Boeing has long been a leader in hypersonic technology.
“The Boeing-built Air Force X-51 Waverider scramjet-powered vehicle set a world record for air-breathing hypersonic flight in 2013,” says a story at GeekWire, “and just a couple of months ago, Boeing unveiled its latest concept for a hypersonic demonstrator airplane.” Today Boeing announced that its HorizonX venture investment arm is joining Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems “on a $37.3 million Series B investment round for Reaction Engines, a British aerospace startup is focusing on a hybrid rocket-jet propulsion technology that could send aircraft zipping into space and back at multiple times the speed of sound.” Click here for more details and see the interview with Reaction Engines’ CEO. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. The military has been testing the concept of incorporating the Joint Strike Fighter into the missile defense “detect, track and kill” chain for the past several years, but on April 11, Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves told a Senate subcommittee that the MDA has a targeted capability date.
There have been several successful proof-of-concept tests in the past. “In 2014, an F-35 infrared sensor installed on a surrogate aircraft successfully tracked a launch and transmitted tracking data over the military’s standard Link-16 network,” says an article at Breaking Defense. “In 2016, an actual Marine Corps F-35B detected and tracked a missile, then passed the data over the Navy’s NIFC-CA network to the Aegis missile defense system, which shot the threat down.” Given the anticipated presence of thousands of F-35s supporting U.S. and allied forces in future theaters, linking their sensor and potential kinetic capabilities to the MDA kill chain seems a logical development. Click here for more. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. In recent testimony before Congress, former national counterintelligence executive Michelle Van Cleave reported that policy changes in the Bush and Obama administrations downgraded U.S. counterintelligence efforts.
Michael Wessel, chairman of the congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, testified that the Chinese are focusing their efforts to steal advanced technology in artificial intelligence, robotics and other cutting-edge areas. While other countries such as Russia, France and Israel are also active in their efforts, China was identified as the most aggressive in attempting to steal technology that costs the U.S. an estimated $510 billion annually to research and develop. Click here for more. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. Early this month, the Trump administration imposed tariffs on Chinese technology, while Congress is looking at new legislation to block Chinese investments in U.S. technology companies.
One of the reasons for the recent initiatives to rein in Chinese access to U.S. technology can be found in an influential recent Pentagon white paper, China’s Technology Transfer Strategy, referred to as the DIUx Paper, which lays out China’s long-term strategic plans. Click here for more. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. “DARPA, the Defense Department’s research and development arm, is looking to acquire the emerging technology needed to command a ‘swarm’ of autonomous robots — typically small unmanned aircraft or ground systems — in an urban setting,” FedScoop reports.
“The effort, called the OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program, includes several ‘sprints’ to try to develop “breakthrough” technologies in a shorter amount of time.” Defense Technology Alert subscribers will learn more about this fascinating program in our issue next week, but in the meantime, click here for more. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. From moving plans from paper to tablets to augmented-reality goggles to seeing design schematics superimposed on the bulkhead in front of workers, Huntington-Ingalls is investing enormous capital to capture the benefits of digital technologies.
Whether placing a weld in the wrong place or threading an electrical cable through conduits to the wrong destination, mistakes in shipbuilding are extremely costly and time-consuming to correct. Such tools do not replace the skilled craftsmen. As CFO Chris Kastner noted, “Each of your crafts — electrical, pipefitting, pipe welding, painting, your riggers… still require some human touch. Digital tools… free the craftsman up a bit to not do the grunt work.” Click here for more on the application of cutting-edge digital technology to heavy industry. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. The recent specter of VX and Novichok nerve agents used in a busy airport in Kuala Lumpur or an apartment outside of London has highlighted the threat of chemical weapons outside of war zones and the need for extremely precise and accurate detection capabilities.
For years, the U.S. military and others have studied the use of lasers for chemical weapons detection without a satisfactory solution. But a discovery published this week in the journal Nature Photonics appears to provide a breakthrough. Konstantin Vodopyanov, a researcher at the University of Florida, along with his colleagues, has developed a method for finding chemical molecules in extremely low doses. The method uses two midinfrared lasers to sweep the air in a process called dual-comb spectroscopy. The lasers can detect molecular vibrations whose optical frequencies are as distinctive as fingerprints. Click here for more details of this timely discovery. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. One of the key challenges for drone operations is the integration and delivery of data to the users that need actionable intelligence quickly. One of the promising solutions is to incorporate augmented-reality technology, the superimposition of data on glasses or a heads-up display, to allow the user to see their environment with key information overlaid on the physical world before them. A California-based company, Edgybees, has developed such a software that can be utilized by drone operators as well as pushed to tables or smartphones. More firms will follow quickly and we will look for investable opportunities. Click here for more. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. From the very beginning, AI has represented both promise and peril. Today robotics researchers in the U.S., China and Russia are racing to develop breakthroughs in AI, machine learning and human-machine augmentation as part of major nation-state competition.
As some of you may know, Jim Rickards and I are deeply involved in this sector with our predictive data analytics firm Meraglim, so this is a topic we follow closely. Defense One has published an excellent report on the ways that “AI reshapes our world from combat to commerce.” Click here for more. For access to some of the most profitable opportunities in the defense technology sector, check out Massengill’s Defense Technology Alert. Click here to learn more. |
AuthorKevin Massengill is an entrepreneur, investor, and award winning Fortune 500 senior executive with a track record of massive business growth. Archives
September 2020
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