The laser was developed under the Pentagon’s High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative (HELSI), which is an effort by the department to strengthen the directed energy industrial base and improve the quality of laser beams, as per Breaking Defense.
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AI at the Edge, NAD-Enhancing Drugs, and Laser Beam Toting Sharks!! — Discovering, Enabling & Transitioning Technology For Special Operations Forces — Lisa R. Sanders, Director of Science and Technology for Special Operations Forces, USSOCOM.
Lisa R. Sanders is the Director of Science and Technology for Special Operations Forces, Acquisition, Technology & Logistics (SOF AT&L), U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM — https://www.socom.mil/), located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, where she is responsible for all research and development funded activities — https://www.socom.mil/SOF-ATL/Pages/eSOF_cap_of_interest.aspx.
Ms. Sanders has over 30 years of civilian Federal service. She entered Federal Service as an Electronics Engineer at Naval Avionics Center in Indianapolis, Indiana where she served in quality engineering, production engineering and program management. In 1996, she transferred to Naval Air Warfare Center and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Patuxent River, Maryland, serving as an Electronics Engineer and Program Manager for the E-2C Hawkeye aircraft. In 2003, she assumed responsibility for the production and modification of the CV-22 (a Vertical takeoff and landing aircraft). During her time at NAVAIR, she managed one of the first Multi-Year Procurements, and executed the modification and delivery of CV-22 production and developmental test aircraft.
Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.
There is a quiet yet fierce battle being fought by technology heavyweights. They want to consolidate the exponentially increasing RPA (robotic process automation) market and the sizable investments users are making, which continue to grow. According to recent research, organizations on average spend $480,000 on RPA annually, with those in the highest tier spending well over $1 million on automation every year.
With a market of that size and all indications being that automation will only get bigger, it’s no wonder the likes of Microsoft have entered the fray to duke it out with perennial leaders Automation Anywhere, UiPath and Blue Prism, raising the question: Who will come out on top?
Optimizing Human-System Performance — Dr. Greg Lieberman, Ph.D., Neuroscientist / Lead, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, U.S. Army Futures Command
Dr. Greg Lieberman, Ph.D. (https://www.arl.army.mil/arl25/meet-arl.php?gregory_lieberman) is a Neuroscientist, and Lead, Optimizing Human-System Performance, at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Army Research Laboratory (DEVCOM ARL).
DEVCOM ARL, as an integral part of the Army Futures Command, is the Army’s foundational research laboratory focused on operationalizing science to ensure overmatch in any future conflict. DEVCOM ARL shapes future concepts with scientific research and knowledge and delivers technology for modernization solutions to win in the future operating environment.
It could support non-combat activities such as humanitarian relief operations and medical missions.
Commercial space company Sierra Space, which is developing the shuttle-shaped Dream Chaser spacecraft for transportation solutions, has signed an agreement with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) transportation command for point-to-point global terrestrial delivery of military materiel and personnel.
Both organizations will develop solutions using the Dream Chaser spaceplanes, Shooting Star cargo modules, and on-orbit infrastructure that provides unique capabilities for precise, cost-effective, and timely global delivery of Department of Defense logistics and personnel through space.
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A grim future awaits the United States if it loses the competition with China on developing key technologies like artificial intelligence in the near future, the authors of a special government-backed study told reporters on Monday.
If China wins the technological competition, it can use its advancements in artificial intelligence and biological technology to enhance its own country’s economy, military and society to the determent of others, said Bob Work, former deputy defense secretary and co-chair of the Special Competitive Studies Project, which examined international artificial intelligence and technological competition. Work is the chair of the U.S. Naval Institute Board of Directors.
Losing, in Work’s opinion, means that U.S. security will be threatened as China is able to establish global surveillance, companies will lose trillions of dollars and America will be reliant on China or other countries under Chinese influence for core technologies.
Microsoft’s augmented reality headset the HoloLens has been in the works for years now, but it’s been a while since we’ve heard any news. We were seeing demos of it way back in 2015 (opens in new tab), but Microsoft has been pretty quiet on the tech in recent years when it comes to a consumer release.
What we’ve heard tons about is Microsoft’s deal to supply the United States Army with HoloLens tech. We first got wind of the deal back in 2018 (opens in new tab) with talks of a $480 million contract to help “increase lethality” of combat missions. It wasn’t until 2021 that Microsoft officially signed a much pricier $22 billion dollar contract (opens in new tab) with the army for military grade HoloLens supply.
THE artificial intelligence revolution has only just begun, but there have already been numerous unsettling developments.
AI programs can be used to act on humans’ worst instincts or achieve humans’ more wicked goals, like creating weapons or terrifying its creators with a lack of morality.
Artificial intelligence is a catch-all phrase for a computer program designed to simulate, mimic or copy human thinking processes.
Minimizing personnel costs and vulnerability
“The goal is to build a plane that can launch from ship flight decks and small austere land locations in adverse weather without launch and recovery equipment typically needed for these systems,” stated DARPA’s press release published on Friday.
Boron as rocket fuel has been a tough nut to crack.
Rocket scientists in China are working to develop a boron-powered supersonic missile that can fly like a commercial airliner and then swim in the water to act as a torpedo, South China Morning Post.
IStock/AlexLMX
Boron is a highly reactive light element that reacts equally well with water as it does with air to release vast amounts of heat. The U.S. Air Force experimented with boron in the 1950s to increase the power of its supersonic bombers. However, the project was shelved since ignited boron is hard to control and also forms a layer of debris that impacts rocket performance.