12 Dec 2006

Global Hawk Low-Pressure Turbine-Driven Generator Completes Simulated Altitude Testing

An AFRL team completed demonstration tests simulating altitude operation of a low-pressure (LP) turbine-driven, 270 VDC, 75 kW generator mounted onto an AE3007H engine. The tests accomplished AFRL's goals to develop Global Hawk power upgrades that increase the available payload power over the present RQ-4 Global Hawk baseline by a factor of 3. The

11 Dec 2006

AFRL INTERFACE DESIGN GUIDE INCREASES OPERATOR PERFORMANCE FOR THE AIR BATTLE MANAGEMENT COMMUNITY

AFRL research scientists developed and delivered a battle management command and control (BMC2) Human-Machine Interface (HMI) Design Guide to Air Combat Command. The HMI Design Guide promotes a common look and feel among operator interfaces without making any one platform too specific. The guide provides critical research-based interface design

11 Dec 2006

AFRL Develops Brassboard GI

Presently, all Air Force glide bombs incorporate fuzes that contain an embedded safety and arming (S&A) device. The S&A mechanism is responsible for maintaining the fuze in a safe state until a prescribed set of postlaunch arming conditions is satisfied. Because of the potentially catastrophic consequences associated with fuze safety failures, all

11 Dec 2006

AFRL Fields Web-Based Tool for Evaluating Image Quality

AFRL engineers conceived, designed, and developed an online image-quality evaluation tool to fulfill a critical need associated with the creation of an autonomous approach and landing capability (AALC). The AALC encompasses sensor, human, and air vehicle considerations and thus employs an interdisciplinary approach for capturing both the hardware

11 Dec 2006

AFRL DEVELOPS WASSAR TO DETECT MOBILE TARGETS

AFRL is developing state-of-the-art weaponry that users can launch into the vicinity of mobile targets to autonomously find and defeat them. This capability provides increased survivability, multiple kills per pass, and minimal pilot workload. Since there is an inherent delay between observing a target and subsequently launching a weapon, users

11 Dec 2006

AFRL TRANSITIONS HYPERSPECTRAL EXPLOITATION TECHNOLOGY TO THE OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Researchers from AFRL and SRA International, Inc., developed Visual Checklist--a software program that provides process standardization, simple process documentation, decision support, and repeatable analyses, increasing both the productivity and the target identification accuracy of hyperspectral analysts. The Visual Checklist tool has aided the

11 Dec 2006

AFRL DEMONSTRATES TACTICAL SOLID-STATE LASER WEAPON TECHNOLOGY

A team of engineers from AFRL and Northrop Grumman Space Technology (NGST), of Redondo Beach, California, demonstrated a solid-state (electric) laser. This research effort addressed the laser device output for high-power solid-state laser (HPSSL) technologies, which have the potential to meet the performance, efficiency, and weight/volume

11 Dec 2006

AFRL COMPLETES SUBSONIC SWEPT-WING LAMINAR FLOW FLIGHT TEST

Turbulent airflow over an air vehicle wing surface increases airfoil drag and inhibits efficient flight. In an effort to reduce this problem, AFRL researchers completed a subsonic swept-wing laminar flow flight test (SWIFT) to investigate spanwise periodic discrete roughness element (DRE) technology for maintaining wing laminar flow. DREs are

11 Dec 2006

AFRL COMPLETES SIX-YEAR SPACE MISSION TO MONITOR RADIATION ENVIRONMENT

(CEASE) recently completed a 6-year mission in low earth orbit, during which it monitored and mapped the near-earth radiation environment and provided real-time space environment hazard warnings to satellite operators. AFRL sponsored the June 2000 launch of CEASE aboard the Space and Missile Systems Center, Space Development and Test Wing,

11 Dec 2006

AFRL DEVELOPS NEXT-GENERATION EFFECTS-BASED DECISION AIDS

AFRL engineers working under the Cyber Crew Interface and Development program developed and demonstrated prototypes for next-generation effects-based decision aids and warfighter-tailored information visualizations that support the information warfare (IW) planning cycle. Powerful decision support system tools and information management