19 juin 2023 | International, Aérospatial
Reveal of French-made combat drone stirs up industry
The Aarok is a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) combat drone, designed and made in France by Turgis & Gaillard.
21 juillet 2020 | International, Naval
US Navy orders General Dynamics shipyard to stop work after small fire on the warship Kearsarge
By: David B. Larter
Update: The headline of this story was changed to more accurately characterize the incident onboard the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge.
WASHINGTON — A rapidly extinguished fire aboard the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge prompted the Navy to issue a “stop work order” Friday to General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard in Norfolk, Naval Sea Systems Command told Defense News Saturday.
The incident started when a spark from welding landed on nearby material, which was then quickly put out by the fire watch. Fire watch is a sailor or contractor who stands nearby with a fire hose and/or extinguisher to stop a larger blaze in its tracks.
In a statement, Naval Sea Systems Command spokesman Rory O'Connor said the “stop work” was to ensure the company followed fire safety protocols.
“On July 17, the Navy was informed of a fire aboard USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), currently conducting a Selected Restricted Availability at General Dynamics NASSCO – Norfolk,” O'Connor said.
“The fire was quickly extinguished by the fire watch and resulted in minimal damage. In response to this incident, the Navy has issued a stop work order for all ships in maintenance availabilities at GD NASSCO Norfolk to ensure compliance with all established fire protocols and procedures.”
In a phone call Saturday, Anthony Paolino, a General Dynamics NASSCO spokesman, said the incident involved an ember landing on plastic, causing it to melt and smoke, but said there was no larger fire. NASSCO was already reviewing its safety protocols prior to the “stop work” order, and that it fully supported the Navy's ongoing safety stand down in the wake of this week's fire aboard Bonhomme Richard, Paolino said.
In a phone call Saturday, Anthony Paolino, a General Dynamics NASSCO spokesman, said the incident involved an ember landing on plastic, causing it to melt and smoke, but said there was no larger fire. NASSCO was already reviewing its safety protocols prior to the “stop work” order, and that it fully supported the Navy's ongoing safety stand down in the wake of this week's fire aboard Bonhomme Richard, Paolino said.
Once those investigations are finished, Gilday will determine whether a broader examination of the Navy's culture is necessary.
“This is a very, very serious incident that I think will force the Navy to stand back and reevaluate itself,” Gilday said. “We've got to follow the facts, we've got to be honest with ourselves and we've got to get after it. My intention, once the investigations are done, is to make this available for the public to debate, including what we need to do to get after any systemic problems that we might have.”
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11 février 2022 | International, Aérospatial
For the first time, Black Hawk helicopter flies without anyone aboard
Sikorsky and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency flew a Black Hawk helicopter for 30 minutes with no one inside through the ALIAS program.
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6 août 2019 | International, C4ISR
Can a dragonfly teach a missile how to hunt?
By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — A computational neuroscientist is studying whether a dragonfly's excellent hunting skills can be replicated in a missile's ability to maneuver and destroy targets midair with better precision. Dragonflies are vicious little creatures with a hit-to-kill track record of 95 percent, meaning only 5 percent of its prey escapes. Sandia National Laboratories' Frances Chance is building algorithms that simulate how a dragonfly processes information when intercepting prey, and she's testing them in a virtual environment. So far, the results are promising. The laboratories are federally funded and focus on national security missions through scientific and engineering research. The project is a yearlong, high-risk, high-gain effort that will wrap up in September, and it is funded by Sandia's Autonomy for Hypersonics Mission Campaign, Chance said. “I think what is really interesting about insects, in general, is they do something really fast and really well, but they are not particularly smart in the way you or I would think of ourselves as being smart,” Chance told Defense News in a recent interview. While insects may not be the right fit for studying cognitive capabilities to develop complex artificial intelligence, they are ideal for developing efficient computations for intercept capability. A dragonfly can react to a particular prey's maneuvers in 50 milliseconds, Chance explained. That amount of time accounts for information to cross three neurons in a dragonfly's brain. This indicates the dragonfly doesn't learn how to hunt, but rather the skill is inherent and part of its brain's hard-wiring. “The challenge then is: Is there anything that we can learn from how dragonflies do this that we can then bring to the next generation of missiles, or maybe even the next-next generation of missiles?” Chance said. By developing an artificial neural network that mimics a dragonfly's ability to hunt and then applying it to missile capabilities that rely on computation-heavy systems, one could reduce the size, weight and power needed for a missile's onboard computers; improve intercept techniques for targets such as hypersonic weapons; and home in on targets using simpler sensors. If the model of a dragonfly's neural circuit developed through Chance's research shows enough promise, she would then pass the information to scientists, who would try to directly apply it to weapons systems. One of the greatest leaps involves adapting an algorithm to handle the speed at which a missile flies. While a dragonfly is fast, it's not nearly as fast as a missile. Animal brains process information significantly slower than a computer, so it's possible computations can be sped up to better align with the speed at which a missile approaches targets. “The hope is that even if the algorithm isn't wildly successful, you might be able to say something about what you can get away with in terms of what types of capabilities you give the next generation of weapons,” Chance said. The model she's building is several steps removed from implementation onto a weapon. “I would consider the project complete when we have a viable model — ‘viable' meaning it does interception — and a bonus if it's neurobiologically plausible. There is no reason to force that for this type of research, but only because it doesn't necessarily matter; so something biologically inspired that works I would consider a success.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/land/2019/08/05/can-a-dragonfly-teach-a-missile-how-to-hunt/