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Posts Tagged ‘U.S. Army’

Raytheon, which built a laser that cooked a UAV in flight last year, is one of several defense firms working on lasers that take a somewhat more passive approach, such as disabling a missile’s guidance system to prevent it from connecting with its target. Raytheon is developing common infrared countermeasures (CIRCM) systems to be installed on Army and Navy helicopters, and large-aircraft infrared countermeasures systems for the Air Force.

The Quiet Eyes Laser Turret Assembly directs a quantum cascade laser to disable missiles, the company said. It is designed to be installed on any type of airplane, and recently passed a test at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in a C-130 Hercules.

The company is also using off-the-shelf, lightweight fiber lasers that can go on any helicopter, which would solve the weight problem that has plagued airborne laser systems. Previous directional infrared countermeasures were deemed too heavy for any helicopter except the CH-47 Chinook, but Raytheon’s new generation is designed to fit helicopters down to the size of the Bell AH-1Z Cobra, according to the company. Raytheon unveiled its technology at the Paris Air Show today.

The CIRCM laser would use low-power lasers to jam missile guidance systems — a few dozen watts, rather than tens of thousands of watts, like the laser weapon system demonstrated last year. The CIRCM energy beam can vary in width, output, modulation and frequency, allowing a wide range of possible uses.

This means the laser could be customized to seek out and cripple an enemy system dependent on electronics — whether it’s a guided missile or an aircraft. Raytheon is even working on outfitting missiles with electronics-disabling capabilities, rather than just explosives, according to Aviation Week.

Other defense firms including ITT, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are also working on CIRCM systems, in response to an Army draft request for proposals.

The Army expects to pick one by late September, and the winning contractor will have 21 months to test and demonstrate its technology. The Navy will adopt the Army’s choice, according to Raytheon.

[Raytheon]

Two Colombian doctoral students studying at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland came up with a remote IED detonation method that can set off bombs from 65 feet away. It uses powerful radio waves to induce electrical currents in the IED’s detonators, setting them off.

Félix Vega and Nicolas Mora had to find a way to induce a strong enough current to set off IEDs whose detonators are sometimes buried deep underground. Then they had to make sure they hit the right radio frequencies — a difficult task given that IEDs, by definition, are all different.

To scan lots of radio frequencies, the researchers used short impulses with a fast response time. But by the time the impulses reached their targets, the currents were not strong enough to detonate the IEDs, the duo’s professor, Farhad Rachidi, said in a statement.

Vega and Mora realized IEDs do have some things in common, however — their detonators operate in fairly similar frequency ranges. The team developed a system that concentrates on that range, and therefore loses less energy.

EPFL researchers tested the system in Colombia last November, using actual improvised explosives provided by a team of professional bomb disposal experts. They were able to set off the IEDs at an average distance of 20 meters, or roughly 65 feet.

The next step is designing a smaller prototype that is weather-resistant and easier to transport, Vega said.

[Eurekalert]

The Cougar20-H, manufactured by California-based TiaLinx, is the latest iteration in a series of sensor systems employing the company’s fine beam ultra-wideband (UWB), multi-gigahertz radio frequency (RF) sensor array (we’ll call it UWB RF). Its earlier Eagle5-N was a tripod-mounted radar that could detect breathing and monitor heartbeat through walls. An army grant then led to the development of the Cougar10-L, which essentially mounted the Eagle5-N on a small, remotely controlled robot.

But the Cougar10-L had to be very close to a given wall to “see” through it, making it less nimble and more obtrusive during stealth operations. So last week the company rolled out the Cougar20-H, boosting the radar’s power so it can sense through walls from a distance.

As Danger Room's David Axe points out, though the Army funded the Cougar20-H’s “enhanced situational awareness,” the robot's minimal mobility limits its military applications.

For search and rescue operations or standoff situations, though, such a robot could be indispensable (for instance, it could locate living but incapacitated persons trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building). It also could find applications in monitoring border traffic, not only scanning vehicles for signs of human trafficking, but also for detecting underground tunnels used by smugglers of both human and material cargoes.

[Danger Room]

Next-generation blast-ready headgear draws inspiration from Nascar and Star Wars alike

Helmets of the future will probably enclose the head for better protection, says Kenneth Curley, the physician coordinating the Army’s neurotrauma research while keeping tabs on other teams. Adding a face shield to combat helmets would cut about 80 percent of the pressure on the front of the brain, according to a software blast model published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology aeronautical engineer Raúl Radovitzky and his colleagues. Don Lee, the project officer of the “HEaDS-UP” Army Technology Objective, is developing shields for the face and other helmet technologies, which should be ready for review by 2013.

Other researchers are working on a customized shoulder-mounted harness to protect the head from whipping forward or twisting sideways. An Army analysis concluded that a Nascar-style head-and-neck - system would restrict solders’ vision too much, so Shawn Walsh of the Army Research Lab is designing one that won’t inhibit movement or vision. A fully functional demonstration harness should be ready this winter.

Because many soldiers choose comfort over safety, Walsh will pay special attention to solders’ complaints during testing. “Have you ever put on one of those costume Stormtrooper helmets?” Curley asks. “They’re not very comfortable, and you can’t see well or move your head around. We’ve got to strike a balance between practicality and the proper protection.”

Possible Features

Head-Up Display
An updated version of the Land Warrior system already in use would show maps, locations of fellow soldiers and enemies, computer-aided weapons sighting and alerts from commanding officers.

Communication
Earbuds would automatically reduce sounds louder than 85 decibels to safe levels. A microphone would relay outgoing radio transmissions.

Face Shield and Integrated Mandible Protection
These guards deflect energy from a blast wave away from the eyes, nose and mouth.

Shoulder-Mounted Exoskeleton
The harness could support the added weight from the mask and prevent the head from snapping forward or side to side. The Army is also investigating a retractable option that would give full maneuverability when the harness isn’t needed.

Even the Army seems scared of this one

The hauler is named the Carry-all Mechanized Equipment Landrover--yeah, that spells out CaMEL. It's a 60-inch-tall treaded vehicle capable of carrying an impressive 1,200 pounds of stuff, and its usefulness in the field is proven by its popularity. Israel has bought more than 60 of them, and the U.S. Army is looking into its possibilities as well.

But Northrop, with no particular urging from the market, has decided that the CaMEL would be much cooler with a massive .50 caliber M2 machine gun mounted on top. It's controlled remotely by a touchscreen, just like its slightly-less-violent hauling brother, and actually uses a hybrid engine ("Just like a Toyota Prius," says the Northrop rep).

Shown off at an Army conference, the gun-toting CaMEL wasn't built to spec for any organization--in fact, the U.S. Army seems downright scared of using armed robots. Back in October of 2009, the Army pulled the armed-robot SWORDS program after one of the robots behaved in an unsafe manner. Nobody was hurt, but it's made the Army very skittish about getting in bed with these kinds of machines. Northrop mostly built the armed CaMEL to attract visitors to their booth, and probably for fun as well. But it might have the result of gently encouraging the Army to take a second look at armed 'bots--hopefully they're more reliable than certain lying robots.

[Wired]

Lockheed Martin has a solution: a fiber laser that basically works like a backward prism.

Lockheed is among three firms recently awarded contracts to develop a laser for the military’s Robust Electric Laser Initiative, which seeks to improve the power of electric lasers. Fiber lasers are efficient and compact, but until now they have been weaker than other types, like chemical lasers. The RELI program seeks to improve laser strength while reducing power and cooling, so systems can be small enough to install on ships or airplanes.

A Lockheed subsidiary developed a first-of-its-kind high-powered fiber laser capable of producing 100 kilowatts or more, according to Lockheed. It uses fiber optics to produce near-perfect beams. The method also confines the laser light to the fiber’s glass structure without using mirrors or other optics.

John Wojnar, director of business development for the laser systems business, said in a September issue of Aviation Week that it works like a inverse prism: lasers with slightly different wavelengths enter a combiner, and the result is a single, focused beam. It’s called Spectral Beam Combining.

Lockheed won an initial $14 million contract from the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to develop the system. Along with General Atomics and Raytheon, the firm must demonstrate a 25 kW system that can be scaled up to 100 kW within five years.

General Atomics will improve its Hellads distributed-gain laser approach to improve efficiency, while Raytheon will pursue a planar waveguide laser, according to Aviation Week.

Northrop Grumman is also expected to obtain a RELI contract.

A new DARPA-funded electro-optical system will calculate the ballistics for him, telling him where to aim and ensuring a perfect shot, no matter the weather conditions.

Lockheed Martin won a $6.9 million contract this week for the second phase of DARPA’s One-Shot system, which will provide direct observations of a target, measure every variable that influences a bullet’s flight, and calculate the aim offset in a sniper’s rifle scope.

During the project’s first phase, which started in 2007, Lockheed developed a down-range system that measured average crosswind; range to target; spotter scope position; air temperature, pressure, and humidity; and more, according to Military Aerospace. Using all those variables, it calculated the ballistics for a .308 bullet at ranges as far as 3,600 feet.

While that’s impressive, the system was too heavy and unwieldy, and it couldn’t be used with standard rifle scopes. The phase two design will be more compact and able to operate in real time and over longer distances.

It will measure atmospheric conditions, account for the weapon’s maximum effective range and include GPS coordinates. It’s also supposed to communicate with the rifle scope, informing the gun itself of the aim point offset and expected crosswind.

Lockheed is supposed to deliver 15 field-testable prototypes by next October.

[Military Aerospace]