DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
Nuclear energy has played a key supporting role in historic missions to Mars, Pluto, and across the Solar System for the last 50 years. On January 1 2019, the nuclear-powered New Horizons flew by the most distant object ever observed up close – Ultima Thule, after it having already flown by Pluto in 2015. Nuclear
JOINT EXPEDITIONARY BASE LITTLE CREEK, Va. — The Mark VI patrol boat bristles with heavy automatic weapons, and that’s the way its crews like it. “I tell the crews that you want to look like a porcupine,” said U.S. Navy Senior Chief Derrick Cox, who trains the sailors that man the Mark VI as part
The U.S. Navy has confirmed that it began testing an advanced version of long-range electromagnetic weapon at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), NM. The new weapon system is a long-range electromagnetic railgun that fires projectiles using electricity instead of chemical propellants. Last month, the U.S. Navy has reported that engineers and technicians at the Naval
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (June 26, 2019) — Army Futures Command, or AFC, has developed an intelligent power and energy architecture that enables the interoperability of multinational power systems during coalition operations. AFC”s subordinate command, the Combat Capabilities Development Command, integrated a tactical microgrid with Italy and Canada this June during Capable Logistician 2019, a
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS) — The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) successfully put new technologies into space, June 25, as part of the Department of Defense Space Test Program (STP-2) mission, managed by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA. A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket,
For decades, submarine nuclear deterrence has been uniquely provided by the nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), designed to loft missiles from beneath the waves into space before releasing multiple nuclear warheads that rain hellfire on cities and military bases below. SSBNs can remain submerged basically indefinitely thanks to their nuclear reactors, and are thus unlikely
As the U.S. military shifts its focus back to fighting more traditional, near-peer adversaries like Russian or Chinese troops, the Services are building out plans to revamp their gear to deal with better-equipped forces backed by money and technology from world powers. That extends all the way down to the clothing and equipment each of
The new weapons — which could travel at more than 15 times the speed of sound with terrifying accuracy — threaten to change the nature of warfare. On March 6, 2018, the grand ballroom at the Sphinx Club in Washington was packed with aerospace-industry executives waiting to hear from Michael D. Griffin. Weeks earlier, Secretary
A major contractor and the Pentagon’s top management office came in for criticism from an inspector general for cutting corners in assuring that the massive Joint-Service F-35 stealth fighter is equipped with ready-for-issue parts. In a report dated June 13, the Defense Department watchdog found that parts for the department’s largest acquisition—with an estimated $406
A SpaceX Falcon Heavy spacecraft surged into space late Monday night, June 24, carrying 24 satellites on a mission considered among the Hawthorne-based rocket builder’s most challenging missions yet. Lift-off occurred at 11:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday) from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. The mission, called STP-2, is led by the U.S. Air Force
The Utah Department of Transportation is building a transportation data network using information from the emerging vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, environment. UDOT’s traffic operations center can use the data to improve roadway safety and mobility, while state policymakers can apply it to infrastructure decisions. UDOT is partnering with Panasonic on the smart roadway network. Announced June
Exploring methods to predict the future performance of critical technologies will require historical data on technologies’ performance over time, ideally over the span of decades. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) believes they may be able to predict the future performance of critical technologies by analyzing developments of their constituent systems and components over