Defense Technology International - July 2007 - (Page 44)

THE CUTTING EDGE TECH REVIEW CATHERINE MACRAE HOCKMUTH Solid Laser Northrop Grumman’s Joint High Power Solid State Laser program has passed a U.S. Defense Dept. critical design review and is moving to Phase 3 integration and testing, leading to the development of a weapon-grade laser using no chemicals and requiring only electrical power. The program seeks to build a 100-kw. laser for force protection and strike missions such as wide-area, ground-based defense against rockets, artillery and mortars; precision-strike capabilities for airborne platforms, and shipboard defense against cruise missiles. The company exceeded require- 1 ments for the ﬁrst building block of the laser by ﬁring a beam of more than 3.9 kw. for 500 sec. The ﬁrst building block, or gain module, houses the gain medium and pumping source that supply energy. It is the core of the laser, which will have 32 gain modules. Northrop Grumman received a 36-month, $56.68-million contract for Phase 3. The program is funded by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala.; Ofﬁce of the Secretary of Defense–Joint Technology Ofﬁce, Albuquerque, N.M.; Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, N.M.; and Ofﬁce of Naval Research, Arlington, Va. I DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY Hypersonic Success The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Organization achieved a milestone recently with the successful test of an experimental scramjet engine at speeds to Mach 10. The flight test, which took place June 15 at the Woomera Test Facility in southern Australia, was designed to gather data on a hydrogen-fueled, axisymmetric, inward-turning scramjet engine. Unlike conventional jet engines, a scramjet has no moving parts. And unlike rockets, scramjets rely on oxygen from the atmo- 2 NORTHROP GRUMMAN sphere to ignite their fuel rather than carrying it on board. The experiment reportedly offered the first-ever flight data on the inward-turning engine design, which is expected to yield lighter and more efﬁcient engines than the wedge-shaped, square-section scramjets tested to date. Scramjets are expected to lead to new high-speed, long-range missiles and, in the longer-term, unmanned vehicles and space launch systems. Steve Walker, Darpa’s program manager, says the tests are a promising sign that a hypersonic airplane could become a reality. I ON THE EDGE Moving Base It’s every patrol vessel captain’s dream: his own vertical takeoff and landing UAV that can be launched and recovered even in rough seas. An innovative idea conceived at a Netherlands university may turn that dream into reality. The idea from Ampelmann, a company spun off from Delft University of Technology, is to use flight-simulator technology to provide a fully stabilized takeoff and landing platform, so that the UAV has a stable landing spot even if the ship is rolling and heaving. The platform has a 10-ton payload and can be used in a sea state with wave heights of up to 3.7 meters (12 ft.). The concept utilizes a hydraulic moving base (normally used to support full-motion flight simulators) combined with real-time motionAMPELMANN 3 measurement equipment as well as intelligent, custom-designed controls. According to the company, the moving base can create movements in all six degrees of freedom: up-down (heave), forward-backward (surge), left-right (sway) and three rotations (roll, pitch and yaw). The full-scale demonstrator has a footprint on deck of 5 x 5.5 meters and features a 6 x 6-meter top deck capable of supporting a 10-ton load. That would be more than enough to support a VTOL UAV such as Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout. I For more details see: aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense www.aviationweek.com/dti 44 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL JULY/AUGUST 2007 http://aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - July 2007

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