New Radios are Pushing Broadband to the Edge of the Battlefield

General Dynamics is developing the 'Handheld, Manpack and Small Form Fit' (HMS) radio under the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) to provide high bandwidth communications even at the lowest level of command, establishing wideband communication among tactical vehicles and with dismounted units on-the-move. The radio supports JTRS Wideband Networking Waveform and standard based 802.16 wireless networking technologies, facilitating the transfer of large amounts of information and for on-line collaboration between moving vehicles.

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'Digitized Combat Group' demonstrates Advantages of Integrated Sensors

Sagem Défense Sécurité demonstrated the capabilities of advanced 'sensor to shooter' capabilities, as part of the Phoenix demo, coinciding with a recent “Battlespace Digitization” exercise held by the French Army 2nd Armored Brigade. Utilizing representative demonstration systems including digitized vehicles and infantry combat suites, the Phoenix project has been developed with private funding by Sagem, with the support of France’s defense procurement agency, the DGA, and French Army.

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Guarding The Internet

The U.S. Navy has found its place in defending the Internet; underwater. That's where most of the planets Internet traffic spends most of its time, as it travels from continent to continent via fiber-optic cables. The navy proposes to undertake more aggressive operations to prevent terrorists, or hostile nations, from trying to cut these cables.

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Could Wolfram|Alpha Sway Google Regulators?

Wolfram|Alpha, a company whose product you have never used, may turn out to be Google’s best friend.

For those who haven’t heard yet, Wolfram|Alpha is a much-hyped, badly-named computational search engine that gives real answers to queries such as “internet users in Europe.” It pulls off the techie magic by using structured data sets, rather than messy web pages, as its index. Its demo has impressed quite a few tech journalists, including the originally skeptical Danny Sullivan, one of the crown princes of search engine journalism.

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Russian experts to investigate Su-30 jet crash in India

A group of Russian experts has arrived in India to look into the cause of a recent Su-30MKI fighter jet crash, a source in India's Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti on Friday.

An Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30MKI crashed on April 30 during a routine training flight near a village 170km from the town of Jaisalmer in the northeastern state of Rajasthan, killing one of its two pilots.

The source said 20 Russian experts arrived on Wednesday at the crash site to examine the wreckage of the plane. The incident was the first since the Su-30MKI was put into service with the Indian Air Force in 2002.

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Work Under Way on ‘Virtual Fence’

After three years of delays and false starts, construction began this week on a “virtual fence” aimed at stopping illegal immigration and smuggling along the border with Mexico.

The first phase of the $6.7 billion project — a network of towers rigged with cameras, sensors and communications equipment — will cover about 23 miles south of Tucson, in the busiest area for illegal crossing.

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Pentagon’s Black Budget Grows to More Than $50 Billion

The Pentagon wants to spend just over $50 billion on classified programs next year, newly-released Defense Department budget documents reveal. “That’s the largest-ever sum,” according to Aviation Week’s Bill Sweetman, a longtime black-budget seer — a three percent increase over last year’s total.

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U.S. Drops Research Into Fuel Cells for Cars

Cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells, once hailed by President George W. Bush as a pollution-free solution for reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, will not be practical over the next 10 to 20 years, the energy secretary said Thursday, and the government will cut off funds for the vehicles’ development.

Developing those cells and coming up with a way to transport the hydrogen is a big challenge, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in releasing energy-related details of the administration’s budget for the year beginning Oct. 1. Dr. Chu said the government preferred to focus on projects that would bear fruit more quickly.

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NASA set for dramatic shuttle rescue

As NASA prepares for its final service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, it's also preparing for something never attempted in the history of the shuttle program: a rescue operation so dramatic that Hollywood would be hard-pressed to come up with a more outlandish plot.

If the Hubble repair crew due for liftoff on Monday got into the deepest sort of orbital trouble, yet another shuttle would have to be launched into orbit as little as a week later. NASA hasn’t launched two piloted spacecraft so close together in more than 40 years. But that's just the first act of the drama.

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Boeing resurrects X-45C as 'Phantom Ray' testbed

The Boeing X-45C will finally get a chance to fly. The manufacturer today announced the new "Phantom Ray" testbed based on the unflown X-45C airframe will perform a series of 10 flights starting in 2010. A Boeing spokesman tells FlightGlobal.com that the Phantom Ray is not focused at any particular program or competition.

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DARPA KICKS OFF VULCAN ENGINE PROGRAM (PDF)

The Vulcan program is a propulsion system demonstration effort to design, build and ground-test an engine capable of accelerating a full-scale hypersonic vehicle from rest to Mach 4+. The Vulcan engine is critical to enabling full-scale hypersonic cruise vehicles for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, strike or other critical national missions. It can serve as the low-speed accelerator for hypersonic vehicles that use turbine-based combined-cycle engines or as a stand-alone engine for Mach 0-4+ strike and reconnaissance aircraft.

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Secret US robo whispercopters head to 'undisclosed location'

The US Special Operations Command - SOCOM, America's secret military elite - is to double its fleet of robot whispercopters in coming years, according to reports.

It has also been revealed that eight of the high tech droid kill-choppers will soon go operational as surveillance craft at "an undisclosed location" overseas.

The news comes from Flight International, reporting on an interview with Major Scott Beall of SOCOM. Major Beall is the secret supertroopers' programme manager for the Boeing A160T unmanned helicopter.

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Combined RFID-WIFI-GPS

"Being able to track the location of assets and inventory both indoors and in complex or large outdoor environments with a single device over Wi-Fi is a game-changing innovation," said Tuomo Rutanen, vice president of Business Development at Ekahau. "We are excited to be working with NavSync to bring to market a solution that will significantly enhance the usefulness of location tracking applications in a wide variety of industries - such as container yards, logistics depots and open pit mining operations - where Wi-Fi can be leveraged for connectivity and GPS satellite visibility is available."

The Wi-Fi-enabled GPS tag combines NavSync's NavTrac high performance GPS module with Ekahau's location protocol. Ekahau location protocol is available free of charge as part of the Located by Ekahau program, which enables adding positioning to Wi-Fi-compliant devices. In order to begin tracking those devices, users need to deploy Ekahau Positioning Engine (EPE) server software, which can be installed centrally or remotely to support several customer sites over IP networks from a single server location.

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WiGig Tempts With High-Speed Wireless Data Transfer

A new standard aims to offer gigabit-speed connectivity without the clutter of cables.

“What we are talking about here is the ability to download a 25 GB Blu-ray disc in under a minute,” says Mark Grodzinsky, chairman of the marketing workgroup at the Wireless Gigabit Alliance. “It’s not something you can do with Wi-Fi or any other standard right now.”

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance, a consortium of electronics companies, has established a specification for 60 gigahertz wireless technology that can offer users data transfer speeds ranging from 1 Gigabits per second to 6 Gbps. To put it simply, WiGig could be at least ten times faster than today’s Wi-Fi and it could be available to consumers by the end of next year.

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Viaspace to demo detection technology

U.S. company Viaspace Inc. (OTCBB:VSPC) announced plans to demonstrate its hazardous chemicals, explosives and toxic gases threat-detection technology.

Viaspace was awarded a Phase II contract by the U.S. Army to develop a new threat-detection technology as part of the Small Business Technology Transfer program. Viaspace said its Ionfinity subsidiary, working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), Sionex and Imaginative Technologies, is set to conducted field demonstrations of the new sensor.

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Army orders PackBot tech from iRobot

BEDFORD, Mass., May 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has placed an order for iRobot Corp.'s PackBot 510s as part of an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract.

Officials said the widely deployed PackBot technology is designed to detect and eliminate IED threats in combat zones while keeping soldiers at safe distances.

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Philips' 80-Story LED Lamp

An LED lamp's long life and sippy-cup approach to energy consumption makes it an appealing light source. But it's still a relatively nascent technology, primarily popping up in small-scale applications such as flashlights and vehicle turn signals.

Which is why the new Philips ColorReach Powercore LED light is so surprising—and could be a game-changer. It's the first LED architectural floodlight—that is, a lamp used to dramatically drench a building's nighttime facade with light and color—capable of lighting an entire skyscraper. A single 18.0 x 28.9-inch light array can reach the top of an 80-story tower.

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The Anti-Swimmer Torpedo

Thinking of going for a swim? Keep an eye out for the Reusable Unambiguous Swimmer Warning Vehicle, a torpedo that can hunt down any swimmer who poses a threat to U.S. waters. It circles around its victim, relays the exact GPS coordinates of the prey, and sounds an alarm.

According to DefenseTech.org, the torpedo is an experimental device is five feet long, moves at a stealth-like 8 knots, and could be equipped with defensive -- or offensive -- weapons to stop a terrorist attack.

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Rockwell Collins to show automatic recovery

Rockwell Collins has won a contract to show that it can use software algorithms to automatically stabilize an operational unmanned aircraft system (UAS) even after experiencing the sudden loss of 80% of its control surfaces on one side.

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Taiwan's SAM Network

he island of Taiwan sits less than 200 kilometers from the coast of the People's Republic of China. Faced with a potential threat consisting of over a thousand ballistic missiles and swarms of strike fighters, Taiwan's strategic SAM network is a significant element of the island's defense

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ILEE Produces LED Night Vision Torch

ILEE AG have produced a tactical LED torch with an IR filter which is comparable with similar Xenon lamp torches.

The tactical night vision torch has an IR LED light source which transmits the IR light only using an inbuilt filter. Traditionally a Xenon lamp is used for his purpose; however Xenon lamps are not reliably resistant to high shock conditions and have a failure rate which is clearly higher and inferior to the LED life expectancy.

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Plug-In Hybrids: More Hype Than Hope?

Seattle has outfitted more than a dozen Toyota Prius hybrids with new plug-in technology to squeeze even better fuel efficiency from the eco-wonder.

City officials were intrigued by data suggesting they could cut their fuel consumption in half by using batteries charged directly from the grid. If claims are to be believed, drivers would routinely see 100 mpg using readily available battery packs installed in the trunk.

Just over a year after performing the conversions, the city says it is thrilled with the cars. The plug-in Prius hybrids have used less gas and emitted less CO2 than their conventional counterparts. But the tests also have put a big dent in the plug-in promise.

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Software ensures content security regardless of file format

RSA Conference Booth #1517 (Microsoft Partner Pavilion) - GigaTrust, the market leader in providing cutting-edge email security and content protection software products that enhance and extend Microsoft's Windows Rights Management Services (RMS), today introduced GigaTrust Desktop Client 6.0, the latest edition of the email and content security suite of tools that enable persistent protection beyond the enterprise. Desktop Client 6.0 extends the security of RMS to PDF documents and drawings and files produced in the most popular CAD applications to protect a major source of valuable corporate intellectual capital. It also has the ability to stop hundreds of screen scraping and PC sharing applications while protected documents are being viewed and in the process enhance the security for your enterprise.

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Military friend-finder

BAE Systems received a $13m (£8.65m) contract from the US military’s Naval Air Systems Command to provide 500 identification friend or foe (IFF) digital transponders and spares to the US Army and US Navy.

The AN/APX-118 common transponder identifies aircraft and ships as friendly forces by responding to interrogations from ground-based or airborne IFF systems.

The transponders, installed on aircraft and naval vessels, establish the identity of friendly forces.

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Incredible bulk

Materials researchers at the Materials Research Institute at Penn State University have reported the highest known breakdown strength for a bulk glass ever measured.
Breakdown strength, along with dielectric constant, determines how much energy can be stored in an insulating material before it fails and begins to conduct electricity.

A bulk glass with high breakdown strength and high dielectric constant would make an ideal candidate for the next generation of high-energy density storage capacitors to power more efficient electric vehicles, as well as other portable and pulsed power applications.

The highest dielectric breakdown strengths for bulk glasses are typically in the 4-9MV/cm range. The breakdown strength for the Penn State samples were in the 12MV/cm range, which in conjunction with a relatively high permittivity, resulted in energy densities of 35J/cm3, as compared to a maximum energy density of 10J/cm3 for polypropylene, the most common dielectric for pulsed power applications.

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New Flying Car Aims to Save Lives in the Amazon

“Gather around, everyone,” Steve Saint says. “Let’s say a prayer about these flights.” Saint, a thin, gray-bearded 58-year-old, is wearing khakis and a salmon-colored shirt and holding a red crash helmet with a radio headset. He is standing with a dozen employees and well-wishers in front of a candy-apple-red vehicle parked beside a crumbling strip of tarmac at a sleepy little airstrip near Dunnellon, Fla., 87 miles northwest of Orlando. The contraption looks like a dune buggy, but one with a propeller in back like an Everglades airboat and, billowing above, a rainbow-colored flex wing—essentially a double-canopy parachute—held aloft on a mast.

“Jay, how about you?” Saint says, peering through wire-rimmed glasses. “You built this thing. You know what can go wrong.” Jay Dyck, the project’s chief designer, steps forward, closes his eyes and drops his chin. “Father and God,” he booms, warming to his task, “we have tried to do our best.” A prop plane buzzes into the blue Florida sky behind him. “Father, we leave it to you. Help Steve stay alert and be safe.” His entreaty done, Dyck scrutinizes the driveshaft and chute lines one last time. “You can design something on paper, but it’s just a thing until you get it in the air,” he tells me, his animated face growing sober. “If something goes wrong up there, you can’t park it. You’re gonna come down.”

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Speed Test: Windows 7 May Not Be Much Faster Than Vista

Improving performance is one of Microsoft's design goals with Windows 7, and many early reviewers (including ours) have said that the new OS seems peppier than Vista. But tests of the Windows 7 Release Candidate in our PC World Test Center found that while Windows 7 was slightly faster on our WorldBench 6 suite, the differences may be barely noticeable to users.

We loaded the Windows 7 Release Candidate on three systems (two desktops and a laptop) and then ran our WorldBench 6 suite. Afterward we compared the results with the WorldBench 6 numbers from the same three systems running Windows Vista. Each PC was slightly faster when running Windows 7, but in no case was the overall improvement greater than 5 percent, our threshold for when a performance change is noticeable to the average user.

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At the London Underground, RFID Keeps Escalators Moving

RFID is being employed to track the maintenance of escalators used by passengers of the London Underground subway system. Once the application is completely rolled out, at the end of 2010, some 30,000 tags will be attached to the steps of 200 escalators. If an escalator suddenly ceases running during rush hour, those aboard it can be seriously injured by the crowd. The application helps improve escalator safety via providing a more efficient maintenance process.

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Supercomputer's Model of Human Contact Simulates Swine Flu

An extravagantly detailed computer model of the U.S. population is taking a crack at understanding the H1N1 “swine flu” outbreak. The model, built by researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in Blacksburg, Va., is composed of realistic representations of the major ways that people in the United States come into contact with one another—in other words, real-world social networks. Last Thursday, the U.S. Department of Defense began using the model to provide recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the Virginia Tech engineers.

In the model, called EpiSimdemics, real cities are represented as groups of artificial people whose demographic attributes match data from the last census and land-use databases. By seeding the model with a handful of infected individuals in a manner that mirrors the real cases—say, 45 teenagers in one part of New York City—the model can run hundreds of simulations to illustrate possible future infection patterns across a population of between 50 million and 60 million in nine regions, according to Madhav Marathe, a deputy director of Virginia Tech’s Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory (NDSSL). In one experiment, for example, the model was asked to determine the impact of school closures on flu transmissions.

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Boeing acknowledges early 787s will be heavy, reaffirms payload commitments

While Boeing 787’s recent rapid progress is a welcome change after nearly two years of delays, lingering in the background are concerns over the airframer abililty to meet customer promises as the airframer acknowledges its early 787s will be heavy.

The confirmation comes in the wake of a report by a Wall Street research firm which raises concerns over the airframer’s ability to meet performance as well as describing production goals - even after being revised – as remaining highly ambitious.

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