The U.S. Navy is among those employing an evolving process called additive manufacturing (AM), which uses 3-D printing to convert computer-aided-design files into functional objects of various materials that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to make. The Naval Undersea Warfare Center wanted two aluminum tail cones for Mk. 30 antisubmarine targets. Using conventional pattern-based sand-casting, the 22 X 22 X 22-in. parts would have taken 25 weeks to build and cost $20,000. A foundry using a machine from ExOne Co. of Irwin, Pa., made them in 10 weeks for $12,600.
The U.S. Navy has christened the first-in-class amphibious assault ship LHA 6 as the America. From the American Revolution through the first Persian Gulf war, only three warships have sailed with the name America, according to the Pentagon, the last being a Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier that supported operations from Vietnam through the first Gulf war. LHAs, which stand for landing helicopter assault, are sometimes called “big-deck” amphibious ships or even mini-carriers.
The defector they all talk about here is the 18-year-old North Korean soldier who, on Oct. 6, shot his two superiors at a guard post near the border and then ran 400 meters (1,312 ft.) to freedom while being cheered on with a megaphone by South Korean counterparts at their border post.
Most in the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland and Virginia (DMV) appear to be employed to tell the government what to do. However, it's also important to identify, for a new or re-elected administration, strategies that have proven to be unworkable. The first of these is to wish for miracles. I will not belabor that, because it was discussed here last month (Oct. 15, p. DT2). Adding capability to a system or a force costs money, so you have to spend more, reduce numbers, or both.
There may be no better time to diagnose and reprogram an aircraft than during aerial refueling. Technicians have the full attention of a pilot or, in the case of a UAV, an operator. There is no waiting for results, and glitches can be fixed or mission changes made on the spot. This may have been part of the thinking behind development of the IconIC hose system for inflight refueling by Icon Polymer of Nottinghamshire, England, a specialist in engineered polymer products for military aviation and other industries.
Rheinmetall and Textron's Canadian subsidiary last month signed a €160 million ($207 million) contract for the Canadian Forces Tactical Armored Patrol Vehicle (TAPV) project. Work will be performed by Rheinmetall Canada in Quebec. The deal, which runs from July 2014 to March 2016, also fulfills a portion of Textron's participation in Canada's Industrial and Regional Benefits Policy—i.e., local offsets—after the government's purchase of 500 Textron TAPVs.
Medical evacuation flights can put casualties in harm's way owing to the ambient noise of the aircraft. The noise overwhelms the acoustic properties of stethoscopes and prevents caregivers from detecting sounds of distress—or auscultation—from vital organs such as the heart and lungs. This is because when sound exceeds 95 dBA, the body conducts the external noise, which drowns out internal body sounds. A solution has been engineered by Active Signal Technologies of Linthicum Heights, Md., in the form of a noise-immune stethoscope with Doppler radar and advanced sensors.
The state-of-the-art in military energetics is HMX, a powerful material that is dense, thermodynamically stable and low in sensitivity—in other words, a devastating explosive that is safe to handle. Research by the University of Michigan and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) indicates that the explosiveness of HMX can be increased with no trade-off in sensitivity by combining it with an energetic known as CL-20, which while powerful, is by itself too sensitive for use.
After a year's work, MBDA's KFK missile carried out its first test-firing Sept. 19 at a military training center in Baumholder, Germany. The demonstration, witnessed by German officials, saw two successful unguided firings with the missile traveling the planned distance in each case, the company stated recently. MBDA and “various” government agencies have been funding missile development.
Military officials have long expected the scenario where a tank is hit by an artillery shell doctored with chemical weapons, splashing sulfur mustard agent across its hull and likely rendering the vehicle useless due to uncertainty. Now, not only can engineers more easily decontaminate the vehicle using paint being developed by the U.K.'s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), it is increasingly likely that this paint will be able to change color to indicate exactly what is contaminated.
Russia's legendary Kalashnikov assault rifle may get a new lease on life as its designers try to improve the weapon's operational parameters and attract orders from the country's defense ministry and paramilitary agencies.
Boeing used the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) convention in Washington last month to provide more details about its new Joint Air-Breathing Multi-Role Missile (Jabmm) concept originally intended for the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The new, small, modular missile payload was revealed in early 2012. Boeing is pitching the concept as a “turbine-air-breathing missile solution to countering proliferating anti-access threats.” At AUSA, Boeing revealed that Jabmm now consists of two yet-undesignated cruise missiles.
Decisions that determine whether a program can be successful are often made before the contract is even won. But conceptual design is still more art than science, practiced by talented engineers without the sophisticated, integrated tools available for development and manufacturing.
Chris Kubasik's rise through the upper ranks of Lockheed Martin could not have been better scripted by the Chinese politburo. Since joining the U.S. defense giant in 1999, the onetime partner at accounting giant Ernst & Young was rotated through a succession of senior management positions, including chief financial officer and leader of the company's Electronic Systems business. Two years ago, Lockheed Martin telegraphed that Kubasik would be the successor to Chairman and CEO Robert Stevens by naming him president and chief operating officer.
Mark Maybury U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist Age: 47 Career: Maybury was previously executive director of the Information Technology Div. of Mitre Corp. Education: B.A., Mathematics, College of the Holy Cross; M.A., Philosophy in Computer Speech and Language Processing from Cambridge University, England; MBA, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Ph.D., Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge University.
Cascading, nationwide power outages. Communications in shambles. Breakdowns in the supply of water, food, medications and gas. Military operations crimped by failures in civilian infrastructure. Weapons blunted by tailored countermeasures. The most recent alarm about the worst-case scenarios of cyberwar was sounded by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in October. Addressing business leaders in New York, Panetta invoked both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 in talking about “a destructive cyber-terrorist attack [that] could virtually paralyze the nation.”
An effort to shield the nation's computer networks and critical infrastructure may be tipping too far into trade protectionism, experts say. In trying to balance the need to protect sensitive computer networks with the cost of verifying the safety of the components that find their way into the supply chain, a House Intelligence Committee report recently recommended that the U.S. government and businesses steer clear of two Chinese telecommunications companies.
