DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
Amazon founder and space entrepreneur Jeff Bezos announced March 7 that commercial satellite operator Eutelsat will be the first paying customer for his next-generation reusable rocket, which is named after his boyhood hero, Mercury astronaut John Glenn. New Glenn is the next step up for Bezos” Blue Origin space company, which has already conducted five
Earlier this month, the Russian weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov Group made a low-key announcement with frightening implications. The company revealed it had developed a range of combat robots that are fully automated and used artificial intelligence to identify targets and make independent decisions. The revelation rekindled the simmering, and controversial, debate over autonomous weaponry and asked
U.S. military researchers are asking two U.S. defense contractors to develop bistatic sonar for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) that teams manned and unmanned submarines and capitalizes on the benefits of active sonar without compromising the stealth of U.S. attack submarines. Officials of the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) in Newport, R.I., has announced a $4.6
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. – High-power electromagnetics (HPEM) experts at the Raytheon Co. will help the U.S. Air Force determine the feasibility of using electronics-killing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapons aboard combat aircraft under terms of a $15 million contract announced on Tuesday. Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland
The Missile Defense Agency in its long-time quest to shoot down intercontinental ballistic missiles scored a success May 30 when the ground-based mid-course defense system’s kill vehicle directly collided with its intended target. As the first major demonstration of the system in more than three years, and the first to be declared a success since
An advanced electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) cannon prototype developed by General Atomics for the Navy is preparing for testing, according to the company. The 10-megajoule medium-range multi-mission railgun system, one of two prototypes in development for the service, has completed final assembly and factory acceptance test, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) recently announced. The system was
A team of chemists in Canada has developed a way to process metals without using toxic solvents and reagents. The system, which also consumes far less energy than conventional techniques, could greatly shrink the environmental impact of producing metals from raw materials or from post-consumer electronics. “At a time when natural deposits of metals are
CINCU, Romania — Some major improvements are underway at the Joint National Training Center in Romania that are designed to ultimately strengthen capability across NATO forces, and it”s being made possible largely by U.S. funding through the European Reassurance Initiative. Roughly $23 million in funding — provided through the account designed to bolster initiatives to
Scientists have long known that melanin—the pigments that give color to skin, hair and eyes—has numerous useful qualities, including providing protection from cancer-causing UV radiation and free radicals, but also electronic conductance, adhesiveness and the capacity to store energy. To take advantage of these qualities, scientists across the City University of New York (CUNY) have
Army scientists and engineers recently made a discovery. An aluminum nanomaterial of their design produces high amounts of energy when it comes in contact with water, or any liquid containing water. During routine materials experimentation at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, a team of researchers observed a bubbling reaction when adding water to a nano-galvanic
Researchers from UCLA and the University of Connecticut have designed a new biofriendly energy storage system called a biological supercapacitor, which operates using charged particles, or ions, from fluids in the human body. The device is harmless to the body’s biological systems, and it could lead to longer-lasting cardiac pacemakers and other implantable medical devices.
Franklin Chang-Díaz bounds up a handful of stairs and peers through a porthole cut into the side of a silver, tanker-truck-sized vacuum chamber. Inside, a blueish-purple light shines, unchanging and constant, like a bright flashlight. “It looks kind of boring,” Chang-Díaz admits. “But that plume is 3.5 million degrees. If you stuck your hand in