DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
Jet engines in passenger and freight planes may seem the antithesis of the digital economy. Complex and costly, they are powered by old-fashioned polluting fuels: high-octane hydrocarbons. But aero-engine makers’ emphasis on improving safety and reliability has led them to become the pioneers in the internet of things (IoT). They have connected industrial systems to
The British Royal Navy is increasingly being forced to “cannibalize” its own warships and submarines for spare parts as funding has been cut for stores, a Government spending watchdog has said. Instances of ships being stripped of parts so they can be fitted to other vessels more in need have risen by half in the
The flight preparations for the four engines that will power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) on its first integrated flight with Orion are complete and the engines are assembled and ready to be joined to the deep space rocket’s core stage. All five structures that form the massive core stage for the rocket have been
One of the best examples of how rapidly advancing technologies can change security requirements is the rise of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Relatively unknown to all but a few in the military as recently as 1990, today they are central to militaries throughout the world; the general public can even buy them in grocery stores.
The Abrams has for decades been considered the world’s premier tank. However, experts say that the T-14 Armata, a next-generation platform that the Russians are developing, could challenge some aspects of the Abrams’ supremacy. The U.S. tank of today looks much like the same one that was developed in the 1970s, but it has undergone
A laser directed energy weapon will be the first project to be undertaken at Dragonworks, a new UK facility dedicated to the development and testing of advanced laser technology. Located at Qinetiq’s headquarters in Farnborough, the new facility will serve as a test bed for all technologies associated with high-energy lasers for military or commercial
Over the past two decades, the solid rocket motor (SRM) industrial base has undergone various changes including consolidation and recent expansion. Specifically, since 1995, the industry has consolidated from six U.S. manufacturers to two U.S. manufacturers. With regard to expansion, a foreign supplier entered the market in 2012, and in 2017, a U.S. firm, which
If you can’t trust your networks or satellite communications in a crisis, ‘use-or-lose’ scenarios get a lot closer. Stability was an overriding concern at last week’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on nuclear command authority, the first in four decades. Senators wondered aloud whether one individual — the American president — should have the sole
U.S. missile defense experts are surveying industry to find companies able to develop computer simulations of enemy missiles and missile-related observables to help government and industry improve better ballistic missile defense systems and enabling technologies. Officials of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in Huntsville, Ala., issued a sources-sought notice (MDA18EITRFI01) on Monday for the MDA
Air-conditioned buildings bring welcome relief to people coming in from the heat. But creating that comfort comes with a cost to our wallets and the environment in the form of increased energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions. Now researchers report in ACS Nano the development of a new material for clothing that we could one
Remember those reports of exploding hoverboards a few years ago? The culprit behind those spontaneous electrical combustions were low-quality Li-ion batteries, which contain highly flammable, toxic, and moisture-sensitive electrolytes. A team of scientists at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has partnered with researchers from the University of Maryland and the Army Research Laboratory to
For the first time ever, a team of researchers successfully developed and tested networked acoustic emission sensors that can detect airframe damage on conceptual composite UH-60 Black Hawk rotorcraft. Researchers with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center said their discovery opens up possibilities for