It's hard to make microelectronics sound exciting, but this new line by Honeywell looks significant enough to pass along. Honeywell announced last week that it is releasing a new line of microelectronics for military and commercial satellite developers.
The line offers four times the memory and four times the logic in the same amount of space as previous systems, according to company spokesman James O'Leary.
David Wick, director of Honeywell's Defense and Space microelectronics sales, said the "small circuits offer significantly reduced power consumptions and improved reliability in the harshest of environments."
It seems one advanced research projects agency isn’t enough for the Pentagon and intelligence community. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has asked his agencies and offices – known collectively as the intelligence community – to establish their own office to develop cutting edge technologies. Modeled after the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) -- which in the 1990s helped to develop unmanned aerial vehicle technology, much of which is being used now in the field to collect intelligence – the new Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Iarpa) will “work across agency boundaries, in the ‘white space’ between agencies, on activities that agencies may miss based on current business models and on ‘blue sky’ concepts too ‘distant’ for agencies consumed with current operations,” according to his 100-day plan McConnell instituted Apr. 9.
Today's issue of the British newspaper The Guardian Unlimited reports on a "massive" U.S. government program to combat dirty bombs.
An excerpt:
But David McIntyre of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission says: "To make a dirty bomb you have to be fairly sophisticated. When you extract the material you run the risk of exposure." Which means radioactivity detectors will spot them.
To reduce the chances of a nuclear or radiological dirty bomb attack, the US is currently leading a colossal effort to install a network of preventative defences at home and abroad. Within the next year or two, every person and vehicle entering the US, EU and many other countries will have to go through a portal that scans them for radioactive materials.
Most of the reports yesterday on the discovery of kryptonite in Serbia have focused on the Hollywood angle. Kryptonite being the nemesis of Superman and all. And we're not above a little Superman fun here. Chris Stanley, the minerologist who identified the new mineral said he discovered its relationship to the fictional kryptonite from Superman Returns by Googling its basic chemistry -- sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide--and discovered that it nearly matches the composition of kryptonite.
USAF thwarts drug smugglers with GPS and other tools
Wearing fatigues and dog tags instead of neon suits and gold chains, U.S. airmen are making quite a dent in the Afghanistan drug trade.
The U.S. Air Force 350th Electronic Systems Group and one of its small-business partners, the Counter Narcotics-Terrorism Intelligence Fusion Center has helped officials seize more than 45 tons of narcotics -- with a street value of more than $1 billion -- and boosted the related arrest rate by 75 percent, the Air Force reports.
The Intelligence Fusion Center (IFC) is a commercial-off-the-shelf-based system designed to capture, share and disseminate counter-narcotics terrorism (CNT) intelligence data. Information gathered by Global Positioning Systems, human intelligence and coalition partners furnish IFC's database, specially tailored for the CNT mission.
What's a major issue for the military, especially during war, that doesn't get much attention in the mainstream media?
The answer is power. The kind that fuels electronics and vehicles. Vehicle fuel is an expensive and logistical problem. And other sources of energy such as the battery packs being hauled around Iraq and Afghanistan are a heavy burden for troops with a lot of other things on their minds. That's why the Defense Department has lots of little research projects going on to make battery power lighter and easier to access.
I visited Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge, England, Thursday, among other things to see what the company says is the only Lockheed Martin C-130J wing fatigue test facility in the world. The purpose of the wing fatigue test project is to underwrite the safe operation of the C-130J aircraft operated by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), says Eddie Maclean, military aircraft business manager. The requirement is to cover the wings of these aircraft for a cleared fatigue life equivalent to 30,000 flying hours.
The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) has provided Aviation Week's Ares Defense Blog with exclusive video footage of a flight test held in March with one of its Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters carrying Northrop Grumman's AN/AAQ-24(V) Dircm (directional infrared countermeasures) laser system. The amazing video is shot by a camera placed next to a ground-based missile simulator, provided by AAI Corporation-subsidiary ESL Defence Ltd. (based in England). This equipment stimulated the Amase (Apache modular aircraft survivability equipment) self-protection system on the helicopter (most of which can be seen in the pod in the photo) by emitting an ultraviolet pulse. That pulse was modulated to mimick the launch of a man-portable air-defense missile.
A just-released Defense Science Board report on biometrics says the Defense Department needs to get focused and organized, like, yesterday, on identity management. That's the bit you do once you've collected all the data. In fact, the DSB went so far as to say that the phrase identity management ought to replace biometrics altogether because it's must more representative of what these cool technologies can do for the military.
DOD uses biometrics both for identity authentication such as in smart cards and building access, and in crime scene investigations after roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fingerprints are lifted from bomb fragments loaded into the Pentagon's Automated Biometric Information System, or ABIS, for cross-matching with detainees, fingerprints taken from sailors on commercial vessels during interdiction missions, and any locals applying for jobs.
The DSB says management of biometrics applications has been widely distributed across the Defense Department and is sorely in need of some larger, oversight or construct. Does DOD need a biometrics czar?
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has made no secret in recent years of its push to create technologies, robots and materials that exhibit the same kind of genius as biological systems. The way bees swarm and birds flock has inspired millions of dollars in research designed to achieve the same symmetry and cohesiveness in unmanned aircraft.
Now, Darpa wants to capture the dynamics that enable warm-blooded animals to stay warm when their environment changes and without using up too much energy. Add to that how biological systems evolve over time to adapt to slowly developing changes in their environment. In a broad agency announcement issued last week, Darpa asks for proposals in synthetic evolving materials; essentially, materials that can change to suit their environment. And the agency won't be satisfied with materials that do this through the help of sensors, actuators or other external controls. The capability must be intrinsic to the material just like how a dog pants to stay cool without having to think about it.
Check out exclusive photos from Defense Technology International for a preview of upcoming stories, including:
* Australian Army equips for stability ops
* Army upgrades paratroopers
* New A-10s!
