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Recent Warfare Technologies

GR66 said:
https://www.eol.ucar.edu/system/files/APAR_brochure_2015.pdf


I came across this article while trying to learn a bit more about the radars on AAD Destroyers.  My understanding is that for the AAD version of the CSC there was a perference to install the Thales Smart-L search radar combined with the APAR radar which would handle the mid-course and terminal correction guidance to the SM-2 missiles (I gather this is what turns the AD capability of a warship into an AAD capability) as opposed to the US AEGIS system which I understand uses the AN/SPY-1 radar for mid-course correction and the AN/SPG-62 radar for terminal guidance.

As per the attached link, the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in the US is in the process of mounting an APAR system on a C-130 aircraft in order to conduct detailed weather system analysis.

I'm curious if an airborne APAR radar such as this could have the capability to replace current AAD destroyers with an airborne missile control unit.  Such an aircraft could potentially deploy to support any naval taskforce equipped with SM-2 missiles, even if not accompanied by a dedicated AAD command ship and be provided with an AAD capability.

Obviously, your brochure does not use APAR to mean the same thing (even though both use Phase Array Radars. In the Navy we use APAR to mean Active Phased Array Radar. Similarly, the difference between an AD (air defence destroyer) and an AAD (Area Air Defence destroyer) is more linked to the type of missiles carried, their number and the fire control system used. An AD destroyer can provide air defence locally, whereas an AAD will be able to provide protection to a spread out battle group under a much larger umbrella.
 
Thanks for the correction.  I took the description from Page 2:

"About  APAR
The proposed APAR system consists of four removable,
C-band active electronically scanned array antennas
(AESA) strategically mounted on the fuselage of the NSF/
NCAR C-130 turboprop aircraft, using aerodynamic
fairings."

And this from Wikipedia (sorry!):

"An active electronically scanned array (AESA), also known as active phased array radar (APAR)"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_electronically_scanned_array

to indicate that this was in fact an "APAR"-type radar that was being described.
 
Tiny drones that can be deployed from the flare dispensers of a jet fighter:

http://warisboring.com/articles/imagine-f-16s-deploying-swarms-of-tiny-drones/

Imagine F-16s Deploying Swarms of Tiny Drones
Actually, you don't have to imagine -- Perdix drones are real
FeaturedMarch 10, 2016David Axe 11

In the middle of June 2015, a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter took off from an air base in Alaska and flew over a military training range at 430 miles per hour. On command, something burst from the fighter’s flare dispenser — a drone roughly the size of a soda can and weighing just one pound.

The tiny, orange- and black-colored robot fluttered toward the ground trailing a parachute. After a few seconds, the ‘chute separated from the drone, the robot’s wings — which had folded into the body for compactness — extended outward. An inch-wide propeller began spinning, propelling the diminutive machine forward.

The drone is called “Perdix.” It’s the latest product of the Strategic Capabilities Office, a secretive Pentagon organization, formed in 2012, whose job is to find new ways to deploy existing weapons.

One of the office’s ideas is to transform F-16s and other fast jets into high-speed launchers for swarms of small drones that could confuse enemy defenses or perform surveillance.

“Just imagine an airplane going in against an [integrated air defense] system and dropping 30 of these out that form into a network and do crazy things,” Bob Work, the deputy defense secretary, told trade publication Breaking Defense. “We’ve tested this. We’ve tested it and it works.”

The Perdix drones are 3D-printed out of Kevlar and carbon-fiber. Powered by lithium-ion batteries — the same kind you’d find in a cell phone — the Perdixes launch from a standard flare dispenser, like on the F-16, F/A-18 and other warplanes.

Toughness was a key design requirement. A Perdix must survive forceful ejection from a high-speed launcher and right itself in turbulent winds.

The drones were originally developed by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011. The students tested the Perdixes from balloons and envisioned the small unmanned aerial vehicles supporting environmental monitoring.

But it was the military that was most interested in the tiny machines. The Virginia-based Strategic Capabilities Office — a 26-person team led by William Roper, a physicist who previously worked for the military on missile defense — began experimenting with Perdix in 2014.
 
The Alaska sortie was the first in a rapid-fire series of flight tests. As part of the Northern Edge war game last June, fighters launched Perdix drones 72 times. After deploying, a swarm of potentially dozens of the Perdix robots connect via radio datalink — and pursue their objective.

“The specifics of what the mini-drones can do are classified, but they could be used to confuse enemy forces and carry out surveillance missions using equipment that costs much less than full-sized unmanned aircraft,” The Washington Post reported.

Fighter-launched robotic decoys are not new, per se. The F-16 was one of the first U.S. military aircraft to carry the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, a roughly 10-foot-long, radar-spoofing drone, starting in the late 1990s.

The difference is the swarm. While an F-16 might launch only a couple of MALDs, the same plane could deploy up 30 Perdixes — 30 is the flare capacity of the standard ALE-47 countermeasures dispenser — making the smaller drones much harder to destroy and potentially much more effective.

Not to mention cheaper. A single ADM-160B MALD costs more than $300,000. Two years of testing involving potentially hundreds of Perdixes has cost the government just $20 million, thanks in part to the initiative’s heavy reliance on existing technology.

“We don’t have to develop fundamentally new weapons,” Roper told The Washington Post. “But we have to work the integration and the concept of operation. And then you have a completely new capability, but you don’t have to wait long at all.”
 
Using origami to create floldable. flexible structures. Imagine shelters which can be sotred flat like Ikea furniture, but rapidly "self deploy" into a mod tent or larger sized object. Other applications can be imagined as well:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/03/harvard-creates-three-dimensional.html

Harvard creates three-dimensional actuated scalable snapology-origami-inspired transformable metamaterial

Imagine a house that could fit in a backpack or a wall that could become a window with the flick of a switch.

Harvard researchers have designed a new type of foldable material that is versatile, tunable and self actuated. It can change size, volume and shape; it can fold flat to withstand the weight of an elephant without breaking, and pop right back up to prepare for the next task.

“We’ve designed a three-dimensional, thin-walled structure that can be used to make foldable and reprogrammable objects of arbitrary architecture, whose shape, volume and stiffness can be dramatically altered and continuously tuned and controlled,” said Johannes T. B. Overvelde, graduate student in Bertoldi’s lab and first author of the paper.

The structure is inspired by an origami technique called snapology, and is made from extruded cubes with 24 faces and 36 edges. Like origami, the cube can be folded along its edges to change shape. The team demonstrated, both theoretically and experimentally, that the cube can be deformed into many different shapes by folding certain edges, which act like hinges. The team embedded pneumatic actuators into the structure, which can be programmed to deform specific hinges, changing the cube’s shapes and size, and removing the need for external input.

Snapology Inspired

Analysis of the possible shapes of the extruded cube unit cell.

Fabrication and deformation of a single extruded cube unit cell and the corresponding mechanical metamaterial.

Nature Communications - A three-dimensional actuated origami-inspired transformable metamaterial with multiple degrees of freedom

The team connected 64 of these individual cells to create a 4x4x4 cube that can grow, and shrink, change its shape globally, change the orientation of its microstructure and fold completely flat. As the structure changes shape, it also changes stiffness — meaning one could make a material that’s very pliable or very stiff using the same design. These actuated changes in material properties adds a fourth dimension to the material.

“We not only understand how the material deforms, but also have an actuation approach that harnesses this understanding,” said Bertoldi. “We know exactly what we need to actuate in order to get the shape we want.”

The material can be embedded with any kind of actuator, including thermal, dielectric or even water.
“The opportunities to move all of the control systems onboard combined with new actuation systems already being developed for similar origami-like structures really opens up the design space for these easily deployable transformable structures," said Weaver.

“This structural system has fascinating implications for dynamic architecture including portable shelters, adaptive building facades and retractable roofs,” said Hoberman. “Whereas current approaches to these applications rely on standard mechanics, this technology offers unique advantages such as how it integrates surface and structure, its inherent simplicity of manufacture, and its ability to fold flat.”

“This research demonstrates a new class of foldable materials that is also completely scalable,” Overvelde said, “ It works from the nanoscale to the meter-scale and could be used to make anything from surgical stents to portable pop-up domes for disaster relief.”

Abstract

Reconfigurable devices, whose shape can be drastically altered, are central to expandable shelters, deployable space structures, reversible encapsulation systems and medical tools and robots. All these applications require structures whose shape can be actively controlled, both for deployment and to conform to the surrounding environment. While most current reconfigurable designs are application specific, here we present a mechanical metamaterial with tunable shape, volume and stiffness. Our approach exploits a simple modular origami-like design consisting of rigid faces and hinges, which are connected to form a periodic structure consisting of extruded cubes. We show both analytically and experimentally that the transformable metamaterial has three degrees of freedom, which can be actively deformed into numerous specific shapes through embedded actuation. The proposed metamaterial can be used to realize transformable structures with arbitrary architectures, highlighting a robust strategy for the design of reconfigurable devices over a wide range of length scales.
 
The ScienceDaily website is reporting on new materials which could eliminate the need for de-icing.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160316082724.htm

New material could make aircraft de-icers a thing of the past

Date:
    March 16, 2016
Source:
    American Chemical Society
Summary:
    Instead of applying a deicing agent to strip ice from an aircraft's wings before winter takeoffs, airport personnel could in the future just watch chunks slide right off. Scientists report they have developed a slippery substance that is secreted from a film on the wing's surface as temperatures drop below freezing and retreats back into the film as temperatures rise.

Lots of potential for Canada as related to Arctic security issues.
 
Shooting technology goes to 11:

Read full article at: http://tracking-point.com/taya-kyle-wins-american-sniper-shootout

Smart Rifles To Dramatically Alter Battlefield Landscapesaid John McHale,
Taya Kyle Wins American Sniper Shootout
By TrackingPoint
8 DEC 2015

Utilizing TrackingPoint precision-guided firearms, Taya Kyle, a novice shooter, defeated NRA World Shooting Champion Bruce
Piatt in the American Sniper Shootout.

Bruce Piatt utilized the same weapons our soldiers use in combat today.

The event served to raise money for the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation and demonstrated the superior effectiveness of TrackingPoint’s precision-guided firearms. Taya Kyle hit 100% of her shots for an aggregate score of 10,140 points while Bruce Piatt made 58.6% of his shots for an aggregate score of 3,080 points. Shot scoring was weighted based on degree of difficulty.

According to World Shooting Champion Bruce Piatt, “The technology in the Tracking-Point system became shockingly obvious when
a novice shooter like Taya Kyle was able to complete the American Sniper Shootout without a miss. ”

The company’s precision guided firearms are based on fighter jet lock-and-launch technology.

“For the most part our military has modernized in the last 100 years,” said John McHale, trackingPoint’s CEO. “The Navy has gone from sailing ships to aircraft carriers, and the Air Force has gone from prop planes to supersonic fighter jets. Meanwhile the Army is still fighting with guns that are the equivalent of prop planes.

Implications: Adversary acquisition of similar weapon systems will pose a significant threat to better-trained US forces. These
systems will enable minimally trained personnel to potentially outshoot better trained and armed foes, thereby reducing the stand-
off differential. Additionally, it will significantly reduce the amount of training time required to bring untrained personnel to world-
class skill.

OTOH, so long as *our* shooters still have the basics of shooting drilled into them to the point of instinctive shooting and muscle memory, then EW, cyberwar and just the general FUBAR nature of combat screwing the trackingpoint type sight isn't going to affect *us* so much as it affects *them*.

It also means each and every shooter needs to fire far more than 100rds/year (and most of us don't even get 100 rds/year.
 
It is the 21rst century, after all Pictures and illustrations on link:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/04/armored-ground-vehicles-are-testing.html

Armored ground vehicles are testing combat lasers in the 10 kilowatt range nowand railguns tests, 30 kilowatt lasers next year

The Fires Battle Lab at Fort Sill is now experimenting with new weapons technology that could potentially replace the howitzers and air defense missile systems of today.

Two laser systems and a railgun were demonstrated for the media at Thompson Hill Range Complex on Thursday.

The lasers are silent, invisible and deadly. On just a coffee cup's worth of diesel, they can pinpoint a drone and use auto-tracking to dog its path. Their photon beams can bring down an unmanned aerial system (UAS) by heating up one of the parts that controls its flight, such as a camera or a rotor, until it melts.

Fires Battle Lab Director John Haithcock explained how three radar systems (Sentinel, the new counter-battle Q-53 that can detect air and ground threats simultaneously and two Q-50s) and a modified Avenger weapon system with an infrared sight all come into play. He also pointed out a multi-purpose vehicle equipped with a command and control application, an electronic warfare circuit system and some enhanced sights.

There are also dismounted versions of what the vehicle has that provide counter-UAS and joint forcible entry capabilities.

Many entities are involved in the experiments. The Space and Missile Defense Command Technical Center at Huntsville, Ala., brought a High Energy Laser Mobile Test Truck (HELMTT) mounted with a 10-kilowatt laser, according to Adam Aberle, who oversees the center's directed energy technology development and demonstrations.

The command also made arrangements with General Dynamics and Boeing to bring a 2-kilowatt laser mounted on a Stryker vehicle. The latter is called the Stryker MEHEL, which stands for Mobile Expeditionary High Energy Laser.

Robert Taylor, left, and Gary Hopper of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) get ready to explain the railgun at left and the mobile pulsar that powers it, housed in the vertical box behind it.

Fort Sill is also the site where hypersonic projectile's are being tested using Electromagnetic Railgun technology. The railgun delivers muzzle velocities greater than twice those of conventional guns.

One of those technologies being explored is whether drones can be knocked out of the battlefield skies with lasers.

"Think of it [2-10 kilowatt combat lasers] like a welding torch being put on a target, but from many hundreds of meters away," Isaac Neal, a Boeing engineer, said in a video about the new weapons system that was posted on the defense contractor's website.

In tests the lasers were able to locate, aim and fire at a small drone flying. The laser gun acts quickly (it took just 15 seconds for it to shoot the test drone out of the sky) and discreetly, according to Neal. Speedy reaction times can be important in battles when every second counts.

30 kilowatt ground based lasers should be tested in 2017

The Ground-Based Air Defense On-the-Move is a vehicle-based, mobile, high-energy laser that is a cost-effective defense against asymmetric threats like UAVs. GBAD's evolution has mirrored that of other directed-energy programs sponsored by ONR, including the Laser Weapon System (LaWS).

A three vehicle laser system should be demoed with on the move downing of drones using a 30 kilowatt laser in 2017.

* one vehicle has the 30 kw laser
* one has 360 radar and tracking
* one has command and control and communication

The volumetric search RADAR locates unmanned aerial system (UAS) targets of interest and passes the information to the C3 platform. The C3 platform performs an analysis of the threat and passes the radar information to the laser platform, which then locates and begins tracking the UAS utilizing a day/night capable sensor system. This then allows the C3 platform to perform visual confirmation and aim point selection. If a kill decision is made, the threat is lased until destruction.

GBAD will demonstrate the capability of a rugged, expeditionary HEL system that can be cued by a radar capable of detecting low radar cross-section threats. It will be able to perform hard kills of UASs to prevent reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting and acquisition of expeditionary forces. It also will demonstrate a C2 interface that is optimized for operational use.

Significant laser and vehicle modeling and simulation, coupled with a detailed trade-off analysis, led to a sophisticated design strategy. This led to the selection of a palletized laser weapon system design using a planar wave guide laser for 30 kW nominal power; a lightweight reflective beam director; on-board vehicle power enhancements; lithium Ion batteries for power storage; and phase-change material cooling systems that conform to the size, weight and power constraints of using a tactical vehicle platform.

This five-year development effort includes three key demonstrations of increased capabilities and culminating in an on the move end-to-end engagement of UASs in FY17.

FY15: Completely stationary end-to-end engagement
FY16: Demonstrate an at-the-halt single engagement, with mobile cueing / tracking
FY17: Demonstrate full mobility between multiple engagements

The Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD) Directed Energy On-the-Move Future Naval Capabilities program calls for a field demonstration of a Humvee-mounted short-range laser weapon system with a minimum power output of 25kW. The Raytheon-built laser will be packaged to meet the U.S. Marine Corps' demanding size, weight and power requirements. Illustration: Raytheon

BAE Systems officials said the rail gun would have to be scaled down if it were to be mounted on top of the turret of a Future Fighting Vehicle. However, the officials on the AUSA show floor were confident it was possible.

* mach 7 kinetic energy round (twice the muzzle velocity and four times the kinetic energy)
* cheaper round that has no explosives in it so it is safer to store
* the Navy gun is 30 feet (10 meters long) which is the same as the M1 tank gun. It is the power and other systems that need to be fitted to a ground vehicle
* more ammo for deeper magazine
* General Atomic has a larger (almost no miniturization work needed) mobile land based railgun system proposed that would be multiple mission and focused on destroying missiles and other targets

Railgun on the back of flatbed of a truck during testing. Firing through concrete and metal. This if from the General Atomics video

Image of the navy railgun to be deployed in sea trials in 2016. This gun would be reduced in size for a tank killing railgun for a new ground Vehicle

General Atomics has a vision of a mobile ground based railgun system that involves three heavy trucks. BAE would have to reduce the size and weight of a fighting vehicle gun by about ten times.

BAE Systems presented a host of possible technologies at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference last week. Among those was a model of the electromagnetic rail gun the company is developing for the Navy.

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.
 
Mesh nets that can be created by nodes carried on land rover type vehicles. Given the intense demand for data transmission over the air in tactical settings, this sort of equipment on military vehicles could certainly help ensure data transmission throughout the field:

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/05/12/toyota-land-cruisers-emergency-signal-outback-video/

Toyota Land Cruisers provide emergency signal in Outback

Companies are using balloons, planes and other high-tech apparatuses to provide WiFi in underserved areas. In the Australian outback, Saatchi teamed up with Flinders University to find a way to turn the massive fleet of Toyota LandCruisers into mobile communication hotspots using Wi-Fi, UHF and Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN). The solution is a small capsule-like device that attaches to the vehicle's window with suction cups, providing a signal range of up to 25 km (15.5 miles).

The moving network allows folks to make emergency calls or send geo-tagged messages that are passed from vehicle to vehicle. When one of the LandCruisers is in range of a base station, the data is then sent to first responders and the rest of the world. The LandCruiser network could also be useful during disasters like fires, handling communication between crews on the ground attending to the situation at hand.

It's not just a proof-of-concept endeavor, either. The system is being tested in the Flinders Ranges, one of the most remote parts of the outback. Toyota is examining the results of the project to determine the next step, which could include employing the network in other areas and eventual commercial use. Of course, this part of Australia benefits from the number of LandCruisers used as everyday vehicles.

This article by Billy Steele originally ran on Engadget, the definitive guide to this connected life.
 
Wouldn't the power requirements of directed-energy beam weapons be too large for anything a fighter-sized aircraft could provide? This is in spite of there being an artists' depiction of an F-35 shooting down another aircraft at the article link below.

Defense News

Air Force has directed energy weapons; now comes the hard part
Phillip Swarts, Air Force Times 12:16 p.m. EDT June 25, 2016

Over the past 20 years, the military and its partners in industry have figured out how to build lasers and other directed energy weapons. The devices have changed from often-hazardous chemical lasers to more reliable solid-state lasers. The power has grown from dozens of watts to dozens of kilowatts.

Now comes the hard part, Air Force leaders said Thursday in Washington, D.C., at the second annual Directed Energy Summit. Many significant hurdles remain.

The conference, hosted by defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, a Washington think tank, brought together the best and the brightest minds to discuss advancements on directed energy.

Top brass is itching to get the capability into the field. Directed energy weapons could shut down enemy vehicles or communication networks, destroy incoming missiles or be used for a range of other purposes.

But actually getting a laser deployed is a challenge. When the Air Force first developed a directed energy weapon in the early 2000s, it was so large it took up an entire modified Boeing 747. The Navy’s test version, installed aboard the amphibious transport dock Ponce, is estimated to weigh more than could be lifted by the average aircraft.

(...SNIPPED)
 
On the UUV front:

Naval Technology

GM and US Navy to install hydrogen fuel cells into next-generation UUVs

General Motors (GM), the Office of Naval Research and the US Naval Research Laboratory have partnered to incorporate automotive hydrogen fuel cell systems into US Navy next-generation unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs). The partnership seeks to develop hydrogen fuel cells that transform high-energy hydrogen into electricity and provide greater range and endurance to vehicles. As part of the collaboration, a GM fuel cell incorporated into a prototype UUV was tested in pools at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Carderock.

GM%20fuel%20cell%2028%20June.jpg
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ONR ocean battlespace sensing department head Frank Herr said: "Our in-water experiments with an integrated prototype show that fuel cells can be game changers for autonomous underwater systems. "Reliability, high energy, and cost effectiveness all brought to us via GM's partnering are particularly important as navy looks to use UUVs as force multipliers."

GM-developed fuel cells are compact and lightweight and feature reliability and performance. GM global fuel cell activities executive director Charlie Freese said: "The collaboration with the navy leveraged what we learned in amassing more than three million miles of real-world experience with our Project Driveway fuel cell programme.

"Our customers will benefit from additional lessons we learn about the performance of fuel cells in non-automotive applications that will be useful in GM's drive to offer fuel cells across consumer markets."
 
S.M.A. said:
Wouldn't the power requirements of directed-energy beam weapons be too large for anything a fighter-sized aircraft could provide? This is in spite of there being an artists' depiction of an F-35 shooting down another aircraft at the article link below.

Defense News

A 100kW laser might need 500kW to function (given the generally low conversion efficiency of lasers). The engine of a fighter produces considerably more power, and some of this can be tapped to run a generator and charge a capacitor bank for the laser weapon.
 
Tweaking the brain to enhance training and efficiency:

http://www.nextbigfuture.com./2016/08/halo-sport-brain-stimulator-boosts-and.html

August 01, 2016
Halo Sport Brain Stimulator boosts and accelerates strength and skill gains by up to half the time needed for gains

The US Military accelerated pilot and sniper training by 50% with neurotechnology similar to Halo Sport. We’re bringing these gains to athletics.

Neuropriming uses pulses of energy to increase the excitability of motor neurons, benefiting athletes in two ways: accelerated strength and skill acquisition.

Halo Sport is a training device that accelerates gains in skill, strength, explosiveness and endurance when paired with athletic training. Halo Sport stimulates the brain's motor cortex, resulting in stronger, more optimized signals from the brain to the muscles. Similar to a pre-workout meal that primes the body for a productive training session, Halo Sport primes the brain to prepare you for your most effective workout.

Halo Sport works through a process called Neuropriming. Athletes wear Halo Sport before or during training, and the device's soft foam Primers deliver electrical stimulation to the brain’s motor cortex. This increases neuroplasticity, which accelerates the optimization of neuromuscular circuitry through training. Improved neuromuscular output leads to more precise, coordinated, and/or explosive movement — whichever the athlete targets during training.

Halo Sport works best when worn during your warm-up right before the most intense part of your workout. First, put on Halo Sport just like any other pair of headphones. Next, begin your 20-minute Neuropriming session with one quick tap on the Halo Sport mobile app. During your session, and for about 60 minutes after, is the period where your brain adapts to training most effectively. During this timeframe, you should focus on high-quality and high-intensity reps. If you're a relative beginner, you'll likely see improvement after just a few Neuropriming sessions. Elite athletes will generally see results after two weeks.

Most people call it a mild tingling sensation. Many athletes compare the feeling to the sensation elicited by muscle stimulators. Some people have a hard time knowing that the stimulator is even on.

Halo Sport brain enhancer will retail for $649

The Problem: Gains left on the table

Signals sent from the brain to muscles are often transmitted with submaximal organization and strength—especially when an athlete is fatigued.

The Solution : Halo Sport + Neuropriming

Pulses of energy improve the brain’s response to training, enabling the motor cortex to send stronger, more synchronous signals to muscles. Improved neuromuscular signaling means athletes get more from each rep.

The Result: Increased Strength

More robust signaling increases motor unit recruitment, so more muscle fibers are activated during training. With this increase, gains in strength are seen more rapidly.

The Result: Skill Acquisition

Recruiting muscle fiber is only part of the equation. From golf swings to deadlifts, perfecting form and technique is essential.

Neuropriming™ heightens the brain's natural processes for acquiring new and honing existing athletic skills.
 
Ultra long range artillery rounds on the way. There are two strands being discussed in the article, using ultra aerodynamic rounds derived from railgun projectiles, and an ultra long range guided shell. The claimed maximum range for the LRLAP is 116km, which provides for an interesting way of looking at artillery and "shoot and scoot" missions but also flight time. I personally would like to see things like this in mass production in order to achieve economies of scale, bringing the price down and allowing for widespread usage of this sort of munition would make it a real game changer rather than a silver bullet (in case of emergency, break glass).

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/08/high-velocity-projectiles-railguns-or.html

High Velocity Projectiles, Railguns or other new US weapons could neutralize North Korea's Missile threat

Dr. Patrick M. Cronin, Senior Advisor and Senior Director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), believes new US military technology like railguns will debut far earlier than expected and will nullify North Korea’s missile regime.

South Korea will get boosted defense against North Korean nuclear threats on its three current lines of efforts: deterrence through preemption, interception, and retaliation.

There is an $18 billion annual budget for the Pentagons Third Offset.

The main focus is AI and autonomy which will lead to a new era of human-machine collaboration. There is also the emergence and development of combat lasers and railguns.

The Strategist has a summary of the railgun, High velocity projectiles and other new large naval and land gun related weapons.

The LRLAP (Long Range Land Attack Projectile) is almost ten times the cost of a railgun hypervelocity projectile (HVP), but doesn’t match the railgun’s expected range. The HVP can also be made compatible with both the AGS and the 5-inch guns on USN’s cruisers and destroyers.

The HVP is a 10kg kinetic energy round, which means that the damage it does depends on its impact speed. A Tomahawk land-attack cruise missile packs a 450kg high explosive warhead, has a range in excess of 1,500km and costs about US$1.1million apiece.

The USN’s new-generation anti-ship cruise missile (LRASM) is stealthier than a Tomahawk, has a ship-penetrating warhead, and still has a range in excess of 900km.

The Hypervelocity Gun Weapon System is investigating the possibility that even 5-inch cannons will be able to shoot down missiles using the HVP. By the time the railgun is actually operational, it might be less of a game changer and more of an incremental upgrade.

Improved Conventional system LRLAP

Lockheed is developing the rocket assisted 155mm Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP). It is the primary projectile of the Advanced Gun System (AGS), the main armament of the U.S. Navy’s next-generation DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer. It provides long-range off-shore precision fire support to Marine Corps and Army forces engaged in expeditionary assaults or littoral urban operations.

The 155mm LRLAP is both the most accurate and longest-range guided projectile in U.S. Navy history, with a maximum range in excess of 63 nautical miles. It’s precision and near vertical angle of fall enables the Warfighter to defeat targets in the urban canyons of coastal cities with minimal collateral damage.

The LRLAP system provides high-volume fire support at a rate of 10 rounds per minute through the depth of the magazine. It uses the world’s most advanced, g-hardened electronics—including a global positioning system and inertial measurement unit—to withstand the punishing gun-launch environment.

155mm LRLAP provides single strike lethality against a wide range of targets, with three times the lethality of traditional 5-inch naval ballistic rounds—and because it is guided, fewer rounds can produce similar or more lethal effects at less cost. LRLAP has the capability to guide multiple rounds launched from the same gun to strike single or multiple targets simultaneously, maximizing lethal effects.
 
Programming the mind for greater effectiveness?

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/08/becoming-four-times-more-productive-at.html

Becoming four times more productive at work #gsummit

Will Henshall is CEO/founder of www.focusatwill.com, a Los Angeles based tech platform that helps professionals be four times more productive at work. He has had a 30 year career as a start up entrepreneur, tech inventor and notably successful musician.

In 1987 he founded the British pop soul band Londonbeat, who had two Billboard #1 hits, “I’ve Been Thinking About You” (91) and “Come Back” (95). After touring extensively he wanted to spend more time at home, and one day while sitting in his London recording studio he started figuring out how to collaborate remotely with other musicians and sound designers around the globe.

In 1996, he moved to San Francisco and started up Rocket Network, funded by Paul Allen and Cisco Systems, where he invented the the media transfer system, DigiDelivery, subsequently used extensively in film and tv audio post production. He sold the company to Avid/ProTools in 2003.

An interest in helping people work more efficiently and live happier healthier lives led him to attending the Singularity University Executive Program in 2011, where he had the ‘light bulb moment’ for his next start up idea. With support and investment from SU Labs and Dave McClure’s 500 Startups, he created Focus At Will, neuroscience technology that uses tightly timed instrumental music to deliver instant productivity on demand. The company has now helped nearly 1 million people over the past 3 years, with over 80% of subscribers continuing to renew every year.

How Does Focus@Will Work? Music helps you focus

Focus@will was developed in partnership with leading neuroscientists Dr. Evian Gordon (www.brainresource.com), Dr. Stephen Sideroff (UCLA Professor of Psychology) and ADHD expert and best-selling author Dr Ned Hallowell (http://www.drhallowell.com). Trials show typical 11-12% positive increase in focus biomarker and up to 400% extended session time.

Music you like is created to engage you. It makes you feel good, moves you physically, emotionally and intellectually. That’s why you love to listen to it, and that’s also why it is going to distract you when you are trying to focus and concentrate on work or studying. Singing and foot tapping take you right out of the focus zone.

Focus@Will has a unique library of instrumental music that you won’t find anywhere else. Every track has been remixed, re-edited and scientifically remastered specifically for focus enhancement. We’re soothing your fight or flight mechanism, engaging your brain’s limbic system, to increase your attention span and general concentration.

Focus@Will music effects on brain electrical activity and brain function

Improve Concentration with scientifically designed music

Focus@will is a new music service based on human neuroscience. It helps you focus, reduce distractions, maintain your productivity and retain information when working, studying, writing and reading. The scientifically tested technology behind focus@will has been shown to alter brain activity toward a state that is more conducive to productivity.

Most people can only concentrate for a maximum of about 100 continuous minutes before needing to take a quick break to stretch, move about, maybe get a drink of water, and so on before they resume for another session. The focus@will system makes it faster and easier for you to concentrate – it brings you a focused flow state and then keeps you there.

How does it work? Music has been used across cultures for millennia to put people’s minds in specific states: only recently have neuroscientists discovered that this effect is due to the broad impact of sound on neural circuitry across the brain – not just in the auditory cortex, but in all areas of the brain, including areas that are important for memory, analysis, and creativity. Focus@will uses the brain-shaping features of sound to keep your mind from avoiding two undesirable states: distraction and habituation.

You already know about distraction – it’s what happens when you have a video on in the background, or your kid is crying, or you turn on the radio while you’re working. Part of your brain is focused on the distractor, and you can’t concentrate on your work. But what about habituation? Habituation is the other extreme – your mind gets bored with your surroundings (environmental habituation) as well as whatever you’re working on (goal habituation). Because your mind seeks novelty, habituation leads to checking your social media, opening your email, or calling a friend rather than making continuous progress on the screenplay or code you’re writing.

Keeping your mind from being distracted away from your work while simultaneously keeping you from habituating to your work is the key to focus@will’s audio technology. Without sharing our “secret sauce,” we can tell you that we do this by making sure that each piece of music is related to the previous piece in a way that keeps you from being distracted by the changes, but that each piece of music is different enough from the previous piece so that you don’t habituate to the music or your goal. In this way, we balance your mind between the two poles of distraction and habituation, keeping you focused on your work.

How do we know it works? First, the results of an EEG (electroencephalographic) or “brainwave” study show that focus@will audio tracks tune people’s brains to frequencies associated with sustained, task-focused attention and thought (read the study results). Second, we see a greater than 200-400% increase in focus time with focus@will, based on a survey of 22,000 of our most active users. Third, we see dips in usage over the weekends, so we know our subscribers are using focus@will primarily during work hours, a key measure of whether the system works. Fourth, we ask our users to rate their productivity during each session, and we’ve found that the average productivity in a one-hour focus@will session is 75% – this is far above the productivity most people report in an hour without focus@will.


Forward Practice Effect

1. Learn 48 words
2. Practice 24 words of them
3. Take a test on all 48 words
4. Results better on the trained words

But flip 2 and 3

1. Learn 48 words
2. Take a test on all 48 workds
3. Practice 24 words
4. Results better

People with low openness benefit more with streamlined music
 
Unjammable and broadband spectrum research by DARPA:

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/09/darpa-working-on-jam-resistant.html

DARPA working on jam resistant communication will also enable better usage of Wi-fi and other wireless spectrum

In a vision shared by innovators, entrepreneurs, and planners in both defense and civilian contexts, the skies of the future will be busy with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Unseen but central to the realization of this vision is wireless communication within and between those future fleets of UAVs that is reliable and resistant to both unintentional and ill-willed interference. “If these UAVs can’t communicate, they don’t take off or they don’t operate the way we want them to,” said Josh Conway, a program manager in DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office. “As wireless communication becomes part and parcel of all kinds of platforms and devices in the coming years, we will need assured communications, especially for command and control, but for other things too, like data transfer.”

In IEEE's Journal of Lightwave Technology, researchers at the University of California, San Diego, report results of work conducted for DARPA’s Hyper-wideband Enabled RF Messaging (HERMES) program that could become the technological foundation for this interference-resistant communications necessity.

“This paper shows that there is a way to get there,” said Conway, who has been overseeing the HERMES program since DARPA rolled it out in the summer of 2014. The same technology could provide an exciting opportunity to make fuller use of not only unlicensed Wi-Fi bands but also huge swaths of otherwise license-restricted radio frequencies. Said Conway: “This advance in HERMES means we might have a new way to tap into all of this spectrum and in a way in which you won’t jam anyone else and they won’t be able to jam you.”

An innovative “optical comb” receiver that retrieves sub-noise “spread-spectrum” signals has been evolving from a rough tabletop phase, to a streamlined desk-top version, and is on its way to a chip-scale finale that could became the basis of new assured channels of communication for unmanned aerial vehicles and other platforms and devices that require wireless connectivity

IEEE's Journal of Lightwave Technology - Subnoise Signal Detection and Communication

In the IEEE article, UCSD Professor Stojan Radic and four colleagues describe their use of “optical combs” residing within a single hair-thin glass fiber to perform an amount of high-speed signal processing that normally would require a power-hungry supercomputer, which is not the sort of equipment that fits well onto small UAVs.

The new receiver opens the way to a new channel of assured communication because it can retrieve direct-sequence, spread-spectrum (DSSS) signals—a category of signals modified with a coding protocol that confers several benefits, including increasing the signals’ resistance to jamming and interception—so faint they fall within the sea of always-present radio noise.

To demonstrate what has become possible, Radic and his colleagues created these radio whispers by recasting a narrowband, 20 MHz radio signal across an optical comb of hundreds of frequencies—each one carrying the same signal but within a much wider, 6 GHz spectrum—that all can simultaneously travel within a single optical fiber. Their system also features a unique optical “key” technique both on the front end (to imprint the information in the original radio signal into all of the frequencies of the spread-spectrum analog) and on the back end at the receiver (to reconvert the sub-noise, spread-spectrum signal back into the original information-bearing radio signal).

“Our system can reconstruct the signal at almost no energy expenditure,” Radic said. And because the optical key steps do not modify jamming and other RF power in the overall spread-spectrum signal, “they do not get snapped back upon receipt and they remain spread out into noise that you can filter out,” Radic added. With the addition of narrow-band filtering, sub-noise command and control signals could be received even in the presence of jamming power up to 100,000 times stronger. This is akin to extracting one faint voice from a football stadium of cheering fans. Radic and his colleagues now are working methodically to increase the spectral spreading to 10 GHz or more and to shrink the heart of the receiver technology down to a chip level, a final step toward a lightweight means of the assured communication technology that UAVs would be able to carry and power.

Because the new technology works with radio signals so weak that links can be designed without signal interference, and because the receivers could be chip-sized and power efficient, the technology could end up transforming mobile communications by opening up previously restricted frequencies and increasing the longevity of battery-run wireless links. The engineering advance points toward a new means for accessing the vast quantities of underutilized electromagnetic spectrum with higher levels of security and privacy.

“From a military perspective, we want this for assured communications as we move toward future unmanned systems,” Conway said. “From a civilian side, it also could allow you to use the spectrum more effectively and freely.”

Abstract— Radio frequency spectrum is one of the scarcest commodities in existence, with progressively increasing value. As a physical foundation of an untethered society, it now carries the majority of social, defense and commercial interactions. All of these must reside within narrow, strictly regulated spectral windows allocated for cellular, military, navigation, and broadcast services. Band localization minimizes interference but also mandates that the entire cellular traffic be confined in less than one percent of the physical radio-frequency range. To defy this restriction and emit freely in any band, the signal power must be small to avoid interference with existing traffic. By spreading the signal over a sufficiently wide spectral range, the emission in any band can be maintained below naturally occurring noise. Unfortunately, the reception of a spectrally broadened, subnoise data channel poses a fundamental challenge: a fast, bursty waveform must be detected, separated room noise and reconstructed at rates exceeding GHz. Here we show that a 20MHz-wide signal can be spread by 300-fold, detected and reconstructed by a physical Fourier transform even when it is much weaker than the received noise. Rather than quantizing the 6GHz-wide signal and computing its correlation with the decoding waveform, data was physically detected and reconstructed by coherently coupled frequency combs. By eliminating high-speed electronics from the receiver, it is now possible to access the entire radio-frequency range that extends beyond 100GHz. We anticipate that new, band-unrestricted wireless services will emerge to maximize throughput, mitigate interference and achieve a high level of physical security
 
More on swarming warfare. The idea of a persistent cloud of drones overhead providing sensor and weapons coverage seems to cross so many boundaries, and the idea these weapons are semi autonomous will probably give many people the vapours, but the USMC is looking at this as their fire support/overhead cover in the near future:

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/09/autonomous-drones-swarms-of-10-40.html

September 23, 2016
Autonomous drones swarms of 10-40 drones will support marines and will only be required to ask humans - May I airstrike them now ?

US Marines could soon get a squadron of small autonomous drones constantly overhead, providing full surveillance and instant airstrikes on demand.

The squad on the ground will not need a dedicated drone operator; the whole aim of autonomy is not to add to their workload. Control will be via tablet or smartphone, or an earbud with an audio link “similar to the Apple Siri app.”

Under this arrangement, all the data processing is done onboard the drones. Rather than sending a constant stream of video footage requiring a full-time operator to review and interpret, the drones pick out items of interest and provide “immediate alerts and battlefield intelligence (to threatened squads).” The drones will also carry out Blue Force tracking so they can tell which individuals on the ground are friendly and which may be hostiles.

Autonomy means the drones do not need to be in constant communication with the operator or each other, and can work where communications are jammed or intermittent. In fact, the report says that communications “are required only when lethal force is a factor.” In other words, the drones only need a human in the loop to give the order to fire weapons. Apart from that they do everything themselves.

The drone swarm — the military prefer the term “squadron” — will initially comprise between 10 and 40 aircraft. These will be of several different types: Some will carry sensors (visual, thermal, or even acoustic are suggested), some will have jamming or communications payloads, others will carry weapons.

The current RQ-11 Raven tactical drone has an endurance of about 90 minutes; the new drones will stay in the air for 12 hours at a time.

Additional drones could be launched to join the squadron as the original members run low on juice, so it would be possible to maintain a continuous presence 24-7 if need be. According to the report, a three-person ground crew should be enough to launch, recover, refuel and re-arm the drones.

Drones will have a payload, between two and 12 kilos which means about a ten foot wingspan for 12 hour endurance.

AeroVironment Switchblade (aka kamikaze drone) has a warhead of less than half a kilo and has proven highly effective.

The Navy is known to be working on a range of precision micro-munitions with laser or GPS guidance. Raytheon has already demonstrated its laser-guided Pike missile weighing less than a kilo which can hit precision targets from a mile away.

The Defense Science Board wants to see the drone developed and exercises conducted within three years – “with a stretch goal of quickly transitioning to a fieldable initial operating capability.”

The suggested budget for the project is just $40 million. The report suggests that low cost and rapid development time could be achieved with non-proprietary software and hardware based on existing commercial platforms, rather than the traditional route of bespoke development.

Amazon plans to start delivering packages via drone by 2017.

The Marines could have drones delivering Pike missiles over a 1 mile radius not long after.

Pike occupies the middle ground between light mortars and heavier anti-tank missiles such as the Javelin. It is a 40-millimeter laser-guided missile that weighs less than two pounds and measures just 16.8 inches in length, but manages to pack into that frame a rocket motor, guidance system, and laser seeker. Raytheon says the new weapon can be used against stationary and slow-moving targets out to 2,300 yards. Pike can be used not only against enemy soldiers in trenches and bunkers, but also against vehicles and even hovering helicopters.


 
The United States is experimenting with hypervelocity projectiles to provide missile defense. These sorts of projectiles can also be used for more conventional artillery missions (more than doubling the range of shells)

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/10/us-defense-modelling-shows-upgradong.html

US Defense modelling shows upgradong all Big Navy and Army Guns with hypervelocity projectiles would shoot down most of a 100 missile barrage

US Defense Department modeling shows that “if we can close the fire support with a controlled solution,” the hypervelocity projectile (HVP) weapons would be able to shoot down most of a 100-missile raid.

The Pentagon has shifted emphasis away from the electromagnetic rail gun as a next-generation missile defense platform, sees a new hypervelocity powder gun technology as the key to demonstrating to potential adversaries like China and Russia that U.S. military units on land and sea can neutralize large missile salvos in future conflicts

The guided projectile being developed for EMRG (Electromagnetic Railguns) can also be fired from 5-inch and 155mm powder guns. Navy cruisers each have two 5-inch guns, and Navy Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class destroyers each have one 5-inch gun. The Navy’s three new Zumwalt class (DDG-1000) destroyers, the first of which entered service in October 2016, each have two 155mm guns.

When fired from 5-inch powder guns, the projectile achieves a speed of roughly Mach 3, which is roughly half the speed it achieves when fired from EMRG, but more than twice the speed of a conventional 5-inch shell fired from a 5-inch gun. This is apparently fast enough for countering at least some missiles.

It should be noted that Russia and China (and others) are boosting the speed of the missiles as well. Russia is deploying mach 4 missiles and will also follow with hypersonic mach 5 and faster missiles. The faster missiles would not be countered by the hypervelocity anti missile guns.

BAE Systems states that HVP is 24 inches long and weighs 28 pounds, including a 15-pound payload. The total length and weight of an HVP launch package, BAE Systems states, is 26 inches and 40 pounds. BAE states that the maximum rate of fire for HVP is 20 rounds per minute from a Mk 45 5-inch gun, 10 rounds per minute from the 155mm gun on DDG-1000 class destroyers (called the Advanced Gun System, or AGS), and 6 rounds per minute from EMRG. HVP’s firing range, BAE Systems states, is more than 40 nautical miles (when fired from a Mk 45 Mod 2 5-inch gun), more than 50 nautical miles (Mk 45 Mod 4 5-inch gun), more than 70 nautical miles (155mm gun on DDG-1000 class destroyers), and more than 100 nautical miles (EMRG).
 
The Marines want to hit the beaches with "A few good robots":

http://www.defensetech.org/2016/10/25/drone-swarms-storm-beaches-says-marine-general/

Drone Swarms to Storm Beaches: Marine General
POSTED BY: ORIANA PAWLYK OCTOBER 25, 2016
The Marine Corps wants to deploy swarms of drones ahead of troops during amphibious operations in coming years.

The concept, incorporating Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology, or LOCUST, developed by the Office of Naval Research, would bring a flotilla of weapons, including underwater drones, unmanned surface vessels and underwater mine countermeasures.

Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, the service’s commanding general for combat development, on Tuesday detailed the plan, with hopes it would not only slow down the enemy but save Marines’ lives.

“Today, we see this manned-unmanned airlift, what we see what the other services are doing, along with our partners in the United States Navy. Whether it’s on the surface, under the surface or in the air, we’re looking for the opportunity for, ‘How will Marines move ashore differently in the future?’ ” Walsh told a crowd at the Unmanned Systems Defense Conference outside Washington, D.C., hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

“Instead of Marines being the first wave in, it’ll be unmanned robotics … sensing, locating and maybe killing out front of those Marines,” he said. “We see that ‘swarm-type’ technology as exactly the type of thing — it will lower cost, dominate the battlespace, leverage capabilities … and be able to complicate the problems for the enemy.”

Walsh said incorporating unmanned systems within the multi-domain battlespace — in the air, on land, at sea, in space and cyberspace — would be “completely different, certainly than what we’ve done in the last 15 years in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

The Pentagon has recently been touting more technologies for multi-domain battle.

Walsh, like many officials across the Defense Department, emphasized that multi-domain battle is how future wars will evolve — through electronic warfare, cyberattacks and drones. And he said adapting to these concepts is a must in order to match near-peer adversaries. 

Marines, for example, are likely to first see the use of drones within the infantry corps.

Commandant Gen. Robert Neller last month said he wants every Marine grunt squad downrange to carry an unmanned aerial vehicle for reconnaissance and surveillance by the end of 2017.

“At the end of next year, my goal is that every deployed Marine infantry squad had got their own quadcopter,” Neller said. “They’re like 1,000 bucks,” he said last month during the Modern Day Marine Expo in Quantico, Virginia.

Walsh on Tuesday accelerated that premise. During a talk with reporters, he said he had been ordered to equip four battalions with small UAS as an experimental measure before the end of the year, but did not specify the system. 

From previous experimentation, Walsh said, “Having a small UAS — quadcopter-like UAS — that was an easy one. We’re going to do that. We probably want those across the entire force, but what we want to do, as we see this technology change so rapidly, we’re going to first buy four battalions’ worth, and see how that operates.”
 
Excusing the misleading headline, this is an interesting merger of combining consumer goods (I think this was supposed to have started as a gaming system) to military use:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/3/13507278/microsoft-hololens-military-helmet-concept

Microsoft's HoloLens could power tanks on a battlefield
by Tom Warren@tomwarren  Nov 3, 2016, 8:13am EDT

Microsoft might not have envisioned its HoloLens headset as a war helmet, but that's not stopping Ukrainian company LimpidArmor from experimenting. Defence Blog reports that LimpidArmor has started testing military equipment that includes a helmet with Microsoft's HoloLens headset integrated into it.

The helmet is designed for tank commanders to use alongside a Circular Review System (CRS) of cameras located on the sides of armored vehicles. Microsoft's HoloLens gathers feeds from the cameras outside to display them in the headset as a full 360-degree view. The system even includes automatic target tracking, and the ability to highlight enemy and allied soldiers and positions.

LimpidArmor demonstrated its headset at the Arms and Security show in Kiev last month, where Ukrainian military officials were in attendance. The system is only in the concept phase yet, but it's a hint that the future might include HoloLens on the battlefield, in space, and in regular retail stores.
 
While this could also go under aircraft or logistics, it is an interesting idea which could have some relevance in more permissive environments. And of course, having a sensor and communications platform that high up also provides more coverage for the commander, overlapping and supplementing other systems.

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/12/amazon-patents-blimp-warehouse-and.html

December 29, 2016
Amazon patents blimp warehouse and billboards that use gliding drones for near instant fulfillment of sales

Amazon has been awarded a patent for a giant flying warehouse that acts as a launchpad for drones to deliver items within minutes.

The U.S. e-commerce giant described plans for an "airborne fulfillment center" (AFC) such as an airship or blimp that would float at an altitude of around 45,000. The airship will be stocked with lots of products.

When a customer places an order, a drone or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will fly down and deliver the package. Amazon insists that this would require little power because the drone would be gliding down rather than having to take off and land.

Amazon's filing reveals several uses for the warehouse blimp. One example is at a football match where customers may want certain items such as food or merchandise. Ahead of the game, the AFC could stock up on items and deploy these during the game with drones when they are ordered. The airship could also be used as a giant advertising board, allowing customers to order the items on display. All of these can be ordered "within minutes".

The drones would be able to communicate with each other via a mesh network to give information such as weather and route. UAVs could also recharge on the airship.

Amazon's filing explains that the blimp would remain in the air and be refueled and replenished using a shuttle. This could be a smaller aircraft capable of docking onto the AFC and unloading products as well as fuel.

Medical, police and Military Applications

The Amazon blimp and drone delivery would be as close as might get to Star Trek replicators and teleportation for near instant provisioning.

At 45000 it would be 8.5 miles straight down. Everything within 10 miles or so would be about a 13 miles flight.

If it takes 5 minutes for an order to selected from within the blimp.

20 minute deliveries should be possible.

Emergency deliveries of medicines or defibrillators could be possible within 11 minutes. The emergency items could have priority position within the warehouse for less than 1 minute selection. Then special faster drones could delivery those urgent items.

130 mile per hour emergency drones could make 13 mile flights in 10 minutes.
 
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