Latest Stories

INSIDER
Defense

Shrinking the Inside of an Explosion

Testing explosions is epic science. The most detailed studies of explosive charges have been conducted at national laboratories using a gun as big as a room to fire a flat bullet – the flyer plate,...

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INSIDER
Defense

New Technique Could Improve Detection of Concealed Nuclear Materials

Researchers have demonstrated proof of concept for a novel low-energy nuclear reaction imaging technique designed to detect the presence of “special nuclear materials”...

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INSIDER
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Army Uses Technology to Increase Aerial Delivery Accuracy

Researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have developed a new system that will enhance the capabilities of U.S. Army Pathfinders as they conduct aerial operations. In...

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Briefs
Defense

Undersea Communications Between Submarines and Unmanned Undersea Vehicles in a Command and Control Denied Environment

Nuclear powered submarines can stay submerged for days at a time and only have to come to periscope depth (PD) for...

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Application Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Aircraft Casting Alloy

IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. Wilmington, MA 855-237-2522 www.ibcadvancedalloys.com IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. will continue production of components for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II Electro-Optical Targeting System...

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INSIDER
Software

Tool Nondestructively Characterizes Structural Materials as they Deform

Materials scientists are busy developing advanced materials, while also working to squeeze every bit of performance out of existing materials. This is particularly true...

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INSIDER
Defense

Compact UV Lasers Could Spot Dangerous Substances from a Distance

For soldiers in the field, the ability to identify an object or substance based on how it responds to light could mean the difference between life and death. They could, for...

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INSIDER
Defense

Compact UV Lasers Could ID Substances from a Distance

For soldiers in the field, the ability to identify an object or substance based on how it responds to light could mean the difference between life and death. They could, for example,...

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Application Briefs
Manned Systems

Embedded Computing Subsystems

GE Intelligent Platforms Huntsville, AL 1-800-433-2682 www.geautomation.com GE’s Intelligent Platforms division recently secured orders from General Dynamics UK valued at £64 million (~$100 million) to provide a...

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Products
Photonics/Optics

Laser Interferometer

4D Technology Corporation (Tucson, AZ) has introduced its newly improved AccuFiz compact laser interferometer for accurate, repeatable measurement of surface shape and transmitted wavefront quality. New features include...

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Podcasts
Imaging

Interview with Jim Odom, Hubble Project Manager 1983-1986

Jim Odom served as project manager on the Hubble Space Telescope from 1983 to 1986. As the world celebrates Hubble’s 25th anniversary, Mr. Odom shared some of his experiences on the project.

Products
Defense

Selective Laser Sintering System

3D Systems has developed its fastest fab-grade selective laser sintering (SLS) system yet, the ProX 500 Plus. Building upon last year’s ProX 500 release, the ProX 500 Plus continues the company’s efforts to...

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Products
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Laser Measurement

Ophir Photonics’ 1000WP-BB-34 high-power water cooled thermal sensor is designed with the requirement that all materials coming in contact with the cooling water are either copper or nonmetallic. This eliminates the possibility of contaminating the water or corroding the sensor, improving the accuracy and reliability of the...

INSIDER
Defense

New Serenity Payload Detects Hostile Fire

Two government-developed sensors are working together to increase the security of deployed soldiers. The Firefly and Serenity sensors employ government developed algorithms, software, and hardware to...

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INSIDER
Defense

Adaptive Zoom Riflescope Prototype Has Push-Button Magnification

When an Army Special Forces officer‑turned engineer puts his mind to designing a military riflescope, he doesn’t forget the importance of creating something for the soldiers...

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INSIDER
Photonics/Optics

Supersonic Laser-Propelled Rockets Could Help Aircraft Exceed Mach 10

A new method for improving the thrust generated by laser-propulsion systems may bring them one step closer to practical use. The method, developed by physicists Yuri Rezunkov...

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INSIDER
Defense

Army Develops First-of-Its Kind Phase-Coherent Fiber Laser Array System

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Computational and Information Science Directorate's Intelligent Optics Team, and partners, recently developed, engineered, demonstrated...

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INSIDER
Electronics & Computers

Scientists Demonstrate Data Teleportation for Secure Communications

Teleportation, a long-standing staple in the world of science fiction, has become a reality for scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in terms of battlefield data and...

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Articles
Aerospace

Using Forensic Lasers in Modern Warfare

In the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the enemy’s guerilla tactics have muddled the distinction between terrorism and warfare. To deal with the challenges of this new type of combat, the military...

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INSIDER
Photonics/Optics

Air And Missile Defense System To Get Smarter Software

When a missile is launched against an enemy target, it would be nice to have a lot of good information about that target. But when "decision makers push the fire button, they may have very...

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

Covert Infrared Battlefield Combat Taggants

Modern warfare often involves poorly defined battle lines accompanied by multilevel fire support systems that can deliver firepower with high precision and devastating lethality from a long distance....

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

Beam Irradiance on Target System (BITS)

The Beam Irradiance on Target System (BITS) is a high energy laser (HEL) sensor array that directly measures the beam irradiance profile of HEL weapons. The BITS is a sensor array composed of 105 sensors...

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INSIDER
Photonics/Optics

Air Force Uses 3-D Scanner to Model Aircraft

When the 46th Test Wing's Air Force SEEK EAGLE Office purchased a 3-D laser scanner system six months ago, they had no idea how much of an impact the system would make.

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Briefs
Physical Sciences

Thermal Mechanical Fatigue Crack Growth Testing

Turbines in aircraft turbojet engines are being subject to increasingly higher temperatures to improve fuel efficiency. High turbine efficiency requires the ability of turbine blades to withstand...

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Articles
Photonics/Optics

Laser Detection System Technology

While most ordnance is now laserguided, there is still much work to be done on the defensive detection of laser designators. Hence the growing need for advanced laser-warning systems (LWS). While multiple...

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Briefs
Sensors/Data Acquisition

Distributed, Collaborative Human- Robotic Networks for Search, Identify, and Track

A human-robotic system is under development that can map an unknown environment, as well as discover, track, and neutralize several static and dynamic objects of...

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Briefs
Materials

Room-Temperature Sub-Diffraction-Limited Plasmon Laser

Lasers present the means to deliver powerful, coherent, and directional high-frequency electromagnetic energy. However, the diffraction limit of light imposes fundamental constraints on how...

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Briefs
Photonics/Optics

Rare-Earth-Doped Soft Glass Optical Fibers for Coherent Wavelength Sources Above 2 Microns

Rare-earth-doped soft glass optical fibers were developed and characterized for fiber lasers emitting at wavelengths longer than 2 microns to allow...

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Articles
Aerospace

Designing COTS Optics Into Defense Projects

When settling in to design a new optical device for a defense application, it is often desirable to use Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) optical components wherever possible. COTS optics offer many...

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