Aug. 19, 2021

110th Security Forces Squadron conducts baton training

Airmen of the 110th Security Forces Squadron conducted Armament Systems and Procedures (ASP) baton training on August 7, 2021. The training culminated in the “Red Man” exercise, which consists of using less than lethal tactics to gain compliance of a subject who is demonstrating the intent to cause harm.

Aug. 18, 2021

NSWC IHD Wargaming Event Ushers In a New Phase of Warfighting

Marine Col. Wendell Leimbach, Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities Office director, stressed innovation in his brief on intermediate force capabilities (IFC): strategic risk mitigation investments that provide warfighters tools to seize initiative while competing below the level of armed conflict. Examples of IFCs are dazzling lasers and acoustic hailing devices, active denial systems, and counter unmanned aerial systems. Airports already employ a minor version of IFC technology in airport terminal safety screenings. Teams were asked to incorporate IFCs into their final concepts.

Aug. 11, 2021

Not shocking: Most of the Army’s tasers don’t work

The majority of the Army’s tasers are past their intended service life and are not operational, largely due to depleted batteries, according to a report the service submitted to a Senate panel last year.

July 29, 2021

AFRL’s drone killer, THOR will welcome new drone “hammer”

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate is seeking partners to build a new counter electronics weapon system, to defend against the ever increasing threat of adversarial drone activity.

July 22, 2021

Learning in the grey zone: how democracies can meet the authoritarian challenge

Innovation by authoritarian nations in the ‘grey zone’ is becoming one of the most serious challenges facing contemporary democracies. It has long been recognised that future conflicts might be won before any shots are fired. But knowing that is cold comfort, because authoritarian states are continually evolving their capacity to develop and deploy offensive tools in their cyber-enabled, information and hybrid warfare arsenals.

July 15, 2021

Lawmaker: Special Operations Must Adapt to Gray Zone Conflict

Increasing gray zone conflicts around the world means U.S. Special Operations Command must adapt to the era of great power competition while still being a counter-terrorism force, a key House lawmaker said Wednesday.

July 12, 2021

NSWC Dahlgren Division Scientist Melissa Olson Phipps Discusses Charting Her Unexpected Career PathNSWC Dahlgren Division Scientist Melissa Olson Phipps Discusses Charting Her Unexpected Career Path

It was during her time as an intern at Dahlgren that Olson Phipps became inspired to change direction and follow a pathway toward directed energy technology. “When I joined Dahlgren, the directed energy program was becoming more established though the team was still relatively small. I came in at a time when the team had great ideas and were exploring innovative testing and evaluation methods to prove the utility of directed energy,” she said. “I became involved with the laser testing and data analysis processes and just knew I wanted to be part of this cutting edge technology.”

July 7, 2021

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine Tours NSWC Dahlgren Division

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine visited Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) on June 30 for briefs on High Energy Laser (HEL) capabilities and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) as well as facility tours and demonstrations.

July 2, 2021

AFRL holds high power electromagnetic wargaming event

The Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate held its second in a series of wargaming, modeling, and simulation events June 21 - 25 at Kirtland AFB. The latest Directed Energy Utility Concept Experiment, or DEUCE, focused on the use of high power electromagnetic (HPEM) weapons as part of an integrated air defense system, whereas the DEUCE held in January concentrated on the capabilities of high energy laser systems.

May 17, 2021

NSWC Dahlgren Division Scientists Rapidly Deliver High-Energy Laser to the Fleet Despite Pandemic

As COVID-19 spread across the nation and world in March 2020, an elite group of federal employees developed and executed a strategy to continue development, integration, testing and installation of a laser weapon aboard Navy warships. Their plan guaranteed that progress on high-energy programs would not be impacted as they pressed forward to operationally install those systems aboard several warships on schedule in spite of the pandemic.

May 15, 2021

Marines break ground on new war game center

The Marine Corps broke ground here on what it plans will be a state-of-the-art war gaming center, to direct war fighting experiments and pull feedback from across the fleet to continuously refine how Marines fight.

May 13, 2021

NSWC Dahlgren Division Engineer Brings New Capabilities to High Power Microwave Technology through DoD Scholarship Program

While Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD) is well-known for its work in both lasers and pulsed power systems, incorporating lasers into pulsed power is a new area of research. As such, the basic requirements of the research effort must be built from scratch. Dr. Jon ‘Cameron’ Pouncey of the High Power Microwave (HPM) Technology Development Branch, E13, of the Gun and Electric Weapon Systems Department (E Department) at NSWCDD is the principal investigator of a new project, funded through a grant initiated by the Department of Defense (DoD) Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarship program.

May 12, 2021

NSWC Carderock inventors patent Device for Non-Lethal Stoppage of Water Jet Propelled Craft

The problem they tried solving was how to stop a personal watercraft, such as a Jet Ski, in a non-lethal manner. “There’s a lot of reasons you might want to stop one — it could be something that could be headed toward a naval asset, they could be drug-running and could be getting away,” Bretall said. “The simplest conventional way, of course, is to use kinetics and artillery, but that’s only appropriate in some situations … there’s a lot of reasons you might want to stop a Jet Ski non-lethally.”

April 22, 2021

Introducing the Emerging Technologies Institute

That’s why the National Defense Industrial Association has created the NDIA Emerging Technologies Institute, or ETI. It is a non-partisan organization dedicated to research, analysis and open discussion about emerging technologies and their role in the defense industrial base.

April 22, 2021

Brief History of the Evolutions of Counter-Personnel Non-Lethal Weapons

Over the past 50+ years, a number of terms (e.g., non-lethal, less-lethal, less-than-lethal, sublethal) [1] have been used to describe weapons that are intended to incapacitate targeted personnel or materiel immediately while minimizing fatalities or permanent injury to personnel [2]. However, it has been acknowledged that no weapon can be entirely non-lethal, as discussed in a 1972 published report to the National Science Foundation (NSF) regarding non-lethal weapons (NLW) for law enforcement [3].

April 10, 2021

Can We Win in the 'Gray Zone'?

The gray zone is the space between peace and war involving coercive actions that fall outside normal geopolitical competition between states but do not reach the level of armed conflict.... They usually seek to avoid a significant military response, though are often designed to intimidate and deter a target state by threatening further escalation. [B]ut do liberal democracies in the 21st Century have the political will to do the dirty work that is necessary to win?

April 7, 2021

Navy Installing More Directed Energy Weapons on DDGs, Conducting Land-Based Laser Testing This Year

The Navy continues to learn more about a pair of directed energy weapons, as the service installs the fourth and fifth dazzler system this year and begins land-based testing of a high-energy laser weapon, the program executive officer for integrated warfare systems told USNI News. The Navy has been in parallel working on an Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) program, a nonlethal weapon that can confuse instead of shoot down drones, which will become part of the High Energy Laser and Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) program that Lockheed Martin has been developing since 2018.

April 6, 2021

Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities

Intermediate Force Capabilities The requirement for Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW) emerged during U.S. military operations in Somalia. Consequently, the Department of Defense (DoD) NLW Program was created in 1996, the Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC) was designated as the DoD NLW Program Executive Agent, and the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) was established to manage the daily activities of the program.

March 23, 2021

AFRL Directed Energy Industry Days— rolling out new rapid contracting vehicle

The Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate will host a Virtual Briefing for Industry to introduce the new Directed Energy Technology Experimentation Research (DETER), Advanced Research Announcement (ARA) April 13 – 14 from 10 a.m. to noon Mountain Standard Time each day. “We are looking forward to hosting our first briefing for industry days,” said Marcella Cantu, DETER Program Manager. “DETER is an innovative acquisition tool that will offer industry and academia a new rapid and agile contracting vehicle to work with Directed Energy in nine topic areas. Day one is designed for industry and day two for academia.”

March 17, 2021

JBLM Soldiers, Airmen tased, pepper sprayed during Dragon Fighter Academy

Soldiers from the 504th Military Police Battalion “Dragon Fighters,” 42nd Military Police Brigade and Airmen from the 627th Security Forces Squadron participated in a nonlethal weapons training course for military police March 12 on Joint Base Lewis-McChord.