Technabob » navy

Navy’s Electromagnetic Rail Gun Prototype Tosses Projectiles at up to 5600MPH!

Shane McGlaun — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:00:31 +0000

I would have to think that being an engineer on a prototype weapons program would be all kinds of bad-ass. I would like to be a member the team behind the latest new weapon that the U.S. Navy is about to begin testing. It’s a freakin’ railgun! The Navy has been testing railguns in the past, but this particular prototype is the first industry-built model.

This weapon, made by BAE Systems, is targeting a range of 50 to 100 nautical miles to start with and the Navy plans to increase the range 220 nautical miles. The railgun uses 32-megajoules of electromagnetic energy to fling a projectile down a pair of rails at anywhere from 4500 to 5600 mph. That is seriously hellafast.

In fact, it is so fast that explosives aren’t needed to destroy a target. No gunpowder, or high explosives, just pure raw speed and momentum will obliterate whatever that projectile hits. The Navy said to be in testing the new prototype this month while it waits for a second prototype to be delivered that is constructed by a different contractor, General Atomics. The day I can deer hunt with a railgun, will be the day I kill my first Bambi.

Hull Bug: An Underwater Roomba for Barnacles

Range — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:00:49 +0000

Apparently, barnacles are a big problem for ships, which is why the Navy deployed their own version of an underwater Roomba to take care of the hulls of their ships. The Hull Bug is a robotic vacuum especially made for taking care of this problem.

The Hull Bug is made by Sea Robotics and is currently being tested by the Navy for another 2 years. The Hull Bug is a lot more complicated than a Roomba because it needs its own sensors and algorithms, as well as functioning as a fully automated submersible. Of course, it also has to be fully waterproof and cling to the hull of a ship too. The little robot is less than 3 feet long and weighs less than 50 pounds.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Barnacles can decrease the speed of a ship by 10% and increase fuel consumption by 40%, so something like this is critical to maintaining ships.

[via Fast Company via Ubergizmo]

Dolphin Soldiers: Right Out of Cyberpunk

Range — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 14:30:45 +0000

For a moment, I thought this was a joke because I clearly remember dolphin soldiers from a few science-fiction settings (Johnny Mnemonic, Ghost in the Shell, etc), like Cyberpunk, but it looks like that there actually are dolphin soldiers. Unsurprisingly, they work for the US Navy.

Dolphins are pretty smart, so it makes sense to use them in war theaters, since dogs are already used. The Navy has been studying the use of these mammals since the 1950s. This time around, they actually sent in four bottle-nosed dolphins into the Pacific. They were trained to find underwater mines and demonstrated their abilities during Operation Trident Fury, a joint US-Canadian military exercise earlier this month off the coast of Vancouver.

The dolphins are part of the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program, which has trained sea lions, seals, and dolphins to find mines and enemy divers. They were used successfully during the Iraq War.

[via SeattlePi via Make:]

Navy Has Breakthrough in Laser Tech

Shane McGlaun — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:07:41 +0000

Sharks with friggin’ laser beams it ain’t, but the Navy is proudly boasting that its laser program for a laser defense system mounted on it ships is ahead of schedule. The Navy is hard at work on its shipboard laser system that will be used for several things including the ability to swat enemy missiles out of the sky before they can strike.

The threshold for a laser weapon that is good for defense is 100 kilowatts of power. The prototype laser that the Navy has been working with had only 14 kilowatts of power. The Navy has announced that it has been testing a new injector that has greatly increased the power of the laser and brought the Free Electron Laser up to the megawatt class.

The Navy also points out that the laser could be used for more than shooting down missiles. It could also be used to guide other weapons and more. The cool part about a laser is that it never needs bullets and the beam travels at the speed of light.

[via Wired]

Laser Tag, Navy Style: Us Navy Wants a 100 Kilowatt Laser Weapon for Its Warships

Lambert Varias — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:18:20 +0000

The Office of Naval Research – not to be confused with the Office of Navel Research, a pet project of the previous president – recently awarded defense contractor Raytheon a year-long contract to develop laz0rb33mz. No seriously, the US Navy wants to have a 100-kilowatt Free Electron Laser as a weapon that will be installed on naval warships. Marvel Comics Popular Mechanics explains: “A FEL uses superconducting electron accelerators to produce high-power laser beams that could target cruise missiles, airplanes or boats.” Uhuh. I see. That’s… I see.

Yeah I give up. I don’t even know what’s on the picture. I just find it incredible that the stuff I used to place under “fiction/nightmares” is coming true right before my eyes. Laser weapons? Are you freaking kidding me? The article added that the Raytheon contract was just the first step in a $150 million, three-phase Dr. Evil ONR program.

100-kilowatt laser weapons. Wow. And yet a lot of the problems that were already around when I was a kid are still here today. Like world hunger. Or civilians not having super powers or laser weapons. Seriously. Someone please do something about that.