Hurry Up! "Navy Laser, Railgun and Gun-Launched Guided Projectiles"

From USNI News: Report on Navy Laser, Railgun and Gun-Launched Guided Projectiles

The Navy is developing three new ship-based weapons that could improve the ability of Navy surface ships to defend themselves against missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and surface craft: the Surface Navy Laser Weapon System (SNLWS), the electromagnetic railgun (EMRG), and the gun-launched guided projectile (GLGP), previously known as the hypervelocity projectile (HVP).

The Navy refers to the initial (i.e., Increment 1) version of SNLWS as HELIOS, an acronym meaning high-energy laser with integrated optical dazzler and surveillance. EMRG could additionally provide the Navy with a new naval surface fire support (NSFS) weapon for attacking land targets in support of Marines or other friendly ground forces ashore. The Department of Defense is exploring the potential for using GLGP across multiple U.S. military services.

Any one of these three new weapons, if successfully developed and deployed, might be regarded as a “game changer” for defending Navy surface ships against enemy missiles and UAVs. If two or three of them are successfully developed and deployed, the result might be considered not just a game changer, but a revolution. Rarely has the Navy had so many potential new types of surface-ship air-defense weapons simultaneously available for development and potential deployment.

You can read the "Oct. 23, 2018 Congressional Research Service report, Navy Lasers, Railgun, and Gun-Launched Guided Projectile: Background and Issues for Congress" at the USNI News link.

While you are there, you might make a contribution to keep USNI News alive.

U.S. Naval Research Lab Good Stuff: Multiple Unmanned Air Systems Launched By U.S. Navy

New Unmanned Air System tested on USS Coronado

USNRL photo

“Nomad, is a low-cost rotary wing vehicle in which researchers can test remote control, autonomous flight control, station keeping and safe coordinated flight supporting any number of possible future payloads,” says co-principal investigator Steve Tayman, senior aerospace engineer with NRL’s Vehicle Research Section (VRS). “The unique form factor provides compact, light-weight storage in an integrated launch tube, and allows for storage in a ready-to-use condition for quick reaction deployment.”

The Nomad is a highly affordable expendable design, allowing for execution of its mission without concerns for returning to the ship. This new upgrade retains the original affordable expendable design, but now has a recovery feature that allows operators to retrieve and reuse the Nomad vehicles multiple times in support of development, testing, training, and potentially future operational missions.
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The system now has multi-launch capability, deploying multiple Nomads in quick succession instead of singularly, while retaining the system’s safe CO2 ejection system design. Tayman states that this creates an equally safe launching mechanism that can support a higher quantity of Nomads.
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The Nomad test on Coronado marks the first time this multi-launch and retrieval technology has been tested on a U. S. Navy ship. “We’re excited to demonstrate this technology utilizing forward deployed fleet personnel and assets, testing one of our newest technologies on the Navy’s newest class of ships,” says co-principal investigator Aaron Kahn, a senior Guidance, Navigation, and Control researcher also with the VRS.

“During this test we were able to show multiple Nomads can safely operate in the same airspace and fly in a coordinated fashion. The ability to retrieve Nomads back onboard the ship opens up future opportunities for testing and fleet training with more expensive payloads – an aspect of affordability that can easily be overlooked” says Kahn.

But wait, there's more - how about a Nomad that flies to a location and then turns into a "swimmer?" Behold the "Flimmer" --

100+ mile range, several days or "weeks" of endurance, maybe.

A flying sensor that is expendable like a sonobouy.

Solar-Powered Long Endurance UAVs: Less Weight, More Hang Time

A problem with most UAVs is that they require some logistical support that adds to the burden of users in the field. The U.S. Naval Research Lab is looking at helping to solve some of that support problem with UAVs that are powered by solar as reported in NRL Tests Autonomous ‘Soaring with Solar’ Concept

The Solar Photovoltaic and Autonomous Soaring Base Program and the U.S. Marine

U.S. NRL photo

Corps' Expeditionary Energy Office (E2O) want to improve the ability of unmanned platforms to support a 24-7 information, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission. By doing so, the warfighter will greatly benefit because it will reduce the amount of batteries or fuel they must carry into battle, and improve the availability of continuous coverage of ISR assets.

“NRL has twice flown our solar UAV [based on the SBXC sailplane] over 10 hours using a combination of solar photovoltaics and autonomous soaring as part of the ‘solar-soaring’ research program,” said Dr. Dan Edwards, aerospace engineer. “This research is investigating the value of combining autonomous soaring algorithms and solar photovoltaics for capturing energy from the environment to extend flight endurance and mission operations of an aircraft.”

A photovoltaic array, custom built in NRL's Vehicle Research Section and Photovoltaic Section, is integrated into the center wing panel of the PV-SBXC aircraft as a drop-in replacement to the original wing. A power management and distribution system converts the power from the solar arrays into direct current (DC) voltage, which the electric motor can use for propulsion, or recharge a ‘smart battery.’

Additionally, an autonomous soaring software algorithm — that would typically monitor the local vertical winds around the aircraft — commands the aircraft to orbit in any nearby updrafts, very similar to soaring birds. However, the algorithm was disabled for the two solar flights in order to assess the solar-only performance. Passive soaring — meaning no specific maneuvers are attempted to catch thermals — was still allowed, to let the aircraft turn the motor off if altitude increased because of an updraft along the aircraft’s pre-defined flight path. The autonomous soaring software was tested extensively in previous flight demonstrations in late October 2015.

Sounds like a great use of technology.