partnership between the air and cyber domains is the key to blended operations.

The U.S. Air Force is striving to become a multidomain warfighting unit in the air, in space and in cyber, according to its chief information officer. However, attaining the same degree of supremacy in cyber that it currently enjoys in the air domain may prove a far more daunting task.

As do its sister services, the Air Force operates under a decades-old, traditional model. That model does not serve information technology needs well, and the issue has become more crucial as cyber continues to increase in importance.

Cyberspace is both operational and manmade, points out Lt. Gen. William J. Bender, USAF, Air Force chief information officer/A-6. Accordingly, the importance of the cyberspace domain is on a par with that of air and space. For the Air Force to move forward, it has "an absolute requirement to think differently' he states.

"The Air Force is bridging a change from the industrial age to the information age," Gen. Bender declares. "We are a little out of step in that we're in the information age, but we haven't transitioned the Air Force yet fully from the industrial age. That will take thinking differently. It's about the ability to correlate data; form information; organize that information in a way that gives us a better level of understanding; and eventually ... how you operate in the information age that is the equivalent of information warfare.

"We still need to remain the best Air Force of the industrial age, but at the same time we have to recognize that the environment around us has changed to the information age," he continues. "Now it becomes more in terms of how are you going to take advantage of the cyber domain bestin a way that can take advantage of opportunities and be better, faster and smarter than the enemy."

The key for the Air Force to achieve that goal of dual supremacy is to begin the evolution of learning to think differently, Gen. Bender states. "While the environment is rapidly changing, we must recognize that it is not purely a matter of security that we must be concerned about; it also is a great opportunity for us. If we rely on the OODA model-observe, orient, decide and act-faster than the enemy because we've done a better job of managing our data and turning it into knowledge, then in fact we can own the information age in a way that the Air Force currently owns the industrial age."

The Air Force must come to a better understanding of the cyber domain, the general continues. This domain differs from air and space to a greater degree than those two differ from each other, but the manmade domain of cyber presents different opportunities, especially in that it can be manipulated. "Were trying to recognize that... the cyber domain and its unique challenges on the security side and opportunities on the information warfare side are different than what we've operated in the past," he emphasizes.

Air Force command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) has two top priorities, Gen. Bendersays. The first is to transition the information technology infrastructure to the future Joint Information Environment (JIE). This process will take the infrastructure from an Air Force architecture to a joint singlesecurity architecture. This is important both from a mission perspective-it is the way the Air Force will fight in the future-and from an efficiency perspective, he offers.

The second priority is the transformation of the Air Force work force relative to the JIE. A number of ongoing initiatives involve the standup and development of cyber mission forces, and these are connected to the JIE transition. The general says the JIE, as it is conceived, would allow the Air Force to repurpose individuals assigned to the commodity side of cyber, such as operating email servers.

For example, the legacy mission of a communications squadron largely has been consolidated and centralized through the 24th Air Force. Some of the roles airmen now serve can be replaced through cloud technologies or data center consolidation using commercial capabilities. Gen. Bendersuggests that some of these airmen could transition from information technology support to missions that involve defending the networks and other cyber operations, including advising commanders on cybervulnerabilities.

This work force transformation is the biggest near-term challenge, the general avers. The JIE will provide a dividend in the repurposed work force, and this is an important underpinning to the Air Forces ability to transform its C4ISR. But the service still must pay attention to its legacy communications and networks while developing this new cyber-sawy work force, he warrants.

The blending of cyber and air operations is strong with the Air Forces F-35. In addition to being a multirole fighter aircraft, the F-35 also is a flying multisensor platform. Its sensor data will be part of any Air Force ISR network, but that architecture remains to be configured, particularly with the JIE looming. Gen. Bender offers that the JIE will need to take into account the F-35 instead of the F-35's data architecture being configured for the enterprise network.

"It's the JIE that must meet the needs of the platform, as opposed to the other way around," he declares. "The JIE is the next evolution of our information technology infrastructure, and there are unique challenges with a state-of-the-art system both in terms of bandwidth and sensor integration.

"One of the things we need to be cognizant of is ensuring that our development of infrastructure and eventual nextgeneration information technology needs to be conducive of a high-sensor-specific platform," he continues. "I'm not sure that we're there now, but we certainly have to be."

The Air Force is developing a data management strategy for the F-35's ISR information. The volume of ISR data currently flowing across Air Forcenetworks "is beyond our capability to process," Gen. Bender allows. So, the F-35 probably will provide raw data to the network early in its deployment, but over time data may be fused to some extent.

The constantly changing defense environment, coupled with rapid technology evolution, place the Air Force at a disadvantage when it tries to operate with a methodical "1947 corporate process," Gen. Bender states. Because the process is unresponsive to the existing environment, the result is systems such as the JIE, which is not a program of record with formal funding. "We need to do a better job of treating information technology ... as a cost of doing business-pay yourself first," he declares.

The overarching budget environment, with its budget controls looming in the background, hinders planning and programming, the general says. These numbers are too low for Air Force C4ISR requirements, he says. "There are more requirements than we have budget authority, so all choices are tough at this point."

His short-term budget concerns include the joint regional security stacks and the foundational work needed to advance the JIE and its joint single security architecture. Lacking a program of record, these efforts are unfunded and must compete in a disadvantaged environment in fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2016. The general adds that the Air Force has done some work to fold in these efforts as a program of record in fiscal year 2017, which would help in the competition for funding.

He points out the funding strategy is joint, which involves all of the services. All must meet their commitments, he states.

In the future, Air Force information technology must feature a balance between agility and affordability, and private sector solutions will play a big role. Areas such as commercial cloud computing services and commercial data center consolidation will offer significant efficiencies, Gen. Bender points out. Other commercial information technologies the Air Force will exploit include mobile capabilities, smart devices and big data analytics, he says.

On the high end of cyber, a convergence of operations, intelligence and information technology works for operational aspects. A partnership among the A-2, the A-3 and the A-6 at the air staff level focuses on developing and operationalizing cyberweapons of the future, the general reports.

This partnership does not portend a major reorganization of these Air Force elements, as did happen in the Navy. Gen. Bender offers that he sees no such reorganization for the near term, but the long-term future may hold the potential for an Air Force information command combining cyber and intelligence. He does not foresee this taking place for at least a decade, he says. "Everybody has reorganization fatigue for the time being."

 
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UNC vs. Michigan State, November 11 2011 aboard USS Carl Vinson

View attachment 205290


Basketball fan I take it:azn:.

After Terminator Arm, DARPA Wants Implantable Hard Drive for the Brain

An experimental Pentagon program has already developed two types of a highly advanced, Terminator-like prosthetic arm.

What's more, a quadriplegic woman with sensors implanted onto her brain controlled one of the robotic limbs to grab a cup, shake hands and eat a chocolate bar. She even flew an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter simulator using just her thoughts.

Now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to expand on that cutting-edge work to build other potential breakthrough medical technologies, including a pacemaker-sized device that might someday improve the memory of troops who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Think of it as a hard drive of sorts for the brain.

"We know we need a next-generation device that doesn't exist today," said Justin Sanchez, a program manager in DARPA's Biological Technologies Office in Arlington, Virginia. "That's what these new programs are all about -- not only understanding the brain and these conditions, but building the hardware that enables us to address those issues. You need both."

Memory Chip

Over more than a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs and other explosive devices took a toll on the U.S. military. An estimated half to two-thirds of the more than 7,100 Americans killed or wounded in combat were victims of such blasts and some 1,800 lost limbs, according to USA Today. Hundreds of thousands more suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

While researchers have been scanning the brain for years, very little is known about memory, which is stored in the side parts of the brain known as temporal lobes, Sanchez said. Like epileptic patients, troops who damage this part of the brain can suffer from memory loss and other issues.

One of DARPA's newer projects, Restoring Active Memory, seeks to build a prosthetic device that could aid in the formation and recall declarative memory, a form of long-term memory that can be recalled such as a fact. For example, a future experiment might involve a patient who is asked to identify a series of faces and names with the aid of an implant.

"The twist on this is he or she will be interacting with a prosthetic device," Sanchez said. "So at some face and name presentations, maybe we'll stimulate the part of the brain that is involved in the memory formation and see if there are particular patterns of stimulation that can facilitate the formation and recall of that memory."

Terminator Arm

The research builds on the work of a precursor program, called Revolutionizing Prosthetics, which dates back almost a decade and reflects the cornerstone of the agency's research into neural signaling.

Jan Scheuermann, one of two patients in the program, in 2012 agreed to let surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center implant a pair of pea-sized electrodes onto her left motor cortex -- which controls movement -- and connect her to a robotic arm. She hoped she might feed herself for the first time in a decade. She did that and more.

Scheuermann, a 55-year-old mother of two who became paralyzed in middle-age due to a rare neurological disorder known as spinocerebellar degeneration, became so adept at manipulating the arm developed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory that her participation in the study was extended until October, when the electrode arrays were removed.

"That is the first program in the agency where you have humans interacting with really advanced prosthetic devices to do something extremely useful," Sanchez said.

Reading the Mind

The sensors on Scheuermann's brain measured just four-millimeters long, yet included hundreds of contact points designed to pick up signals from individual brain cells called neurons.

"When you intend to move your arm, for example, there are certain places in your brain that become active, the neurons that are there become active, and that activity can occur when you physically move your arm or even if you imagine moving your arm," Sanchez said.

The signals were relayed to a computer running software that matched the activity to patterns associated with physical movements, such as raising or lowering an arm. Scientists used vector mathematics to build algorithms that determined the intended motion of the not only the arm, but also the wrist and fingers. The code translated into operating instructions for the robotic prosthesis.

"Neurons in this particular part of your brain are tuned to certain movement directions," Sanchez said. "You can imagine how you can use that information to operate a robotic arm. Once you know those associations, you can say, ‘Oh, whenever I see that guy firing, I'm trying to go in this direction."

Flying the F-35

While the program's potential real-world applications aren't limited to prosthetics, patients won't be flying drones into combat anytime soon. When Scheuermann piloted the F-35 simulator, she didn't drop bombs or launch missiles. Rather, she simply cruised along -- sometimes erratically -- and tried to bank the aircraft on simple flight patterns.

The process of linking her brain to the aircraft's motion was similar to the robotic arm. Scientists would tell her to imagine trying to steer the plane to the right and left, and then would have to figure out how the neural activity would connect to control of the rudders.

"You have to try to find this functional mapping," Sanchez said. "This is a real core part of this from a science perspective: How do you learn what those signals in the brain mean when you intend to do something and how do they relate to the device you're trying to actuate, whether it's a robotic arm or an airplane?"

Scheuermann also virtually piloted a small Cessna plane around the Eiffel Tower in Paris -- an experience she found "liberating," Sanchez said.

"That's a really powerful statement," he said. "We think of neurotechnology as hardware, but we don't often think about it in terms of how it can improve somebody's life or change somebody's life."

Bringing Back Sensation

The next and final phase of the program will seek to reverse the signaling process by understanding the patterns for sensation in the central nervous system.

"It's really easy to say, ‘We want to bring sensation back,' but it's really difficult to actually do it," Sanchez said. "You have to go to a different part of the brain that's involved in the perception of touch -- the primary central cortex -- and again the challenge is the same: You have an electronic device that is measuring something and we need to translate that into signals that the brain understands."

His office is working to identify potential civilian patients for the program. The agency doesn't perform experiments on troops, even though the research is designed to help those who serve.

"Military personnel make the ultimate sacrifice," Sanchez said. "They serve our nation and their lives often are changed through their injury. The very least we can do is develop a technology that will help to improve their quality of life. We have to stay true to that. It's essential."

Reversible Procedure

In the early 2000s, connecting a brain to a robotic prosthesis would have required multiple rooms full of computers, cables and other hardware. While its recent work proved it could be done with more advanced systems and less space, the agency still wants much smaller components.

"All of the new programs have fundamentally by their design the goal of developing medical devices that are fully implantable -- the size of a cardiac pacemaker that could be implanted somewhere in the body," Sanchez said.

Under another new effort called Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies (Subnets), DARPA is funding the development of implantable devices designed to more precisely identify and treat psychiatric diseases.

"All of these procedures, at least the ones we've talked about thus far, are reversible," he added. "Neurotechnology is being designed in such a way that it's reversible, so if it's not providing a benefit for you, you don't use it. You just take it out."

From DARPA Wants Implantable Hard Drive for the Brain | Defense Tech

Kai's job:yahoo:
 
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Basketball fan I take it:azn:.

After Terminator Arm, DARPA Wants Implantable Hard Drive for the Brain

An experimental Pentagon program has already developed two types of a highly advanced, Terminator-like prosthetic arm.

What's more, a quadriplegic woman with sensors implanted onto her brain controlled one of the robotic limbs to grab a cup, shake hands and eat a chocolate bar. She even flew an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter simulator using just her thoughts.

Now, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to expand on that cutting-edge work to build other potential breakthrough medical technologies, including a pacemaker-sized device that might someday improve the memory of troops who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Think of it as a hard drive of sorts for the brain.

"We know we need a next-generation device that doesn't exist today," said Justin Sanchez, a program manager in DARPA's Biological Technologies Office in Arlington, Virginia. "That's what these new programs are all about -- not only understanding the brain and these conditions, but building the hardware that enables us to address those issues. You need both."

Memory Chip

Over more than a decade of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, roadside bombs and other explosive devices took a toll on the U.S. military. An estimated half to two-thirds of the more than 7,100 Americans killed or wounded in combat were victims of such blasts and some 1,800 lost limbs, according to USA Today. Hundreds of thousands more suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

While researchers have been scanning the brain for years, very little is known about memory, which is stored in the side parts of the brain known as temporal lobes, Sanchez said. Like epileptic patients, troops who damage this part of the brain can suffer from memory loss and other issues.

One of DARPA's newer projects, Restoring Active Memory, seeks to build a prosthetic device that could aid in the formation and recall declarative memory, a form of long-term memory that can be recalled such as a fact. For example, a future experiment might involve a patient who is asked to identify a series of faces and names with the aid of an implant.

"The twist on this is he or she will be interacting with a prosthetic device," Sanchez said. "So at some face and name presentations, maybe we'll stimulate the part of the brain that is involved in the memory formation and see if there are particular patterns of stimulation that can facilitate the formation and recall of that memory."

Terminator Arm

The research builds on the work of a precursor program, called Revolutionizing Prosthetics, which dates back almost a decade and reflects the cornerstone of the agency's research into neural signaling.

Jan Scheuermann, one of two patients in the program, in 2012 agreed to let surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center implant a pair of pea-sized electrodes onto her left motor cortex -- which controls movement -- and connect her to a robotic arm. She hoped she might feed herself for the first time in a decade. She did that and more.

Scheuermann, a 55-year-old mother of two who became paralyzed in middle-age due to a rare neurological disorder known as spinocerebellar degeneration, became so adept at manipulating the arm developed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory that her participation in the study was extended until October, when the electrode arrays were removed.

"That is the first program in the agency where you have humans interacting with really advanced prosthetic devices to do something extremely useful," Sanchez said.

Reading the Mind

The sensors on Scheuermann's brain measured just four-millimeters long, yet included hundreds of contact points designed to pick up signals from individual brain cells called neurons.

"When you intend to move your arm, for example, there are certain places in your brain that become active, the neurons that are there become active, and that activity can occur when you physically move your arm or even if you imagine moving your arm," Sanchez said.

The signals were relayed to a computer running software that matched the activity to patterns associated with physical movements, such as raising or lowering an arm. Scientists used vector mathematics to build algorithms that determined the intended motion of the not only the arm, but also the wrist and fingers. The code translated into operating instructions for the robotic prosthesis.

"Neurons in this particular part of your brain are tuned to certain movement directions," Sanchez said. "You can imagine how you can use that information to operate a robotic arm. Once you know those associations, you can say, ‘Oh, whenever I see that guy firing, I'm trying to go in this direction."

Flying the F-35

While the program's potential real-world applications aren't limited to prosthetics, patients won't be flying drones into combat anytime soon. When Scheuermann piloted the F-35 simulator, she didn't drop bombs or launch missiles. Rather, she simply cruised along -- sometimes erratically -- and tried to bank the aircraft on simple flight patterns.

The process of linking her brain to the aircraft's motion was similar to the robotic arm. Scientists would tell her to imagine trying to steer the plane to the right and left, and then would have to figure out how the neural activity would connect to control of the rudders.

"You have to try to find this functional mapping," Sanchez said. "This is a real core part of this from a science perspective: How do you learn what those signals in the brain mean when you intend to do something and how do they relate to the device you're trying to actuate, whether it's a robotic arm or an airplane?"

Scheuermann also virtually piloted a small Cessna plane around the Eiffel Tower in Paris -- an experience she found "liberating," Sanchez said.

"That's a really powerful statement," he said. "We think of neurotechnology as hardware, but we don't often think about it in terms of how it can improve somebody's life or change somebody's life."

Bringing Back Sensation

The next and final phase of the program will seek to reverse the signaling process by understanding the patterns for sensation in the central nervous system.

"It's really easy to say, ‘We want to bring sensation back,' but it's really difficult to actually do it," Sanchez said. "You have to go to a different part of the brain that's involved in the perception of touch -- the primary central cortex -- and again the challenge is the same: You have an electronic device that is measuring something and we need to translate that into signals that the brain understands."

His office is working to identify potential civilian patients for the program. The agency doesn't perform experiments on troops, even though the research is designed to help those who serve.

"Military personnel make the ultimate sacrifice," Sanchez said. "They serve our nation and their lives often are changed through their injury. The very least we can do is develop a technology that will help to improve their quality of life. We have to stay true to that. It's essential."

Reversible Procedure

In the early 2000s, connecting a brain to a robotic prosthesis would have required multiple rooms full of computers, cables and other hardware. While its recent work proved it could be done with more advanced systems and less space, the agency still wants much smaller components.

"All of the new programs have fundamentally by their design the goal of developing medical devices that are fully implantable -- the size of a cardiac pacemaker that could be implanted somewhere in the body," Sanchez said.

Under another new effort called Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies (Subnets), DARPA is funding the development of implantable devices designed to more precisely identify and treat psychiatric diseases.

"All of these procedures, at least the ones we've talked about thus far, are reversible," he added. "Neurotechnology is being designed in such a way that it's reversible, so if it's not providing a benefit for you, you don't use it. You just take it out."

From DARPA Wants Implantable Hard Drive for the Brain | Defense Tech

Kai's job:yahoo:

Simply amazing developments. I thought that they hardly progressed in such technologies.
 
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US Navy conducts 155th test flight of Trident II D5 missile

US Navy conducts 155th test flight of Trident II D5 missile - Naval Technology

The US Navy has successfully conducted the 155th test flight of two unarmed Lockheed Martin-built Trident II D5 Fleet ballistic missiles, which were launched in the Pacific Ocean from a submerged Ohio-class submarine.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Strategic and Missile Defense Systems deputy and Fleet Ballistic Missile programmes vice-president Mat Joyce said: "These latest test flights demonstrate the reliability of the D5 missile and the readiness of the entire Trident strategic weapon system, every minute of every day.

"The navy programme office, the submarine crews and the industry team never rest to ensure the safety, security and performance of this crucial deterrence system."

Prior to testing, the missiles were adapted to test configurations using kits comprising a range safety devices and flight telemetry instrumentation.

The US Navy performs a series of operational system evaluation tests for the Trident strategic weapon system under the testing guidelines of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Trident II D5 is a three-stage, solid-propellant, inertial-guided ballistic missile, capable of travelling a range of 4,000nm while carrying multiple, independently targeted re-entry vehicles.

It is currently aboard the US Navy Ohio-class and UK Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines.

The missile's design was completed in 1989 and was first deployed in 1990.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the strategic missile prime contractor for the US Navy's strategic systems programmes.

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Mr. @C130 I noticed your comment on a thread about the US response to Russian missile drills. No need to fly B-52s around, we'll just keep doing what were doing, quietly and without making a fuss.

:usflag:
 
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3-D printers save time, money in major aircraft repairs
3-D printers save time, money in major aircraft repairs

What do you do when a crack in your F/A-18 requires a million-dollar fix and six months of labor? Send in the 3-D printer.

Fleet Readiness Center Southwest, an aviation repair shop based at Naval Station North Island, California, is home to three state-of-the-art 3-D printers, a technology that can rapidly fashion custom parts. Those initiatives are transforming fleet maintenance:

1. Multiple platforms. The machines arrived two years ago thanks to Gabe Draguicevich, manufacturing deputy program manager, who saw an unfulfilled line in his budget for additive manufacturing — the technical term for 3-D printing.

Rather than spend the $1.2 million on one machine, he divided it up among three, all printing in plastic:



  • A stereolithography machine, which uses a laser to carve an item out of liquid resin.
  • A fused deposition modeling machine, which builds items drop by drop, like a hot glue gun.
  • A selective laser sintering machine, which bonds powdered material together to make a solid item.
2. Rapid fixes. In 2012, Northrop Grumman and Naval Air Systems Command were testing the X-47B unmanned jet's landing capabilities and observed the aircraft's tailhook was bouncing over the arresting cable instead of latching on. The hook point wasn't a good fit.

"Northrop came back and said, 'Well, at minimum it's going to be eight months. It could be as much as a year before we can create a new part,' " Draguicevich recalled.

It was costing the program about $250 a day to wait around for the next test, so NAVAIR went to FRCSW, whose engineers elongated the hook point's nose and printed it up overnight on their stereolithography machine. They sent the plastic model to Pax River, which tested it and sent it back for some modifications. Once it was perfect, they carved it out of metal and sent it to NAVAIR.

"In five weeks we did the whole project, start to finish," Draguicevich said.

3. Legacy upgrades. The 3-D printers have also come in handy for updating old F/A-18A-D Hornets, which some have likened to fixing classic cars.

As FRCSW works to extend the Hornets' airframe life from 6,000 hours to 10,000, jets have shown up with a bulkhead crack that would cost about $1 million and about six months to replace, FRCSW spokesman Mike Furlano said.

Instead, the 3-D printing team came up with a tub fitting to reinforce the bulkhead, modeled with a 3-D printer and then manufactured in-house from aluminum. That brought the repairs down to $25,000.



4. Metal. Vice Adm. David Dunaway, head of NAVAIR, has called for 3-D printing with metal in the next three years.

That's a tall order, Draguicevich said. It would require being able to get the parts the same every time, which their machines can't guarantee.

"The brilliance behind what he did — he pressured everybody to look at it seriously and come back with a plan to make it happen, whenever it can happen," he said.

There's also the matter of the material: The Navy's aircraft are mostly aluminum, which their printers can't work with, he said. It's possible to print with steel or titanium, but those only make up 5 to 10 percent of an aircraft, he added.

"Our role as leaders is to challenge our employees to find creative solutions to warfighter needs," Dunaway told Navy Times in a March 18 statement. "As part of NAVAIR's initiative to adopt innovation as a standard practice, we occasionally set goals to inspire our talented workforce's efforts to apply rapidly evolving technology in achieving those solutions."

5. In the fleet. 3-D printing's most practical application would be on a ship, Draguicevich said, where sailors could print bits and pieces like caps, screws and medical supplies that often run low underway. Sailors on the amphibious assault ship Essex in 2014 fashioned deck drains and oil caps with their 3-D printer as part of the fleet's first test.

"When we talk about 3-D enterprise, the amount of parts that are going to be 3-D printed in the future are probably less than 10 percent," he said. "Probably more like 2 to 5 percent."
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Poland and U.S. Army hold joint air defence exercises near Warsaw
REFILE-Poland and U.S. Army hold joint air defence exercises near Warsaw| Reuters

pole.jpg


WARSAW, March 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Army Europe has deployed a Patriot missile defence battery near Warsaw as part of joint exercises with Poland aimed at reassuring the NATO member in light of the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine.

Poland, in NATO since 1999, does not have its own system to protect against ballistic missiles and is to take a decision regarding the supplier for its medium-range missile defence system within weeks.

"We have always been friends and we have been allies for the last 16 years," Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak told a joint press briefing with the U.S. ambassador on Saturday.

"During this time we have always been by the side of the United States. When we are in need, the United States have firmly stood by our side," Siemoniak said.

U.S. Army Europe said earlier this week that the aim of the week-long exercise was to "reassure allies, demonstrate freedom of movement and deter regional aggression on the eastern flank of NATO."

The Patriot missile battery, which is manufactured by U.S. firm Raytheon, arrived in Poland accompanied by 100 U.S. soldiers and approximately 30 vehicles.

The ground-to-air missile defence system was deployed at a military base in Sochaczew, a city roughly 50 km (30 miles) from Warsaw.

Siemoniak said it was natural for Poland to train with allies on defending the city.

"We are here to show our Polish allies that U.S. security guarantees for Poland as part of NATO mean something more than only words on paper," the U.S. ambassador to Poland, Stephen Mull, said.

The deployment follows unofficial Russian media reports that Russia deployed Iskander ballistic missiles in its Kaliningrad exclave neighbouring Poland as part of exercises earlier this week.

Poland plans to choose the supplier for its medium-range missile defence system within the next few weeks. Warsaw short-listed Raytheon and a consortium of France's Thales and European group MBDA in the tender last year. (Reporting by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Stephen Powell)
 
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The Saga of the 1972 Guardfish Patrol
The Saga of the 1972 Guardfish P


During the summer of 1972 Guardfish (SSN612) was deployed in the Sea of Japan when world events thrust her captain, Commander David C. Minton, III, and her crew into the adventure of a lifetime. On May 9th the Vietnam War was heating up as the Paris peace talks had broken down and our forces had commenced mining Haiphong and other major North Vietnamese harbors. The aim was to deny the North Vietnamese Army the advantage of being supplied by sea from their communist allies. Guardfish was alerted by message of the possibility of a Soviet naval response.


The world situation was tense. No one knew how the Soviet would react to the mining. Guardfish was positioned at periscope depth near the Soviet’s largest Pacific naval base. Late on the evening of May 10th a surface contact was detected standing out the channel at high speed cutting across the normal channel boundaries and heading almost directly for the waiting Guardfish. As the contact closed in the growing darkness it was visually identify as a Soviet Echo II Class missile submarine. This class displaced 5,000-tons, was powered by a nuclear reactor, and carried eight Shaddock surface-to-surface missiles, which could be fired at targets up to 200 miles away. Guardfish followed. Soon the Echo submerged and headed southeast at high speed. Was this sortie in response to the mining of Haiphong?


During the next two days the Soviet submarine frequently slowed and spent long periods at periscope depth, probably receiving detailed orders from his naval commander. While listening for the Echo, Guardfish slowed which significantly extended her sonar detection range. To the crews surprise and alarm they were able to detect at least two and possibly three other Soviet submarines in the area. One submarine is hard to trail, three or four is impossible! Therefore they focused all efforts on maintaining contact with the Echo II they had identified visually.


When the Echo II resumed its transit toward the southern exit of the Sea of Japan, the skipper had two important decisions to make. First, did the deployment of three, possibly four, Soviet submarines meet the requirement for breaking radio silence? The number one priority of all submarine surveillance operations was to provide an early warning of an unusual deployment of Soviet naval vessels. This type of report, called a critic report, had never been sent before. The skipper determined that now was the time for Guardfish to break that silence and he notified his operational commander of the situation. Second, should Guardfish abandon her surveillance mission in the Sea of Japan to continue the trail of the Soviet submarine? The operations order was silent on this count, but it made sense to the skipper that their naval commander would want to know where the Soviets were going. Because he didn’t have the luxury of time to wait for orders he invoked the submarine commanders secret creed, "No guts, no hero ribbon". They were on their way!



Trailing is a complex task. For a submarine to remain undetected a contact's position, course, and speed must be determined using passive sonar bearings. Passive ranging required Guardfish to continually maneuver to generate a changing bearing to the contact. Too close and you could be detected, too far away and contact could be lost. These maneuvers were usually conducted in the baffle area of the contact, the blind spot astern.


The Echo turned to clear this baffle area almost hourly. Sometimes it was a very passive turn of 90 degrees so that his sonar could listen for anything behind him and at other times he aggressively turned 180 degrees and raced back along his previous track right at Guardfish. This maneuver was dangerous with a real possibility of collision. At the very least there was a chance he could detect Guardfish’s presence as the range closed. When the Echo made a baffle clearing maneuver Guardfish tried to anticipate which way he would turn so that they were slightly off of his track on the opposite side. Additionally, Guardfish slowed immediately to be as silent as possible and give more time and distance for the Echo to return to his previous course.


Frequent status reports were needed in Washington to assess the threat and intent of the Soviet forces. President Nixon and his National Security Advisor were briefed daily. Because high powered high frequency radio transmissions from Guardfish were subject to detection and location by the Soviet electronic intercept network, an alternate method of communicating was established. Navy Anti-Submarine Warfare P-3 aircraft flew covert missions over Guardfish’s projected location and received status reports via short range ultra high frequency radio either directly from Guardfish at periscope depth or via slot buoys, small expendable battery powered transmitters that could be programmed with a short message and shot out of the signal ejector while Guardfish remained at trail depth.


During this period of the trail every available submarine in the Pacific was urgently being deployed to provide protection for our aircraft carriers operating off the Vietnamese coast and to search for the other Soviet submarines. This deployment created a mutual interference problem for both Guardfish and the submarine operations staffs. Guardfish was committed to going wherever the Soviet Echo went and the staffs had to relocate the deploying submarines frequently to ensure that the much quieter US submarines would not endanger each other or Guardfish.


Once in the Philippine Sea the Echo turned southwest heading in the general direction of the Bashi Channel, the strait between Taiwan and the islands north of Luzon Philippines. The Bashi is the usual northern entrance to the South China Sea and the skipper was sure that it was the Echo’s objective, but their track continued well south of the normal course. Then the Echo slowed and came to periscope depth and went active on his fathometer on a short scale which was not suitable for the depth of water. He was lost! While at periscope depth he must have obtained a good fix because the Echo went deep, turned toward the Bashi Channel, and increased speed to 16 knots. After reporting this rapid course correction by slot buoy Guardfish rushed after him knowing that the repositioning of US submarines would be nearly impossible on this short notice. As a precaution against collision with a US submarine the skipper changed depth to 100 meters, a depth commonly used by Soviet submarines and one he knew US submarines would avoid. His apprehension was justified when Guardfish detected a US submarine clearing to the north at high speed.


On May 18th the Echo entered the South China Sea and transited to a point approximately 300 miles off the coast of Luzon. For eight days he established a slow moving grid track which covered a rectangular patrol area approximately 700 miles from our carriers along the Vietnamese coast and well beyond the 200 mile range of his missiles.


While the tracking team struggled to maintain contact with the Echo, world events were moving in a more peaceful direction. After long negotiations President Nixon went to Moscow for his historic summit meeting with Soviet's General Secretary Brezhnev. On During the summit on May 24th National Security Advisor Kissinger informed Brezhnev that the US knew the Soviets had deployed submarines and their presence so close to the Vietnamese War Zone was provocative and extremely dangerous. Within two days of this confrontation, the Soviets blinked and the Echo submarine started north.


After transiting the Bashi Channel the Echo established a second patrol area in the Philippine Sea south of Okinawa. This area of the ocean had some of the worst possible acoustical properties. It was often crossed by merchant traffic and at night the biological noise and frequent rain showers were deafening to sonar. Maintaining contact became even harder than before, making it necessary for Guardfish to trail at closer and closer ranges.


A lengthy procedure to transfer the trail to another US submarine, just developed by the staff, was placed on the radio broadcast. While Guardfish was at periscope depth copying this urgent message, the Echo came unexpectedly to periscope depth and visually detected Guardfish. The maneuvers that followed by both Guardfish and the Echo were violent and at high speed. Holding on to an alerted contact proved to be impossible and contact with the Echo was lost.


When Guardfish returned to Guam on June 10th the crew had been underway submerged for 123 days with only an eight day refit as a break. They had conducted two demanding special operations including a 28 day trail of the Soviet Echo II under extremely tense conditions, but Guardfish's morale was sky high. The officers and crew were justifiably proud of what they had accomplished.
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Missions

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A few bits on US missile defense targets/countermeasures.

The LV-2 for Missile defense tests - based on Trident C-4:

Lockheed Martin successfully flew an LV-2 intermediate-range ballistic missile target for a test of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system conducted by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

Lockheed Martin launched the unarmed missile target from a ground platform at the Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein Atoll, in the Marshall Islands. Preliminary analysis shows that the target met requirements for the test.

To support testing of the missile defense system, Lockheed Martin configured the 45-foot-long target to closely mirror the capabilities of ground-launched enemy missiles that can travel 3,000 to 5,500 kilometers (1,800 to 3,400 miles).

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eMRBM

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Hera

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The view from an SM-3 seeker, just prior to impact:triniti:.
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Aegis Readiness Assessment Vehicle C (ARAV-C)

As seen during FTM-21 Stellar Ninja (ARAV C++)

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MDA Target and Countermeasures:

The Targets and Countermeasures (TC) program develops quality, threat representative, and cost effective target solutions that enable the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) to test system performance and demonstrate its effectiveness in threat relevant environments.

Overview
  • TC oversees the design, development, manufacture, integration, and delivery of threat-representative, reliable, and cost-effective ballistic missile targets and countermeasures for the BMDS.
  • Target quality, reliability, and affordability have continued to be fundamental initiatives as the complexity and pace of threat development and missile defense testing increases.
  • Since 2000, TC has delivered 162 targets in support of BMDS testing with a 100% success rate since 2010, 36 of 36 successful targets.
Details
Target systems include launch vehicles, payloads (including surrogate re-entry vehicles and countermeasures), launch support equipment, extensive instrumentation, and flight control stations.

  • Short-Range Ballistic Missile (SRBM) (up to 1000km): The SRBM Target class is made up of Aegis Readiness Assessment Vehicle (ARAV) -A, -B, and -C, Foreign Material Asset (FMA) -1 and -2, and the Short Range Air-Launched Target (SRALT). Other variances of ARAV targets are also being developed and used such as ARAV-TTO-B.
  • Medium-Range Ballistic Missiles (MRBM) (1000-3000km): The MRBM Type 1 and Type 2 targets are of the same design where the Type 1 provides a simple 1000-2000 km target. Type 2 provides a 2000-3000 km range target and the ability to create a more complex scene for BMDS testing. The Type 3 is a specialty target in this range class and is designed to replicate a specific threat. In addition to MRBM Type 1-3, the Agency has older MRBM targets within their portfolio including the Extended MRBM (eMRBM) and the Extended Long Range Air-Launched Target (eLRALT). TC is utilizing greater capability ARAVs, such as the ARAV-TTO-E to meet some of the Medium Range requirements at a lower cost.
  • Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM) and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) Intermediate (3000-4500km) and Intercontinental (>4500km): There are two types of IRBMs; one is a two-stage, ground or air launched and the other is the Launch Vehicle – 2 (LV-2), a two-stage, ground launched target, which is completing its final planned mission in 3QFY14. The ICBM is a ground-launched three-stage target with the first launch scheduled for FY16.
  • Common Components: Develops common, cost-effective family of Modified Ballistic Re-Entry Vehicles (MBRV), and countermeasures (CM) solutions with systematic rigor leading to delivery of timely, quality products in support of the TC family of Launch Vehicles for BMDS Testing. MBRVs include MBRV-1, MBRV-2, MBRV-5, MBRV-7, and MBRV-8.
@Nihonjin1051 - Proof of Japan's anti-ballistic missile capabilities:partay:? We go about our business quietly, so who really knows8-).
 
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Nuclear Artillery Guns of the US Army

M65 Atomic Cannon

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The "Atomic Cannon", the Army's largest artillery gun, was capable of firing both conventional and atomic warheads. This 47 ton gun (aka "Atomic Annie") was transported by two tractors. The drivers of the vehicles communicated with each other by means of a built-in telephone system. It proved to be a highly mobile weapons system and adaptable to most road conditions. It fired a 550 pound projectile and had an approximate range of 20 miles. Six years after the development of strategic atomic weapons, this road-transportable cannon gave a tactical atomic capability to US land forces.

Based on the design of the 280mm (about 11") German K5 Railroad Gun, the M65 was transported between detachable front and rear transport tractors. The Japanese had made a strong impression when they employed 280mm howitzers against Port-Arthur during their war against Russia in 1904-5. The French and the Russians collaborated afterwards to develop a similar weapon.

Picatinny Arsenal received the mission to develop an artillery shell able to carry nuclear payload in 1949. Basically, this meant scaling a 240mm shell, the Army largest field artillery shell in World War II, up to 280mm. The project's entire design team was Robert Schwartz, who completed his preliminary sketches during a period of 15 days spent alone in a locked room at the Pentagon. He sharpened the details in another locked room at Picatinny. The Chief of Staff of the Army at the time, General J. Lawton Collins, thought enough of Schwartz's effort to cite him in his memoirs over a quarter of a century later.

The next problem was to sell the product to the Pentagon. This would not have happened if Samuel Feltman, chief of the Ballistics Section of the Ordnance Department's Research and Development Division, had not pushed the project to approval. This goes along way to explain why Picatinny has a research building named after Feltman. Then, Schwartz had to rush to procure equipment and assemble a staff to carry out the three-year development effort.

Dwight David Eisenhower took the oath of office on Tuesday, January 20, 1953. It was the most elaborate inaugural pageant ever held. About 22,000 service men and women and 5,000 civilians were in the parade, which included 50 state and organization floats costing $100,000. There were also 65 musical units, 350 horses, 3 elephants, an Alaskan dog team, and the 280-millimeter atomic cannon.

A single test shot was fired seven miles at the Nevada Test site at 8:30am, local time, on May 25, 1953. A 15-kiloton test fired from a 280-mm cannon at the Nevada Proving Grounds. Conducted at Frenchman's Flat, Nevada, the Atomic Cannon test was history's first atomic artillery shell fired from the Army's new 280-mm artillery gun. Operation Upshot-Knothole consisted of 11 atmospheric detonations, took place at the Nevada Test Site in 1953. There were three airdrops, seven tower shots and one warhead fired from an atomic cannon. An experiment in this testing was to determine the effects of a nuclear explosion on a B-50 aircraft. About 21,000 military personnel participated in Upshot-Knothole as part of the Desert Rock V exercise.

Views differ on Ike's nuclear threats in early 1953- for example, Maurice Matloff, in American Military History, who saw a general threat being offered to Moscow and Pyongyang, North Korea; Burton I. Kaufman, in The Korean War: Challenges in Crisis, Credibility, and Command, who saw no direct threat being made to China; and Timothy J. Botti, in Ace in the Hole: Why the United States Did Not Use Nuclear Weapons in the Cold War, 1945 to 1965, who saw increased Chinese flexibility at Panmunjom, North Korea, as being "probably influenced by rumors that the administration had let circulate around the Far East that the U.S. was stationing more atomic bombers in Okinawa." Others saw the stately and visible progress of an atomic cannon across the Pacific as a crucial influence.

The first atomic cannon went into service in 1952, and was deactivated in 1963. Throughout the 1950s, the Army deployed nuclear cannons to Europe even though they were obsolete as soon as they arrived. Guarded by infantry platoons, these guns were hauled around the forests on trucks to keep the Soviets from guessing their location. Weighing 83 tons, the cannon could not be airlifted and took two tractors to move its road-bound bulk. It was a glamorous weapon to be sure, but it did not fit into the Pentomic structure of the Army, and it siphoned off precious funding that the Army desperately needed for modernization.

Twenty were manufactured; eight appear to have survived the Cold War and are on public display today.



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M388 - Davy Crockett



On 17 July 1962, a caravan of scientists, military men, and dignitaries crossed the remote desert of southern Nevada to witness an historic event. Among the crowd were VIPs such as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and presidential adviser General Maxwell D. Taylor who had come to observe the "Little Feller I" test shot, the final phase of Operation Sunbeam. The main attraction was a secret device which was bolted to the roof of an armored personnel carrier, a contraption called the The Davy Crockett Weapon System.

Named after the famous American folk hero, this defense apparatus was based on the tried-and-true recoilless rifle, a launcher similar to the shoulder-fired tubes used in the Second World War. Such weapons were designed to counteract much of their recoil by routing some expanding gas out the rear end, thereby producing forward thrust at the same moment that the projectile pushes the gun backwards. But the Davy Crockett Weapon System did improve on the concept in one important way: it paired this dead-simple launch device with a tiny fission bomb, making it the most convenient nuclear bomb delivery system ever developed.

As the threat of Soviet invasion loomed over Europe, US Army officials decided they needed a tool for halting-- or at least delaying-- the endless columns of troops and tanks which might one day pour out of East Germany and the USSR. The task fell to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, where nuclear scientists succeeded in shoehorning an atomic bomb into a portable package. This "W54" warhead was then mated with a reliable delivery system, and the resulting weapons were handed over to the Atomic Battle Group for policing the border between East and West Germany.

The Davy Crockett shell weighed about seventy-six pounds, and it vaguely resembled a watermelon with fins. At thirty-one inches long and eleven inches in diameter, the projectile was too large to fit inside the gun, so it perched on the top while an attached rod was inserted into the barrel. The shell could be fired from a four-inch-wide recoilless rifle which could lob the bomb a little over a mile, or a larger six-inch-wide version which could heave it up to two and a half miles. The launchers were mounted to jeeps and personnel carriers, and each was operated by a three-man atomic squad. The Davy Crockett was also designed to detach from its vehicle, allowing the teams to relocate on foot and dispatch their miniature mutually-assured-destruction from a handy tripod mount.

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The Atomic Battle Group was charged with the protection of Europe between 1961 and 1971, and during those ten years 2,100 of the Davy Crockett Weapons Systems were deployed. In the event of a Soviet invasion, these elite squads were trained to deploy themselves in the path of the advancing formations. Once in position, a flurry of mathematics would provide the trajectory and flight time to the targets, and these data would be used to configure the launchers for maximum carnage. A test shot with the integrated 37mm spotting gun would verify the operators' angle and timing calculations. The three men would then unpack a shell from its carrying case, set the timer knob to detonate the warhead roughly twenty feet above the target, and dial in their preferred yield of ten or twenty tons.

Upon receiving the order to fire, Davy Crockett would leap from its perch with a bang and a cloud of smoke, racing through sky in a long arc to intercept the advancing enemy. The rudimentary atomic bomb did not include an abort feature, so Davy Crockett was committed to destruction once it was en route. Even with the help of the spotter gun and rifled barrel, both of the Davy Crockett launcher designs were somewhat sloppy in their accuracy, so the detonation was likely to be several hundred feet from the target. Moreover, the shells' relatively small yield didn't produce a great deal of blast damage even at the highest setting. But the weapon's tendency to spew radiation over the battlefield made up for its shortcomings as an explosive.

Less than a minute after launch, the detonation timer would tick off its final second over the target area. Few specifics are available about the weapon's internals, but it is likely that it contained a thirty pound hollowed-out wad of plutonium wrapped in beryllium and shape charges. Upon detonation, the shape charges would use a precision shock wave to crush the cavity in the center of the plutonium and press the nuclear material into a small area. Radioactive nuclei tend to eject neutrons, and once the material is crowded into a tiny space these flying neutrons start to hit and split the nuclei of neighboring plutonium atoms. As each atom splits, an abrupt spray of energy is released as well as more neutrons which can go on to split even more nuclei.

The beryllium wrapper increases efficiency by reflecting neutrons back into the mass, ensuring that they rattle around inside and split as many nuclei as possible. This increasing chain-reaction state is known as "prompt critical," and within a heartbeat the concentrated energy reaches explosive proportions.

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Any person within a quarter-mile radius of the Davy Crockett explosion would face almost certain death. Those within the first 500 feet would be exposed to enough radiation to kill within minutes or hours, even with the protection of tank armor. People at about 1,000 feet from the blast would experience temporary fatigue and nausea which would then pass, but this misleading "walking ghost" condition leads to a painful death after a few days of apparent well-being. Those beyond a quarter-mile would have better chances of survival, though many would require extensive medical care, and perhaps never fully recover from their injuries. Those lucky enough to be more than one-third of a mile from ground zero would be spared most of the harmful effects, but the mutations in their DNA would give them an increased risk of cancer later in life.

The Davy Crockett's timer allowed a minimum shot distance of about 1,000 feet, but such inept use of the weapon would certainly result in the deaths of the firing team. In most cases, the approaching Soviets would be at least one mile away, leaving the Atomic Battle Group personnel outside of the hazard zone. Even if the launcher's lack of accuracy resulted in relatively few enemy casualties, the radioactivity from the hail of fission bombs would render a large swath of earth uninhabitable for about 48 hours, allowing time for American and NATO forces to mobilize.

Variations of the W54 warhead found a few other niches during the Cold War, including the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM) which could be simply dropped off at a target and set to explode with a timer. A more powerful 250 ton variant was also used on the AIM-26 Falcon, a guided air-to-air missile. Fortunately these ultra-portable casualty dispensers were never used outside of the Nevada desert.

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In addition to being the smallest nuclear device ever developed by the United States, the Davy Crockett also has the distinction of being the last atomic device tested by the US in the open atmosphere. The 1962 test shot at the Nevada Proving Grounds confirmed the effectiveness of the design, and the device's tiny form factor made it a real crowd-pleaser-- or a crowd killer, depending on one's point of view. With the destructive power of twenty tons of TNT squeezed into a watermelon-sized package, it's hard to outperform the Davy Crockett in terms of convenient annihilation per cubic inch (CACI). Though its use could have triggered a chain reaction that would have ultimately led to the destruction of humanity, it's hard not to have a strange kind of fondness for the little feller.
 
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Northrop Grumman and Aerovironment are developing a new naval drone for DARPA
Northrop Grumman and Aerovironment are developing a new naval drone for DARPA | Defense Update:
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Under Phase 2 of the Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) research and development program DARPA is funding risk reduction studies of a ship-launched unmanned aircraft that will enable the US Navy to deploy persistent ISR and strike capabilities almost anywhere in the world.

DARPA is expecting to complete risk reduction studies in September, and select one of two competing designs for medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial systems (MALE UAS), that will be capable to operate from small and medium naval vessels. As part of Phase 2 of the Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) research and development program the agency is funding risk reduction studies performed by Northrop Grumman Corp. and Aerovironment Inc., based on preliminary designs proposed by the two companies in the earlier Phase I. The program is jointly managed between DARPA and the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR).

“To offer the equivalent of land-based UAS capabilities from small-deck ships, our Phase 2 performers are each designing a new unmanned air system intended to enable two previously unavailable capabilities: one, the ability for a UAS to take off and land from very confined spaces in elevated sea states and two, the ability for such a UAS to transition to efficient long-duration cruise missions,” said Dan Patt, DARPA TERN program manager. “Tern’s goal is to develop breakthrough technologies that the Navy could realistically integrate into the future fleet and make it much easier, quicker and less expensive for the Defense Department to deploy persistent ISR and strike capabilities almost anywhere in the world.”

The Tern program envisions using smaller ships of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) or DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers as mobile launch and recovery sites for medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial systems (UAS), to provide long-range ISR and other capabilities from the decks of forward-deployed small ships. By 2017 DARPA aims to conduct full-scale, at-sea demonstration of the selected TERN prototype UAS from a vessel with the same deck size as an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.
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DARPA Aiming for More Agility on Future Tech

DARPA Aiming for More Agility on Future Tech

WASHINGTON — Biotechnology, undersea systems and big data are among the areas that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has identified as key to moving America's technology forward, according to a new report released today.

The agency's bi-annual "Breakthrough Technologies for National Security" report acts as an analysis of recent DARPA work and a guide for what areas the agency expects to invest in over the coming years.

Timed to coincide with today's testimony on the Hill by DARPA director Arati Prabhakar, the report concludes that while the US remains a leader in many technological areas, other nations continue to close that gap. Not helping that situation is the simple truth that the US has been forced to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last decade.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Prabhakar pointed to things like the Defense Innovation Initiative, more commonly known as the "third offset," as a result of the Pentagon working to quickly take stock in a changed world.

"All of those are signs of a Defense Department that is taking a fresh look at the world, realizing we need to take that fresh look again after this intense period of a very particular focus on two ground wars," she said. "I think that's a very healthy and encouraging sign."

For DARPA, that new look is manifesting itself in some internal inspection on how to speed up processes to keep pace with rapid innovation around the globe, inside and outside the defense sector, said Steven Walker, deputy director for the agency.

"The pace at which we can develop and field new military systems is really important for who wins the next war," Walker said. "We're focused here at DARPA on rethinking how we develop new military systems. Some of our systems today are extremely capable, the most capable in the world, but they are very complex, they're costly and they take a long time to develop and field. So at DARPA we're spending a lot of time rethinking how we might develop these systems."

Overall, there are eight general topics that DARPA is attempting to rethink: dominance in the electromagnetic spectrum, improving weapons that can operate in a GPS-denied environment, maintaining air superiority in contested environments, continuing development on hypersonics, cheaper launch solutions for space assets, maritime agility, new ground vehicles and counter-terrorism technologies.

While DARPA is putting pressure on itself to help make the Pentagon more responsive, Prabhakar expressed confidence the US could remain in front of near-peer nations if it continues to invest in new technology development.

"I really like our chances," Prabhakar said. "US technological capability is still phenomenal. It's just that we're not alone anymore. We're not the only ones that have this huge capability."

One longer-term concept is investing in biological technology.

"It's been a vision in the scientific community, for a number of year, that as we learn to genetically engineer microorganisms [we] can boost their metabolisms for things that they already know how to do," Prabhakar said. "We can change the chemistries of the material that they produce."

In military terms, that could lead to the development of new materials with characteristics beyond what current materials can provide. Prabhakar envisions a material able to stave off the natural corrosion the Navy suffers from when it puts boats in the water, or another material with a high energy density for help with propulsion. And, she added, there would be major benefits for healthcare.

While promising, Prabhakar warned that it is still "very slow and costly" to change even a single microorganism slightly.

In the realm of slightly more conventional weaponry is DARPA's Upwards Falling Payloads program, which is essentially an undersea fixed launch position which could potentially be used to send payloads towards the surface at a moment's notice.

"Today the US Navy puts capability on the ocean floor using very capable, but fairly expensive submarine platforms," Walker explained. "We'd like to do with this program is pre-position capability on the ocean floor and have it be available to be triggered real time when needed."

The program, which begins underwater testing this year, has a number of challenges, including the very fundamental one of how to protect the payloads resting on the ocean floor for more than a year at a time. Because of the logistical challenges, Walker said, the payoff for the program could be extreme.

"If we're successful in this program, we're going to show what's possible here, but we'll also be showing what's possible in terms of a distributed architecture across the ocean," he said. Those lessons would then be rolled into other potential dispersed naval architectures.

And in some ways, DARPA is struggling to get its head around the same issues that plague the rest of the Pentagon: cyber security and "big data."

The report notes that by 2020, estimates are there will be nearly ten times the current volume of data. Because of that, Prabhakar said, her agency is trying to tackle the issue of data head on. Some of those efforts have already borne fruit, with search tools that allow the user to probe the "deep web" which is not tracked by commercial search engines like Google.

That capability is currently being used to track the web activity of the Islamic State group, better known as ISIS, she noted.
 
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USAF starts researching helmet-mounted cueing for F-22
USAF starts researching helmet-mounted cueing for F-22 - 3/25/2015 - Flight Global

The US Air Force has moved a step closer to equipping the Lockheed Martin F-22 cockpit with a helmet-mounted cueing system.

A market research study launched on 23 March by the Air Force Lifecycle Management Command begins a potentially multi-year acquisition effort to equip an air force fleet consisting of about 180 F-22s, including about 150 combat-coded aircraft.

The “sources sought notice” will decide whether existing or emerging products can address a broad range of capability requirements listed by the air force.

The requirements include using the helmet to cue sensors and weapons. The helmet should integrate symbology and colour imagery with enhanced night vision systems. The new system also “must not hinder pilot performance during all phases and durations of flights”, the air force notice says.

The air force also wants a helmet that overlays display imagery over an external field of view generated by a camera.

The solicitation comes nearly two years after the air force’s operational testers began evaluating the Visionix Scorpion helmet-mounted cueing system on the F-22.

Integrating the helmet-mounted cueing system will allow the F-22 to exploit the high off-boresight capability of the Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The air force plans to integrate the datalinked AIM-9X Block II missile in 2017 under the increment 3.2 upgrade programme.
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US Army establishes first manned-unmanned unit
US Army establishes first manned-unmanned unit - 3/24/2015 - Flight Global

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The US Army has established its first manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) squadron, combining Boeing AH-64D/E Apache helicopters with Textron Systems RQ-7B Shadow unmanned air vehicles in one heavy attack-reconnaissance unit.

The Fort Bliss, Texas-based 1/501st Aviation Battalion of the 1st Armoured Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade on 16 March became the first unit to combine manned and unmanned aircraft, reflagging to become the 3rd Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment.

Although the Apache and Shadow have previously demonstrated MUM-T interoperability, having the two types fall under the same chain of command is the result of “years’ worth of planning”, the army says.

The Shadow is equipped with the new tactical common datalink, which will allow it to be operated alongside Apaches to fulfil the army’s armed aerial scout role previously provided by Bell Helicopter OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters, which are due to enter retirement.

For this role the Apaches will also be teamed with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1C Gray Eagle UAVs, and both UAVs can be operated from the Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS).

"It's an improved capability that supports soldiers on the ground as they execute the various missions that we assign them,” says Lt Col RJ Garcia, commander of the 3-6 unit, says. “Nothing is stove-piped now. We now have the ability to share across multiple levels.

"They've been building this synergy themselves, but for different commanders…. Sometimes that tasking wouldn't support them working together.”

US Army Shadows are typically controlled by soldiers in the UGCS, but Apache pilots can also control the UAVs should it be requested.Ground operators have five levels of control available to them, but an Apache pilot can request a particular level.

Level of interoperability (LOI) one has the Apache indirectly receiving payload data; in LOI two the Apache receives payload data directly from the UAV; LOI three means the Apache pilot can fire a UAV missile; LOI four allows the Apache pilot to take over flight control; and LOI five covers the full spectrum, including launch and recovery.

Final training is currently under way on the new system, and is expected to finish by the end of May 2015.

Lt Col Tory Burgess, product manager for Shadow tactical UAS in the army, adds that the force is “finally getting to the point where we can field two to three [Shadow] systems a month to the entire US Army, including the combat aviation brigades".

The next units to be equipped with the Shadow are the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade “this summer” and the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade by the end of FY2016, Burgess notes.

 
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BattleHawk | Textron Systems
BattleHawk
Weapons & Sensor Systems’ BattleHawkTM is a direct fire aerial precision guided munition system for use by small tactical units to engage non-line-of-sight targets. Among its key advantages is the system’s ability to take on an enemy from an advantageous position without exposing the operator to detection or small arms fire.

BattleHawk is tube launched from a carrying case that fits easily into a soldier’s rucksack. The total system weighs 10 lbs., including the launcher, munition and fire control unit.

BattleHawk features include:

  • 30-minute endurance to enable loitering
  • EO/IR streaming video for target acquisition and tracking
  • 40mm fragmenting grenade warhead for target engagement
  • Flexible carbon fiber wing
  • Low acoustic and visual signature
  • 5 km reach and 2 m accuracy
  • Single-user operation with simple, three-step setup
  • Android-based fire control unit
  • Abort/wave off capability with self destruct
 
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