Smart Helmets Convey Live Information to Soldiers on the Battlefield

With ARC4 , you no longer look down to receive crucial information. Photo © Applied Research Associate

h/t - @osamaelmageid

industry tap - As smartphones have changed the way we communicate, the ARC4 will bring revolution in the manner we see and interact with the world around us.

Applied Research Associates has developed a Google Glass-like augmented reality system designed for the battlefield. ARC4 is attached to a military helmet and permits commanders to send information directly to the soldiers on the battlefield.

With this smart helmet, all the information comes directly to the soldier and is displayed over one of his or her eyes. Now he doesn’t need to look down at his 2D map or chest-worn computer. This high-tech technology will add to the safety of soldiers and will help them perform their jobs with enhanced speed and mission effectiveness.   

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Ingenious Self-Driving Vehicle Saves Lives by Detecting Roadside Bombs

 

Wired - Improvised explosive devices, mines, and other kinds of roadside bombs are a major threat to U.S. troops serving overseas. That may be about to change, and not just because we’re pulling out of Afghanistan.

U.S. defense contractor Oshkosh Defense already keeps soldiers away from harm with the M-ATV, an armored vehicle specially designed to resist blasts from IEDs and mines. Even better, it detects explosives using special ground penetrating radar and a 12-wheeled mineroller which attaches to the front of the M-ATV.

But that’s not quite good enough: Oshkosh wants to move soldiers even further from the danger zone by putting them in another vehicle entirely and making the minesweeping truck drive itself.

Minesweeping is a “very dangerous job where unmanned ground vehicle technology could have a big payoff in saving lives,” says John Beck, head engineer for Oshkosh’s Unmanned Systems group.   Read More

No Humans Required: Army Convoy Drives Itself

Discovery News - The U.S. Army, working with Lockheed Martin, has successfully demonstrated the ability of fully autonomous convoys to operate in urban environments and under difficult conditions. It's all part of the military's ongoing effort to eliminate soldiers from the equation.

The demonstration took place at Fort Hood, and it's part of the Army and Marine Corp's Autonomous Mobility Appliqué System (AMAS) program. The successful test marked the completion of the program's Capabilities Advancement Demonstration (CAD). The AMAS system is aimed at augmenting the safety and security of human drivers in a convoy mission, while the purpose of CAD is to completely eliminate the need for soldiers to occupy and/or drive these vehicles in warzones or other hazardous areas.

During the test, various driverless vehicles — like the Army's M915 truck and a Palletized Loading System (PLS) vehicle — had to navigate hazards and obstacles that a real-world convoy would encounter, such as road intersections, oncoming traffic, stalled and passing vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic circles in both urban and rural test areas.   Read More

Navy’s Next Missile Launcher Spins Like a Revolver Barrel

Wired - The Navy may have a new line of defense against a changing threat environment after the successful missile firing from a new multi-role launcher in development.

In a recent round of tests announced Tuesday, Chemring Countermeasures and Raytheon Missile Systems say they have successfully fired a Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin missile from a prototype multi-role Centurion launcher during testing at the Defence Training Estate on Salisbury Plain in England, where it was able to hit a static target.

“We’re bringing an entirely new dimension to ship self-defense by providing a sea-based, inside-the-horizon platform protection,” said Rick Nelson, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems’ Naval and Area Mission Defense line, in a statement. “Chemring’s Centurion launcher, when coupled with Raytheon’s combat-proven missiles, offers an evolutionary capability to defeat surface threats with this One System-Multiple Missions technology.”   Read More

A tour of the Pacific Aviation Museum

With dozens of iconic historical aircraft, the Pacific Aviation Museum is a must-see for anyone visiting Honolulu. If that flight's not on your travel plans, here's a huge photo tour.

CNET - Spread across two hangers and some open tarmac on Ford Island, in the middle of Pearl Harbor, is the Pacific Aviation Museum. This collection of World War II and newer aircraft is a must-see for any airplane buff headed to Honolulu.

From a Japanese Zero to a B-25, an F-5 to an F-104, there are a ton of cool planes to check out. The best part is you can get right up close to most of the aircraft.

Also, they let me take a bunch of pictures.

The majority of the museum is in two hangers. The first, Hanger 37, houses the ticket office, gift shop, canteen, and a collection of WWII aircraft. Specifically, and not surprising given the location, this area is set up to talk about Pearl Harbor and the subsequent battles in the Pacific, including the Battle of Midway and the Doolittle Raid.

From there, you head across the tarmac, where several planes sit, some awaiting restoration.
Hanger 79 is mostly newer aircraft. Iconic jets like the F-15 and F-14 sit next to a bunch of helicopters. In the back is a working restoration shop, with a few older craft currently undergoing restoration.

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This Full-Size Helicopter Is Actually A Drone The next big thing in drones? Bigger drones.

Mockup of an MQ-8C Fire Scout from the Northrup Grumman 

display a Sea-Air-Space Expo 2013 Kelsey D. Atherton

 

 

PopSci - The new MQ-8C Fire Scout looks so much like a normal helicopter that it took me two days of wandering the 2013 Sea-Air-Space convention floor to even notice it. In fact, the latest evolution of Northrup Grumman's naval drone looks so much like the past of aeronautics that it's easy to miss how it's the future.

The mock-up on display had sensors ideal for surveillance, which is what the Fire Scout's smaller predecessor currently does for the U.S. Navy. But the new, larger Fire Scout will also be able to do everything a helicopter can already do, including carrying medical personnel for emergency airlifts, and it will do some things they can't, like fly longer distances by carrying extra fuel instead of people.

The Fire Scout is yet another look at the future of aviation, in which vehicles are driven not by human occupants but instead by intelligent machines or remote pilots.

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The Most Technologically Advanced Warship Ever Built

When the Navy needs to surprise and overwhelm an inland enemy, it can send in its new Zumwalt-class destroyer. 

The Zumwalt-Class Destroyer Nick Kaloterakis

 

 

PopSci - When the USS Zumwalt rolls out of dry dock at Bath Iron Works in Maine next year, the Navy’s newest warship will be 100 feet longer than the destroyers currently serving around the globe—and nearly twice as massive—yet it will have a radar signature 50 times smaller and will carry half the crew. Packed bow to stern with state-of-the-art radar, stealth, weapons, and propulsion systems, the USS Zumwalt, which will be operational in mid-2016, will be the most technologically sophisticated warship ever to hit the water.

A complement to Arleigh Burke–class destroyers that currently protect the Navy’s prized aircraft carriers from aerial attacks, the Zumwalt-class destroyer is for laying waste to land. It can evade enemy detection; slip into the shallows along foreign coastlines; and deliver devastatingly accurate firepower hundreds of miles inland, supporting special operations ashore, clearing the way for amphibious troop landings, or knocking out air defenses. It’s a seaborne battering ram—a specialized piece of equipment for smashing in the enemy’s front door.

In the 1990s, the U.S. military carried out successful amphibious assaults in Somalia and elsewhere. But as coastal defenses around the world grew more advanced—not least those of Iraq, which would have been a serious threat to U.S. troops had they invaded Kuwait by sea during Operation Desert Storm—the Navy decided to build the Zumwalt.

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Exclusive Pictures: Inside the Navy’s Newest Spy Sub

Discovery News - UNDERWAY ON THE U.S.S. MISSISSIPPI — The Navy’s newest fast-attack submarine is speeding down the Florida coast, on its way to its commissioning ceremony in its namesake state, at 15 knots. And it’s getting outraced by dolphins.

Hours before the U.S.S. Mississippi dives several hundred feet beneath the Atlantic, its sail juts proudly into the warm, whipping southern air. Submariners allow me to see the highest point on the sub for myself — provided I can keep my balance up three steep levels’ worth of ladder and hoist myself out onto a platform the size of a fancy refrigerator. A harness hooked to an iron bolt on the sail keeps me from falling to my death. There’s no land in sight, just blue water turned white around the sub’s wake, a tall BPS-16 military radar spinning in front of us, and a family of dolphins jumping out of the surf in front of the 377-foot boat.

Apparently it’s typical. Where subs travel in the southern Atlantic, dolphins tend to tag along, eager to say hi to their large, silent playmate. “Dolphins like to sing,” notes Petty Officer Joshua Bardelon, a 32-year old from Pascagoula, the site of the Mississippi’s destination, who supervises the boat’s sonar systems.

Those systems are part of why Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is eager to take possession of his newest Virginia-class submarine when it formally joins the fleet on June 2. As much time as it spends listening to dolphin symphonies, the Mississippi is everything from a weapon to destroy other ships to an electronic-attack system to a stealthy transport for Navy commandos.    

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Aviation History: Fighters - Military Channel

Battle of Normandy | Greatest Tank Battles | Military Channel Documentary

Military Channel Documentary - Firepower: Combat Vehicles

Did Chinese Espionage Lead to F-35 Delays?

DefenseTech - Did Chinese cyber spying cause the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s cost spikes and production delays? That’s the question Pentagon budget officials are asking according to Aviation Week.

Chinese spies apparently hacked into secure conference calls and listened to meetings discussing the classified technologies aboard the jets. In particular, China may have stolen info about the F-35’s secure communications and antenna systems; leading to costly software rewrites and other redesigns to compromised parts of the plane.

The worst part, this problem isn’t just limited to the F-35, though the program’s size and the fact that it’s information systems were apparently designed without any concern for cyber espionage made it an easy target.

Anyone who has been following U.S.-China military relations and cyber warfare knows that China has been hacking into the networks of U.S. defense contractors and the Pentagon and rolling out brand new weapons like the J-20 stealth fighter.            More

Where the US Will Spend Its Weapons Cash

DefenseTech - If you want further proof of where Pentagon weapon spending is likely to head, check out the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assesments latest publication, Outside-In, Operating from Range to Defeat Iran’s Anti-Access and Area-Denial Threats.

The document, a concept for how the Defense Deparment can counter Iran’s increasingly sophisticated efforts to feild weapons that could hold the U.S. and its allies at bay, echoes CSBA’s other concepts adopted by the DoD, such as the Air-Sea Battle and the “family” of long-range strike systems. All of these call for an increased investment in long-range strike and ISR gear.

As I just wrote over at military.com’s homepage:

CSBA’s ideas and recommendations have a way of becoming Pentagon policy. Several years ago, CSBA recommended adopting an air-sea battle concept that focused on building long-range, carrier-launched stealthy UAVs, a family of long-range strike systems, a cyber buildup and a focus on setting up a number of disbursed bare-bones bases in the Pacific where U.S forces could scatter to in the event of a war with a China armed with very sophisticated area denial weapons. Many of these recommendations have found their way into the Pentagon’s new strategy and budgets.

So, what technologies should you watch if you’re using this and other CSBA reports as tea leaves to understand dufture pentagon budgets. Listen to what CSBA’s Mark Gunzinger, the man who authored the think tank’s latest report, said today:

We think the world is becoming increasingly non-permissive for military operations [in all domains]; air, space, sea, undersea and on the ground. If that trend continues, we’re going to have to move toward capabilities can operate in all those domains against those kinds of threats.                 More

8 Incredible Technologies Used by the IDF

The very first of the ten fundamental values of the Israel Defense Forces is the defense of the state, its citizens and its residents. In order to achieve this goal, the IDF utilizes a vast array of modern tools, a few of them so new, it’s hard to believe they exist. Today we invite you to take a look at some of the amazing equipment that assists the soldiers of the IDF at fulfilling their missions. Sit back and find out more about eight incredible technologies used by the IDF.

1. The Iron Dome Rocket Defense System:
The Iron Dome System has been deployed in the south of Israel since early 2011 in order to protect Israel’s population from the rockets fired from Gaza.

First of all, the system is the first of its kind. In terms of speed, accuracy and capability, there was no other system like it in the world prior to its introduction. Every individual battery is fully mobile and includes a radar station, a weapons control unit and the actual missile firing unit itself. As soon as an enemy rocket is fired into Israel, the radar station detects and tracks its trajectory and launches a missile of its own to intercept and neutralize the enemy rocket before it can cause any harm.

 

Iron Dome firing a missile to intercept an enemy rocket. 

Photo by: Dan Balilty/AP 

2. The F-16I ‘Sufa’:
“What’s so special about the F-16?” you ask. “Half of the western world uses it,” you say. Well, this is no ordinary F-16. This is the F-16I ‘Sufa‘. The added ‘I’ stands for Israel, because it has been heavily modified to fit the specific needs of the Israeli Air Force. To make the pilot’s incredible job as easy and effective as possible, the F-16I has been outfitted with cutting-edge weapons system hardware, a specially constructed radar system and a unique helmet system that allows the pilot to launch weapons at an enemy aircraft using sight only.  No wonder we nicknamed it ‘Sufa’. That’s Hebrew for ‘Storm’ by the way.

 

F-16I ‘Sufa’ Awaits Departure at the Hanger 

3. The Trophy System:
The Trophy Active Tank Defense System was developed with one goal in mind. To remove the last Achilles’ heel of armored vehicles and tanks – modern anti-tank guided missiles. How does it work? It’s simple: The Trophy’s detection system creates a 360° protective shield around the tank. When an enemy launches a rocket against a tank outfitted with Trophy, the system instantly detects and neutralizes any threat to the tank by firing a missile of its own which blows up the enemy missile.

 

Trophy creates a 360° protective shield around the tank 

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Found: A Secret Drone Base In Nevada

DefenseTech - Well, as the U.S. withdraws from its UAV base at Shamshi, Pakistan, it looks like a new secret drone base has been discovered. Where? In the most cliched place imaginable, the Department of Energy’s Yucca airstrip located inside the massive Nevade Test Site — you know the federal land reserve that was used for nuclear testing; the one that sits inside the Air Force’s Nevada Test and Training Range which is home to Area 51, Tonopah Test Range Airport (where the RQ-170 Sentinel is based), and Creech Air Force Base.

The image above shows what appears to be an MQ-9 Reaper UAV sitting on the ramp at Yucca right near some very-new looking hangar buildings. According to Flight Global, the DoE’s Yucca airstrip has long been suspected of being a secret CIA facility.              More

Whoosh! U.S. Navy F-35C gets electromagnetic launch

The Navy's F-35C is propelled by its EMALS program in 

a test earlier this month. (Credit: U.S. Navy)

CNET - The U.S. Navy said today it has demonstrated the successful integration of two of its key next-generation sea-based strike programs–the carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter, and the all-new electromagnetic aircraft launch system.

Both the F-35C fighter and the EMALS launch technology are expected to see service eventually aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford, the Navy’s next-generation aircraft carrier, as well as other Ford-class carriers.            More

With test launch, U.S. Navy goes electromagnetic (photos)

Building the world’s most advanced aircraft carrier (photos)

Air Force Has Massive Ordnance Penetrators – 30,000-Pound Bunker Busters

DefenseTech - Rogue states with nascent nuclear weapon programs (cough, Iran, cough), consider yourselves on notice. The Air Force has started taking delivery of Massive Ordnance Penetrators. Yup, the 30,000-pound bunker busters, known as MOPs, designed to penetrate 30 stories of reinforced concrete.

(Oh, and the massive bomb’s name is almost as charged as the term, Pre-Dawn Vertical Insertion, if you get what I’m sayin.)

The service apparently got its first production MOP in September and has been stockpiling them ever since. That’s a decent turnaround since April when the Air Force gave Boeing a $28 million contract to deliver eight MOPs and their associated loading equipment. The service gave Boeing a follow-on $32 million contract for eight more MOPs in August. No word on why that deal cost an extra $4 million when it appears otherwise identical to the April contract.                   More

Flying Humvee Feasible

Discovery News - The world already has a Hummer stretch, but soon it may have a Humvee that flies. Research division of the Department of Defense wants someone to build a four-seat, off-road vehicle that can survive in a war zone.

According to the description of their Transformer TX program, DARPA “seeks to combine the advantages of ground vehicles and helicopters into a single vehicle, maximizing flexibility of movement. The TX concept will provide options to counter traditional and asymmetrical threats while avoiding road obstructions.”

WIDE ANGLE: Flying Cars

According to Aviation Week, military contractors AAI and Lockheed Martin both have feasible designs for such an aircraft and have moved closer to demonstrating a prototype fly-drive vehicle.

The goal of such a vehicle is to fly personnel from a ship to a land-based location. If, while driving on land, the terrain becomes too dangerous or impassable, the vehicle would fly over the obstacles. It could also work in an unmanned capacity to resupply troops.             More

IDF Develops 'Protective Bed', 'Protective Cabinet'

Protective cabinet Homefront Command

Newest civil defense innovations shown to be effective at stopping shell fragments.

The IDF’s Home Front Command has come up with new products to help protect civilians from terror rocket attacks. These include a “protective bed” and a “protective cabinet.”

The Command’s Fortification Department recently completed the testing of the new products, which are expected to be useful against conventional missiles.

The protective bed looks like a regular bed but can be opened and turned into “a kind of protective canopy” in times of emergency, according to the IDF Website. “This solution offers alternative, inexpensive and accessible protection for people who are unable to build a protected space in their apartments,” the website explained.

The same kind of thinking led to the development of a protective cabinet. The cabinet serves as a regular closet for storage of various items within the apartment, but can be emptied of these objects and used for protection when missiles strike.      More

Naval Aircraft - Video: X-47B Flies with Gear Up

DefenseTech - This is turning out to be quite the day for cool pictures of Navy aircraft. The image above shows the Navy’s X-47 unmanned combat aerial vehicle demonstrator flying with its landing gear up for the first time on Sept. 30.

The stealthy drone is being used by the Navy to test out the concepts for flying a fighter-sized UAVs off aircraft carriers — something the sea service plans to do by the end of the decade with its UCLASS drones.

The X-47B has been making test flights at Edwards Air Force Base, Ca., since February. The plane is slated to conduct sea trials off an aircraft carrier in 2013, using this technology.

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