Tag: AFRL

AFRL technological innovation aids operators through Afghanistan evacuation > Air Power Materiel Command > Write-up Exhibit

Amel
AFRL technological innovation aids operators through Afghanistan evacuation > Air Power Materiel Command > Write-up Exhibit
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ROME, N.Y. (AFRL) —  

Engineers from the Air Power Investigate Laboratory, or AFRL, refined a fielded device referred to as the Tactical Awareness Kit, or TAK, to assist operators in the fall 2021 Afghanistan evacuation. The package has also been adapted to suit the missions of local, state and federal agencies in battling wildfires and responding to purely natural disasters. 
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TAK is a technology designed by AFRL experts and engineers that has been transitioned to and used by numerous U.S. and global warfighters, together with specific operations and civilian buyers.
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As U.S. warfighters finished the main evacuation effort and hard work in Afghanistan in 2021, numerous Afghan allies and U.S. civilians however essential to get to safety. AFRL’s Data Techniques Division, aspect of the lab’s Information and facts Directorate at Rome, New York, employed the use of TAK to join evacuees properly and securely with operators. 
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“AFRL’s distinctive procedure ensured that only the sender and recipient could accessibility the required information and facts for the extractions,” explained Capt. Landon Tomcho, an AFRL software manager. “Furthermore, the TAK method is already recognized in the operator community. The agile advancement principals integrated into the TAK ecosystem considering the fact that its changeover authorized the AFRL groups to use their specialist awareness to promptly build and make use of a situation-precise alternative.”
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AFRL’s Info Directorate monitored the initiatives in Afghanistan and labored to understand the working natural environment and predicaments ahead of scheduling the implementation of adjustments required for use. Nonetheless, receiving to supply and implementation of TAK took tenacity, growth, and dozens of cell phone calls, said Tomcho. These efforts resulted in AFRL connecting with the good entities to set the TAK safe communications software into the fingers of the warfighters conducting the extractions to help direct people today to security and preserve them secure.

“Having a versatile and safe indicates of communication would be crucial to the former particular operators who joined the extraction missions,” Tomcho explained. “These operators experienced all the appropriate tactical competencies they just necessary a little bit of more technological innovation to supply increased situational recognition.”
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Ryan McLean, director of TAK product or service heart, stated his workforce is proud to guidance the Information and facts Directorate by tackling difficulties these types of as humanitarian aid.
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“As the Allied details dominance platform, TAK delivers environment-class situational consciousness through a spouse and children of networked geospatial products and solutions,” McLean said. “Capt. Tomcho’s profitable attempts display how the TAK merchandise empower a fast convergence of innovation, initiative and impression when life are on the line.”
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Also, alternatively of employing an app on a focused gadget to track crucial property, the system was re-tasked to a net portal natural environment, said Tomcho. The entry portal permitted operators to see certain spot coordinates for the extractions from any gadget with an world wide web relationship. Considering the fact that the

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AFRL to spotlight modern weapons, UAS technological know-how and AFWERX at AUVSI XPONENTIAL > 1 AFRL / TWO Companies > News

Amel
AFRL to spotlight modern weapons, UAS technological know-how and AFWERX at AUVSI XPONENTIAL > 1 AFRL / TWO Companies > News
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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR Pressure Base, Ohio (AFRL) – The Air Power Study Laboratory will showcase programs and technologies in various places such as weapons and unmanned aerial systems, in addition avenues for sharing suggestions or capabilities with the lab through the Affiliation for Unmanned Vehicles Devices Global (AUVSI) XPONENTIAL in Orlando, Florida, April 25-28, 2022.
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AFRL supports both equally the U.S. Air Power and U.S. Place Power, seamlessly doing work significant precedence analysis regions across the lab, meeting operational wants and providing warfighting systems to Airmen and Guardians.
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AFRL Autonomy Technical Adviser Jean-Charles Ledé will discuss on a panel titled ‘Air Force Partnerships on Long run of State-of-the-art Air Mobility and Autonomy’ on April 27 from 4 to 4:45 p.m. EST with Lt. Col. Tom Meagher, AFWERX Prime division chief and Dr. Parimal Kopardekar, the director of NASA Aeronautics Exploration Institute.
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“The growth in urban air mobility will necessitate important developments in autonomy, aiding considerably less skilled pilots traveling in a advanced atmosphere alongside with autonomous features to support air targeted visitors administration,” claimed Ledé. “These desires are pretty nicely aligned with Air Drive needs for handling the airspace and traveling plane in hazardous locations, and characterize good alternatives for joint endeavours with marketplace. AFRL stands ready to assist with technological experience and slicing-edge abilities.”
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The dialogue will be moderated by Darshan Divakaran, AFWERX Senior Manager, Strategic Innovation and Partnerships.
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“By means of strategic community-personal partnerships and innovative plans, AFWERX is making certain revolutionary systems like electrical vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts are productive in both equally military and professional markets,” explained Divakaran.
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AFRL programs
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Golden Horde, 1 of the Office of the Air Force’s Vanguard applications, will be featured at the AFRL booth. Vanguards signify substantial-precedence initiatives led by a partnership concerning researchers, engineers and method govt workplaces wherever these teams sign up for forces and perform intently with warfighters to produce sophisticated capabilities on intense timelines.
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Golden Horde, a series of networked, collaborative, autonomous weapon demonstrations, is producing an integrated program of techniques wherever weapons autonomously get the job done together to enhance survivability and lethality. The software group, which efficiently shown swarms of built-in weapons that share data and execute coordinated behaviors, is building a multi-tier electronic weapon ecosystem with a are living, virtual and constructive screening and demonstration capability acknowledged as the Golden Horde Colosseum.
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In the spot of unmanned aerial automobile technology, AFRL will showcase its most up-to-date innovation within just the Air Released Off-Board Operations or ALOBO application, a multipurpose tube-introduced UAV delivering amplified optics talents in austere situations. ALOBO focuses on creating smaller unmanned plane methods that can be introduced from much larger host plane when in flight. These methods, these kinds of as the Tactical Offboard Sensing or TOBS, lengthen the mission attain and capabilities of host motor vehicles.
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In addition to applications and systems, AFRL will also
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AFRL to spotlight most up-to-date technologies at AFA Warfare Symposium > Air Pressure Materiel Command > Article Show

Amel
AFRL to spotlight most up-to-date technologies at AFA Warfare Symposium > Air Pressure Materiel Command > Article Show
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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR Power Base, Ohio (AFRL) – The Air Pressure Exploration Laboratory will showcase courses and systems in many regions such as room, weapons, biotechnology, and command and handle, moreover avenues for sharing thoughts or abilities with the lab during the Air Force Association’s Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida, March 2-4, 2022.
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AFRL supports both of those the U.S. Air Force and U.S. House Pressure, seamlessly working higher priority research spots across the lab, assembly operational desires and offering warfighting technologies to Airmen and Guardians.
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AFRL Commander Maj. Gen. Heather Pringle will speak with media reps on March 4 from 10-10:40 a.m. speaking about the lab’s position in offering top-quality science and engineering that enables the Office of the Air Drive to discourage, combat and acquire in contested battles in opposition to strategic rivals.
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“Our way of warfare depends on technological superiority and AFRL has a very long heritage of top rated-notch analysis and development that finally enhances air and place power,” explained Pringle. “AFRL is dedicated to delivering chopping-edge, transformational capabilities to our warfighters,” she explained, highlighting the lab’s skill to “bridge the Valley of Loss of life as a result of strategic partnerships.”
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Pringle will also go over the newest on the DAF Vanguard systems like Skyborg, an autonomous plane teaming capability. Vanguards stand for higher-priority initiatives or “all-in efforts” led by a partnership between experts, engineers and Application Govt Places of work the place these groups be a part of forces and do the job closely with warfighters to supply innovative abilities on intense timelines.
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“The AFRL workforce is intensely centered on unleashing the electricity of science and technologies for air and space warfighting capabilities,” claimed AFRL Executive Director Timothy Sakulich. “As the pace and scale of strategic competitors has accelerated, so too has AFRL’s solemn motivation to Guardians and Airmen,” he said emphasizing that the lab “will go on to deliver scientific innovation and complex know-how that results in complexity for adversaries and battle dominance for the USAF and USSF.”
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AFRL Systems on Exhibit at AFA
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Some of the house courses to be highlighted by AFRL consist of Space Solar Energy Incremental Demonstrations and Investigate Venture (SSPIDR) and Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS). SSPIDR is a collection of built-in demonstrations and technology maturation initiatives to address room-based mostly electric power collection and transmission capabilities though CHPS is a spaceflight experiment built to exhibit place domain recognition abilities in the cislunar regime.
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AFRL will also highlight the lab’s weapons applications which includes QUICKSINK and Fast Dragon, which are both collaborative, cross-company initiatives.
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“I’m so very pleased of the new ways in which AFRL has partnered with warfighters, acquirers, marketplace, and academia to advance modern abilities,” stated Pringle noting that, “while the lab is normally regarded for its bench-level R&D, our skill to collaborate with other individuals and help transition technologies to warfighters is equally as

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AFRL, industry launch revolutionary spacecraft technology > Air Force > Article Display

Amel
AFRL, industry launch revolutionary spacecraft technology > Air Force > Article Display


KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFNS) —  

The Air Force Research Laboratory has partnered with ThermAvant Technologies and Maxar Technologies to develop and deploy the next generation of spacecraft thermal control technology.

The groundbreaking technology, Oscillating Heat Pipes (OHPs), provides lightweight and highly-efficient temperature control on higher-power, yet smaller spacecraft. The OHP was recently launched in the second quarter of 2021 on a Maxar-built satellite.

“Maxar adopts the most innovative technologies to benefit our customers’ missions, and we are proud to support the commercial use of oscillating heat pipes developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and ThermAvant Technologies,” said Chris Johnson, Maxar’s senior vice president of space. “This technology allowed us to provide increased capability to our customers in satisfying their desired performance needs.”

Using OHPs instead of an active thermal management subsystem enables the U.S. Space Force to accomplish its missions at a lower cost.

It should be noted that though the structure of the OHP is static, the fluid oscillates within the microchannels of the structure, causing the heat transfer.

“Oscillating heat pipes have flown in space before, but now OHPs are being relied upon to serve a mission purpose,” said Jon Allison, the thermal thrust lead for the Spacecraft Component Technology Branch of the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate. “The on-orbit operation of OHPs marks an important milestone in the technology transition.”

Allison’s colleague, Brent Taft, has spent more than a decade leading Air Force OHP research, and said he is ecstatic to see OHPs now being used on real-world spacecraft.

“The success of this transition builds upon AFRL and ThermAvant efforts to develop and validate an oscillating heat pipe operating limits model,” Taft said. “AFRL tested early OHP designs in the Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader (ASETS) microgravity aircraft flight campaign in 2012, and the ASETS-II experiment on OTV-5 (aka X-37B) in 2017.”

According to AFRL and their industry partners, OHPs are the future of spacecraft thermal control.

“At AFRL, we are excited to have the first operational OHPs flying in space,” Allison said. “I would like to congratulate our Air Force researchers, our contractor ThermAvant, and the system integrator Maxar for their success and dogged commitment. We look forward to seeing OHPs revolutionize thermal control for the next generation of Space Force satellites.”

Allison explained this circuitous technology development path leading from military service laboratories, to private industry, and then back to the military, is actually a common approach.

“Each organization plays a part in bringing technology to fruition,” he said. “The service lab connects the needs of the warfighter with technological possibilities, providing the seed that ultimately yields a viable product. Industry is motivated to take risks to bring better products to market, and commercial success proves to the Space Force that a new technology is reliable enough to serve the warfighter and the nation.”

The incorporation of the OHPs on an operational satellite is a big step forward. AFRL believes this represents the start of the fourth generation of spacecraft thermal

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