• 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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

  • AFRL COMPLETES 10-YEAR DEPLOYABLE OPTICAL TELESCOPE PROGRAM

    AFRL scientists completed their final task of phasing multiple large mirror segments for the laboratory's Deployable Optical Telescope (DOT) system. The DOT ground demonstration enables space-based imaging apertures larger than launch vehicle fairing sizes through multiple-segment telescope phasing.