DARPA Working With Boeing To Design And Possibly Build A Potentially Game-Changing X-Plane

A scale model of Aurora’s candidate for DARPA’s Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program has been tested in a wind tunnel (Image: Aurora Flight Sciences)  

The DeBrief: DARPA Selects Boeing’s Aurora for Potentially Game-Changing X-Plane 

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) has selected Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to design and possibly build a potentially game-changing X-plane. Part of the agency’s Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effecters (CRANE) program, the revolutionary X-plane would employ Active Flow Control (AFC) instead of conventional control surfaces to maneuver the craft at ultra-fast speeds. 

If successful, the new X-plane could completely change the way high-speed aircraft fly by combining the simplicity and stability of AFC to improve overall reliability and performance while offering a lower radar cross-section.  

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WNU Editor: This is fascinating stuff. For more information on the X-plane and the science behind it .... Aurora wins funding to design active flow control X-plane (Aerospace Testing).

First Autonomous Black Hawk Helicopter Flight

 

Daily Mail: Fully autonomous Black Hawk helicopter takes to the skies without a pilot for the first time: Could now be used in warzones 

* This was the first time a Black Hawk was sent to fly without anyone on board 

* It used the DARPA developed ALIAS autonomous flying system to operate 

* During the 30 minute test flight it took off, carried out maneurvers and landed 

* The system is designed to be 'pilot optional' allowing humans to hand over control to the autonomous system if situations become harder to manage 

A fully autonomous Black Hawk helicopter has taken to the skies over the US without a human pilot on board for the first time. 

A partnership between Lockheed Martin Sikorsky and the Defence Armed Research Projects Agency (DARPA), it took off from Fort Campbell in Kentucky on February 5. 

Without anyone on board, the UH-60A Black Hawk completed a 30 minute flight above the US army installation, with a second flight held on February 7. 

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First Autonomous Black Hawk Helicopter Flight  

Safe, Reliable, and Uninhabited: First Autonomous BLACK HAWK® Helicopter Flight -- Lockheed Martin  

Engineers: Black Hawk Flies Unmanned at Fort Campbell -- AP

 For the first time, Black Hawk helicopter flies without anyone aboard -- Defense News  

A robo-Black Hawk helicopter flew with no pilots for the first time -- Breaking Defense 

Fully autonomous Black Hawk helicopter flies for first time with no pilot -- The Independent  

Legendary Black Hawk chopper flies itself -- RT

DARPA Nabs Gremlin Drone In Midair For First Time

 

Defense News: DARPA nabs Gremlin drone in midair for first time 

WASHINGTON — For the first time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recovered an unmanned X-61 Gremlin air vehicle to a C-130 in flight, marking a milestone in the U.S. military’s effort to deploy swarms of drones from a mothership. 

The first successful midair Gremlin recovery took place Oct. 29 at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, DARPA said in a Friday release. The agency noted that this flight test — the fourth deployment of the Gremlins — involved two of the small drones, which successfully carried out all formation flying positions and safety features.  

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WNU Editor: There are still problems with this program .... A mothership finally recovers DARPA’s ‘Gremlins’ drone, but it’s not all good news (Breaking DEfense). 

More News On DARPA's Gremlin Program 

C-130 Successfully Snatches Gremlins Drone In Midair -- Warzone/The Drive  

C-130 Catches an X-61 Gremlins Vehicle in Airborne Recovery Test -- Air Force Magazine  

Groundbreaking moment US military plane grabs drone in mid-air like a toy in a claw machine for the first time, bringing Department of Defense a step closer to deploying the UAVs from a mothership -- Daily Mail

DARPA Wants U.S. Soldiers Using Jet Packs On The Battlefield

#FunFactFriday - The Royal Navy has been testing Jet Suit assault teams to determine if the Iron Man-like suits could be used to rapidly swarm and board ships. U.S. Special Operations Command is also evaluating a jetpack that can reach speeds of more than 200 mph. pic.twitter.com/mo5FoGWkDu

— U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) October 16, 2020

Zdero Hedge: DARPA Wants Jetpack Soldiers On Modern Battlefield 

Jet suits are commonly associated with science fiction movies or shows, but high-tech miniature turbine engines have quickly advanced this new type of mobility to become a reality. 

Now Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is searching for an Iron Man-style jet suit as per its new solicitation on website Sam.Gov (System for Award Management). DARPA is calling on private industry to deliver jet suits or "Portable Personal Air Mobility System." 

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WNU Editor: I have always wanted a jet pack after seeing James Bond flying around in one (see below). It looks like half a century later, it may become possible.

 

Here Are 8 Weird DARPA Projects

From outer space to the human brain, DARPA funds research that keeps the military on the leading edge of technology. Pictured here are some of the 250 robots that participated in a robot swarming exercise at Camp Shelby. (DARPA)

Military Times: 8 weird DARPA projects that make science fiction seem like real life

The agency responsible for the internet, GPS and stealth aircraft has produced a whole lot of weird in the 62 years since its foundation.

For every one of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s wild successes, there seem to be a plethora of wild failures – projects like mechanical elephants or telepathy research. What makes DARPA so unique is its ability to go outside the red tape of bureaucracy to innovate. DARPA isn’t subject to the same acquisition rules as other agencies, which means it has fewer restrictions on the scientists and innovators it can hire and the salaries it can offer.

The agency also has fewer financial limitations, enabling it to invest in longshot projects with the hopes they’ll pay off – they’re basically the military’s innovative venture capitalists.

Here are some of the more interesting projects to come out of DARPA’s “high-risk, high-reward” environment.

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WNU Editor: Plant-eating robots?!?!?!?

The Pentagon Wants To Develop An Unmanned 'Flying Gun'

Warzone/The Drive: DARPA Wants Millions To Design An Unmanned 'Flying Gun' Under Its New Gunslinger Program

Budget documents describe a gun-armed "missile" that would be able to engage multiple targets, either on the ground or in the air.

Tucked away inside the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's most recent budget proposal is a request for millions of dollars to explore what one could best describe as an unmanned flying gun capable of engaging airborne and ground-based targets. This comes around a year and a half after DARPA first announced it was working on what it called a "Flying Missile Rail." The system would carry its own air-to-air missiles and would be launched like a drone from under the jet's wing, after which they would fly off and engage aerial targets with their missiles.

DARPA is asking for $13.27 million in its budget request for the 2021 Fiscal Year for the flying gun effort, which it has dubbed Gunslinger. The budget documents say that this is a new program and it is in no way related to the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps program of the same name, which developed a system to detect incoming hostile gunfire.

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WNU Editor: Instead of drones using missiles to hit targets, they will use bullets. Makes sense to me.

More News On The Pentagon Wanting To Develop An Unmanned 'Flying Gun'

Pentagon wants $13M to create unmanned flying gun -- FOX News
Pentagon wants to design unmanned ‘flying gun’ -- FOX News
DARPA wants to build a flying machine gun -- Task & Purpose

Why Is Darpa In A Rush To Have An Underground Facility?

Attention, city dwellers! We're interested in identifying university-owned or commercially managed underground urban tunnels & facilities able to host research & experimentation. https://t.co/tHZ1Tqy5nV

It's short notice... We're asking for responses by Aug. 30 at 5:00 PM ET. pic.twitter.com/TSWO07bJam

— DARPA (@DARPA) August 28, 2019

Gizmodo: Why Does Darpa Need a Huge Underground Facility by Friday?

Darpa is often described as the “mad science” wing of the Defense Department. They’re the ones who have a history of working on cutting edge technology for the military like virtual fences, disaster relief robots, and the invention of the internet itself. They even tried to build Skynet in the 1980s.

But Darpa sent out a tweet today that’s making people a little nervous. The agency wants a large underground facility for “testing” of some sort. And they need it by Friday at 5pm ET.

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WNU Editor: Government procurement as a rule takes forever. But in this case .... they want it NOW!!!! No explanation on why (of course).

DARPA Wants Robots To Go Into A Cave

Popular Mechanics: A Cave Is No Place for Humans, So DARPA Is Sending In the Robots

DARPA's Subterranean Challenge aims to make cave exploration a more robotic affair.

Outside its cavernous passageways, the mine's entrance is emblazoned in red lettering that reads "Safety Research Coal Mine." This site is just one of two mine systems at the Bruceton Research Center in Pittsburgh. They were once part of a full mine system but were split apart for research purposes after the U.S. Bureau of Mines leased 38 acres of land from the Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1910.

For more than a century, the U.S. government has been using these facilities to create and assess technologies that will help keep miners safe. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health's (NIOSH) Pittsburgh Research Laboratory tests everything you could imagine, from how coal dust behaves to how to improve rescue missions when disaster strikes.

But tests were put on hold for eight days this August. Instead, the mines served as a testbed for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) latest endeavor: The Subterranean Challenge, or Sub-T for short.

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WNU Editor: It is definitely more safer to use robots.

DARPA Launches Test Balloons Over Kansas That Many Mistake Are UFOs

Last night, DARPA launched 3 balloons from Cumberland, Maryland, in a flight test for the Adaptable Lighter Than Air prgm. Over next few days, ALTA will demonstrate capability for wind-borne navigation of a lighter-than-air vehicle over extended ranges. https://t.co/Og8dWCvszc pic.twitter.com/NjUB6Got94

— DARPA (@DARPA) June 18, 2019

Popular Mechanics: Three Days Ago, DARPA Launched Some Balloons. Then People Started Seeing UFOs.

Sadly, those strange orbs floating above Kansas City weren't from outer space.

UFOs are having a bit of a moment right now. This week, Politico revealed that several Senators were briefed by the Pentagon about UFO sightings for unknown reasons, with President Trump admitting that he, too, was also in the loop. (“Do I believe it? Not particularly,” Trump said.) And on the same day we questioned the government’s renewed interest in mysterious aircraft, the National Weather Service in Kansas City stoked even more curiosity with a tweet alerting locals to two suspicious white orbs hanging out in the sky:

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More News On DARPA Launching Test Balloons Over Kansas

'We have no explanation': National Weather Service admits it is baffled by two mysterious white spheres floating in the sky over Kansas City -- Daily Mail
Strange orbs over Kansas City have locals contemplating aliens -- FOX News
Two mysterious objects were seen floating above Kansas City. They (probably) weren't aliens -- CNN
This military UFO made a Midwest appearance -- C4ISRNet
Glowing orbs spotted hovering above Kansas, authorities clueless as conspiracy theorists suspect alien presence -- IBTimes
Those UFOs Spotted Over Kansas City Last Night Were Darpa Test Balloons -- Gizmodo
Mysterious Flying Objects Over Kansas Turn Out To Be Top-Secret DARPA Experiment -- Zero Hedge
DARPA floats winking ‘it’s a balloon’ hint to explain Missouri ‘UFOs’ (VIDEO) -- DARPA

The Pentagon Wants Soldier's Minds Connected To Computers

Daily Mail: US government is funding research into technology that will connect soldiers' brains to computers

* DARPA is funding an initiative to connect soldiers' minds to computers
* Technology could control UAV's, monitor security networks, and communicate
* Devices will likely take the form of a helmet that can read users' brain signals
* The agency says it is aiming to have a preliminary device ready in four years

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding research that could give a future generation of soldiers the power to control machines and weapons with their minds.

The agency said it will fund six organizations through the Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) program who will work to design and build interfaces for application in the U.S. military, that could be worn be soldiers and translate their brain signals into instructions.

Those instructions could be used to control swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles, wield cyber defense systems, or facilitate military communications.

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Update #1: The Government Is Serious About Creating Mind-Controlled Weapons (Live Science)
Update #2: DARPA Wants Soldiers To Control Machines With Their Minds (Popular Mechanics)

WNU editor: The goal is to establish a neural network that will speed up the response time for soldiers.

The Pentagon Has Its Own Island Off New York To Stage Cyber Attacks

Plum Island, off the coast of Long Island, serves as a testing ground for DARPA's staged cyber attack exercises. DARPA

Business Insider: The Pentagon has its own island off New York where nobody can go that it's using to run war games for a giant cyber attack on power grid

* Every six months, DARPA stages mock cyber attacks a highly restricted island off the coast of New York.
* Specialists war game a major cyber attack of the power grid on Plum Island, which people need US government clearance to set foot on.
* The exercise involves figuring out how to jumpstart a large electricity system if it gets suddenly taken offline by enemy hackers.
* A DARPA official sent Business Insider photos of the site during one of the drills.

Only a few have gone through the extensive background checks needed to access Plum Island — where a secretive branch of the US government runs exercises to prepare for all-out cyber war.

The speck of land in the Long Island Sound, owned by the Department of Homeland Security is largely deserted. The main attractions are a defunct lighthouse and a center that studies infectious animal diseases.

It is also the perfect setting for the US government to stage mock cyber attacks on the power grid.

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WNU Editor: The U.S. is not the only country getting ready to respond to cyber attacks .... Russia running ‘global campaign’ of cyber warfare to target governments, Jeremy Hunt says (The Independent).

DARPA To Merge With The Pentagon Office In Charge Of Adapting Existing Weapons To New Uses

Reuters: Pentagon eyes expanding DARPA future warfare research office

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Defense is close to expanding its legendary future warfare and technology agency DARPA by combining it with the Pentagon office in charge of adapting existing weapons to new uses, people familiar with the plans said.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency would absorb the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) and centralize more research units under the Pentagon's Chief Technology Officer Michael Griffin.

The combination would end an experiment with SCO that began as an attempt to adapt to future threats quickly and with less bureaucracy. SCO reported directly to the defense secretary, removing it from traditional bureaucratic channels at the Pentagon.

If all of SCO's $1.3 billion 2020 budget request were transferred to DARPA, DARPA would gain control over 37 percent more funding on top of its 2020 funding request of $3.5 billion.

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WNU Editor: DARPA just got a 37% boost in its budget.

What Is DARPA Up To?

DARPA operates out of a headquarters in Arlington County, Virginia. Google Earth

FOX News/The SUN: Sniper bullets that never miss, weaponised insects and human experiments to boost brainpower… the incredible sci-fi innovations developed by DARPA – America’s most secretive (and controversial) government lab

DARPA, a top-secret and very controversial US army research lab, is behind a raft of shocking futuristic weapons - and many of their space-age creations are ready to be deployed at any moment

BULLETS that never miss, super soldiers with extreme strength and robot warriors capable of rising up against humans may sound like the stuff of science fiction… but the truth is that they have all already been developed.

A top-secret US government body called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is behind these space-age innovations, which it has developed as part of its mission to revolutionise the way America fights the wars of the future. (Just think of Q’s lab in James Bond, but for the US army).

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More News On DARPA

Space Force reorganization could raise profile of DARPA’s space missions -- Space News
DARPA asks for counter-hypersonic weapons proposals -- Flight Global
What Are Hypersonic Weapons and Why Is DARPA so Concerned About Stopping Them? -- Newsweek
DARPA Is Looking for a Way To Shoot Down Hypersonic Weapons -- National Interest
DARPA's Hail Mary Plan to Restart a Hacked US Electric Grid -- WIRED
This DARPA program will give Army and Marine aviators a robot co-pilot -- Army Times
Radiant Solutions to Build Smallsat Optical Telescope System for DARPA -- Via Satellite
Why DARPA Is Betting a Million Bucks on an "Impossible" Space Drive -- Popular Mechanics
DARPA says industry interest in AI Next campaign is ‘very good, solid’ -- Fed Scoop

Here Is What DARPA Is Working On Now

DARPA is working on how to shrink mini robots into a size smaller than a human fingertip. CBS News

CBS: DARPA helped create the internet, Siri and drones. Here's what they're working on now

Today, American soldiers must be inches away to identify a chemical warfare agent or a homemade bomb. By next year, they'll be able to do that from as far as 100 feet away.

The development is part of Ed Dottery's mission to help keep our soldiers safe, and it's backed by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, also known as DARPA.

From drones to digital assistants, a wide variety of tech innovations have one thing in common: they originated at DARPA, the agency tasked with seeing the future and making it real, reports CBS News' Kylie Atwood.

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WNU Editor: China and Russia have created their own "DARPAs", a clear sign on how important technological innovation and discovery is to their military programs.

DARPA Has Reinvented The Wheel

Task & Purpose: DARPA Literally Reinvented The Wheel

Glorious news for all privates who’ve ever had to haul a Humvee out of a mud-filled ditch: A brand new wheel designed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’ (DARPA) could make the pain of rough terrain a thing of the past.

As part of the Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program to boot the survivability and mobility of Army combat vehicles, DARPA researchers whipped up high-tech Reconfigurable Wheel-Track (RWT) upgrades that “transition from a round wheel to a triangular track and back again while the vehicle is on the move” — in short, allowing Humvees to transform into tracked vehicles on the fly.

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WNU Editor: This is frigging cool.

DARPA Wants A Program That Can Predict An Opponent's Strategy And Then Recommend Strategies To A Commander

Michael Peck, National Interest: DARPA's Mad Scientists Have a Sneaky Plan to Win the next Big War

The art of generalship is to get inside the enemy's head. From Caesar to Napoleon to Rommel, the best commanders have a knack for deducing the enemy's plans and then moving to exploit that insight.

At the same time, a staple of science fiction is the omniscient computer. DARPA wants to merge these two phenomenon into software that will determine an opponent's strategy and then recommend strategies to a commander.

Collection and Monitoring via Planning for Active Situational Scenarios (COMPASS) will focus on "gray zone" warfare, that nebulous not-quite-war mixture of cyberoperations, special forces, insurgents, information operations and other ways of waging war without actually going to war. Its most practiced practitioner today is Russia, which has used the technique to good effect in Crimea and Ukraine.

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WNU Editor: People are creatures of habit .... so maybe it can be predicted, even on a battlefield. But as to when such a platform will be applied .... that is far in the future.

DARPA To Tackle Faked Videos And Its Impact On Fake News

National Defense: DARPA to Tackle Fake News Scourge

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has kicked off a program that will seek out faked video footage that may be used to improperly influence populations, a senior agency official said March 20.

“We have all seen pictures and videos that have been altered. And a lot of that has been done by very advanced photographic video industries,” Dick Urban, special assistant to the DARPA director, said at the National Defense Industrial Association’s Science and Engineering Technology conference in Austin, Texas.

Future movies will have animated figures that look and talk and act like real people. There is a a great deal of private investment going into the computer-generated technology, he noted.

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WNU Editor: Fake videos are easy to spot .... at least right now. But it is easy to predict that as technology gets better .... we will not be able to distinguish between real and fake videos. Will DARPA be able to solve this .... we can only hope.

Why Is DARPA In Ukraine

Aaron Mehta, Defense News: What is DARPA doing in Ukraine?

WASHINGTON — DARPA, the Pentagon’s high-tech office, is working with the government of Ukraine to develop capabilities to help Kiev in its hybrid warfare challenge.

DARPA director Steven Walker, who recently took over that job after five years as the agency’s deputy, told reporters that he had personally visited the country in 2016 for talks with Ukrainian military, intel and industry leaders.

“We did have a good visit to the Ukraine,” Walker said Thursday at a breakfast hosted by the Defense Writer’s Group. “Yes, we have followed up with them, and through the U.S. European Command, we have started several projects with the Ukraine, mostly in the information space.”

“Not providing them weapons or anything like that, but looking at how to help them with information,” Walker added, before declining to go into further detail.

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WNU Editor: DARPA is an arm of the Pentagon, so no one should really be surprised to see them in war-zones.

The Pentagon Has A 'Gremlin Project' That Involves 'Flying Aircraft Carriers'

Darpa said the program has been deliberately named Gremlins after the imps that British pilots during Wold War Two adopted as their good luck charms.

Daily Mail: The Gremlins are coming! US military to test 'flying aircraft carriers' that can launch swarms of tiny killer drones in 2019

* Each drone could be reused upto 20 times
* Drones would 'swarm' together to carry out missions on the front line
* Launched in mid-air from larger aircraft and then retrieved in same way

They were the mischievous creatures blamed for causing mechanical failures and faults on aircraft during World War Two - before starring in a hit film as destructive monsters.

Now, the gremlins are back - as a new type of killer flying drone.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) research arm is pitting Dynetics and General Atomics (maker of the Predator drone) against each other in a contest to make the craft.

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WNU Editor: No .... they are not going to try flying a real aircraft carrier. DARPA's "aircraft carrier" will be a C-130, and they are testing drone swarms.

More News On DARPA's "Gremlin Project"

DARPA hopes to swarm drones out of C-130s in 2019 test -- Navy Times
DARPA Gremlins to Launch & Recover Drones from Air Force C-130s -- Scout Warrior
It's Official: DARPA Will Build a Flying Aircraft Carrier -- Motley Fool
Air Force Could Test "Flying Aircraft Carriers" as Early as Next Year -- NASDEQ

DARPA Wants To Engineer Plants Into Spy Tech That Can Detect Biohazrds And Electromagnetic Signals

Image Credit: DARPA

IBTimes: Green secret agents: Genetically engineered spy plants to help Pentagon detect potential threats

The Pentagon wants to create genetically engineered spy plants with programmable sensors.

The Pentagon is currently mulling over turning innocent plants into the next generation of intelligence gatherers.

According to the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA), the country's researchers have been directed to develop genetically modified plants that will be able to detect and collect relevant data about potential threats.

As part of its Advanced Plant Technologies (APT) programme, the agency plans to pursue technologies to develop special plant-based sensors that are self-sustaining in their environment, and can be remotely monitored using existing hardware.

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More News On DARPA Wanting To Engineer Plants Into Spy Tech

Nature’s Silent Sentinels Could Help Detect Security Threats -- DARPA
US Military Is Working to Turn Plants Into a Network of Environmental Spies -- Science Alert
US military to develop genetically modified plants to spy in environments 'unsuitable for traditional sensors' -- The Independent
DARPA Wants to Use Genetic Modification to Turn Plants into Spy Tech -- Futrism
DARPA is engineering plants to act as biohazard sensors -- Gears of Biz
US Plans to Develop Genetically Engineered 'Spy Plants' - DARPA -- Sputnik International