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Military and security technology update (12 posts)

1. truthmover
   Administrator

   I've been meaning for some time to start posting about the latest advances in military and security technology. Figured I'd start a thread for it with this:

   Don't get mad, get motivated!

   "New metamaterial proves to be a 'perfect' absorber of light" http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-05/bc-...

   Eurekalert is an interesting RSS feed by the way.

   A team of scientists from Boston College and Duke University has developed a highly-engineered metamaterial capable of absorbing all of the light that strikes it – to a scientific standard of perfection...

   The metamaterial is the first to demonstrate perfect absorption and unlike conventional absorbers it is constructed solely out of metallic elements, giving the material greater flexibility for applications related to the collection and detection of light, such as imaging, says Padilla, an assistant professor of Physics...

   Metamaterial designs give them new properties beyond the limits of their actual physical components and allow them to produce "tailored" responses to radiation. Because their construction makes them geometrically scalable, metamaterials are able to operate across a significant portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

   As you might expect news releases from the Pentagon and military contractors don't include the classified uses of the technology. In this case the potential uses are both obvious and also amazing to think about.

   A great deal of military technology is designed along with a counter-measure. This material could be used to make vehicles and soldiers immune to the, yes, directed energy weapons, that they have been actively developing. The armor could absorb laser blasts (a gun that creates localized explosions within organic tissue), microwave radiation (the pain ray), and some things we haven't yet heard of.

   This is where it gets really far out. If they set it to absorb all waves in the visible spectrum all you would see was a hole in space and its shadow. Like the time portals in "The Time Bandits," no light would reflect off its surface. It would look like a flat void in space. Can you imaging watching those things turn on an off? Or being arrested by a police officer that looks like a silhouette void in space?

   With a possible development toward use in camouflage this might help us create the first cloaking devices.

   Posted 16 years ago #
2. chrisc
   Member

   This material could be used to make vehicles and soldiers immune to the, yes, directed energy weapons, that they have been actively developing. The armor could absorb laser blasts (a gun that creates localized explosions within organic tissue), microwave radiation (the pain ray), and some things we haven't yet heard of.

   Why would it make them immune -- it absorbs all the energy but this energy has to go somewhere and none of it will be reflected as light so I guess it mostly is turned into heat, so this would need to be combined with a very good insulating material behind it since it'll get very hot, and since it won't radiate infra-red radiation it'll take a long time to cool via convection...

   This is where it gets really far out. If they set it to absorb all waves in the visible spectrum all you would see was a hole in space and its shadow.... It would look like a flat void in space.

   No it wouldn't, it would look like a perfectly black object (well not perfect once it has dust and muck and other stuff on it...), the effect would be a more-perfect example of a box, painted black on the inside, with a small hole -- light can enter but almost no light comes out.

   It's things like this that offer the possibility of a "cloaking device":

   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6064620....

   Posted 16 years ago #
3. truthmover
   Administrator

   Why would it make them immune -- it absorbs all the energy but this energy has to go somewhere and none of it will be reflected as light so I guess it mostly is turned into heat, so this would need to be combined with a very good insulating material behind it since it'll get very hot, and since it won't radiate infra-red radiation it'll take a long time to cool via convection...

   The article states that the material converts the energy into heat. A system for insulating and channeling that heat would need to be developed in order to make the material useful as a shield. I'm assuming there is plenty of development that would need to be done before anything like what I've suggested above would be possible. And it seems a lot more likely we'd first see it on a vehicle rather than a person.

   No it wouldn't, it would look like a perfectly black object (well not perfect once it has dust and muck and other stuff on it...), the effect would be a more-perfect example of a box, painted black on the inside, with a small hole -- light can enter but almost no light comes out.

   I agree about the dust, but I think you might be wrong that a box would just look like a black box. With no corners or edges reflecting lights you would not be able to distinguish any features on the box. And one eye would see nothing different than the other which would further limit any perception of dimension. Assuming they have been able to make it absorb light to a "scientific standard of perfection," it should appear as a void rather than an object with surfaces.

   At least that still seem logical to me.

   Posted 16 years ago #
4. NicholasLevis
   Member

   Forgive me if I'm dense after all, but the first thing I understood out of that is that they have created the material for a perfect solar panel, one that absorbs 100 percent of radiation energy (=light=heat) in a material that conducts, and thus possibly solved the energy question forever.*

   Or did I miss something in the implications of what's said there?

   ---

   (*Well, until the sun don't shine no more - no doubt there's a DARPA team trying to figurer out how to accomplish that, lest the Soviet Muslim Korean Ecoterrorists turn off the sun before America does.)

   Posted 16 years ago #
5. chrisc
   Member

   The article states that the material converts the energy into heat.

   Ahh, OK, I guess I should have read it... ;-)

   I wonder what it's melting point is...

   it should appear as a void rather than an object with surfaces

   Hmm, yeah, you should't be able to see what shape it is other then by it's outline I guess...

   the material for a perfect solar panel

   Yeah, perhaps, what will it cost though and it would only be for a solar water heating panel wouldn't it?

   Posted 16 years ago #
6. truthmover
   Administrator

   The article doesn't mention solar panels. My first assumption would be that for the foreseeable future this material will be far too expensive for that use. We may in a few years see the technology here used in a design for high efficiency solar panels.

   For now we have created the best light receptor possible which would go great in a new space telescope.

   Posted 16 years ago #
7. truthmover
   Administrator

   'Science fiction like' weapons on tap for political conventions

   Congress has approved $100 million to pay for security expenses at this summer's presidential nominating conventions, with $50 million dedicated to each party.

   Weapons such as the sonic ray gun, which emits a head-splitting frequency and deafens large groups of people. Also rumored for the conventions is the goo gun -- which shoots a gel that can coat and wrap people whole, or stop a moving vehicle in its path -- and a microwave pulse emitter -- a radio frequency device that makes one's skin feel it is on fire, previously deployed in the streets of Baghdad, Iraq.

   The ACLU is suing both cities to disclose how security money is being spent, with hopes as to determine what specific weapons may be deployed against Americans. However, officials say it is important they be secretive about the technologies employed by their security forces, lest the crowds which will inevitably surround the conventions gain the upper hand.

   http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CNN_Top_secret_weapo...

   Posted 16 years ago #
8. truthmover
   Administrator

   Army Moves Ahead With Mobile Laser Cannon

   About a year ago, the Army asked Boeing and Northrop Grumman to work up preliminary designs for the HEL beam control system -- and promised to choose a winning model by 2009. So the program appears to be on track. And it's one of a number of energy weapon projects that have been picking up steam, after decades of unfulfilled promise. Relatively easy-to-deploy electric lasers have just about worked their way up to weapons-grade. Boeing recently test-fired the real-life ray gun on its Advanced Tactical Laser -- a blaster-equipped gunship. Raytheon has worked up a prototype of its Phalanx mortar-shooter that uses fiber lasers http://www.alspi.com/fiberlaser.htm , instead of traditional ammo, to knock down targets. Even the eternally-delayed Airborne Laser -- a modified 747, designed to zap ballistic missiles -- may finally get a long-awaited flight test.

   http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/08/army-moves-a...

   

   Posted 16 years ago #
9. truthmover
   Administrator

   Another new post above this one.

   Secrets of the Metamaterials that Will Make You Invisible

   http://io9.com/5036183/secrets-of-the-metamaterial...

   Negative refraction. I love it!!! Light hits an object and because of microscopic, multi-layered structures on its surface the light is bent back in toward the object.

   

   Posted 16 years ago #
10. truthmover
    Administrator

    "Autonomous "Flying Saucers" to Aid Military in Battle"

    The idea behind these craft is that a military base or unit in the field could use them to scout locations or aid in rescue missions. A flying saucer could float over an area that's been attacked, and feed images back to soldiers who want to find out if there are any survivors. Already, emergency responders in the U.S. have used devices like these for rescuing people in collapsed buildings.

    http://io9.com/5043569/autonomous-flying-saucers-t...

    

    This would be familiar to anyone who had played the game Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Many current video games are produced in cooperation with the military and include recent advances in military technology. The intent is clear. Make the military look cool and promote a positive view of military investment.

    Posted 16 years ago #
11. truthmover
    Administrator

    "US police could get 'pain beam' weapons"

    The research arm of the US Department of Justice is working on two portable non-lethal weapons that inflict pain from a distance using beams of laser light or microwaves, with the intention of putting them into the hands of police to subdue suspects.

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16339-us-pol...

    

    Posted 16 years ago #
12. truthmover
    Administrator

    "New wireless stun gun launched at Global Security Asia 2009"

    There is a new stun gun in the market, which has led to many police forces and security organisations worldwide expressing interest in it.

    A new X12 stun gun ... is the world’s first wireless stun gun and features a maximum effective range of 27 metres.

    It can penetrate clothing and transmit electrical impulses, causing the body to be temporarily paralysed, unlike conventional stun guns which causes immobility by causing pain.

    Posted 15 years ago #

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