US DoD merge Security Cooperation workforce into a unified service - Army Technology

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  June 17, 2019 | International, Other Defence

  Enabling Revolutionary Nondestructive Inspection Capability

  X-rays and gamma rays have a wide range of applications including scanning suspicious maritime shipping containers for illicit materials, industrial inspection of materials and processes, and medical diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Current technologies, however, are not ideal. X-rays produce a continuum of energies that limit their inspection and diagnostic performance, and gamma rays can only be produced at specific energies unique to a given radioactive isotope. DARPA today announced its Gamma Ray Inspection Technology (GRIT) program. GRIT seeks novel approaches to achieve high-intensity, tunable, and narrow-bandwidth sources of gamma ray radiation in a compact, transportable form factor that would enable a wide range of national security, industrial, and medical applications. A Proposers Day webinar describing the goals of the program is scheduled for July 8, 2019. “What we're trying to do in GRIT is transform the use of x-rays and gamma rays,” said Mark Wrobel, program manager in DARPA's Defense Sciences Office. “Current sources of gamma rays, like Cobalt-60 or Cesium-137, are not very flexible. They require special licenses to possess and only emit gamma rays at very specific energies. What we desire is a source of very high-energy photons that we can tune to match the application we need. This ranges from more effective detection of illicit cargo, to a more informative medical x-ray.” GRIT aims to provide a source of tunable, pure x-rays and gamma rays from tens of keV (kilo-electron volts) up through over ten MeV (mega-electron volts). Currently, tunable and narrow bandwidth gamma ray sources only exist at highly specialized user facilities best suited for basic research and are not able to support broad practical applications. Shrinking these photon sources to a transportable system is a major goal and challenge of the GRIT program. GRIT technology could make possible a range of new inspection and diagnostic protocols. In medical and industrial radiography, for example, GRIT could enable revealing specific elemental and material content, such as calcium in bones or specific metals in cargo. A typical x-ray only shows differences in density in the object being inspected – whether a piece of luggage at an airport, or an individual at a doctor's office. If successful, a GRIT x-ray source could be tuned to detect and quantify the concentration of specific elements of interest, such as the amount of calcium in a given bone x-ray, enabling radiologists to actually see bone composition. Tuning energy between 10s of keV to over 100 hundred keV would allow detection of specific elements that might be of interest in characterizing novel materials and processes at micron scales. These techniques would be relevant to defense applications including non-destruction inspection of novel additively manufactured materials and alloys for their elemental composition. At energy levels in the MeV range, gamma ray photons have high enough energy to actually interact with the nuclei of atoms. Whereas x-rays work by interacting with the shells of atoms, GRIT would be able to stimulate the nucleus of an atom to bring about an effect called nuclear resonance fluorescence, a sort of “fingerprint” that is unique to each isotope on the periodic table. “With GRIT, you could probe and detect specific isotopes of interest by fine-tuning the photon energy to minimize background noise and take advantage of the nuclear resonance fluorescence phenomenon,” Wrobel said. “Those isotopes could be rare-earth elements of interest or special nuclear materials. To be able to definitively say, ‘Yes, there's highly enriched uranium in this object' and be able to characterize how much is present would be a significant leap forward over our current capabilities.” DARPA is seeking expertise in a range of technologies on the GRIT program including advanced accelerator technology, high-energy laser systems, novel control systems, and new x-ray and gamma ray detector technology. To register for the GRIT Proposers Day webinar, visit: https://go.usa.gov/xmh28. GRIT's focus on new, compact photon sources for inspection complements DARPA's Intense and Compact Neutron Sources (ICONS) program, which is developing compact neutron sources. The two technologies would work in tandem, yielding a very robust inspection capability. Caption: The Gamma Ray Inspection Technology (GRIT) program seeks tunable gamma ray sources for a host of national security, industrial, and medical applications. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-06-14

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  January 14, 2019 | International, Land

  Army looks to give its old combat boot the boot

  By JOHN VANDIVER | STARS AND STRIPES The Army is testing new combat boots at select boot camps in a push to better compete with the more comfortable commercial brands favored by many soldiers for their lightness. The U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command Soldier Center in Natick, Mass., has developed prototypes that soldiers will wear at three different basic training and active duty sites during the next four months. “Soldiers live in their boots and many will tell you that there is no piece of equipment more important to their lethality and readiness,” said Al Adams, a team leader at the Army's soldier center, in a statement. “A bad pair of boots will ruin a Soldier's day and possibly result in injuries, so we really believe that each of these prototype boots have the potential to improve the lives of Soldiers.” The prototypes, which utilize more flexible types of leather and lighter outsoles, will be fielded to 800 new recruits at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., and Fort Jackson, S.C. Another 900 pairs will go to infantry soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas. The Army's soldier center team will custom-fit each pair and collect solider surveys on boot performance in the spring. The prototypes are up to 1.5 pounds lighter per pair than those issued today. “In terms of energy expenditure or calories burned, 1-pound of weight at the feet is equivalent to 4-pounds in your rucksack,” Adams said in a statement. The prototypes in their current design would be the first significant change to the basic Army combat boot in years. While there have been improvements to the Army's special footwear for jungle, mountain and cold weather locations, there is room for improvement in general-purpose boots issued to new recruits, the Army said. “Most components of these combat boots have not been updated in almost 30 years,” Army footwear engineer Anita Perkins said in a statement. Army surveys have found that satisfaction with the Army combat boot is lower than with commercial varieties. In a poll of 14,000 soldiers, the Army said it found that nearly 50 percent choose comfortable sneaker-like commercial boots over Army-issued ones. The problem confronting Army officials is that commercial comfort can come with trade-offs. The Army said its ultimate aim is to bridge the comfort gap while maintaining durability and protection. vandiver.john@stripes.com Twitter: @john_vandiver https://www.stripes.com/news/army-looks-to-give-its-old-combat-boot-the-boot-1.563985

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  July 15, 2022 | International, Aerospace

  Lockheed Delivers First Jet-Mounted Laser Weapon to USAF

  Lockheed Martin delivered the smallest airborne laser weapon system ever built to the US Air Force in February.