Advanced Technologies in US Military applications

AHW can strike any target in world in less than 1 hour, AFP reports; vehicle launched from Hawaii 4,000km to Pacific atoll.

AHW can strike any target in world in less than 1 hour, AFP reports; vehicle launched from Hawaii 4,000km to Pacific atoll.

The US Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command launched the vehicle from the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii at 1:30 a.m. local time to the Reagan Test Site at the Kwajalein Atoll.

The vehicle glided at least 4,000 kilometers to the Pacific atoll, with the goal of testing "navigation, guidance, and control" according to Pentagon spokesperson Lt. Col. Melinda F. Morgan. It was powered by a three-stage hypersonic booster system.

Scientists classify hypersonic speeds as those at Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound) or above.

The Pentagon developed AHW as part of the Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) program, which the US said it would use to "precisely strike time-sensitive, high value targets," according to the US State Department.

The US Defense Afvanced Research Projects Agenct (DARPA) has conducted research on a similar hypersonic weapon, the HTV-2.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?ID=246076&R=R1

Less than one hour to hit any target on the surface of the Earth from one launch location.

Geez, these Americans are amazing... it takes most objects even in low orbit (the ones moving the fastest) 90 minutes to complete one orbit so this new weapon travels at higher than orbital speeds???

GarryB wrote:Less than one hour to hit any target on the surface of the Earth from one launch location.

Geez, these Americans are amazing... it takes most objects even in low orbit (the ones moving the fastest) 90 minutes to complete one orbit so this new weapon travels at higher than orbital speeds???

may it go through space also.

Five mach means 1716 m/s (1.716 km/s), but asatellite or warhead in LEO has aspeed of 8 km/s .

............Repeated

Hypersonic means faster than mach 5... the S-300 and S-400 series missiles are hypersonic too.

An object in low earth orbit... like the International Space Station travels at 27,724km/h which is 462km/minute or 7.1km/s and completes 15.7 orbits per day. With 24 hours in a day that means each orbit takes about one and a half hours... or 90 minutes.

So if, at 7.1km/s, it takes 90 minutes to orbit the earth, then at 7.1km/s for 90 minutes you travel, so 7.1km/s would mean traveling at 639km/minute, so for 90 minutes that is 57510km, so if we divide that by "less than an hour" or 59 minutes we get 975km/minute which equates to 16.2km/s... which is a problem.

Why is it a problem?

Because escape velocity is 11.2km/s so that means that accelerating your weapon up to 16.2km/s and you need to keep using fuel to stop flying straight out into space and turn around the surface of the earth to hit targets on the other side... so you burn an enormous amount of fuel to get to 16.2km/s and then you burn a lot more to fly round the curvature of the earth to prevent the weapon zipping off into space.

...would be far more energy efficient to just get the weapon to low orbital speed and use gravity and a small retro rocket to deorbit over the target... but that would mean one and a half hours to target... of course having launchers in 2-3 places will give you a less than one hour launch window... the problem remaining that to get the weapon to that speed will require an ICBM sized booster that will not look much different to a real ICBM... will be interesting to see what explanation they give... this is... in practical terms an execution system to allow them to assassinate people at very short notice... this is a real time murder system.

The Pentagon has put in an order for prototype contact lenses that give users a much wider field of vision.

The lenses are designed to be paired with compact heads up display (HUD) units - glasses that allow images to be projected onto their lenses.

Much bulkier HUDs are already deployed by the US Army and Air Force to superimpose data about targets and other status updates over users' views.

The tech could help troops enhance their awareness on the battlefield.

The iOptik system's developer, Innovega, told the BBC it had signed a contract earlier this week to deliver a fully-functioning prototype to the Pentagon's research laboratory, Darpa.

The US Department of Defense had previously funded part of the Washington-based firm's initial engineering work on the project.

"The new contract gives us an immediate opportunity to start prototyping and demonstrating elements of this new system," Innovega's chief executive Steve Willey said.
Multifocal

The lenses work by allowing the wearer to focus on two things at once - both the information projected onto the glasses' lenses and the more distant view that can be seen through them.

They do this by having two different filters.

The central part of each lens sends light from the HUD towards the middle of the pupil, while the outer part sends light from the surrounding environment to the pupil's rim.
Continue reading the main story
iOptik contact lens

By building two filters into each lens, close-up and distant light sources are both in focus

Watch more about how the iOptik system could transform how we see the world around us

The retina receives each image in focus, at the same time.

"Normally, for example, with a camera you focus on something distant or something close - but you focus on a particular spot," said Mr Willey.

"By wearing our contact lens you automatically have this multi-focus, or dual-focus, and you are doing something that humans don't usually do."
Augmented reality

The chief executive said he also hoped to license the technology to be sold to the public.

One suggested application would be to allow users to watch what appear to be big-screen 3D movies on their glasses - with a different image projected to each lens.

Other potential uses include augmented reality eyewear similar to that teased by Google in its recent Project Glass demo, and a device to offer gamers a more immersive experience.

The lenses are still going through clinical trials as part of the US Food and Drug Administration's approval process, but Mr Willey said he was confident the tech should be available to the public towards the end of 2014.
Concept graphic of HUD glasses Innovega believes the lenses will allow the use of sunglass-style HUDs with built in projectors
Motion sickness

However, one eye expert suggested that a similar technique had proved problematic when used to treat post-surgery cataract patients.

"Two superimposed images tend to be degraded and lower in contrast," said Prof Gary Rubin from University College London's Institute of Ophthalmology.

"I question whether a multi-focal contact lens is the right solution.

"If you're walking around with a heads up display on, the image projected on the lens could mask your peripheral or central vision. And if it's magnifying the image or changing the way it moves when your eyes move, you could get motion sickness."

You can see more on this type of wearable technology on Click on the BBC News Channel at 1130 on Saturday and Sunday in the UK, and worldwide on BBC World News this weekend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17692256

This is problematic because the lenses they are talking about go right on your eye, and the way the eye works only a very narrow area right in the centre of your view shows detail. The rest shows colour and movement but does not have the detail for things like reading.

The concept behind that is that your wide field of view allows you to see lots of stuff but any movement or colour can be seen at great angles that attract your attention so you turn your eyes and centralise them on things you want to examine in detail like text so you can read it or examine it in high detail.

The obvious problem is that any information needs to be inside that 1-2 degrees field of view so you can read the detail.

Normally with something like a book to make it contain more information the words are spread over the page so for most people they can't take in all that detail at once so they have to scan through the text one line at a time to read what is on that particular page.

With a lens mounted HUD you can't scan for information because it is attached to your eye and moves with your eye so it would need to scroll information right past your centre of vision... which might distract you from the things in the real world actually happening in front of you...

US Approach - Rendering Guided Missiles Obsolete

http://www.lightninggun.com/White%20Paper_Rendering%20Guided%20Missiles%20Obsolete.pdf

After reading the first paragraph of that article I lost faith my friend...

Gyros were used in navigation systems for bombers well before the V-1 and there were several designs of what one would called cruise missiles before that too including both Soviet and US models from the 1930s.

The sorts of technologies they are talking about like lasers and EMP are big, bulky and extremely expensive, not to mention most of the laser types require large amounts of very toxic chemicals.

Russia is a country at the forefront of laser development... and notice they haven't stopped with missile design yet.

GarryB wrote:Gyros were used in navigation systems for bombers well before the V-1 and there were several designs of what one would called cruise missiles before that too including both Soviet and US models from the 1930s.

The sorts of technologies they are talking about like lasers and EMP are big, bulky and extremely expensive, not to mention most of the laser types require large amounts of very toxic chemicals.

The ability of potential shielding from EMP to reduce the weapons effectiveness is definitely one of the things they have not investigated in this research project.

Also, according to this author ...... you can't protect devices against EMP attack completely. All it takes is a small gap in the "protection shield" through a loose screw or gap in mechanical design and the EMP will find its way into the circuitry and cause damage regardless of a Fraday type cage design being implemented. EMP protection is all about minimizing damage as much as is feasibly possible....but it can never eliminate EMP damage.

Aircraft are usually fitted with lightning protection but the ability of this technology to protect all the electronic systems against the more "rapid and intense" threat of EMP in a plane is minimal. It is actually possible to offer an improvement in EMP protection by one or two orders of magnitude ie: 90-99%)....but this requires every circuit in the plane to be modified and adds huge cost and weight.

but it can never eliminate EMP damage.

But isn't that key?

EMP is effected by distance, and of course power... suggesting a modified HARM missile with an EMP warhead is somehow going to make missiles obsolete is ridiculous because any ground based system is going to have far more power potential than any missile, or for that matter any aircraft that can carry it, so any attacking aircraft or missile that hopes to penetrate the air defences by EMPing them on its way in might find the enemy using a ground based EMP device on them before they get within range to use their own EMP device.

I find it expecially naieve of them to put a non explosive EMP payload on a missile that flys through the air at 3-4 times the speed of sound because they don't want to hurt anyone... that missile is going to hit the ground somewhere and the impact will be fairly substantial... but most importantly an ARM like HARM would have a warhead of 100-150kgs of HE which would have about a 20m effective radius... and they are replacing that with a small EMP device that has... about a 20m effective radius.

WTF is the point?

Aircraft are usually fitted with lightning protection but the ability of this technology to protect all the electronic systems against the more "rapid and intense" threat of EMP in a plane is minimal. It is actually possible to offer an improvement in EMP protection by one or two orders of magnitude ie: 90-99%)....but this requires every circuit in the plane to be modified and adds huge cost and weight.

Or modern resettable fuses that stop the current flow during the peak blast of EM energy that reset a half a second later?

I would just say that EM stuff lacks range unless it is a nuke so you have to use missiles to deploy the payload anyway, and Lasers are simply too expensive... even in comparison with current rocket technology.

Missiles using scramjet technology will be faster and lighter and cheaper.

ATGMs have been promising the end of armoured vehicles for a few decades now, MANPADS have been doing the same with Helos, but the makers of armoured vehicles and low flying aircraft came up with APS and DIRCMS respectively... who knows where it will lead... but certainly not to the end of anything.

GarryB wrote:Missiles using scramjet technology will be faster and lighter and cheaper.

ATGMs have been promising the end of armoured vehicles for a few decades now, MANPADS have been doing the same with Helos, but the makers of armoured vehicles and low flying aircraft came up with APS and DIRCMS respectively... who knows where it will lead... but certainly not to the end of anything.

DIRCM and CIRCM systems countermeasure technologies have limitations because these laser jammers are basically a passive solution that allows the plane to temporarily hide. As a passive solution they are susceptible to counter-counter measure technologies ( as per the author of this paper) .

The weakness of passive countermeasure technologies is always going to be there. For example, DIRCM uses mid-IR lasers from 3-5 microns in wavelength to jam the optical heat seeking sensors so the plane can hide from the missile. Then CCM technologies in missiles recently started to use narrowband optical filters at the main laser lines in the mid-IR to filter the laser jammers out. Now CIRCM uses tunable lasers in the mid-IR (as a laser physicist I will tell you very technically difficult and delicate laser systems) that scan their wavelength across the entire spectrum. However missile manufacturers are already working on tunable optical filters that detect the wavelength of the CIRCM and tune the filter to that wavelength. Passive solutions will always be susceptible to CCM technologies .And another major thing about passive CM.......you really need a suite of countermeasure technologies for both types of missile guidance - heat seeking and radar guided. DIRCM/CIRCM can only jam heat seeking missiles. Electronic warfare platforms, stealth designs and materials are required to avoid radar guided missiles. An active solution with a directed energy weapon is blind to guidance technology and will be the only generic defense solution.

LEMP as per the author, actually provides a 3-way punch. The plasma produces an EMP pulse....but also a broadband flash that covers the 3-5micron spectrum and much more. This would be much harder to filter out than either a fixed or tunable laser jammer (which have narrowband spectrums) as its broadband spectrum is much more akin to the IR spectrum from a jet engine. Furthermore an acoustic shockwave is also produced by the plasma pulse which has potential to interfere with radar guidance systems. Consequently this technology could be developed into an ideal passive solution against both IR guided and Radar guided missiles

Yet it is only a matter of time before those DIRCMs increase in power so that instead of just dazzling the incoming seeker they can actually do some real damage... heating the seeker window could render it opaque to all frequencies...

The point is that it will be measure and counter measure and counter counter measure for the forseeable future, which tells me that missiles are not dead, just like tanks and aircraft are not dead because of missiles.

There will always be measures and countermeasures. This game will never end.

Thanks .

What are your views on this :

Beyond GPS: 5 Next-Generation Technologies for Positioning, Navigation & Timing     http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Releases/2014/07/24.aspx


Penny-sized inertial sensors, pulsed lasers and tracked lightning strikes are among novel approaches to provide precise location-based insights in GPS-denied areas


“Position, navigation, and timing are as essential as oxygen for our military operators ,” said DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar. “Now we are putting new physics, new devices, and new algorithms on the job so our people and our systems can break free of their reliance on GPS.”  

DARPA’s current PNT portfolio includes five programs, focused wholly or in part on PNT-related technology:

  1) Adaptable Navigation Systems (ANS) is developing new algorithms and architectures for rapid plug-and-play integration of PNT sensors across multiple platforms, with the intent to reduce development costs and shrink deployment time from months to days. ANS aims to create better inertial measurement devices by using cold-atom interferometry, which measures the relative acceleration and rotation of a cloud of atoms stored within a sensor. The goal is to leverage quantum physical properties to create extremely accurate inertial measurement devices that can operate for long periods without needing external data to determine time and position. Additionally, ANS seeks to exploit non-navigational electromagnetic signals--including commercial satellite, radio and television signals and even lightning strikes--to provide additional points of reference for PNT. In combination, these various sources are much more abundant and have stronger signals than GPS, and so could provide position information in both GPS-denied and GPS-degraded environments.

   2) Microtechnology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) leverages extreme miniaturization made possible by DARPA-developed micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Micro-PNT comprises a portfolio of diverse efforts collectively devoted to develop highly stable and precise chip-scale gyroscopes, clocks and complete integrated timing and inertial measurement devices. DARPA researchers have fabricated a prototype with three gyroscopes, three accelerometers and a highly accurate master clock on a chip that fits easily on the face of a penny. The self-calibrating, high-performance and cost-effective microscale sensors that DARPA is developing could offer tremendous size, weight and power (SWAP) improvements over existing sensors.

   3) Quantum-Assisted Sensing and Readout (QuASAR) intends to make the world’s most accurate atomic clocks—which currently reside in laboratories—both robust and portable. QuASAR researchers have developed optical atomic clocks in laboratories with a timing error of less than 1 second in 5 billion years. Making clocks this precise portable could improve upon existing military systems such as GPS, and potentially enable entirely new radar, LIDAR and metrology applications.

 4)   The Program in Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering (PULSE) applies the latest in pulsed laser technology to significantly improve the precision and size of atomic clocks and microwave sources, enabling more accurate time and frequency synchronization over large distances. These capabilities are essential to fully leverage super-accurate atomic clocks, as clocks such as those that QuASAR seeks to build are more precise than our current ability to synchronize between them. If successful, PULSE technology could enable global distribution of time precise enough to take advantage of the world’s most accurate optical atomic clocks.

 5)  The Spatial, Temporal and Orientation Information in Contested Environments (STOIC) program seeks to develop PNT systems that provide GPS-independent PNT with GPS-level timing in a contested environment. STOIC comprises three primary elements that when integrated have the potential to provide global PNT independent of GPS: long-range robust reference signals, ultra-stable tactical clocks, and multifunctional systems that provide PNT information between multiples users.

Might sound funny but the most critical thing there is super accurate timing mechanisms that are tiny.

Why you ask?

So many tasks require accuracy and in navigation timing is critical.

A timing device that is extremely accurate but also the size of a full stop could be used in a fusing mechanism for 30mm cannon shells so the target could be lased to get its precise range... a computer can calculate the exact distance to the target... the acceleration of the shell down the barrel and decelleration after it leaves the barrel on its way to the target is known and can be used with the range to determine very accurately the time the shell will take from muzzle to just above the target... which might be a man standing behind a fence.... rather than fire through the fence and punch a 30mm hole with a solid 30mm round, with a precise timed fuse you can fire it over the fence and set it to detonate directly above the target.

If you look at the shape of a 30mm projectile it is shaped pretty much like a boat... the point at the front and the long sides and the small tucked in rear... most of the explosive is in the centre and the sides form the greatest area of effective fragments so detonating above the target has the side fragments showering down on the target which is the most efficient use of the sides... if the point had hit the fence all the fragments would have gone sideways down the line of the fence and the target would have been fine.

Of the rest of the stuff... not really interested in US BS. Sorry. (I just read this thread to moderate it.... )

     BAE Railgun Test on JHSV Trenton on 2016 plan  





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TrAc2PYrRw


Next year Naval Sea Systems Command will conduct the first at sea test of its electromagnetic railgun, hurling a guided 44 pound projectile and hypersonic speeds off the coast of Florida, NAVSEA officials said on Tuesday .

The test will validate the assumptions the Navy has made in the decades-old pursuit of the railgun not only as a long range weapon to support troops ashore but start testing new ideas of using the weapon as an anti-surface warfare (ASUW) weapon, a ballistic missile defense (BMD) tool and as a close in weapon system for cruise missile threats.NAVSEA outlined the expanded mission set for the railgun — beyond naval surface fire support — in a request for information issued earlier this year.

Traditionally, the Navy has used missiles to intercept targets but the railgun promises similar results for less money.“There’s a tradition that every time an enemy throws a threat at us our counter to that threat is one order more of magnitude expensive than the threat costs. This is a technology where we’re engaging threats at similar probabilities of kill for a cost that’s about two orders of magnitude less,” Ziv said.
“Looking that the missions sets the railgun will be able to achieve the ship or land based facility, it will be able to store a lot more rounds and consummate a lot more engagements than a traditional missile-type system.”

NAVSEA is also working with the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) to create a modular railgun system for both at sea and on land.

EXACTO reveal a revolutionary self guided bullet


Watch the U.S. Army test self guided 'smart bullets' that let ANYONE hit a moving target with perfect accuracy :-

◙Tests show gun pointed away from intended target and still hitting it
◙Technology will increase distance snipers can shoot from, as well as decrease the effect poor weather has on sniper accuracy
◙Novice shooter using the system for the first time hit a moving target


The US Army has revealed testing of a revolutionary self guided bullet is at an advanced stage..
The latest trials of the Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance, known as EXACTO, program have shown even first time users can hit a moving target.
The bullets have a real-time guidance system to track targets, and can change their course if needed.






The bullets have a real-time guidance system to track target, and can change their course if needed. The video shows EXACTO rounds manoeuvring in flight to hit targets that are moving and accelerating.

The system combines a maneuverable bullet and a real-time guidance system to track and deliver the projectile to the target, allowing the bullet to change path during flight to compensate for any unexpected factors that may drive it off course.

An experienced shooter using the technology demonstration system repeatedly hit moving and evading targets in the latest trials.

Additionally, a novice shooter using the system for the first time hit a moving target.



The video shows EXACTO rounds manoeuvring in flight to hit targets that are moving and accelerating.
EXACTO's specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that can impede successful hits.
'True to DARPA's mission, EXACTO has demonstrated what was once thought impossible: the continuous guidance of a small-caliber bullet to target,' said Jerome Dunn, DARPA program manager.

The military says its technology could led anyhit hit targets with the accuracy of a highly trained sniper.

According to the video, EXACTO is being developed by Teledyne Scientific & Imaging, with funding from DARPA. Teledyne is a research and development firm based in Thousand Oaks, California. Teledyne was awarded a contract worth $25 million in 2010 to develop EXACTO.

According to DARPA's release, 'EXACTO's specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that could impede successful hits.'
DARPA says that the bullet created by the project will improve the range of snipers, and improve troop safety as they will be able to shoot and neutralize a target from further away. Currently, US Snipers are expected to be able to hit a target 600 meters away, 90 per cent of the time. With the advent of EXACTO, an increased range to 2,000 meters is promised.



'This live-fire demonstration from a standard rifle showed that EXACTO is able to hit moving and evading targets with extreme accuracy at sniper ranges unachievable with traditional rounds.

'Fitting EXACTO's guidance capabilities into a small .50-caliber size is a major breakthrough and opens the door to what could be possible in future guided projectiles across all calibers.'

'It is critical that snipers be able to engage targets faster, and with better accuracy, since any shot that doesn't hit a target also risks the safety of troops by indicating their presence and potentially exposing their location.

The system combines a maneuverable bullet and a real-time guidance system to track and deliver the projectile to the target, allowing the bullet to change path during flight to compensate for any unexpected factors that may drive it off course.




DARPA's prototype model of EXACTO, which will increased the distance away from a target snipers can successful shoot

Despite DARPA's claim that EXACTO is the first bullet of it's kind, in 2012 a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin named Sandia National Laboratories, which does research and development with the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, claimed to be developing their own self-guided bullet.

Snipers will now be able to hit their targets without interference from unfavorable weather conditions

Sandia's bullet uses lasers for guidance, as opposed to EXACTO's onboard computer system (the specific working of EXACTO are classified.)
According to Sandia's website, additional development is needed before a full prototype or test can be performed. However, unlike EXACTO, Sandia plans to make their bullets available to law enforcement in addition to the military.
According to DARPA, the next phase of the development of EXACTO is to refine the accuracy and performance of the technology.

The US again flagrantly disregards international law...

The Hague convention on small arms clearly states the direct targeting of human individuals with large calibre ammo is illegal... but then they use hollow point rounds in their sniper rifles too, so why start caring now?

Obviously solution is the carry smoke grenades and keep behind cover.

hey they are making progress- what they needed an $80k javelin missile to do before could now be done with $1k bullets.

Except they could have just used Metis-M1 with a couple of kilos of HE as a payload... and it can hit moving targets...

EXACTO Guided Bullet Demonstrates Repeatable Performance against Moving Targets

April 27, 2015

DARPA’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program, which developed a self-steering bullet to increase hit rates for difficult, long-distance shots, completed in February its most successful round of live-fire tests to date. An experienced shooter using the technology demonstration system repeatedly hit moving and evading targets. Additionally, a novice shooter using the system for the first time hit a moving target.

This video shows EXACTO rounds maneuvering in flight to hit targets that are moving and accelerating. EXACTO’s specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that can impede successful hits.

“True to DARPA’s mission, EXACTO has demonstrated what was once thought impossible: the continuous guidance of a small-caliber bullet to target,” said Jerome Dunn, DARPA program manager. “This live-fire demonstration from a standard rifle showed that EXACTO is able to hit moving and evading targets with extreme accuracy at sniper ranges unachievable with traditional rounds. Fitting EXACTO’s guidance capabilities into a small .50-caliber size is a major breakthrough and opens the door to what could be possible in future guided projectiles across all calibers.”

The EXACTO program developed new approaches and advanced capabilities to improve the range and accuracy of sniper systems beyond the current state of the art. The program sought to improve sniper effectiveness and enhance troop safety by allowing greater shooter standoff range and reduction in target engagement timelines. For more information, please visit the program page.

Targeting human targets with 50 cal bullets violates the Hague convention on the use of large calibre rounds on human targets.

Of course their standard 30 cal sniper bullet is a hollow point bullet which violates the Hague convention too... as does the fragmentation effect of the 5.56mm round they use.

the irony is they tried to accuse the Soviets of violating the same rules with the 5.45mm round but it does not deform on impact... its mild steel case retains its shape.

old post again .


The US again flagrantly disregards international law.

The Hague convention on small arms clearly states the direct targeting of human individuals with large calibre ammo is illegal... but then they use hollow point rounds in their sniper rifles too, so why start caring now?

Where do you see it's for Humain targets ?