Defense

Materials like solid gels and porous foams are used for padding and cushioning, but each has its own advantages and limitations.A team of engineers and scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has found a way to design and fabricate, at the microscale, new cushioning materials with a...

Metamaterials have a wide range of potential applications, including sensing and improving military stealth technology. Before cloaking devices can become reality on a larger scale, however, researchers must determine how to make the right materials at the nanoscale. Using light is now shown to be...

Drawing inspiration from the structure of bones and bamboo, researchers have gradually changed the internal structure of metals to make stronger, tougher materials. The new metals can be customized for a wide variety of applications — from body armor to automobile parts.The research team...

Scientists from Imperial College London have developed a 3D-printing Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) that mimics the way that swiftlets build their nests.The MAV is a quad-copter, with four blades that enable it to fly and hover. The vehicle, made from off-the-shelf components, carries in its underbelly two...

A credit-card-sized anthrax detection cartridge developed at Sandia National Laboratories and recently licensed to a small business makes testing safer, easier, faster and cheaper.Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax, is commonly found in soils all over the world and can cause...

An Iowa State research team led by Reza Montazami is developing "transient materials" and "transient electronics" that can quickly and completely melt away when a trigger is activated. The development could mean that one day you might be able to send out a signal to destroy a lost credit card.To...

A research team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has developed a small electronic sensing device that can alert users wirelessly to the presence of chemical vapors in the atmosphere. The technology, which could be manufactured using familiar aerosol-jet printing techniques, is aimed at myriad...

The 2013 Create the Future Design Contest — sponsored by COMSOL, SAE International, and Tech Briefs Media Group (publishers of NASA Tech Briefs) — recognized innovation in product design in eight categories: Aerospace & Defense (new this year), Consumer Products, Electronics, Machinery & Equipment,...

In their quest for better helmet technologies to keep soldiers and marines safe on the battlefield, researchers at Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center are making a "HEaDS-UP" play.

Military analysts now have a tool that brings together unprecedented modeling and simulation features to help them better choose or build weapons to overpower future threats. Such features allow military researchers to analyze, for example, how a grenade, artillery round or any other...

Military analysts now have a tool that brings together unprecedented modeling and simulation features to help them better choose, or build weapons to overpower future threats. Such features allow military researchers to analyze, for example, how a grenade, artillery round or any other weapon performs...

The Army is incorporating a new sensor capability into its Apache helicopters. The Apache Sensors Product Office has accepted delivery of the new Modernized Day Sensor Assembly (M-DSA) Laser Rangefinder Designator (LRFD), the first component to be fielded in the Modernized Day Sensor Assembly. The laser...

The best way to evaluate the effectiveness of a product is to put it in the hands of the user, obtain feedback, and make adjustments accordingly. With a newly developed Virtual Environment Test Bed, or VETB, scientists and engineers at the Target Behavioral Research Laboratory at...

Three West Point cadets spent part of their summer secluded in a locked research lab with its windows blackened. Their project involved a new piece of software that can identify the location of weapons caches in theater using a mathematical model, based on the research theory of...

As part of the Navy's plan to convert at least 50% of its energy demands to alternative sources by 2020, the branch may cover part of Pearl Harbor with solar panels. The 4000-foot, unused runway in the center of Pearl Harbor's military base is a good location for the solar project and is "critically important to...

The U.S. Army has begun the final phase for manufacturing a microchip-sized prototype that will support efforts to provide highly accurate location and battlefield situational awareness for the dismounted soldier, even in the temporary absence of GPS capability.

A new air defense radar system is undergoing testing on the White Sands Missile Range to prepare it for later integrated testing with the Navy this fall. The Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) is an advanced radar system intended for use by the Army,...

The Army has identified physical overburden as one of its top five science and technology challenges. To help alleviate physical weight on troops, DARPA is developing a highly mobile, semi-autonomous legged robot, the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), to integrate with a squad of Marines or...

The Army is using a new helicopter simulator, called the Non-rated Crew Member Manned Module (NCM3), to train helicopter crews on the rear of both the CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk. Through specially created virtual reality glasses, which fit the same as night vision goggles, soldiers can practice and...

Want to learn how to fire a Patriot missile at something? There’s an app for that. No, seriously…there’s an app for that. According to a press release I received last week, a company called C2 Technologies has just developed the first of what will be 7 mobile iPhone applications designed to train the U.S Army’s...

The JPL Robot Vision Library (JPLV) provides real-time robot vision algorithms for developers who are not vision specialists. The package includes algorithms for stereo ranging, visual odometry and unsurveyed camera calibration, and has unique support for very wide-angle lenses (as used on the Mars Exploration Rover HazCams)....

Successful performance of BFM (Basic Flight Maneuvers) presents the greatest challenge facing combat pilots. Acquiring and maintaining the required skills for dogfights is a long, complicated and costly process. The solution is a system that provides automatic assessment of a situation and automatic recommendation...

President Obama’s recent call for the United States to reduce its stockpile of nuclear weapons has met its share of skeptics concerned about national security, given unstable political and military conditions around the world. But there’s at least one group of scientists and environmental activists adamant about...