DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
As NASA pursues innovative, cost-effective alternatives to conventional propulsion technologies to forge new paths into the solar system, researchers at NASA”s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, say nuclear thermal propulsion technologies are more promising than ever, and have contracted with BWXT Nuclear Energy, Inc. of Lynchburg, Virginia, to further advance and refine those
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed a new way to track dynamic molecular features in soft materials, including the high-frequency molecular vibrations that transmit waves of heat, sound, and other forms of energy. Controlling these vibrational waves in soft materials such as polymers or liquid crystal compounds could
Researchers have now managed to pinpoint what happens when light is absorbed by extremely small nanoclusters of silver atoms. The results may have useful application in the development of biosensors and in imaging. By combining chemistry and nanotechnology, the research community in recent years has developed a kind of extremely small nanoclusters consisting of only
Everything you always wanted in a buoy…and less. The Navy is utilizing additive manufacturing technology to adapt emerging designs in transducer and battery technologies into miniaturized sonobuoy components. Using FDM and SLS technologies, these components will leverage fabrication advantages of high-performance additive manufacturing (AM) processes and materials. The ability to construct minibuoy containers aboard ships
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