DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
The Air Force is expected to rapidly increase its fleet of small drones to blanket enemy areas with Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance assets, jam enemy air defenses and potentially use drones as small explosives designed to overwhelm enemy targets with fire power.The Air Force recently unveiled a Small UAS Road Map which, among other things,
The military is devoting more and more attention to the threat of hostile drones on the battlefield, but what to do about the dangers posed by tiny micro-drones, especially in urban areas, where simply shooting them down isn’t usually a good option? Eight finalists in a technology challenge sponsored by the Department of Defense, Department
Paul Shattuck is director and chief engineer for Directed Energy Systems at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. He’s been with Lockheed since 1974, with a focus area of the development of beam control technologies for High Power Laser Directed Energy Systems. He spent most of the 1980s developing and testing beam control technologies for the
WASHINGTON — The US Army is turning to foreign systems for an interim solution for advanced protection for its combat vehicles against rocket-propelled grenades, anti-tank guided missiles and other threats. The service’s effort to rapidly integrate already developed solutions is heating up this summer as the Army tests out what will likely be four different
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh III said May 26 that reopening the F-22 manufacturing line was within the realm of possibility, and that it may cost less than developing a sixth-generation fighter. Congress recently asked the Air Force to look into resuming the canceled fighter program. Welsh, who will retire on July
On an otherwise unremarkable day in March 2013, an American MQ-1 Predator drone was flying in international airspace off Iran, conducting a routine surveillance flight over the Persian Gulf. But the U.S. Air Force knew trouble might be lurking ahead. Several months earlier, a pair of Iranian Sukhoi Su-25 attack planes had attempted unsuccessfully to
The military, as part of its push toward more autonomous systems, has put an emphasis on the idea of man-machine teaming, and the Air Force is now focusing on a key aspect of that idea—building trust between the two. The service has awarded a $7.5 million contract to SRA International for research that will specifically
As the United States faces threats around the globe — from the Islamic State to Russia to China — special operators must adapt, said the commander of Special Operations Command May 24. “The word complex fails to describe the current security environment,” said Gen. Raymond A. Thomas III. “The younger generation — specifically my two
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter is pushing hard for increased collaboration between private industry and the military as part of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Third Offset Strategy, which focuses heavily on technological superiority. In August 2015, Carter opened the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental in Silicon Valley, which is meant to serve as a conduit
We live in an age of unprecedented technology – technology that makes our lives easier and more connected at the push of a touch-screen and glace of a monitor. For the military, ruggedized equivalents provide tactical awareness, allowing soldiers and Marines to see beyond their personal sight using GPS, smartphones, tablets, and even helmet-mounted screens.
While drone-on-drone fights are still thought of in the future tense (which isn’t to say forces aren’t preparing for them) drone-to-drone cooperation is here now – in the form of swarming, for instance. With the Navy developing unmanned vehicles – in the air, on the surface and below the ocean – these systems, designed to
The U.S. Navy, which has already developed a 30-kilowatt laser that has been used operationally, will soon test a new directed energy weapon that is five times more powerful, said the vice chief of naval operations July 23. The Office of Naval Research “will perform a shipboard test of a 150-killowatt laser weapon system in