AF ready for F-22 export version

The Air Force is prepared to create a version of the F-22 Raptor that the U.S. could sell to foreign countries if it gets the go-ahead from Congress and the State Department, according to one of the service’s top acquisition officers.

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ORNL finding could help electronics industry enter new phase

Electronic devices of the future could be smaller, faster, more powerful and consume less energy because of a discovery by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The key to the finding, published in Science, involves a method to measure intrinsic conducting properties of ferroelectric materials, which for decades have held tremendous promise but have eluded experimental proof. Now, however, ORNL Wigner Fellow Peter Maksymovych and co-authors Stephen Jesse, Art Baddorf and Sergei Kalinin at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences believe they may be on a path that will see barriers tumble.

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Colossus, Cray and Blue Gene: The History of Supercomputers

They are the most powerful computers in the world and this is their story from start to finish. Enter the world of computing's heavyweights.

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Move Over, Silicon; Here Come Quantum Bismuth Chips

Newly discovered properties of bismuth telluride hold promise for spintronic quantum computing

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Sukhoi secretive on PAK-FA programmes

Sukhoi is still working on a prototype of its fifth-generation "PAK-FA" advanced tactical frontline fighter, but the schedule for its flight-test programme remains unconfirmed, despite earlier indications that the aircraft would fly in 2009.

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Life's tough, so cameras are getting tougher

Industry heavyweights Canon and Panasonic this year introduced their own rugged, waterproof cameras. Pentax, which has had a line of waterproof cameras for several years, recently added a "freezeproof" feature to its Optio W60, though it's not shockproof.

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Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder Missile Demos Surface-Launch Capabilities

Raytheon Company's (NYSE: RTN) AIM-9X Sidewinder missile demonstrated surface-to-air capability when it engaged an unmanned aircraft vehicle target during a May 16 test.

The AIM-9X is a fifth-generation, high off-boresight, infrared-guided missile developed and deployed for the air-to-air mission. This test marks the second time the AIM-9X was fired in a surface-to-air role.

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A Lightweight Display Brings Instant Army Intelligence to Your Wrist

The flexible, durable, wearable screen could soon be standard issue.

A special-ops soldier carries a slew of gadgets into battle. There's the GPS unit to pinpoint his squad's location, and a laptop for pulling up blueprints of terrorist compounds or infrared readings of buildings scoped out by robotic surveillance drones. With a radio and its five-pound battery, it's too much gear. But in a couple years, troops could lighten their load with a rugged, flexible, wrist-mounted display that's in development by the U.S. Army and HP Labs.

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Unmanned Power Gliders Assume Long Endurance Surveillance Patrols

he French UAV maker Sagem has teamed with German glider producer Stemme AG to introduce the Patroller, a long endurance UAV based on a powered glider. The Stemme S 15 was first presented at the Berlin Air-Show last in 2008. In its current configuration, the Patroller is designed to perform long endurance missions, to be used in a wide spectrum of roles, from military surveillance to homeland security and maritime patrol.

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Raytheon Weighs Continued Funding For MKV

Raytheon is considering whether and how to proceed with work on key technologies that were part of the dying Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) and Kinetic Energy Interceptor efforts, which have been funded by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.

The Pentagon proposed terminating MKV and KEI in the fiscal 2010 budget; Congress hasn’t yet approved the plan.

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Beechcraft May Add Weapon-Carrying Capability to King Air

King Air 350 builder Hawker Beechcraft is studying the possibility of fitting out the aircraft with precision-guided weapons as one option to extend the platform's capabilities.

Terry Harnell, the Hawker vice president for special mission aircraft, said the company was looking at designing wing hardpoints capable of carrying small precision weapons, electronic sensor pods or external fuel tanks to make the King Air more versatile.

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Will Future U.S. Military Submarines Be Invisible to Enemy Sonar Detection?: Enter Acoustic Metamaterial Cloaking Tech

It looks like the whole metamaterial/negative-index material movement just got another shot in the arm with development of an “acoustic metamaterial lens” that can theoretically create an acoustic/sonic “invisibility cloak” a.k.a. “cloak of silence” capable of hiding military submarines from enemy detection. DefenseReview first reported on metamaterials a.k.a. negative-index materials or “negative index metamaterials” in August 2006. The technology on which we were reporting at the time theoretically has the potential to lead to an optical invisibility cloak for cloaking soldiers and military equipment and vehicles.

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$20M to BAE Systems for CPX Friend or Foe ID System

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems in Greenlawn, NY received a $20 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-priced contract (N00019-08-C-0061) for the production and delivery of Mode 5 common transponder system (CPX) identification friend or foe (IFF) hardware and associated platform integration and testing. IFF systems enable forces to recognize friendly aircraft and surface vessels to avoid inadvertent firing on friendly forces. The technology, in use since World War II, has two main components: interrogators, which ask the questions, and transponders, which provide the responses. The Mode 5 IFF system was developed by NATO as an enhancement to older, less capable IFF systems. BAE Systems will perform the work in Greenlawn, NY and expects to complete it in December 2011. The Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, MD manages the contract.

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Raytheon Fires 1st Excalibur Ib Projectiles From Archer Gun System

In a first-of-its-kind test, Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) fired four Excalibur Ib projectiles from a Swedish Archer gun system, demonstrating Excalibur Ib's compatibility with the system and meeting all test objectives.

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NGC Completes Successful GBFR Demonstration

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has successfully demonstrated the Defense Department's new Ground Based Fighter Radar (GBFR), a multi-mission ground tactical radar designed to provide on-the-move air defense capability to the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps.

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Portable Hard Drives offer capacities up to 500 GB

Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE:EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the worldwide availability of the new Iomega(R) eGo(TM) Portable Hard Drive for Mac users, featuring multiple interface connections, a stylish new aluminum design, superior ruggedness and a robust combination of software, all backed with a three-year limited warranty. Available in three different colors and up to 500GB* in capacity, the new Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive for Mac users provides the dependability and versatility to meet today's on-the-go data storage needs.

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Supercarrier 2015: How to Build the World's Most Powerful Warship

The first pieces of the U.S. Navy’s newest class of aircraft carrier—meant to be the cornerstone of American military sea power over the next hundred years—lie in the open air of a shipyard in Virginia. A misting rain is falling on the jumbled field of steel bulkheads, stacks of pipe and 200-ton sections of hull. It’s as if some gargantuan child broke apart his model ship and scattered the pieces on the ground.

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Jets of 7200°F Hydrogen Cut Through Granite at 100 Feet per Hour

Tired of wearing out diamond bits when you're drilling miles deep into the earth's crust? Try using a high-velocity flame jet instead

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World's Smallest VGA Display is Literally the Size of a Thumbnail

Full-color LCD with a resolution of 600 x 480 pixels (more than your iPhone's 480 x 320) that measures just over a quarter of an inch, diagonally--the world's smallest. Each individual pixel measures 2.9 x 8.7 µm (that's micro); for reference, the thickness of a human hair is around 100 µm.

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Quantum computer one step closer to making today's AMD and Intel chips seem archaic

New approaches to the field of quantum entanglement have given Colorado scientists a boost in the right direction in formulating the world's first quantum computer.

According to a report at ScienceNow, scientists from NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Boulder, Colorado have managed to go one step closer towards showing the relationship between quantum mechanics via quantum entanglement by demonstrating the relationship between particle beams and quantum entaglement in an experiment in the lab.

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Manipulating light on a chip may lead to development of quantum technologies

A team of physicists and engineers at Bristol University has demonstrated exquisite control of single particles of light - photons - on a silicon chip to make a major advance towards long-sought-after quantum technologies, including super-powerful quantum computers and ultra-precise measurements.

The Bristol Centre for Quantum Photonics has demonstrated precise control of four photons using a microscopic metal electrode lithographically patterned onto a silicon chip.

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Stealthy Jammer Considered for F-35

Study work has been carried out examining the benefits of fitting a low-observable electronic warfare pod to the Lockheed Martin F-35 to further boost the aircraft’s electronic combat capability, according to a U.S. Marine Corps officer.

The F-35 is a candidate platform for the next-generation jammer (NGJ), though a conventional pod design would impact the aircraft’s radar cross-section. Using a stealthy pod configuration would provide additional capability while minimizing the impact on the aircraft’s low-observable characteristics.

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Raytheon Begins Testing Upgraded Laser-Guided Maverick Missile Components

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is testing key components that will be used in the AGM-65E2, the U.S. Air Force's newest variant of the laser-guided Maverick missile.

The laser-guided Maverick missile is a direct-attack, air-to-ground precision munition used extensively by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps in ongoing combat operations.

The newest variant of the missile, the AGM-65E2, will have an enhanced-laser seeker and new software, reducing the risk of collateral damage and enabling aircraft to use their onboard lasers to designate a target.

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Air Force Awards First Phase of Next Generation Space Fence

The Air Force awarded firm-fixed-price contracts totaling $90 million for Phase A of Space Fence development to Lockheed Martin Corp. in Moorestown, NJ; Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Linthicum, MS; and Raytheon Co. in Sudbury, MA. Under the contracts, each worth $30 million, the companies will provide Space Fence system design review, plans trades analysis and data, systems engineering planning; architecture planning; prototyping, modeling and simulation systems trades and analyses; risk management life cycle cost estimate and technical data. Hill Air Force Base in Utah manages the contract (FA8213-09-C-0051).

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MC-12 Flies First Combat Mission

The Air Force's newest intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft flew its first combat sortie June 10 over Iraq.

The MC-12 Liberty, assigned to the 362nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, arrived in Iraq June 8 and took off from Joint Base Balad at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time for a four-hour mission.

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Steam Tech Gets Less Punk, More Stimulus Money

Take a jet engine hooked up to some big magnets, add some steam pipes, and what do you have? The comeback of some old-school technologies that could help solve our modern energy problem.

The idea is simple — generate both electricity and heat in the same place, but the potential benefits are big.

Unlike a traditional electric power plant, which can convert about 40 percent of its fuel into electricity but wastes the rest as heat, these combination plants capture that heat and use it to warm or cool buildings. The efficiency of combined heat and power plants can reach into the 80 percent range. If you hook up that plant to a network of steam pipes and electrical wires, you’ve got the tools to power an entire campus or community.

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Human vs. machine: IBM supercomputer takes on Jeopardy

In what could be a leap for AI, IBM programs Watson to take on quiz show champs.

IBM today unveiled Watson, an advanced computing system that engineers hope will be able to compete against humans on the long-running game show Jeopardy. And the show's producers seem to be up for the challenge: They are expected to soon announce plans to air a show pitting human against machine.

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Acer to build laptop with 3-D screen

Hoping to ride a recent surge in movies and TV shows filmed in 3-D, Acer Inc. plans to release a notebook PC this fall equipped with a 15.6-inch 3-D screen, according to a report.

The notebook will have built-in software that can correctly display 3-D movies but also convert regular 2-D movies into 3-D, Campbell Kan, vice president of Acer's mobile computing unit, told the Taiwanese magazine, Digitimes on Monday.

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Mind-Reading Tech May Not Be Far Off

At the World Science Festival this week, indications that brain scanners may soon uncover your private thoughts

Last night at the World Science Festival in New York, leading neuroscientists took the stage to discuss current research into functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), a type of scan that indirectly measures neural activity by measuring the change in the blood oxygen level in the brain. Neurons require oxygen in order to fire, so if a person is thinking about or looking at a specific image, by looking at the oxygen levels the scientists can see the patterns that "light up" in the brain, and link them to a specific word or image. Study results in this field are astonishing.

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Skunk Works nears flight for new breed of all-composite aircraft

When the latest X-plane crafted by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works team soon takes flight over Palmdale, California, observers will be watching a throwback to a previous era of experimental flight technology, but also a potential harbinger of things still to come.
The Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA), a heavily modified Dornier 328JET, is expected to receive an XC-series designation by the US Air Force. It is perhaps the most significant airlifter project dedicated to experimenting with new technologies since the early 1970s, when the McDonnell Douglas YC-14 and Boeing YC-15 were flown.

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