DSIAC collects and publishes articles related to our technical focus areas on the web to share with the DoD community.
U.S. missile defense experts are surveying industry to find companies able to develop computer simulations of enemy missiles and missile-related observables to help government and industry improve better ballistic missile defense systems and enabling technologies. Officials of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in Huntsville, Ala., issued a sources-sought notice (MDA18EITRFI01) on Monday for the MDA
The Abrams has for decades been considered the world’s premier tank. However, experts say that the T-14 Armata, a next-generation platform that the Russians are developing, could challenge some aspects of the Abrams’ supremacy. The U.S. tank of today looks much like the same one that was developed in the 1970s, but it has undergone
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have released a new strategy to integrate their capabilities to address the challenges posed by archipelagic and coastal geography, and the proliferation of advanced sensors and mobile, long-range missile systems that can threaten naval forces from ashore. Called Littoral Operations in Contested Environments (LOCE), the concept puts forward a
A simple method for manufacturing extremely low-density palladium nanofoams could help advance hydrogen storage technologies, reports a new study from the University of California, Davis. Traditional metallic foam manufacturing techniques may require high temperature, high pressure and controlled chemical environments. The UC Davis-led team instead relies on a wet chemistry approach that is well-suited for
The Smart and Sustainable Automation Research Laboratory at the University of Michigan, has developed a software algorithm called “FBS Vibration Compensation” that effectively doubles 3D printing speeds. Technique could be used to upgrade the printer”s firmware. Consumer 3D printing has done something that few people would have thought possible a few decades ago: brought small-scale,
The Army is transforming its fleet of transportable robots to a common set of standards to expedite modernization, interoperability, autonomy and mission flexibility. During the last decade and a half of ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army acquired and fast-tracked as many as 7,000 unique robotic systems in an effort to keep pace
A lot of people think that high-energy lasers, or HELs, can”t penetrate fog, rain and dust, said Thomas Webber. That”s just plain wrong. Webber, director of the Directed Energy Division”s Technical Center, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, spoke at the Association of the United States Army”s Annual Meeting and Exposition, Oct. 9. The
Power electronics experts at the General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems group in San Diego are joining a project to develop lasers that could lead to a weapon for future unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) able to destroy enemy ballistic missiles in boost phase. Officials of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in Albuquerque, N.M., announced a $8.9
For the first time in the U.S., time-resolved small-angle x-ray scattering (TRSAXS) is used to observe ultra-fast carbon clustering and graphite and nanodiamond production in the insensitive explosive Plastic Bonded Explosive (PBX) 9502, potentially leading to better computer models of explosive performance. “Carbon clusters are produced during the chemical process of detonation in high explosives,”
Using flexible conducting polymers and novel circuitry patterns printed on paper, researchers have demonstrated proof-of-concept wearable thermoelectric generators that can harvest energy from body heat to power simple biosensors for measuring heart rate, respiration or other factors. Because of their symmetrical fractal wiring patterns, the devices can be cut to the size needed to provide
A team of researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory recently addressed a need for safer “wash primers” at Army depots, installations and repair facilities. As a result of their solution, the wash primer replacement team at ARL won the fiscal 2016 Secretary of the Army Award for Environmental Excellence in Weapon System Acquisition (small
Marines who recently completed a deployment to U.S. Central Command in support of Operation Inherent Resolve brought with them 3D printers to make their own small quadcopters, learning lessons both on hybrid logistics models and counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations. Marines built an initial batch of 25 Nibbler UAVs – quadcopters with a dwell time