13 Dec 2006

AFRL Completes Aerospace Relay Mirror System Demonstration

AFRL's Aerospace Relay Mirror System (ARMS) program successfully completed a formal review of laboratory test results. ARMS is a prototype laser relay system designed to redirect and focus the beam of a ground-based or airborne high-energy laser (HEL) onto a target, significantly increasing the HEL's range and lethality. Compared to a regular laser

13 Dec 2006

AFRL Researches Use of Pulsed Coolant for Film Cooling

Coolant flow reduction is an important design goal in the development of advanced turbine engines. Turbine engine designers routinely use film cooling to cool engine components in the hot-gas flowpaths. Film cooling is the process of injecting coolant fluid at one or more discrete locations along surfaces regularly exposed to a harsh,

13 Dec 2006

AFRL Successfully Demonstrates Lightweight Modular Support Jammer

AFRL engineers successfully demonstrated several support jamming techniques at the Naval Air Weapons Center, California. The lightweight modular support jammer (LMSJ) is a scalable-architecture, digitally controlled support jammer based upon digital common modules and highly integrated transmitters and apertures. The total end-to-end system will

13 Dec 2006

AFRL Develops Network-Centric Monitor for Multiple Heterogeneous Datastreams

Engineers from AFRL and ITCN, Inc. (Dayton, Ohio), are developing a real-time data monitoring and correlation (RTDMC) system to acquire data from multiple heterogeneous data streams simultaneously, and time-correlate events contained in the data content. This data acquisition is controllable and distributable over local or global networks. The team

13 Dec 2006

AFRL Scientist Leads Revolutionary Polymer Research, Development, and Application Efforts

AFRL is making significant contributions to bioengineering through the investigation of a new class of polymer, or "biopolymer," based on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) derived from biowaste materials. Dr. James G. Grote, of AFRL's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, assembled and led a team to investigate this new biopolymer and its potential

13 Dec 2006

AFRL Establishes AMIST for Focused Warhead Development

AFRL and the Department of Energy's Kansas City Plant are collaborating to provide ordnance designers the initiation tools necessary for developing focused warheads, such as the dual-role munition. These advanced weapons will require an interdisciplinary technical solution that incorporates aerodynamic, energetic, warhead, target detection, and

12 Dec 2006

AFRL Advances Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Research

AFRL manages and conducts exploratory and advanced development programs to provide power systems and cooling technologies for aircraft, missile, terrestrial, and special applications. AFRL researchers are conducting in-house proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell research to help these fuel cells become viable power sources for Air Force

12 Dec 2006

AFRL Deploys Oil-Filled Switch Technology

AFRL researchers deployed a novel oil-filled switch technology developed over the last 3 years. This device incorporates advances in switching technology made at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Alpha-Omega Power Technologies. The newly deployed high-voltage switch utilizes the poly-a-olefin dielectric coolant already resident on most

12 Dec 2006

AFRL Successfully Demonstrates High-Assurance Security Architecture

AFRL is working with industry under the High-Assurance Security Architecture for Embedded Systems program to develop and advance the Multiple Independent Levels of Security/Safety (MILS) architecture, an enabling technology offering an affordable near-term solution to building high-assurance systems such as multilevel security systems. AFRL

12 Dec 2006

Successful Scramjet Combustor Testing

AFRL's Robust Scramjet [supersonic combustion ramjet] program establishes new and improved capability in dual-mode scramjet combustors along three major pillars: scalability, operability, and durability. Working under the Robust Scramjet program, Aerojet (Orange, Virginia) successfully completed the initial test series on a missile-scale round