The Mystic, the nuclear powered rescue sub, was retired on October 1.
It has been replaced by the ubmarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System’s (SRDRS), which is more easily transported.
Category: technology
NLOS-C Prototype Fires First Round
They have validated the concept with mockups and breadboards (It’s why you see the cables running out of the back of those vehicles) but this does represent a step forward for the howitzer variant of the Future Combat System:
The mobile cannon, which is crewed by two soldiers, has a fully automated ammunition loading system and on-board projectile tracking. Lieutenant Colonel Robert McVay, Army Product Manager for NLOS-C said in a statement that “This marks the first 155mm round fired from a fully automated howitzer mounted on an FCS hybrid-electric chassis and remotely commanded through its on-board computers and controls.”
You will note in the picture that this is not the full up model firing, but one of the breadboard models, note the cables out the rear.
Northrop Says DDG 1000 Deckhouse Hunky Dory
Northrop Grumman is denying that there are any problems with the DDG-1000 deckhouse.
It is a very large composite structure, so I would be surprised if there weren’t problems with the first one off the line…even though this line now appears to end at two ships.
JSF Program Managers Get Stroppy
It appears that in some computer simulations of the JSF versus late model SU-35 fighters, the F-35 got clubbed like baby seals.
All in all, this is not particularly surprising. It’s a redux of the F-105 (Lead Sled) vs. the MiG-21 of the Vietnam era.
The MiG-35 has a better power to weight ratio, wing loading, and air to air weapons load out, the F-35 carruing only 2 AMRAAMs because the USAF doesn’t want a comparison with the F-22, a white elephant that they are still lobbying for.
Needless to say, the Airforce brass is thoroughly unamused by these reports, and they are mounting a PR counteroffensive, including claims that the simulation was an apples to oranges comparison, because the F-35 was carrying all of its weapons internally.
Dude, you carry the stuff on pylons, and you lose stealth. If you lose stealth, you will be clubbed like a baby seal, it’s the only advantage that the F-35 has.
My favorite bit of this counter-offensive is this patently absurd claim:
“Advanced stealth and sensor fusion allow the F-35 pilot to see, target and destroy the adversary and strategic targets in a very high surface-to-air threat scenario, and deal with air threats intent on denying access — all before the F-35 is ever detected — then return safely to do it again,” said Tom Burbage, a Lockheed Martin vice president.
Considering that he is presenting what is called a “flaming datum”, so named because a ship burning or sinking was how U-Boats, an early form of stealth vehicle, were determined to be in the area, and then suggesting that he can return to the area and make another attack, is absurd.
Something like 50% of all sub sinkings followed a flaming datum.
In any case, it appears that as part of planning for the dual role missile, A2A weapons carriage will be improved (paid subscription required):
The U.S. Air Force and Navy have begun talks to define the Joint Dual-Role Air Dominance Missile (JDRADM) intended to replace both air-to-air AIM-120 Amraam and anti-radar AGM-88 Harm beyond 2020 and allow the F-35 to defend itself against both opposing fighters and air defenses.
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Separately, studies into “super-packing” the JSF’s bays to increase the number of weapons carried have come up with a way of loading six Amraam-sized missiles internally, according to the program office. This could be an option for later F-35 capability blocks.
So my guess is that the boyz in blue have seen the same simulations, and are looking to rectify the problem.
Updated PAC-3 Looking at 2009 Test
It looks like Lockheed-Martin Missiles and Fire Control* and the Missile Defense Agency are looking at testing an upgrade to the PAC-3 Patriot SAM in 2009. (paid subscription required)
It looks like the sensor for the hit-to-kill weapon will be much the same as its predecessor, but that range will be doubled and effective altitude increased by a larger diameter motor with a two pulse motor, giving generally improved kinematics.
To do this, they will put the missile in a PAC-2 cannister, the PAC-3 fits 4 missiles in the space of a PAC-2 now, and use folding fins for greater volumetric efficiency, and LM is hopingto be competitive in naval applications too.
*Full Disclosure, in 1999-2000 and 1996-1998, I worked as a mechanical engineer for what is now Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, and I have some claim to actually being a rocket scientist.†
†Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can’t hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as “technical hit man”, where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.
I Really Love Promotional Videos
Case in point: Northrop Grumman’s Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) promotional video, it’s a drop in AESA replacement for the F-16’s APG-68.
I just love the lightning bolts.
Boeing Shows off Bomber Proposal at AFA Convention
So, now we have some models of the competing Boeing and Northrop Grumman concepts to compare:
Boeing Above
Northrop Grumman Above
Both are clearly designed with stealth in mind, and Boeing’s design is rather similar to the B-2, though they have made comments about laminar flow designs to reduce drag. The outer wings, given their narrow chord would likely be laminar flow naturally.
N-G’s design looks as if it would more easily accommodate a large weapons bay, which might make it easier to carry ultra heavy bunker busters.
Based on my estimates of scale, both appear to carry less in the way of bombs than a B-52 (20-30 tons), and more in line with something along the line of the B-47 (10-15 tons).
My guess is that given miniaturization of nuclear weapons, and the available of relatively small guided weapons, a larger capacity is considered redundant.
Saab Unveils New Erieye Platform
The EADS Casa’s C-295 transport.
I’m thinking that with its high wing design, incorporating the radar directly into the structure would be quite doable, but I think right now, they are looking at minimizing the engineering resources for integration.
Attack of the Super-Strength Cyborg Penguins
It’s not my headline, though I wish that I had come up with it.
It’s an article on powered underwater exoskeleton called the Performance Improving Self Contained Exoskeleton for Swimming (PISCES*) that has people flapping like penguins.
It’s penguins….It’s always the penguins.
*People spend way too much time on developing cute acronyms.
Robotic Helicopter Puts on Autonomous Airshow
I’m uncertain that this means much in the scheme of things, it’s a demonstration of a UAV helicopter controller that can “learn” as it executes maneuver, but this a couple of cool videos:
Brave New Torture Technology
Yep, we now have a report of what is quite literally a pain ray that causes no tissue damage.
How long before this comes home, and this “torture with evidence of torture” device finds it’s way into police interrogation rooms”
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F-35B Proceeds All Ahead Slow
It’s supposed to execute a short takeofff, be able to reach supersonic speeds, and then execute a vertical landing, but at this point, the production model is moving very slowly toward this goal.
They have now gotten up to about 60kts taxi with everything hanging out.
This aircraft does not fly….It’s just so ugly it repels the ground.
Boeing’s Airborne Laser Begins Testing
Well, it appears that the oft delayed Boeing project*, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Boeing 747 airborne laser (ABL) is actually ready to start shooting at some stuff, albeit for very short (under 1 second) duration.
I’m of the camp that believes that the issues involved with chemical lasers, specifically the logistical issues raised by the exotic and toxic chemicals that they need to carry in order to work, mitigate against them finding much use in the battle field, particularly since ganging together solid state lasers seems to be advancing very rapidly now.
*All of their stuff appears to be “oft delayed.”
ATK’s Sizzler Simulator and Me
I just had my resume submitted by a shop to ATK, which manufactures thing related to rockets, drones, and small arms, and then I came across the fact that they got a contract for a target drone to simulate the SS-N-27 Sizzler (Novator 34M-54E Klub).
It’s an interesting concept. It’s a two stage cruise missile proceeding at subsonic speeds for most of its flight path, but about 20-30 miles from the target, the second stages fires and it accelerates to somewhere around mach 2.9 for the final flight to target.
You end up with a supersonic approach just as it goes over the horizon, but the total package is much smaller, or the range is much greater, than something that would be supersonic along the complete flight path.
ATK’s job may actually be more difficult than making the weapon, as one would assume that you would want the possibility of recovery for the drone, at least when the defenders get it wrong in practice.
It’s called the Multi-Stage Supersonic Target (MSST).
Basically, you have a subsonic bus which carries the whole assembly, and the supersonic portion, based on the GQM-163 Coyote supersonic target drone is hung from a strongback.
Full disclosure: They have my resume in their hands right now, at least that’s what the shop told me.
Boeing Gets Darpa Helo Contract
After Boeing’s Canard-Rotar-Wing crashed and burned…literally…twice, it appears that they will be getting another bite at the apple, this time with a concept called Diskrotor, in which retractable rotor blades are housed in a circular wing.
Note that about a year ago, I mentioned a similar concept being explored by a small Swiss start up, here are some pictures from them, along with a vid:
Solid Fuel Ramjet HARM
Well, it’s beginning to look like the west is finally catching up to the former Soviet Union in solid fuel ramjet technology, with the British working on their Meteor, and the US looking at adding the technology to the HARM anti-radiation missile (it homes in on SAM radars).
Note that the Soviets had fielded the SA-6 “Gainful” with this technology starting in the late 1960s, and had been sufficiently confident in the technology that it was extensively exported to Egypt and Syria in time for the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
The picture is of a test launch of a missile with an AGM-88E HARM guidance system and a integral rocket ramjet (IRR) propulsion system launched at White Sands in August.
What is in advance of the system deployed by the Soviets in the late 1960s is that the booster does not have a separate nozzle, and the thrust can be throttled, which would allow the missile to loiter in the area waiting for an emitter to switch on.
Another NASA Orion Fail
In this case an unsuccessful parachute test.
Needless to say, I’m seriously considering seeing if NASA needs a department of finding their own ass with both hands.
I’m not sure what NASA had in the 1960s, and lost some time in the 1970s, but it’s clear that they have not yet gotten it back.
Weapons-Grade Electrically Powered Lasers Seem Near
The dividing line is 100 KW, and it looks like we will be seeing this in the next year or so.
Basically, they are focusing together multiple “strings of solid state lasers in order to boost the power of the beam.
This is far more useful, and much less expensive, than the chemical lasers that have been tested by the military previously, which typically involve the use of exotic, expensive, and highly toxic chemicals to achieve the necessary results.
Northrop-Grumman is claiming that they achieved 30 KW for 5 minutes continuously recently.
One other technology that might benefit from this is advanced capacitor technology, as to get the desired 100 KW, you are looking at putting in at least 500 KW (about 670 hp), and when one considers the power required for cooling and other issues, you could see the total power requirements during firing be in the 1000 KW range, which is a big generator, but storing the energy in capacitors would eliminate much of that problem.
I would expect the the first military application to be something like a laser to intercept things like mortar rounds and Katyusha rockets.
Neat Tech: Coanda Effect Aircraft
In the UK, a company called GFS (which stands for — I kid you not — Geoff’s Flying Saucer), has been flying a small UAV, and expects it to be able to fly autonomously by years end.
The technology is pretty neat, it uses the Coandă effect, the tendency of a fluid to follow a surface, to generate lift.
The UAV is small, Max TOW is 18.5 kilos, but it does show one advantage over a conventional lift propeller, greater volumetric efficiency, because there is no big honking hole down the center of mass for the air.
Additionally, by tailoring the vanes on the body, you can eliminate torque issues, meaning that you have a single prop, rather than two counter rotating, which is smaller and lighter.
Additionally, they are looking at other applications, starting with a small manned vehicle: