Pentagon Wants More Money For Researching And Developing New Weapons

The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, taken from an airplane in January 2008. Wikipedia

Bloomberg: Pentagon’s R&D Request Will Be the Biggest Ever, Shanahan Says

* $104 Billion research plan would boost space, hypersonics
* Fiscal 2020 request is $9 billion more than current year

The Pentagon will request a research and development budget of $104 billion, the biggest in the department’s history, boosting spending in space and for hypersonic weapons, according to defense officials.

The record request to be included in President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2020 budget on March 11 is about $9 billion more than Congress appropriated for R&D in the current fiscal year.
President Trump Attends Missile Defense Review Announcement At Pentagon

Patrick Shanahan
Photographer: Martin H. Simon/Pool via Bloomberg

“Look at things like” hypersonic weapons that can travel as fast as five times the speed of sound or “what we’re going to go do in space,” Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in an interview last week with Bloomberg News. “I think you’ll see much bigger dollars in space.”

While Shanahan, a former Boeing Co. executive, declined to discuss the budget specifics, other defense officials confirmed the increase from the $88 billion that had been projected for fiscal 2020 in budget documents last year.

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WNU Editor: I expect no opposition from Congress on this request.

The Pentagon's Secretive Tonopah Test Range Is Busier Than Ever

A rough looking B-2 Spirit drops an inert B61 nuclear bomb during a test over TTR. Sandia Labs

The Warzone/The Drive: Take A Very Rare Look Inside The Secretive Tonopah Test Range

With America revamping its nuclear arsenal, activities on the secluded range should balloon in the coming years.

Located in the northern reaches of the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), which consists of the Nellis Range Complex, the Department of Energy's legendary nuclear test site, Area 51, and other secluded areas, is Tonopah Test Range (TTR).

The land mass, which covers hundreds of square miles, has been used extensively for testing military technologies, especially those related to aerial nuclear weapons delivery, dating back to the 1960s. But it's probably best known for nearby Tonopah Test Range Airport, where the F-117 Nighthawk lived in total secrecy during the first decade of its operational service, and the airstrip was also home to foreign MiGs being flown under the highly classified Constant Peg program. Just like its associated air base, the nearby range, which is ran by Sandia Labs, continues to be an active place and has recently received a number of state of the art upgrades which are already being used to support America's nuclear arsenal modernization initiative as well as other programs.

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WNU Editor: The Sandia National Labs has a cool YouTube channel. The link is here.

U.S. Is Still The World Leader When It Comes To Military R&D

Defense News: US defense companies outspend international rivals in R&D

WASHINGTON — Amid Pentagon cuts for research and development, the top U.S. aerospace and defense firms have increased their own R&D spending by almost $12 billion in 2017.

According to the Global Innovation 1000 study by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, 30 of the top 1,000 companies in R&D spend count defense and aerospace as a primary industry. Among those, the top American companies spent $11.79 billion on R&D, $2.31 billion more than their foreign rivals.

Of the PwC’s top 1,000 list, Boeing topped U.S. defense and aerospace companies in R&D spending with $4.63 billion. United Technologies Corporation and Lockheed Martin ranked second and third with $2.34 billion and $99 million, respectively.

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WNU Editor: Overall, worldwide R&D is definitely big business .... 

.... Across all sectors, worldwide R&D spending among the world’s 1000 largest corporate R&D spenders increased 3.2 percent in 2017 to $702 billion.

What Science Fiction Movie Inspires The 'Wonks' At The Pentagon?

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) relies on the JARVIS artificial intelligence to help pilot his Iron Man suit. (Marvel Comics/Paramount Pictures)

Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense: Iron Man, Not Terminator: The Pentagon’s Sci-Fi Inspirations

WASHINGTON: “When most people when they hear me talk about this, they immediately start to think of think of Skynet and Terminator,” said the deputy secretary of defense. “I think more in terms of Iron Man.” The Pentagon wants artificial intelligence, said Bob Work, but it doesn’t want “killer robots that roam the battlefield” without human control.

Instead, Work said told an Atlantic Council conference, citing half-a-dozen science fiction stories from Iron Man to Stark Trek to Ender’s Game, the goal is something like the JARVIS software that runs Tony Stark’s fictional super-suit: “a machine to assist a human where the human is still in control in all matters, in all matters, but the machine makes the human much more powerful and much more capable.”

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WNU Editor: I have always cited the Terminator movies as the ultimate in fighting wars and conflicts .... but realistically .... yes .... Iron Man is probably more realistic and practical in today's world.

What Sensor Technology Is Lockheed Testing On A Major U.S. Highway?

Employees with Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace test senor technology at a site along Colo. 128 east of Colo. 93, south of Boulder, on Thursday. (Mark Leffingwell / Daily Camera)

'Bullet-Looking Missile Thing' Turns Heads Along Highway South Of Boulder -- Boulder Country News

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended Thursday

What the heck is that thing?

It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

The object — mounted on a long arm protruding from the back of a Ball Aerospace pickup truck — had been set up about 1 ½ miles east of Colo. 93 on the north side of Colo. 128 since Monday, according to several passersby.

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My Comment: If you stay on a highway beside a major U.S. military test site and/or near a place known for military and defense related R&D.... I am sure that over a period of time you will be seeing some interesting things.

U.S. Soldiers Will Soon Be Able To Scale Vertical Glass Walls

US Military Reveals 'Gecko Gloves' That Let Soldiers Scale Vertical Walls -- Daily Mail

* Dubbed the Z-Man project specialized climbing 'gloves' allow soldiers to climb walls
* Based on a gecko's feet, the gloves are coated with a specialized cloth called 'Geckskin'

The US military is developing special gloves that would let soldiers scale vertical walls.

Based on a gecko's feet, the gloves are coated with a specialized cloth called 'Geckskin'.

Impregnated with a reversible adhesive elastomer, they cling to surfaces the same way that the gecko's feet do.

Dubbed the Z-Man project, the new, specialized climbing paddles were developed for Darpa by Cambridge Massachusetts' Draper Laboratory.

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More News On The Z-Man Project

Z-Man: Gecko-Inspired Material Lets You Climb Sheer Glass Walls -- NBC news
US Military Developing 'Gecko Gloves' Allowing Soldiers To Scale Walls -- Design And Trend
Now you can climb a wall too -- Science Alert
Gecko-Inspired DARPA Technology Helps Humans Scale Walls -- Signal Online
DARPA's Gecko-Inspired Gloves Let Anyone Climb Up Flat Walls -- Gizmodo
Humans can now climb smooth glass walls thanks to geckos and DARPA -- Geek
Gecko-Inspired Adhesive Sticks 700 Pounds to a Wall -- Singularity Hub

Studying Mosquitoes To Make Better Soldiers

How Military Might Benefit From Study Of Hard-To-Kill Mosquitoes -- Christian Science Monitor

Mosquitoes, it turns out, are surprisingly adept at surviving collisions with heavy raindrops, an ability, say researchers, that could help engineer a new generation of tiny flying drones.

Did you ever wonder what happens to mosquitoes caught in a rainstorm? If a big, fat raindrop smashes into a delicate flying mosquito, the bug is toast, right?

Not if recent experiments by a team of engineers and biologists are any indication. The researchers found that mosquitoes are adept at surviving such collisions, and their work sheds light on why.

That’s good news for mosquitoes, and, say the researchers, it could be useful for humans.

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My Comment: You got to be kidding.

Will Defense Cuts Hurt R&D Projects?

Hawks: Cuts Will Dull Military's Edge -- Politico

“Proven” and “affordable” are words you hear a lot these days from sellers of military aircraft and other weapons systems in this dawning era of tight defense budgets.

The word you don’t hear so much is “new,” which worries some key lawmakers, Pentagon officials and defense contractors. Deep cuts in defense spending, they say, are threatening American industry’s ability to maintain its technological edge and causing a loss of intellectual capital that will be hard to get back.

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My Comment: The short answer is .... definitely yes.

The sentence that caught my attention is the following ....

.... “For the first time in 100 years, we do not have a design team working on a new manned airplane,” Boeing Executive Vice President Jim Albaugh said at a news conference last week, assuring skeptical reporters that it’s indeed possible to forget how to do that if you don’t have engineers with the right experience.

Indeed.

‘Impossible’ Device Could Propel Flying Cars, Stealth Missiles

From the Danger Room:

The Emdrive is an electromagnetic drive that would generate thrust from a closed system — “impossible” say some experts.

To critics, it’s flat-out junk science, not even worth thinking about. But its inventor, Roger Shawyer, has doggedly continued his work. As Danger Room reported last year, Chinese scientists claimed to validate his math and were building their own version.

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My Comment: If this is even remotely possible, warfare as we know it will completely change. Again .... it is a big if.

Underwater Laser Pops In Navy Ops

From The BBC:

US military researchers are developing a method for communication that uses lasers to make sound underwater.

The approach focuses laser light to produce bubbles of steam that pop and create tiny, 220-decibel explosions.

Controlling the rate of these explosions could provide a means of communication or even acoustic imaging.

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My Comment: The geek in me loves reading reports like this one.

Military Sonar Blamed For Deafness In Dolphins

From The New Scientist:

Sonar can temporarily deafen dolphins, a new study has found, suggesting that mass strandings of cetaceans could be caused by military activities.

The US Navy has suspected as much for years. In 2002, it admitted that a beaching incident was caused by military sonar, and autopsies on the dead whales revealed haemorrhaging near the ears.

The new study, by Aran Mooney and colleagues at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology found that repeated sonar "pings" cause temporary hearing loss in dolphins.

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How Defense Research Is Making Troops More Effective in Wartime

From the Washington Post:

When Army patrol leaders in Iraq prepare to go out on missions in Baghdad, their last stop at headquarters is a computerized map on which they outline the area where they will operate. Then they watch as icons emerge, showing, in grim detail, the lurking dangers.

By clicking on those, they can bring up not only sites of past hostile action but also photos and background on local leaders -- some to see and others to avoid -- videos of hostile and safe places, and reports from previous patrols, says Brian Slaughter, a retired Army first lieutenant who served as an armored platoon leader in Iraq in 2004. Slaughter took part in developing the computerized Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR).

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My Comment: The development of new technologies and implementing them quickly on the battlefield is having an enormous and pronounce effect in favor of those forces that are using them. Like the ancient Roman Army of the past who knew how to use new discoveries in waging war, the U.S. Arm Forces have raised this level of expertise to an unprecedented level.

When the Iraq War started in 2003, the military pundits were predicting mass casualties (American dead was projected to be 15,000) and that the battle for Baghdad was to be like the battle for Stalingrad.

The great battle never happened. Instead, American forces were effective in isolating Iraqi units loyal to the Saddam Hussein, and to then be in a position to surgically wipe them out with minimum coalition losses. In the past, such a battle with this precision could not happen. In todays world, new technology is not only making it possible to isolate and wipe out the enemy quickly, but to also do it from the comfort of a room thousands of miles away.

As the U.S. continues to develop these new technologies, a certain tipping point will be reached in which almost all military organizations will then realize that to fight the U.S. Arm Forces ..... even a guerrilla war ..... will in the end only result in their defeat. Like the Roman Empire in the past, all of Rome's enemies learned very quickly that it was not in their interest to wage war against Rome when it was at its peak as a super power.