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U.S. Navy has had contractors developing magnetic lifts for over 10 years: http://news.northropgrumman.co... (2005).

Those relativistic postage stamp sized probes are a dream at present. Long before we could develop the technology for this, or get funding, we will study this planet with the advanced space-based instruments with capabilities far beyond anything now existing. No probe will be sent until we reach the limit of what we can do within our own solar system - nothing is faster than analyzing the light that already gets here, and even the most extravagant telescopic system will be cheaper than the probe project and all its supporting infrastructure.

That leads us to consider the HABEX Mission a pretty cool project under development using the huge and really cool looking Starshade vehicle to provide a coronagraph for a telescope in a separate vehicle thousands of kilometers away. Having a nearby target like this gives leverage with Congress to appropriate the funds.

A felony can only delay a security clearance because the only relevance a felony has to a security clearance is whether it shows a fundamental character issue making one insufficiently trustworthy. That's fundamentally what they want to find out in a background investigation. Can we trust you? That's why a guy who's 40 with a felony charge for selling drugs but can show he's been a cleaned up citizen for 15 years can probably get a clearance but a guy with no criminal past who's had an affair on his wife or two in the recent past cannot hold one.

Seems like a good idea for a race car and can probably be integrated into self-driving cars at some point.

http://www.northropgrumman.com...

The Northrop Grumman laser I linked to already combined multiple lasers, using 15 kW blocks, to achieve 100 kW power.

The issue with a 1 MW solid state laser beam would be in power generation and heat dissipation. These lasers are still quite inefficient so you need a lot of juice to achieve the rated lasing power. They usually "solve" this by using pulsed beams and massive capacitor banks with some sort of thermal engine providing the mobile electrical generation capacity. So you probably will want a trailer truck or two to carry your laser around. This is one reason the US Navy is so interested in lasers. Basically you can just divert power from the large gas turbines used to drive the propellers towards electrical generators and you have massive amounts of electricity to power lasers or railguns. You also can use the ocean as coolant. Their problem is lasers dissipate somewhat in steam and fog. Railguns still have rail erosion issues.

I have considered for a long time that a revolver or Gatling like design would be useful for lasers because of the cooling issue. You can just have multiple laser banks and shoot with one bank while the other banks are cooling down. Another possible solution is just to dissipate the heat into some sort of fuel used in some weapon delivery mechanism or whatever.

The only viable 1 MW military laser sources are chemical lasers like COIL where you get the laser light by mixing some chemicals together. Unfortunately those are not very portable either, still generate a lot of heat, plus the chemicals are usually quite toxic.

How about cyber-industrial complex instead. Cyber warfare and defense is becoming the new way to milk the Federal government for contracts and money, from the same people who've brought you the defense-industrial complex for the last 70 years, so it shall continue, whether you like it or not.

These would be Lockheed, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, plus a few new players like Palantir. Wonder how Palantir is able to buying up all the free real estate in Silicon Valley?

Chances are they will be gutting your Internet freedoms as a regrettable side effect of making the Internet safe for freedom.

http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/fire-x/assets/Fire-X_Brochure.pdf Cool stuff, all of this was done in less than a year according to Northrop.

...then you can also do it with these: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/index.html

Gotta love affirmative action and workplace diversity! Who cares if they're not actually the best engineers and mechanics!

http://careers.northropgrumman.com/diversity.html

Drones still have to be piloted, they're just piloted remotely.

Not strictly true anymore. Say "hello" to the Northrop-Grumman X-47B. Say it nicely, though.

http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/index.html

http://www.gizmag.com/x-47b-first-flight-the-era-of-the-autonomous-unmanned-combat-plane-approaches/17817/

Strat

Look up the Northrop X-47B. It's a stealth UAV that carries 4500 lbs and takes off from an aircraft carrier. It can do in-flight refueling. We're already there, and in the public domain no less.

Data: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/index.html
Picture: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/assets/lgm_0016.jpg

Look up the Northrop X-47B. It's a stealth UAV that carries 4500 lbs and takes off from an aircraft carrier. It can do in-flight refueling. We're already there, and in the public domain no less.

Data: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/index.html
Picture: http://www.as.northropgrumman.com/products/nucasx47b/assets/lgm_0016.jpg

The thing about million-dollar missiles is they get cheaper once you stop developing them and start using them. That is, unless you cocked up the contract negotiations, but it's illegal to do such a thing any more. Ever since TINA, the government pays the cost and a little vig.

Now the profit is in selling things that need lots and lots of development, or have no plan to ever leave development.

But according to Northrup Grumman they were "recently recognized by the National Association of Counties for Outstanding Achievement in the area of "Information Technology in State Government – Enterprise IT Management Initiatives".

From the crappy pic at AviationLeak, it looks like it may be an outgrowth of the X-45 development bird.

It looks more like the Navy's X-47B, which is also a tailless flying wing. The Navy and NG have been very open about the program, so perhaps that's another reason why USAF felt they didn't have to hide the Sentinel anymore.

It's still a chemical laser. It's quite possible to make chemical lasers powerful enough to be used as weapons, but so far the equipment has been too big to be very useful. The Mobile Tactical High-Energy Laser is able to shoot down artillery shells and small rockets, but the equipment takes up three trailers and costs too much.

The solid state laser people are catching up. The current output record is around 100 KW. This is enough to be marginally useful for anti-aircraft use. Around a megawatt, things start to get militarily interesting.

Cooling is a huge problem for the solid state devices, though. With the chemical lasers, most of the heat is dumped with the spent chemicals. For the solid state devices, the gear has to be cooled, and efficiency is only around 20%.

From the US taxpayer, to Lockheed, Northrop or Boeing.

Look at these inflated labor rates!

The Aegis Cruiser Yorktown was decommissioned in 2004 after twenty years of active service.

The elephant can remember.

The geek can't forget.

In 1995 Yorktown was chose as the prototype Smart Ship. The test bed. Test beds are pushed to failure. That is their job.

The tech was not stripped from Yorktown after 1995.

The core technologies installed in YORKTOWN - are - a 16 workstation fiber optic Local Area Network (LAN), Integrated Bridge System (IBS), Voyage Management System (VMS), Damage Control System(DCS), Integrated Conditioning and Assessment System (ICAS), HYDRA wireless communication system, and Standard Machinery Control System (SMCS). CG 48 Guided Missle Cruiser History

As for myself, I find this later-day example of Microsoft's performance as a naval subcontractor rather more to the point: USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77)

There's going to be a whole lot of pissed off Navy pilots if they make a UAV that can land on a carrier deck at night in crap weather. Their main reason for superiority over all other pilots will be shot to hell.

I'm the senior Landing Signal Officer for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet, and we've actually had fully automated landing systems on carrier aircraft for a long while. The first test of any Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS) was in August 1957, and after extensive development the system was regularly used in Vietnam. The current AN/SPN-46 is the latest iteration, but essentially it's just a glorified missile tracking radar that feeds into the airplane's autopilot via a simple UHF datalink. It's all old tech.

While not all aircraft since Vietnam have done it well (my old F-14B Tomcat was actually worse at "Mode I" (fully coupled) ACLS approaches than the F-4 Phantom it replaced) today's Hornets and Super Hornets are very smooth when coupled up -- much smoother than the typical manual landing.

The problem comes when the system fails (something that can happen in any large automated system - in the air or on the ground). Pilots regularly practice landing by hand, because they never know when the ACLS might not be there for them. They could perform coupled approaches every pass, but they wouldn't have the skills to confidently get aboard if the system ever went away. Those skills require lots of practice to stay sharp, and landing at sea is really hard. I've been doing it for ten years, and it's still just as challenging as ever.

Sometime in the next decade the N-UCAS is supposed to demonstrate truly autonomous UAV operations in a carrier environment. It will rely on a draft version of our next-generation GPS-based replacement for the SPN-46: JPALS. It's stated goal is to fully integrate with our normal manned carrier air traffic procedures. Having seen highly trained aviators struggle with the challenges of operating around the boat, I'll be impressed if it lives up to its goals.

Look at the size of that thing. (Seriously, it's absolutely bloody enormous; that's a scale engineering model, with handy nearby humans for scale. Yes, those little black dots on the ground around it are humans... ;) )

Cut the chatter, Cal-3. Accelerate to attack speed!

(OK, it's no Death Star, but it does bear a pretty cool resemblance to an Imperial Star Destroyer... I like it.)

Look at the size of that thing. (Seriously, it's absolutely bloody enormous; that's a scale engineering model, with handy nearby humans for scale. Yes, those little black dots on the ground around it are humans... ;) )

Actually you do.

Yeah, because of the fifty busiest ports in the world, Canada has one on the list (Vancouver) and the United States has six and five of them move more cargo than Vancouver.

The only ports that freeze are in the great lakes, you know the ones that ship out the majority of the grain to the rest of the world.

This confuses me. Not the freezing ports part, but the grain shipping, because the US exports twelve times as much grain as Canada. With 22% going via California, and the next 16% going via Washington and New York.

It means that if you throw a hissy fit, we simply say 'our market is now europe' and they buy our goods, or japan, or anyone else.

Yeah, because Asia is going to totally want to import goods from a half way around the world where it's twice as expensive to produce the goods, than they will from multiple countries right next door where labor is cheaper. I mean why import goods from Malaysia into Japan when you can ship stuff from Canada.

And yeah, I agree, it's going to be totally trivial for Canada to find new markets for 80% of their total exports. Not.

While you're very good at consuming our goods, and tell me something do you even have the manufacturing base left to make anything?

I don't know. Maybe air planes, heavy equipment, trucks, microprocessors, DRAM & flash. Then of course we have things like tanks, airplanes & submarines, aircraft carriers, fighter planes & submarines. And there are vaccines and medicines.

But, hey, we import our socks, so yeah, I can totally see why you'd think the US isn't capable of producing anything.

The only reason the US imports manufactured goods is because it's cheaper. Barring protectionist policies, every industrialized country does the same.

Ahem... http://www.it.northropgrumman.com/offer/security/bat.html

Actually that's the product page. The following is the actual press release:

http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/news/2008/06/144249_Northrop_Grumman-Led_Te.html

http://www.es.northropgrumman.com/solutions/hornet/index.html

group that's glad for the war.

Behold the Northrup-Grumman M-THEL.

MTHEL has been shooting down rockets since 2000, and mortar shells since 2002. It's been on my personal list of Cool Shit(tm) for quite a while.

Here's a video of it in action. Not great quality, but cool 50's style advertising: "MTHEL: Stops Mortars!"

Not to mention, they're working on an airborne version mounted in the nose of a 747.

I'd be interested in seeing what implications such a system would have on the spy plane. Laser systems are LOS... and lose power based on range. If you can get over the horizon, you're safe... but @ 100k ft you've got quite a horizon. They also have to stay concentrated on a small area of the target for a specific time, easy to do when you're shooting at a ballistic object such as a mortar shell, but much harder when your target can realize it's being fired upon and manuever to evade.

Behold the Northrup-Grumman M-THEL.

MTHEL has been shooting down rockets since 2000, and mortar shells since 2002. It's been on my personal list of Cool Shit(tm) for quite a while.

Here's a video of it in action. Not great quality, but cool 50's style advertising: "MTHEL: Stops Mortars!"

Not to mention, they're working on an airborne version mounted in the nose of a 747.

I'd be interested in seeing what implications such a system would have on the spy plane. Laser systems are LOS... and lose power based on range. If you can get over the horizon, you're safe... but @ 100k ft you've got quite a horizon. They also have to stay concentrated on a small area of the target for a specific time, easy to do when you're shooting at a ballistic object such as a mortar shell, but much harder when your target can realize it's being fired upon and manuever to evade.

Yea this stuff has been around for years: http://www.touchtable.com/site/index.php http://www.ms.northropgrumman.com/touchtable/ http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldie rtech_TouchTable,,00.html http://www.merl.com/projects/DiamondTouch/ The Mitsubishi one can recognize multiple users. I've used it and it's pretty cool. Touch tables are nothing new but it would be cool to see Microsoft start marketing this to consumers.

Actually, it will only work on the IR-guided missiles. This would include the vast majority of man-portable SAMs, but not something like an RPG. Though in trying to shoot down a plane a .50-caliber machine gun would probably work better than an RPG. The threat that they are trying to defend against is from an individual outside the airport, trying to shoot down an airliner from a short but significant distance away. Far enough to avoid being noticed (and quickly killed or arrested) is probably too far to have much assurance of a hit from an RPG.

The laser system is apparently designed to spoof IR seekers (slightly better article; company PR site), which seems fairly intriguing. As a feasibility study, this is probably a good idea. But I think that it would be a waste of time and money to install it on airliners in general.

It's photo 7 at http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm (Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Clouds, 1st Collection). With big, high-resolution images at http://community.webshots.com/album/64801559Zbdmph (via http://www.wilk4.com/misc/soundbreak.htm

The same page provides a link to a B-2 video by Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems part of which shows the real quick formation of a Prandtl-Glauert cloud on the B-2, http://www.is.northropgrumman.com/videos/b2_tx.wmv

And here's an interesting discussion about the formation of the B-2's condensation cloud, http://www.galleryoffluidmechanics.com/conden/b2bg .htm

It's photo 7 at http://ChamorroBible.org/gpw/gpw-20040817.htm (Prandtl-Glauert Condensation Clouds, 1st Collection). With big, high-resolution images at http://community.webshots.com/album/64801559Zbdmph (via http://www.wilk4.com/misc/soundbreak.htm

The same page provides a link to a B-2 video by Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems part of which shows the real quick formation of a Prandtl-Glauert cloud on the B-2, http://www.is.northropgrumman.com/videos/b2_tx.wmv

And here's an interesting discussion about the formation of the B-2's condensation cloud, http://www.galleryoffluidmechanics.com/conden/b2bg .htm

Does anyone else question the intentions of the sponsors of this event? The competition is sponsored by the SpaWar Systems Center (where the competition was held), the US Navy, and other military industrial greats such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing.

Given the substantial non-military uses of autonomous robotics do we really need the military funding? I for one do not welcome our autonomous-deathsub-controlling overlords. In fact, I hit on this point in a blog yesterday.

The Global Hawk has had approval to fly in US airspace for a couple years now and it is flown over the US quite often. Same thing with other manned surveillance aircraft. Where do you think they test those radars?? Also, I believe the Predator (or other UAVs) was used in New Orleans after Katrina for recon. Why didn't anyone bitch then?

So no one is on the plane...that doesn't seem much different to me than having a manned aircraft fly around and watch what you are doing. Highway patrols have been doing this for years catching speeders.

IR laser weapons do work.

I beg to differ.

IR laser weapons do work.

Northrop Grumman and Boeing are getting prepped for the CEV, the successor to the space shuttle. According to this page, they are expecting flight demos in 2008 and manned CEV flight by 2014. If Griffin (the new NASA administrator) has his way, this will be fast-tracked to 2010. Exciting times are ahead...

Defeating an enemy's air defenses to deliver weapons on target is what the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit does best. The B-2 can fly more than 6,000 nautical miles before refueling (more than 10,000 nautical miles with just one refueling) while carrying 40,000 pounds of weapons. This tremendous capability gives the aircraft the ability to fly anywhere in the world and deliver a variety of weapons in less than 24 hours.

Structurally, the B-2's design can be traced back to Jack Northrop's flying wing designs of the 1940s. The aircraft's integrated computer systems comprise over 130 computers and nearly 2 million lines of software code. Operated by the U.S. Air Force, the B-2 is the world's preeminent strategic, long-range multi-role bomber. Its low observable characteristics make it the world's most survivable aircraft as well, able to penetrate hostile air space without being detected. The B-2 has repeatedly demonstrated this and its all-weather capability during Operation Allied Force and Operation Enduring Freedom with missions of up to 44 hours duration.

The B-2's low observability, or stealth, means it doesn't need an armada of support aircraft to accomplish a mission, and its large payload allows it to do the work of many smaller aircraft. For the first time in military aviation history, the U.S. Air Force has a war-fighting capability that combines long range, large payload, all-aspect stealth, and near-precision weapons in one aircraft. All 21 B-2s were assembled in Palmdale, California, and are stationed with the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.

The B2 Spirit webpage here http://www.is.northropgrumman.com/products/usaf_pr oducts/b2/b2.html I think that it is definitely being used to describe what it does, not what it is... if I was Northrop Grumman, I would be wanting my $10.00 back.

Northrop Grumman is hiring engineering and CS grads like there is no tomorrow. Check out their Horizons career website for available positions. They are also starting to hire lots of folks for NASA's CEV.

http://www.nsd.es.northropgrumman.com/Html/LTN-92/ index.htm

A slightly more expensive solution. I have little idea how accurate it is from the few specs listed, but... Pretty lights... That's got to be important right?

<a href="http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/capabiliti es/Content.cfm?ContentID=58">Booster Vehicle Engines</a>

<URL:http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/capabilitie s/Content.cfm?ContentID=58>

<a href="http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/capabiliti es/Content.cfm?ContentID=58">Booster Vehicle Engines</a>

<URL:http://www.st.northropgrumman.com/capabilitie s/Content.cfm?ContentID=58>

What nobody else seems to have mentioned is that the lasers make use of hydrogen (or deuterium) fluoride. From what I've read, this is pretty nasty stuff. See Northrop Grumman's page on chemical lasers and then check out the some info on HF here or here. You won't catch me working near one of these things!

are here.

WMP or QT are availabe.

They're not fish scales, but I Think it's been done before. Granted that doesn't help efficiency, but I think these do.

I know exactly what you mean, take a look at the latest screenshot I found online.

Sheesh...There is so much political rancor going on around here who would have thought this article started off about the commisioning of a ship

Anywho...for those who may be interested I pulled these cool links from Northrop Grumman

Commisioning info

Nimitz class facts

Recent Sea Trial info

USS Reagan specific facts

BTW...I spent 4.5 years on IKE....IB!

Oh...and to keep with political theme here:

Peace through strength - Ronald Reagan

Sheesh...There is so much political rancor going on around here who would have thought this article started off about the commisioning of a ship

Anywho...for those who may be interested I pulled these cool links from Northrop Grumman

Commisioning info

Nimitz class facts

Recent Sea Trial info

USS Reagan specific facts

BTW...I spent 4.5 years on IKE....IB!

Oh...and to keep with political theme here:

Peace through strength - Ronald Reagan

Sheesh...There is so much political rancor going on around here who would have thought this article started off about the commisioning of a ship

Anywho...for those who may be interested I pulled these cool links from Northrop Grumman

Commisioning info

Nimitz class facts

Recent Sea Trial info

USS Reagan specific facts

BTW...I spent 4.5 years on IKE....IB!

Oh...and to keep with political theme here:

Peace through strength - Ronald Reagan

And, lest we forget, there are thousands of privately owned companies that have stock holders, boards of trustees, etc. who all face the same issue. There are things you are allowed to disclose, and things you are not allowed to disclose. Stock holders generally don't care about the technical details of every single project that comes along. They are interested in whether it is generating revenue, if it is over budget, etc. These things can be discussed openly without fear of the gestapo coming knocking on the boardroom door.