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An Austin, Texas, company has developed holographic maps for the U.S. Army that give soldiers a realistic look at the terrain and obstacles they might be facing in the field.

Zebra Imaging, with help from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has made a flexible plastic map that becomes 3-D when exposed to an LED flashlight beam or a halogen light. The maps can be rolled and folded and can even get wet, yet still can retain their ability to provide 3-D information when needed.

Printed on 3-foot by 2-1/2-foot panels, the maps can be linked together into larger displays.

“We can mosaic the maps together to show large terrain,” says Rick Black, manager of defense and intelligence programs for Zebra Imaging. “For example, if an aviation unit is flying over a large mountain pass, we can put four or six of the maps together, and when the unit’s completed the mission, separate them and put them back in a flat storage box.”

But the chief advantage to the 3-D maps are with the soldiers in the field, Black points out.

“These maps are used at the company through brigade level, and the guys on patrol — both mounted and dismounted — have access to the maps,” Black says.

Black notes more than 10,000 of the 3-D maps have been produced for the Army since 2006.

“There’s a plan in place to allow these kinds of holograms to go to all services through a government agency,” Black says.

The founders of the holograms worked out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology beginning in 1996 and worked on holographic projection without the use of goggles or glasses.

The 3-D maps use a holographic element called a “hogel,” according to Black, which is a very small element similar to a pixel in an image.

“Inside each hogel is a 360-degree view of a particular spot looking out,” Black says, “and it projects what would be on the ground as if you were seeing it with your eyes.”

Black says that Zebra Imaging uses monochrome to display the information for military use, but it has the ability to render the 3-D maps in color.

“But doing it in color limits its use to white light, which is not a good idea in the field,” he points out. “Green light is better in the field.”

The hogels build up the hologram of each section until a true perspective view of a specific spot on the ground is attained,” he says.

“Whether it’s a building or a mountain, you can’t see through it to the other side,” Black maintains. “You have to spin the hologram or go around to see the other side.”

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms

Submarines, which depend on stealth to fulfill their missions, are being constructed using less-sonic-reflective materials and with ultra-quiet machinery.

But what submariners truly would like is the ability to disappear completely beneath the waves. They might get their wish.

Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge have recently produced an acoustic cloak that bends sound waves around an underwater object, essentially making it disappear.

Professor Nick Fang of the mechanical engineering department led a team that devised and demonstrated an acoustic cloak covering wavelengths from 40 kHz to 80 kHz.

Fang says the acoustic cloak owes its inspiration to the discovery of an optical cloak that bends light waves.

“It is similar to what happens in optical fibers, where, as they bend, the light still follows the fiber,” Fang says. “We applied that principal to acoustic waves.”

An important concept in developing the acoustic cloak is the principle of resonation, Fang notes.

“In looking at resonators, especially those in musical instruments, if we decompose the acoustic resonators into different elements, we realize each element is used to form the resonator but are not resonators themselves.”

Fang and his team applied the principle to a cascaded series of inductors and capacitors that are not resonant themselves, but when combined have the effect of slowing down or speeding up sound waves.

“That’s how we construct the acoustic cloak,” Fang says, “where we have the advantage that sound speed can be rendered differently inside and outside of the cloak.”

The farther into the cloak the acoustic waves move, the faster they travel, Fang points out. But sound waves prefer to stay in a medium that moves slower, rather than faster.

“If we take a sound wave into the acoustic cloak, the sound bends toward the outer rim of the cloak, instead of the inner part,” Fang observes. “We try to bend the sound waves in such a way to avoid the cloak’s center area. To an outsider trying to measure the area, it seems as if there is nothing inside the hole, but it could be a submarine or whatever you want to hide from the sonar.”

While the current prototype is only five inches wide, Fang says the principle can be applied to much larger objects.

“The acoustic cloak’s shadowing might reduce the size of a submarine to something between the size of a shark and a sardine,” Fang says.

He expects to have a larger, more three-dimensional prototype ready by the end of the year.

Fang, who began the acoustic cloak research while he was a professor at the University of Illinois, says he worked with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the project’s initial stages but now is pursuing funding with the Office of Naval Research and other DoD agencies.

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms.

The launch of the Endeavour, with its research payload for two new vaccines aboard, marked yet another milestone in VA’s longstanding collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The payload, which carries National Pathfinder Vaccine 10, is the last in a series working toward vaccines for two common infections: salmonella, which commonly contaminates the U.S. food chain, leading to food recalls and gastrointestinal illnesses, and an antibiotic resistant form of Staphylococcus aureus, also known as “golden staph,” the most common bacterial agent found in combat infections.

By using the unique environment of microgravity to determine the cellular changes that determine bacterial virulence, especially changes in gene functioning, scientists have sought to use these space flights to help speed vaccine development.

“The NASA space program has been invaluable to advancing VA research,” says VA Chief Research and Development Officer, Joel Kupersmith, MD. “The knowledge gained from this outstanding collaboration has improved health care for our Nation’s Veterans and has demonstrated the vital role research partnerships play in VA’s mission to provide Veterans with the care and benefits they have earned.”

VA research has flown payloads related to a variety of vaccine targets on the last 10 space shuttles and is scheduled to fly another payload on the final journey of the Atlantis in June 2011. This ongoing work has been in collaboration with the University of Colorado – Boulder, Banting, Best Lab at the University of Toronto, and Astrogenetix LLC. Additionally, the Durham, North Carolina VA Medical Center (VAMC) houses a lead laboratory for the International Space Station Pathfinder program.

Several VA investigators, such as Millie Hughes-Fulford, Ph.D., director of Laboratory of Cell Growth at the San Francisco VAMC, have accompanied the numerous VA research studies that have been sent into space. A payload specialist astronaut aboard space shuttle flight STS-40, Dr. Hughes-Fulford has studied a variety of key questions in immunology, including why T-cells – key to the immune system – stop working in mi-crogravity.
For more information on VA research, please see www.research.va.gov/.

There’s a breed of Asian snake that can glide through the air for long distances, something that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is taking a long, close look at.

The flying snakes are found in southern China, Southeast Asia, and in India and can undulate from side to side, unlike other animals that glide with fixed wings or parts of their body that are wing-like.

Jake Socha, a researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, has used a DARPA grant to study the snakes’ physical dynamics in flight and how such information might be used in a military context.

Socha, a professor of engineering science and mechanics and biologist who studies biomechanics, says the Asian snakes live most of their lives in trees, requiring them to move from tree to tree by gliding or flying between them.

“DARPA wasn’t interested in a direct application per se,” Socha says, “but first to understand the fundamental science and mechanics of how these animals can fly.”

Socha collaborated with Pavlos Vlachos, a fluid dynamics expert.

Before an application can be developed, Socha says researchers have to understand how the snake controls its muscles, the texture of its skin, the shape the snake takes when gliding, and the motion it uses in swimming through the air.

Socha notes the snake has a body like a cylinder, not the sort of body type one would begin with to create a flier.

“Mechanically, it seems so ill-suited for gliding, but the snake is able to flatten out its ribbed body, spreading its ribs and making it change from a roughly circular cross-section to more pancake-like,” Socha says. “Its body doubles in width at its widest point, which gives it favorable aerodynamic characteristics that help the snake to glide.”

In addition, the shape of the snake’s body is symmetrical in cross-section fore and aft, Socha pointed out, so  when it undulates in the air, “one side of its body faces the oncoming air, but a half-second later that side is on the back side of the wind.”

Socha says understanding how the snake is able to physically produce the forces that allow it to stay balanced in the air without flipping over is a key to the mechanics of its gliding ability.

So is a gliding robotic snake on the horizon for the military?

“I think we’re fairly far away from a robot that can fly like these snakes,” Socha says. “It’s up to DARPA if they want to continue studying the aerodynamics of the snake’s shape in the air.”

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms.

Veterans dealing with symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can turn to their smart phones for help anytime with the PTSD Coach application created by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense.

PTSD Coach lets users track their PTSD symptoms, links them with local sources of support, provides accurate information about PTSD, and teaches helpful individualized strategies for managing PTSD symptoms at any moment. The free PTSD Coach app is now available for download from the iTunes store and will be available for Android devices by the end of the spring.

The PTSD Coach is primarily designed to enhance services for individuals who are already receiving mental health care, though it is certainly helpful for those considering entering mental health care and those who just want to learn more about PTSD.

The application is one of the first in a series of jointly designed resources by the VA National Center for PTSD and the Defense Department’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology to help Servicemembers, Veterans, their families and friends manage their readjustment challenges and get anonymous assistance. Given the current popularity of mobile devices, VA and the Defense Department hope to reach tens of thousands of Veterans, Servicemembers, and their family members with the new suite of apps.

Information on the PTSD Coach app is on the VA’s National Center for PTSD Website. And check out these other apps from DoD’s National Center for Telehealth and Technology!

It shouldn’t be long before U.S. Marines are getting cargo delivered to them in the field by an unmanned aircraft system (UAS).

The U.S. Navy has awarded contracts to Boeing Defense, Space & Security, a unit of the Boeing Co., and to Lockheed Martin/Kaman to deploy UAS units in support of Marine Corps forces in Afghanistan. The UAS would augment ground and air logistics operations, supplement rotary-wing assets and reduce warfighters’ exposure to IEDs in theater.

Boeing builds the A160T Hummingbird and Lockheed Martin/Kaman builds the Unmanned K-Max. Each system is made up of three ground stations and two air vehicles that will be tested this summer, with one system being deployed to Afghanistan late in 2011 for a six-month trial. After the initial deployment, U.S. Navy and Marine Corps leadership will assess the value of the UAS and determine if an extension or recompete contract should be pursued.

Ernie Wattam, program manager for Boeing’s A160 program, says the A160T uses an optimum speed rotor that allows for fixed-wing performance out of a rotor craft. The A160T recently set a 18.7 hour record flight in Yuma, Ariz., carrying a payload of 300 pounds, he notes.

“That makes it attractive in places where the troops don’t have runways where they need them,” says Wattam.

The A160T Hummingbird is 35 feet long and 10 feet tall, with a 36-foot rotor diameter, and weighs 2,500 pounds.

Wattam says the Cargo A160T Hummingbird recently did a 10.5-hour mission in Florida, carrying a 1,000-pound payload, and also was fitted for a test in Belize, carrying a 22-foot long antenna for a FORESTER unit, foliage penetrating radar.

Wattam says he sees applications for the Navy and Air Force, as well as the Army and Marine Corps.

“This is a unique vehicle with a multi-mission capability,” Wattam says. “It has good speed, altitude, and durability, which allows it to be used in a lot of different applications.”

He notes in today’s conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military wants intelligence and surveillance capabilities over long periods of time, so instead of a cargo payload, the A160T Hummingbird could be fitted with a sensor package and kept in the air for half a day.

For instance, the Navy might be interested in putting a sensor-laden A160T Hummingbird in the air for half a day to provide early warning capability for its ships or keep it in its cargo capability and use it for ship-to-shore cargo resupply.

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms.

A new blog post- Fuel: Enabling the Navy’s Great Green Fleet, discusses the myriad ways the U.S. Navy is working toward energy efficiency and independence on behalf of the military. Pretty interesting if you’re into that science-y stuff!

Moving to a Green Future:

Beyond just biofuels, the Navy is hard at work on a number of other alternatives, explained Rear Admiral Philip Cullom, director of the Navy’s Energy and Environmental Readiness Division.

“We have a number of other things that are in the works and this gets back to the other part of the energy vision and the energy strategy is that there are a lot of tests and developments on the efficiency side of the house on lighting, on new hull coatings, on new propeller coatings, and the first pilot program to put a hybrid electric drive onto a destroyer that are also reaching their completion,” Cullom said. “Additionally on the shore side, we’ll be doing a pilot test towards ocean thermal energy conversion, which will use the delta-T in the ocean to be able to power an ammonia engine, and that ammonia engine will then provide enough electricity to power a place like Diego Garcia or Guam or Hawaii, and oh, by the way – it can produce fresh water in addition to making electricity.”

Check out their energy goals:

1. Increase Alternative Energy Use Department-Wide: By 2020, 50% of total department energy consumption will come from alternative sources.
2. Increase Alternative Energy Ashore: By 2020, the department will produce at least 50% of shore-based energy requirements from alternative sources, and 50% of the department’s installations will be net-zero.
3. Reduce Non-Tactical Petroleum Use: By 2015, the department will reduce petroleum use in the commercial fleet by 50%.
4. Sail the “Great Green Fleet”: The Department of the Navy will demonstrate a Green Strike Group in local operations by 2012 and sail it by 2016.
5. Energy Efficient Acquisition: Evaluation of energy factors will be mandatory when awarding contracts for systems and buildings.

Los Angeles-based AeroVironment Inc. has developed the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV), a new class of unmanned air vehicle systems capable of both indoor and outdoor operation.

The hand-made prototype vehicle, called the Nano Hummingbird, is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, flying forward and backward, as well as rotating clockwise and counter-clockwise, under remote control and carrying a video camera payload.

During a demonstration flight, the Nano hovered for 11 minutes, flying in various attitudes, as well as through a doorway, down a corridor and back outside again, while carrying all electronics, gearing, battery and radio frequency communication, according to Steve Gitlin, AeroVironment’s vice president of marketing strategy.

“It accomplished a technical milestone never before achieved,” Gitlin says, “controlled precision hovering and fast-forward flight of a two-wing, flapping wing aircraft that carries its own energy source and uses only the flapping wings for propulsion and control.”

The Nano Hummingbird has a wingspan of 6 1/2-inches (16 centimeters) from tip to tip and a total flying weight of two-thirds of an ounce (19 grams), which is less than the weight of a common AA battery. The prototype includes all the systems required for flight — batteries, motors, communications systems, and video camera.

The aircraft can be fitted with a removable body fairing, which is shaped to have the appearance of a real hummingbird. The Nano is larger and heavier than an average hummingbird but smaller and lighter than the largest hummingbird currently found in nature.

Gitlin says  the Nano development team created more than 300 different wing designs and flapping systems before ultimately deciding on the ones that power the Nano Hummingbird.

The successful flight demonstration of the Nano was part of a Phase II contract awarded to AeroVironment by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Gitlin says the success of the NAV program paves the way for a new generation of aircraft with the agility and appearance of small birds.

“The Nano has the ability to fly through the doorway of a building, look around, and then fly back out again,” Gitlin notes. “As far as we know, nothing like this has been done before.”

Gitlin adds the visual information produced by a Nano could prove useful to the military in reconnaissance and surveillance scenarios.

“There is more technical development we need to do to refine the Nano, but we’ve shown that a pocket-able unmanned aircraft system is possible,” Gitlin says. “If that vision turns into demand, we’d be eager to push the technology ahead to address that demand.”

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms.

Low-flying and slower-moving helicopters like Blackhawks are prime targets of insurgents using shoulder-fired heat-seeking missiles. And while Blackhawks can fire flares to confuse a missile and change its target, flares aren’t a foolproof defense.

But a University of Michigan professor thinks he’s come up with answer to the problem — a jamming laser.

Mohammed Islam, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering, has developed a prototype of a Mid-Infrared Supercontinuum Laser (MISL) that’s small enough to fit in a helicopter, is robust, and yet is inexpensive to produce.

The system uses Directed Infrared Countermeasures (DICM) to “blind” a fired missile.

“When a shoulder-held missile is fired at an aircraft, it’s looking for the engine’s heat,” Islam says. “The DICM sees the missile coming at it and shoots a laser beam onto the missile’s sensor, emulating the heat of the engine. Essentially, it throws sand into the eyes of the missile, saturating its detectors so it can’t see any more and continues on its trajectory, giving the aircraft pilot the opportunity to get out of the way.”

Defensive lasers are deployed now on Air Force One and on large troop carriers, but at a typical 135 pounds, they are heavy and fairly large, Islam says. The prototype he’s building is the size of a desktop DVD player, and Islam hopes to be able to whittle the unit down to the size of a laptop computer.

But the beauty of the MISL is two-fold — it has no moving parts, compared to other defensive lasers that have 60 or more moving parts, and uses off-the-shelf telecommunications parts.

“With the shake, rattle and roll of a helicopter, having no moving parts means greater reliability,” Islam notes. “And with off-the-shelf telecom parts, it means we can bring the cost down by order of magnitude, which saves taxpayers money and means the unit can be used in a lot more places. We might be able to put it on all helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.”

Islam is developing the MISL through a $1 million grant from Defense Advance Research Projects Agency and the U.S. Army.

About the author: Alan M. Petrillo is a Tucson, Ariz., freelance writer who works in a wide variety of fields, writing for national and regional magazines and newspapers. He’s also the author of the mystery novel, Full Moon, and several books on historical military small arms.

Continental U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command Region fighters will be busy well before Super Bowl Sunday preparing to protect the skies around Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Exercise Amalgam Virgo 11-05A, a NORAD air defense exercise, will be held Wednesday in the greater Arlington area to allow interagency partners the chance to practice procedures in response to airspace violations.

The Amalgam Virgo exercise comprises a series of training flights held in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration, Customs and Border Protection, Civil Air Patrol, and CONR’s Western Air Defense Sector.

Residents in the area can expect flights to begin around 9 p.m., Wednesday, and continue for approximately an hour and a half.

“Interagency coordination is a key aspect of our daily air defense measures,” said Maj. Gen. Garry Dean, CONR commander. “This Amalgam Virgo exercise is an excellent opportunity for all of our interagency air defenders to hone our air defense skills in preparation for Super Bowl Sunday.”

These exercises are carefully planned and closely controlled to ensure CONR’s rapid response capability. CONR has conducted exercise flights of this nature throughout the U.S. since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, the commands response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

“When it comes to defending America’s skies, the Continental U.S. NORAD Region and America’s AOC are always ready,” General Dean said.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, CONR fighters have responded to more than 3,400 possible air threats in the United States and have flown more than 58,200 sorties with the support of Airborne Warning and Control System and air-to-air-refueling aircraft.