$2.17B to Johns Hopkins APL for 11.3M Staff Hours on the Cutting Edge

JHU/APL photo

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) in Laurel, MD received a $2.17 billion modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-03-D-6606). The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, DC is exercising an option for approximately 11.3 million staff hours of research and development, test and evaluation and specialized engineering support. Work will be performed in Laurel, MD and is expected to be complete by September 2012.

As a Navy University Affiliated Research Center, these capabilities have been established and maintained at the Applied Physics Laboratory since the 1940s, when the proximity-fused shell was developed for fleet defense. More recent examples of their involvement include the AEGIS system's multiple successful intercepts of ballistic missile targets using SM-3 missiles, successful OPEVAL and transition to industry of the APL-conceived Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), the Littoral Warfare Advanced Development project, artificial arm research, engineering issues around underwater launches from SSGN stealth strike submarines, the Precision Engagement Transformation Center, space-based laser communications, the Global Information Grid (GIG), and more.

USAF Detachment 8 Continues US Research Into EMP-Microwave Weapons

HPM E-Bomb concept
(click to view full)

Detachment 8 Air Force Research Laboratory/PKDP at Kirtland Air Force Base, NM is researching new opportunities in all aspects of high-power electromagnetic weaponry. Their research supports missions such as survivability of U.S. Department of Defense equipment against high-power microwave emissions, the development of high-power microwave (HPM) weapons, and the refinement of high-power microwave-predictive modeling for inclusion into engagement and campaign-level models.

HPM actually encompasses a variety of devices. HERF (High Energy Radio Frequency) and EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) "electronics killer e-bombs" effects are HPM weapons, and this field has received the bulk for research dollars. So too, however, is "Project Sheriff," also known as the "pain ray" that does no significant damage to its human target other than causing pain. Other nations believed to be conducting research in the area of HPM weapons generally include China, Great Britain and France.

The Air Force is awarding a $24 million to be split among these eight companies. DID lists the companies involved in the current contract, and also notes previous contracts along similar lines that extend back to 1994:

Continue reading...

$30.2M In Electricity for US Fermi National Accelerator Lab

TESLA Linear Collider
(click to view larger)

Peoples Energy Services Corp. in Chicago, IL won a maximum $30.2 million firm fixed price contract for electricity for the Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Work will be performed in Chicago and Batavia, IL. The date of performance completion is December 2007. There were 49 proposals solicited by the Defense Energy Support Center in Fort Belvoir, VA, and 5 responded (SP0600-06-D-8003).

FermiLab works with high energy physics, undertaking projects ranging from linear colliders to cancer treatment research to the search for extra dimensions. With the support of the Department of Energy and in collaboration with commercial suppliers, Fermilab has instituted energy conservation projects, including the development and use of superconducting magnets. Recent improvements will save the laboratory several hundred thousand dollars every year.

Pentagon Thinks US Soldiers Need Adult Super-Vision

Seeing the difference
(click to view full)

New firm PixelOptics of Roanoke, VA has announced that it will receive $3.5 million from the Defense Department to develop "SuperVision," a technology that may improve the vision of US soldiers beyond 20/20 via electro-active prescription lenses. The technology uses sensors and electro-active transparent material to alter the index of refraction of the lens dynamically, without any moving parts.

This provides a number of performance advantages, allowing the wearer to instantly achieve optimal vision no matter where they look (far, near, or in-between). In addition, lenses based on this technology show promise for significantly reducing momentary blurring caused by head tilt and movement, as well as distortion associated with conventional state of the art bifocals and progressive addition lenses.

So, how can these glasses provide vision that's better than 20/20?

Continue reading...

Hyperstealth's Fractal Camo Patterns Successfully Tested For Aircraft

KA2 camo F-16 mock-up
(click to view full)

HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp. uses fractal patterns to create better military camouflage designs. Canada changed military camouflage standards by issuing their proprietary "pixelated" CADPAT uniforms as a result of a DND research program. Its improved performance in NATO exercises helped smooth the adoption of the related MARPAT for the US Marines and its ACUPAT derivative for the US Army. See this Hyperstealth page, and this MARPAT-related USMC page, to understand some of the key principles behind these new designs.

Working with Lt. Col. Timothy R. O'Neill, Ph.D. (U.S. Army, Ret.), whose research work formed the basis of both CADPAT and MARPAT, Hyperstealth Biotechnology Corp. has entered the digital camouflage field. In 2003, the firm was commissioned by King Abdullah II to create the advanced digital KA2 camouflage pattern for Jordan's Armed Forces, Police, Customs and Counter-Terrorism battalions. The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has since extended that research into other areas, and the company has been given permission to announce that after two years of R&D, digital camouflage patterns have proven themselves applicable to weapons, vehicles, helicopters, and even jet aircraft. Better still, they claim that these patterns can be applied with little specialized training and no drawbacks over conventional camouflage.

Continue reading...

Drivers NOT Wanted: DARPA's Grand Challenge 2005 Winners!

Keine Fahrvergnugen

The challenge: build a robotic vehicle that can successfully navigate a (132 mile) course across the Mojave Desert in less than 10 hours without human intervention, selecting its route, staying on course, and avoiding a challenging set of obstacles placed in its way by the good people of DARPA.

I didn't expect to be writing this article before 2010. In 2004, after all, nobody won - or even finished. In 2005, however, we have a winner. Four winners and five finishers, actually, though only the first place team collected the reward. Stanford/Volkswagen's Tuareg "Stanley" beat out the Carnegie-Mellon University Red Team's two Headless Hummers, and the Ford Escape Hybrid run by plucky New Orleans-based Team Gray. Oshkosh Truck's huge TerraMax, meanwhile, used a slow-but-steady strategy until its last-leg sprint and finished in a little under 13 hours. So, why is this significant?

Continue reading...

NSWC Dahlgren Scientists Invent New Class of Weapons

The first Navy Distinguished Achievement in Science Award (DASA) in 14 years was presented by Rear Adm. Archer Macy, commander of Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), to Drs. William Holt and Willis Mock, Jr. at an awards ceremony held Sept. 7 at the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) headquarters located at the historic Washington Navy Yard. Mock and Holt were the first NAVSEA scientists to receive the prestigious and rarely given Navy DASA award, which enables the Secretary of the Navy to recognize pioneering scientific extraordinary and significant achievements of a pioneering "breakthrough" nature and with far-reaching consequences.

Continue reading...

$9.5M for Special Z-Backscatter Scan-Vans to Afghanistan & Iraq

Z-Backscatter Truck Scan
(click to view full)

American Science and Engineering of Billerica, MA received a $9.5 million firm-fixed price contract for eight Z-Backscatter Vans to meet U.S. Central Command requirements for Afghanistan and Iraq.

AS&E's Z Backscatter Van (ZBV) is a low-cost, extremely maneuverable screening system built into a commercially available delivery van. The ZBV employs AS&E's patented Z Backscatter technology, which offers photo-like images that reveal contraband that transmission X-rays miss - such as explosives (including car bombs), people and plastic weapons - and provides photo-like imaging for rapid analysis. The ZBV is also capable of identifying low levels of radioactivity from both gamma rays and neutrons with optional Radioactive Threat Detection (RTD) technology. Here's how it works...

Continue reading...

Underwater Sub Detection: SBIR Tries to Think Like a Shark

DID has covered evolving US anti-submarine warfare strategy before, including the growing importance of dealing with super-quiet diesel-electric submarines in shallow-water littorals.

In response, one of the early-stage Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) approaches involves thinking entirely outside the sonar box. We talk about "submariner dolphins" - but maybe the creature they really need to emulate is the shark.

Continue reading...

GaN: DARPA's 3-Pronged R&D; Strategy

Gallium Nitride

DID has reported extensively on research contracts related to Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors, which offer significantly higher power and performance but present manufacturing challenges that have stymied their use in commercial applications.

Now CompoundSemiconductor.NET offers an excellent overview of the GaN wide-bandgap semiconductors program and DARPA's goals. Key objectives include rapid transition of the technology developed into military systems. Other important goals include a "great" improvement in understanding the physical reasons behind device failures and the development of physical models to predict performance, reproducible device and MMIC fabrication processes, and improved thermal management and packaging. Reliability is expected to be a key challenge.

Continue reading...