You can learn a lot from a blast tube when you couple blast experiments with computer modeling. Sandia National Laboratories researchers are using a blast tube configurable to 120 feet to demonstrate how well nuclear weapons could survive the shock wave of a blast from an enemy weapon and to help validate the modeling.

Sandia recently completed a two-year series of blast tube tests for one nuclear weapon program and started tests for another. Each series requires instrumentation, explosives, high-speed cameras and computer modeling. Tests simulate part of the environment a weapon re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere would face if another nuclear weapon went off nearby, said test director Nathan Glenn.

Aircraft corrosion is a multi-faceted issue that requires more than a simple, one-dimensional approach. To enable Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) personnel to arrive at a complete picture and find out how to best protect valuable military assets, a unique solution was required.

Enter the Accelerated Combined-Effects Simulation test apparatus (ACES). This test chamber, custom-designed under the direction of AFRL through a Small Business Innovative Research effort, allows AFRL researchers to recreate the broad range of simultaneous environmental conditions under which military assets operate, including UV radiation, temperature, humidity, and various gaseous environments. Dynamic fixtures allow for test specimens to be pulled and flexed to further simulate the structural stresses aircraft experience during flight conditions.

While the Army's current combat fleet is composed of very capable vehicles, they have been in the inventory for decades and their ability to overmatch peer capabilities in close combat is starting to wane. As the Army prepares for future combat operations, it needs new platforms, with future growth margins, to maintain the ability to dominate the battlefield.

This is a challenge for the Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team (NGCV CFT) to solve. The NGCV CFT was established as part of the Army's modernization strategy and consists of hand-selected military and civilian personnel who are charged with narrowing or closing Cross Domain Maneuver capability gaps. The current NGCV CFT portfolio encompasses the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV); Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF); Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV); future robotic combat vehicles (RCV); and the next generation main battle tank.

NASA’s RainCube, a satellite small enough to fit in a backpack, shrinks weather radar into a low-cost, miniature satellite that can provide a real-time look inside storms. The satellite’s umbrella-like antenna sends out chirps, or specialized radar signals, that bounce off raindrops, bringing back a picture of what the inside of the storm looks like.

Because RainCube is miniaturized, making it less expensive to launch, many more of the satellites could be sent into orbit. Flying together like geese, they could track storms, relaying updated information on them every few minutes.

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A flying robot, developed by TU Delft researchers, is an autonomous, free-flying and agile flapping-wing micro-drone. Inspired by fruit flies, the robot’s control mechanisms have proved to be highly effective, allowing it not only to hover on the spot and fly in any direction, but also be very agile. The robot has a top speed of 25 km/h, can perform aggressive maneuvers, and provides 5 minutes of hovering flight or more than a 1-km flight range on a fully charged battery.

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A passive anti-frosting surface was developed that keeps surfaces 90 percent dry and frost-free indefinitely – all without any chemicals or energy inputs. The anti-frosting surface was tested on untreated aluminum by patterning ice stripes onto a microscopic array of elevated grooves. The microscopic grooves act as sacrificial areas, where stripes of intentional ice form and create low pressure zones.

These low-pressure areas pull nearby moisture from the air onto the nearest ice stripe, keeping the overlapping intermediate areas free of frost, even in humid, sub-freezing conditions. These sacrificial ice stripes make up only 10 percent of the material’s surface area, leaving the remaining 90 percent completely dry.

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Computech International (CTI)
Tikva, Israel
+972-3-9211110
www.cti-intl.com

Computech International (CTI), a company that specializes in advanced, unique military IT and communication solutions for the harshest conditions, recently introduced OCTOPUS 360, a situational awareness system designed for use by combat teams in closed-hatched vehicles in hostile environments.

Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim)
Orlando, FL
1-407-608-7000
https://bisimulations.com

Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim), a global developer of advanced simulation and training software, has been selected by the U.S. Navy to provide air crew training technology that leverages emerging augmented and virtual reality technologies. Supporting the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) via PMA-205 and the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD), BISim will provide an augmented reality visual system that enables trainees to interact with a physical T-45 simulator cockpit while immersed in a high-fidelity virtual environment displayed in a head mounted display (HMD).

RADA Electronic Industries Ltd.
Netanya, Israel
+972-9-892-1111
www.rada.com

RADA Electronic Industries Ltd., an Israeli-based company that specializes in the development and production of tactical land radar for force and border protection, recently announced that its Multimission Hemispheric Radar (MHR) has been down-selected as part of the Leonardo DRS mission equipment package (MEP) solution for the US Army's Initial Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) capability Developed by Leonardo DRS's Land Systems business division, the MEP package will also include several advanced technologies, including Moog's reconfigurable integrated-weapons platform (RIwP) and Raytheon's Stinger missiles.

Applying reverse thrust redirecting engine power to oppose the direction of travel is a standard technique for decelerating aircraft after touchdown. The approach saves wear on the brakes of the landing gear wheels and reduces stopping distance. Although accidental deployment of the thrust reverser cowl could and did happen, it was assumed for decades that this would only present a hazard in the moments around takeoff and landing. With changes to engine design and aircraft aerodynamics, this assumption no longer held, as demonstrated by the catastrophic loss of Lauda Air Flight 004.