Q -Warrior brings head-up displays to the battlefield "Great battles are won with artillery" – Napoleon Bonaparte. In the 21st century, he’d probably change that to information. The trick is to get that information to soldiers on the front line quickly and in a manner that won’t distract them from the job at hand. To this end, BAE Systems’ Electronic Systems in the UK has developed the Q-Warrior – a head-up display for foot soldiers that’s designed to provide a full-color, high resolution 3D display of the battlefield situation and assets. Call it military intelligence, situational awareness, or just knowing what’s going on in the next foxhole, but information has always been a vital military asset. For the engineer, the tricky bit is coming up with something that can keep a soldier in the know without distraction. The Q-Warrior is the latest version of BAE's helmet-mounted display technology based on its Q-Sight range of display systems. The video below shows off Q-Warrior's features. Source: BAE Systems
US Army experiments with crowdsourcing equipment design The US Army Rapid Equipping Force (REF) is experimenting with internet-based collaboration. With the help of the crowdsourcing gurus at Local Motors, it has launched ArmyCoCreate.com, a website designed to let soldiers, designers and engineers collaborate on identifying soldier requirements and designing prototypes to address them. View all REF is a division of the Army that works to rapidly address the ever-evolving issues facing soldiers in the field. ArmyCoCreate is an experimental website designed to further that mission. "When we have our labs in theater, soldiers come up to the labs and the labs have capability to reach back to a lot of scientists and engineers," Gary Frost, REF Deputy Director for Futures, tells us. Local Motors' Rally Fighter REF partnered with Local Motors in August to develop the experimental crowdsourcing platform. The ArmyCoCreate trial will operate in a four-step process: problems, solutions, project and prototypes.
US plans for hypersonic robot spy plane revealed 4 November 2013Last updated at 06:44 ET The SR-72 could be capable of flying at Mach 6 said Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin has begun work on a successor to the supersonic Blackbird SR-71 spy plane. The unmanned SR-72 will use an engine that combines a turbine and a ramjet to reach its top speed of Mach 6 - about 3,600mph (5,800km/h). Like its predecessor, the SR-72 will be designed for high-altitude surveillance but might also be fitted with weapons to strike targets. Lockheed said the aircraft should be operational by 2030. Jet engines The SR-72 is being developed at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works R&D centre in California that designed and built the original Blackbird. That aircraft first flew in 1964 and was a mainstay of US Air Force spying and surveillance work until 1998. In a blogpost about the SR-72, Lockheed Martin said the aircraft would operate at similar altitudes but would fly far faster.
U.S. military wants to create 'Iron Man suit' WASHINGTON — Army Capt. Brian Dowling was leading his Special Forces team through a steep mountain pass in eastern Afghanistan when insurgents ambushed his patrol, leaving two of his soldiers pinned down with life-threatening wounds. After a furious firefight, the two men were rescued, but that episode in 2006 would change Dowling's life. Now employed by a small defense company, he is part of a crash effort by U.S. They call it — what else? "We're taking the Iron Man concept and bringing it closer to reality," said Dowling, referring to the Marvel Comics character Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a rocket-powered exoskeleton, turning himself into a superhero. The Special Operations Command began soliciting ideas for the suit this year from industry, academia and government labs, and has held two conferences where potential bidders, including Dowling's company, Revision Military, demonstrated their products. Armored suits, of course, go back to ancient times.
US Navy announces sea trials for electromagnetic railgun Watching old war movies, we expect firing a navy gun to be accompanied by a deafening bang and a dramatic cloud of burnt powder. This being the 21st century, the US Navy has other ideas as it prepares to install and test a prototype electromagnetic railgun on a Spearhead-class joint high speed vessel (JHSV) in 2016 as part of a program to develop the naval artillery of the future. Modern missiles are miracles of range, accuracy and lethality, but they are also incredibly complex and expensive with a single shot costing millions of dollars. Old-fashioned projectile weapons are cheaper, but also much less effective. They have shorter ranges, less accuracy, and still need dangerous-to-handle propellants to fire them. According to the US navy, what is needed is something with an effectiveness comparable to that of a missile, but with costs per round less than that of conventional naval artillery. This is where the EM railgun comes in. The video below shows a railgun in action. Source: US Navy
XM8 Lightweight Carbine The XM8 Lightweight Carbine was intended to replace existing M4 carbine and select 5.56x45mm and 9mm weapons in the US Army arsenal. The system during its development was alternately known as the Future Combat Rifle, Lightweight Assault Rifle, and expanded into a family of weapons known as Modular Assault Weapon System or Modular Assault Weapons Family, designated as the Objective Individual Combat Weapon's (OICW) Increment 1. The formal XM8 nomenclature, however, was Carbine, 5.56mm: Lightweight, XM8, and referred only to that configuration. The XM8, originally intended just as a lightweight carbine, was eventually expanded into a true family of weapons with different barrel lengths designed to address all the needs of an infantry squad. Internally, the XM8 uses a rotary locking bolt system that functions and fieldstrips like those used in the M16 rifle and M4 carbine. The XM8 was also more reliable. ATK Integrated Defense was the system integrator on the XM8 program.
US Navy developing laser weapons for ground vehicles The US Navy is deploying its first laser weapon on the USS Ponce in a few months. Called LaWS, it uses fiber-optic, solid-state laser as both an offensive and defensive weapon against drones, missiles, and other targets. The technology also has obvious potential for ground vehicles – a fact that hasn't escaped the US Marine Corps. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded contracts to develop a similar laser weapon that can be installed in light-tactical vehicles instead of ships as part of its Ground-Based Air Defense Directed Energy On-the-Move (GBAD) program and the Marine Corps Science and Technology Strategic Plan. “We can expect that our adversaries will increasingly use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and our expeditionary forces must deal with that rising threat,” says Colonel William Zamagni, acting head of ONR's Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare and Combating Terrorism Department. Source: ONR
Meet the SLAM-ER April 2, 2006 Meet the appropriately named SLAM-ER the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response weapon. The most accurate weapon in the U.S. Navy inventory, the SLAM-ER, is an air-launched, day/night, adverse weather, over-the-horizon missile, which can be used in fire-and-forget mode, in which case it will use GPS to deliver its 500-pound warhead, with frightening precisionanywhere within 275 kilometres from its launch point. The clever aspect of the SLAM-ER though, is that it can use the warfighter-in-the-loop meaning it can fly a pre-planned or target-of-opportunity route to the target area and be retargeted in flight by using global positioning system data and an infrared seeker with an advanced data link. View all An example of the capabilities of the SLAM-ER weapon was demonstrated recently in long-range testing by the US Navy. In another test, a SLAM-ER was launched for the first time from an operational U.S. The U.S. SLAM-ER is currently sold to the U.S.
XM25 Prototypes in testing – 500% lethality increase over existing weapon systems May 27, 2005 The XM25 Advanced Airburst Weapon System is an entirely new class of weapon that takes the concept of a grenade launcher and adds some smarts, thereby increasing the probability of hit-to-kill performance by up to 500 percent over existing weapons. The advanced design allows the soldier to program the air bursting 25mm round so that it flies to the target and detonates at a precise point in the air. It does not require impact to detonate and is hence capable of defeating an enemy behind a wall, inside a building or in a foxhole. Alliant Techsystems has delivered the first six prototype XM25 advanced airbursting weapon systems to the U.S. The XM25 is ideal for urban combat. The revolutionary fire control system for the XM25 employs an advanced laser rangefinder that transmits information to the chambered 25mm round. The XM25 increases the warfighter’s probability of hit-to-kill performance by up to 500 percent over existing weapons. About the Author 9 Comments
Future aircraft could come with advanced 3D printers for specialized drone production According to BAE Systems researchers, military aircraft could be fitted with 3D printers to create different drone types depending on the mission objective Image Gallery (4 images) Requests for backup might usually trigger a halt in a military operations, but two fast-moving technologies could one day combine to deliver much-needed reinforcements exactly where they're needed. Such is the vision of defense firm BAE Systems, which sees aircraft having advanced onboard 3D printers that are capable of producing UAVs for wide-ranging military purposes. At the intersection of drones and 3D printing technologies, there have been some notable creations in recent times. Scientists and engineers at BAE Systems anticipate such advances in both 3D printing and drone technologies that by 2040, military aircraft could be fitted with onboard 3D printers to produce different types of UAVs on-demand. You can see the team's vision for the 3D-printing aircraft in the animation below. Source: BAE Systems
Taranis drone demonstrates stealth in latest test Combat pilots aren't going on the dole queue any time soon, but they might want to start dusting off their resumes. BAE Systems Taranis Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) has flown for the first time in a full stealth configuration, making it almost invisible to radar ... and bringing the day of the unmanned war plane that much closer to reality. According to BAE, this stealthiness was achieved by engineers removing the air-data boom, which provides air pressure, temperature, and airflow direction data for analysis, from the already stealthy fuselage. Instead, a special system was installed that sent back telemetry of all flight data without the need of a boom or external probe. They also swapped out all the antennae on the aircraft with signature control variants. That is, versions of the antennae that return little or no radar signature. Source: BAE Systems Share
Shanghai to San Francisco in 100 minutes by Chinese supersonic submarine China has moved a step closer to creating a supersonic submarine that could travel from Shanghai to San Francisco in less than two hours. New technology developed by a team of scientists at Harbin Institute of Technology's Complex Flow and Heat Transfer Lab has made it easier for a submarine, or torpedo, to travel at extremely high speeds underwater. Li Fengchen, professor of fluid machinery and engineering, said the team's innovative approach meant they could now create the complicated air "bubble" required for rapid underwater travel. Water produces more friction, or drag, on an object than air, which means conventional submarines cannot travel as fast as an aircraft. However, during the cold war, the Soviet military developed a technology called supercavitation, which involves enveloping a submerged vessel inside an air bubble to avoid problems caused by water drag. However, supercavitation technology has faced two major problems.
US Navy to test Fortis exoskeletons Move over, Tony Stark; the US Navy is going Iron Man. The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) has ordered a pair of Fortis exoskeletons from Lockheed Martin for testing and evaluation. The unpowered exoskeletons won’t give sailors superhuman strength, but they will allow them to handle heavy equipment for longer periods with less fatigue. View all One popular myth is that modern naval vessels are push-button workplaces where sailors spend all day staring at screens and clicking mice. "Ship maintenance often requires use of heavy tools, such as grinders, riveters or sandblasters," says Adam Miller, director of new initiatives at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. The US armed forces have been looking into the possibilities of exoskeletons for years as government-backed development projects, such as Lockheed’s HULC and Raytheon’s XOS 2. But if it sounds like something rigid, Lockheed says that Fortis is more like the steadicam rig used by filmmakers. Share
Bell unveils V-280 Valor tiltrotor concept for U.S. Army program The V-280 Valor tiltrotor is Bell Helicopter's concept for the U.S. Army's Joint Multi Role (JMR)/Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program Image Gallery (6 images) Bell Helicopter has thrown its tiltrotor hat into the ring for the U.S. View all Bell calls its offering a third generation tiltrotor, building on the experience gained from the first generation XV-3 and XV-15, to the second generation 609 civil tiltrotor and V-22 Osprey. The wing is also straight rather than forward-swept like the V-22’s. The “V” in V-280 stands for “Vertical,” while the 280 refers to the aircraft’s 280 knot (322 mph/518 km/h) cruising speed. The JMR Technology Demonstrator effort aims to develop a replacement medium-lift rotorcraft for the U.S. Bell Helicopter looks to have sunk a bit of money into the following video showing how the V-280 might look when complete. Source: Bell Helicopter About the Author Post a CommentRelated Articles Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below