Hasta La Gadget!

The US Navy’s quieter way to spy, the Ion Tiger, just bested its own 2009 flight record with a key assist from liquid hydrogen. The unmanned aerial vehicle had previously relied on 5000-psi compressed hydrogen for fuel, but for its latest flight test the Naval Research team swapped that out for a new cryogenic tank and delivery system that relies on the liquid stuff; a choice made for the element’s increased density. With that one significant change in place, the craft was able to outperform its last endurance run of 26 hours and two minutes by almost double, lasting 48 hours and one minute in a flight made mid-April. Spying: it’s not only good for the government, it’s good for the environment, too.

Filed under: Robots

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Source: US Naval Research Laboratory

When do we see lasers in action? Well, most of the time, lasers are depicted in science fiction movies sometime in the far off future, where mankind has explored the galaxies far and wide, bringing along with them their sense of adventure and warfare (it is inevitable, as the entire universe is atrophying, so resisting conflict would be futile), and in a case of self-defense (or offense for some), a quick laser shot would do the trick nicely. Star Trek has their phasers, while the X-Wings in the Star Wars universe will see lasers shot from the tips of the S-Foils. The thing is, when will such high tech warfare and weaponry arrive on planet earth? It seems that the answer is “in the right here and now”, where the US Navy has already received its very own kind of laser cannon that has made short work of drones bobbing away in a distance, and said laser cannons can be fitted to active warships.

The US Navy will obviously start to fit their own ships that sail the seven seas with lasers, touting that this represents the future of warfare. Also known as the Laser Weapon System or Laws for short, it has seen action in testing areas, shooting down drones, and considering how it relies on electricity to fire, it costs under $1 per shot – which should be as efficient in disabling a small vessel on the sea, and when you compare it to a $475,000 Sidewinder missile, it makes a whole lot more economical sense to implement Laws throughout their fleet, no?

Interestingly enough, the prototype is not expensive either, where it costs less than $40 million to make, which is a drop in the ocean that the US call their defense budget. It will be installed aboard the USS Ponce, where said vessel has been assigned to the status of a floating base in the Middle East, although this is set to happen sometime after October this year. The Navy has hope that incoming missiles will be unable to outmanoeuvre a highly accurate laser beam that is fired at the speed of light, and for the controller, this could very well be a video game of sorts, although real lives are at stake.

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[ US Navy gets laser cannon of their own copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Lasers have been flaunted by the US Navy before, but now it’s announced that 2014 will see the very first solid-state laser deployed aboard a ship, two years ahead of schedule. The USS Ponce, a vessel used as an amphibious transport dock stationed in the Persian Gulf, will get the honor of hosting the prototype Laser Weapon System (LaWS). Not only can the hardware set boats and airborne drones ablaze, but it can also emit a burst to “dazzle” an opponent’s sensors without inflicting physical harm. Sure, it cost roughly $32 million to construct, but the price is expected to fall when it hits wider production, and Chief of Naval Research Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder estimates that it each shot rings up at under $1. It may not be the missile-obliterating free-electron laser that the Navy’s been lusting for, but we’re sure it doesn’t matter much to drones at the end of the beam. Hit the jump to for a video of the contraption in action.

Filed under: Misc, Science

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Via: The Register

Source: US Navy (1), (2)

Lasers, particularly those that set boats ablaze and incinerate incoming missiles, have long been on the Navy’s mind. Today, the Office of Naval Research revealed its latest energy weapon craving: vehicle-mounted lasers that shoot down drones. Dubbed Ground-Based Air Defense Directed Energy On-The-Move, the project is offering private outfits up to $400,000 each to develop such a system that blasts at full power for 120 seconds and juices back up to 80 percent after a 20 minute charge. The beam is required to pack a punch of at least 25 kilowatts, while the ability to ratchet up to 50 kilowatts is optional. Given that kind of power, Wired points out that making such a solution fit in a Humvee is going to be a feat — especially when the Navy says it can’t weigh more than 2,000 pounds and must fit entirely within a vehicle’s cargo area. Have blueprints for a jeep-mountable laser squirreled away in your basement hobby shop? You’ll have to send your application in by 2 PM on April 26th to qualify for the federal cash.

[Image credit: Official U.S. Navy Imagery, Flickr]

Filed under: Transportation, Science

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Via: Wired

Source: Federal Business Opportunities

The US military has proven to be a premier worldwide fighting force, or at least that is what popular culture depicts, and here is another creative approach to warfare in the seven seas. They intend to make use of fleets of tiny ships which will perform as platforms for unmanned aircraft (aka drones) to land and take off, now how about that? According to the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), this solution is a possibility since they need to increase their airborne “surveillance and reconnaissance” capabilities

Deploying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from land is easy, but from the sea? That could prove to be quite a headache, considering the need to refuel in between missions, and currently can only be launched from large aircraft carriers that possess long runways. The new project has been called Tern (Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node), which is definitely apt considering there is a sea-bird of the same name which is famous for its endurance.

Considering approximately 98% of the world’s land area is within 900 nautical miles of ocean coastlines, Darpa predicts that more conflicts will be fought out at sea in the future.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: BigDog Gets A Helping Hand, Pentagon Opens Networks To iOS Devices Next Year,