Showing posts with label US Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US Technology. Show all posts
February 14, 2017
November 27, 2016
May 28, 2014
US Navy Amphibious Assault Ship and 1,000 Marines Deployed Off Libyan Coast
A U.S. warship carrying about 1,000 Marines has moved into the Mediterranean Sea to augment the American crisis response force already deployed in the region, a military official said on Tuesday.
The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan, which carries a Marine Expeditionary Unit of about a thousand troops, had been participating in the Jordanian-led multinational military exercise Eager Lion before heading into the Mediterranean, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Bataan will increase the U.S. crisis response force already in the region.
Earlier this month, U.S. officials said about 250 Marines plus several tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft, normally based in Spain, were at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily in case they were needed to evacuate Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli during unrest there.
The United States has several hundred Marines in Moron, Spain, and temporarily moved a team of about 175 to a base in Romania in April to enhance its ability to respond to events in Africa.
The Marines based out of Moron are part of a crisis response unit focused on embassy security that was created after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
U.S. military officials did not say where the USS Bataan was located in the Mediterranean, but one dismissed reports that it was near the Libyan coast, saying it had only passed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday.
April 4, 2014
The Navy's Newest Destroyer - USS Zumwalt - Is a Drone
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-02/the-navys-newest-destroyer-is-a-drone
In the article the Author Drake Bennet wrote:
The Zumwalt also boasts what Raytheon calls a Total Ship Computing Environment, which allows it to be controlled from any of a couple dozen consoles around the ship. If the captain happens to be on the bow or the stern rather than up on the bridge when there’s an emergency, he can still take control of the ship. “He’s got that capability right where he’s at; he doesn’t have to run 600 feet and up multiple levels to get up to where he has to be,” says Knudson. The captain just signs in to the nearest console and enters a password, as if he’s doing some online banking.
If you read at the bottom of the page, you can see the reader comments:
The captain just signs in to the nearest console and enters a password, as if he’s doing some online banking. Oh, just like online banking? LOL
So he first gets a "Username or Password incorrect" message, then he has to have his username sent to his email then he has to get the link to reset his password. Then he gets the 'account locked' please call customer support message. Hello, thank you for calling Raytheon, your call is important to us, please listen carefully as our menu options have recently changed. If you know your party's extension you may dial it anytime during this message. Press 1 if...Press 2 if... Press 3 if...Press 6 if this a Zumwalt captain trying to logon on. 20 minutes later he has control of the ship from the console 15' away from where he was originally. Like that online banking?
You forgot to mention that when he calls customer support, he’ll have to listen to a 30 second commercial offering Zumwalts for 5 easy payments of 1 billion before getting connected to someone in Pakistan who sounds like he’s speaking Portuguese.
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| Courtesy General Dynamics Photo/US Navy |
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| Courtesy General Dynamics Photo/US Navy |
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| Courtesy General Dynamics Photo/US Navy |
When the U.S. Navy christens the first of its newest class of destroyers this month, it will launch the first ship with a brain of its own.
Among the high-tech features included on the USS Zumwalt—cannons that fire rocket-propelled, GPS-guided rounds and stealth design that gives the 610-foot ship the radar signature of a small fishing vessel—there’s also a computer intelligence capable of preparing the ship for battle and engaging enemy targets on its own. Think of it as a gigantic floating drone: “Most UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] are a few million dollars,” says Wade Knudson, who heads the Zumwalt project for Raytheon (RTN), which made most of the ship’s computer systems. “This is a $5 billion UAV.”
Unlike aerial drones, however, the Zumwalt will still have a human crew and it will know how to anticipate their needs. If the ship’s smoke alarms and cameras detect a fire, the ship will turn on the sprinklers and seal off the area. When the fire is out, the ship knows to drain the water so the crew can investigate. All of this automation means the ship will carry a crew of just over 150—half of what would normally be required on a ship of this size. In a pinch, it can be manned by a crew of 40.
January 24, 2014
US Navy Rail Gun Showing Promise
US Navy developers are moving into a second phase of testing for an electromagnetic rail gun that US Navy leaders hope to mount to surface ships in the future, service officials said Wednesday at the Navy Surface Warfare Association Annual Symposium.
The rail gun is a long-range, high-energy, multi-mission weapon able to fire high-velocity projectiles three times as far as most existing Navy guns. “We’ve gone through prototype phase 1 and had two industry gun systems. We’re now on phase two which will give us multiple rounds per minute,” said Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder, Chief of Naval Research.Klunder expressed enthusiasm that the rail gun successfully went 8-for-8 in a recent test firing at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
“It went exactly where we told it to go with good telemetry,” he explained.
The rail gun, which can hit ranges of 100 miles or more, uses electricity stored on the ship to generate a high-speed electromagnetic pulse sufficient to propel a kinetic energy warhead. The result is an inexpensive, high-impact and long-range offensive weapon, service officials said.The Navy, which has been testing the rail gun at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Va., plans to integrate it aboard a ship by 2016, service officials said.
The 23-pound hyper-velocity projectile can be fired from a rail gun as well as from Navy 5-inch guns and even 155mm artillery weapons, Klunder added. The round currently has what’s called command guidance but may be engineered for self-guidance in the future.
In addition to range and lethality advantages, the rail gun is also much less expensive than other weapons in the Navy arsenal to operate — the rounds cost about $25,000 each, he added.
The gun is high-heat and high-energy so cooling technologies are required, Klunder said.
“There are multiple designs that we are evaluating. Obviously it is not just the gun but a lot of the systems that go behind that,” said Don McCormack, Surface Warfare Center Director.
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