Militærteknologi

[QIQrrr]

Johns Hopkins University, February 6, 2012: To improve the next generation of bug-size flying machines, a Johns Hopkins engineering team has been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of the prettiest insects on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, the researchers hope to help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers. U.S. defense agencies, which have funded this research, are supporting the development of bug-size flyers to carry out reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and environmental-monitoring missions without risking human lives. These devices are commonly called micro-aerial vehicles or MAVs - Flight Plan: Butterfly’s aerial antics could help builders of bug-size flying robots

[QIQrrr]

Missile Defense Agency, February 10, 2012: The Israel Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency completed a successful test of the cooperative U.S.-Israel Arrow Weapon System (AWS) over the Mediterranean Sea today. [...] This was a major milestone in the development of the Arrow Weapon System and provides confidence in operational Israeli capabilities to defeat the developing ballistic missile threat - U.S. - Israel Arrow Weapon System Completes Successful Flight Test

[QIQrrr]

General Electric, February 13, 2012: Taking heat detection to a new level of sensitivity and speed, a team of scientists at GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced new bio-inspired nanostructured systems that could outperform thermal imaging devices available today. This discovery adds to a growing list of new capabilities that GE researchers have developed through their studies of Morpho butterfly wings - New Butterfly-inspired Design From GE To Enable More Advanced, Low Cost Thermal Imaging Devices

[QIQrrr]

Arizona State University, February 13, 2012: Arizona State University researchers are finding ways to improve infrared photodetector technology that is critical to national defense and security systems, as well as used increasingly in medical diagnostics, commercial applications and consumer products. A significant advance is reported in a recent article in the journal Applied Physics Letters. It details discovery of how infrared photodetection can be done more effectively by using certain materials arranged in specific patterns in atomic-scale structures - New nano-material combinations produce leap in infrared technology

[QIQrrr]

BAE Systems, February 21, 2012: The Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) recently achieved a first shot success from a fixed-wing aircraft, BAE Systems announced today. The semi-active laser guided version of the U.S. military’s Hydra rocket successfully hit within inches of the center of its laser spot target after it was fired off a Hawker Beechcraft AT-6C from a range of three miles. This successful test, which BAE Systems accomplished in record time, highlights the potential of APKWS as a low-cost weapon system for reconnaissance and attack aircraft throughout the world - Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System Scores Successful First Time Demo on Fixed-Wing Aircraft in Record Time

[QIQrrr]

Office of Naval Research, February 28, 2012: Engineers have fired the Navy’s first industry-built electromagnetic railgun (EM Railgun) prototype launcher at a test facility, commencing an evaluation that is an important intermediate step toward a future tactical weapon for ships, officials announced Feb. 28. The firing at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) kicks off a two- month-long test series by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to evaluate the first of two industry-built launchers. The tests will bring the Navy closer to a new naval gun system capable of extended ranges against surface, air and ground targets - With a Bang, Navy Begins Tests on EM Railgun Prototype Launcher

[QIQrrr]

Vienna University of Technology, February 27, 2012: People like to keep a safe distance from explosive substances, but in order to analyze them, close contact is usually inevitable. At the Vienna University of Technology, a new method has now been developed to detect chemicals inside a container over a distance of more than a hundred meters. Laser light is scattered in a very specific way by different substances. Using this light, the contents of a nontransparent container can be analyzed without opening it. “The method we are using is Raman-spectroscopy”, says Professor Bernhard Lendl (TU Vienna). The sample is irradiated with a laser beam. When the light is scattered by the molecules of the sample, it can change its energy. For example, the photons can transfer energy to the molecules by exciting molecular vibrations. This changes the wavelength of the light – and thus its colour. Analyzing the colour spectrum of the scattered light, scientists can determine by what kind of molecules it must have been scattered - Finding Explosives with Laser Beams

[QIQrrr]

DARPA, March 5, 2012: The use of ground robots in military explosive-ordinance-disposal missions already saves many lives and prevents thousands of other casualties. If the current limitations on mobility and manipulation capabilities of robots can be overcome, robots could much more effectively assist warfighters across a greater range of missions. DARPA’s Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program seeks to create and demonstrate significant scientific and engineering advances in robot mobility and manipulation capabilities. The M3 program pursues four parallel tracks of research and development: tool design, improvement of production methods and processes, improvement in control of robot mobility and manipulation, and prototype demonstration. This video shows a demonstration of the “Cheetah” robot galloping at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour (mph), setting a new land speed record for legged robots. The previous record was 13.1 mph, set in 1989 - DARPA’s “Cheetah” Sets Land Speed Record for Legged Robots

[QIQrrr]

The Local, April 30, 2012: The Berlin police force is preparing to break in its new high-tech water-cannon monster-truck for the annual May Day protests in the German capital, with demonstrations and clashes expected to begin on Monday night. [...] The four-metre-high colossus is armed with three cannon on the front and sides, which shoot water to a distance of 60 metres. Anyone who gets in the way can expect serious bruises and even broken ribs. It also has other settings, including the "water-wall", designed to simply soak people who get too near, without injuring them - High-tech water cannon ready for Berlin May Day

[QIQrrr]

Northrop Grumman, May 1, 2012: Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has test fired the first product in its next-generation FIRESTRIKE™ family of high-energy, solid-state lasers that meet goals for size and weight reduction and ruggedization for operational applications. The tests, conducted in the company's Redondo Beach laboratory, demonstrated that the laser could burn through the skin and critical components of a target drone used to simulate anti-ship cruise missile threats to U.S. Navy ships. The laser, called Gamma, uses a "slab" architecture similar to previous Northrop Grumman high-power lasers. It operated at 13.3 kilowatts for a number of shots over a total of 1.5 hours with stable performance and a beam quality that exceeded design goals, completing the initial phase of trials - Northrop Grumman Demonstrates Compact, Rugged Solid-State Laser for Military Applications Against Anti-Ship Cruise Missile Components

[QIQrrr]

Nanowerk, May 18, 2012: To prevent terrorist attacks at airports, it would be helpful to detect extremely low concentrations of explosives easily and reliably. Despite the development of various sensor technologies, dogs continue to be the most efficient detectors. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a German and French team has now described a type of micromechanical sensor with a structure derived from the sense organs of butterflies. [...] The sensor was able to detect concentrations of less than one part per trillion (ppt) within 3 minutes. The researchers are now working on building a selective detector system for explosives or other gases based on this method - Synthetic scent hounds - Nanostructured sensor for the detection of very low concentrations of explosive

[QIQrrr]

Army.mil, June 21, 2012: Scientists and engineers at Picatinny Arsenal are busy developing a device that will shoot lightning bolts down laser beams to destroy its target. Soldiers and science fiction fans, you're welcome. "We never got tired of the lightning bolts zapping our simulated (targets)," said George Fischer, lead scientist on the project. The Laser-Induced Plasma Channel, or LIPC, is designed to take out targets that conduct electricity better than the air or ground that surrounds them - Picatinny engineers set phasers to 'fry'

[QIQrrr]

Raytheon, July 9, 2012: The Royal Norwegian Air Force successfully fired a Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile from a Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air-Missile System (NASAMS). During the first-of-its-kind test at the Andoya Rocket Range in Northern Norway, the ESSM intercepted and destroyed an air target. "Completion of this live-fire exercise is a major step forward in our efforts to qualify ESSM as a ground-based air defense solution," said Rick Nelson, Raytheon Missile Systems' vice president of Naval Weapon Systems - Norway fires first ground-based Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile from NASAMS launcher

[QIQrrr]

Flightglobal, July 27, 2012: Lockheed Martin has revealed a new concept aircraft it calls the Sea Ghost that it will propose for the US Navy's forthcoming unmanned carrier launched surveillance and strike (UCLASS) aircraft. The company says the design "leverages its experience with the RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aircraft system (UAS), the Joint Strike Fighter F-35C and other Navy program technologies." Lockheed adds that those previous experiences allow the company to provide the USN "with a versatile and supportable carrier-based unmanned aircraft solution with capability growth margins to meet future threat scenario requirements." The key features of the Sea Ghost are that it will be a carrier-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and precision strike aircraft - Lockheed reveals Sea Ghost concept for USN UCLASS programme

[QIQrrr]

Phys.Org, August 3, 2012: A surveillance device that uses WiFi radio waves has been devised to see through walls to detect, in military and surveillance parlance, moving personnel targets. The device serves as a radar prototype designed by two UK scientists at the University College London (UCL). The scientists devised the radar prototype as a way to track Wi-Fi signals in order to spy through walls. Their device identifies frequency changes to detect the moving objects. An important feature of their work is that since the device itself does not emit radio waves, it cannot be detected; it operates in stealth. [...] The UCL team hopes to raise system sensitivity so that their system can pick up and detect not only people who are moving but also people who are standing or sitting still. The device, he said, may be made to be sensitive enough to pick up on subtle motions that the ribcage makes in breathing in and out - See-through-wall surveillance with WiFi shown at UCL