The United States military has teamed up with Elon Musk and the company he heads, SpaceX. The goal of the tie-up is to build a rocket capable of delivering weapons anywhere on the globe in an hour. The benefits of quickly delivering weapons and other cargo anywhere on the planet very quickly are readily apparent.
The rocket would travel at 7500 miles per hour and would be able to carry 80 metric tons of cargo into orbit. The rocket could then land anywhere on the planet. The contract will see SpaceX begin by assessing costs and technical challenges for the project. Gen. Stephen Lyons, the head of US Transportation Command, said on Wednesday that initial tests are expected to begin in 2021.
What the military and SpaceX are trying to do is incredible. Using rockets to deliver massive payloads would allow the 7652 mile trip from Florida to Afghanistan could be completed within an hour. To compare, a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft has a maximum speed of 590 mph and would require 15 hours to make the same journey.
The Pentagon’s Transportation Command and Elon Musk’s SpaceX are teaming up to examine using rockets to ship cargo through space. The plan raises the prospect of sending urgently needed supplies to U.S. troops anywhere on Earth, within minutes. While the idea is technically feasible, there are several factors, including cost and preparation time, that could make it unworkable.
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The unlikely association of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces with adorable anime characters could reflect a deep-seated discomfort with the nation’s military history.
The BBC reports that the project, funded by the Small Business Innovation Research program, aims to allow soldiers to give dogs specific directional commands while they’re not in direct line of sight.
“Augmented reality works differently for dogs than for humans,” Stephen Lee, an Army Research Laboratory senior scientist, explained in a statement. “AR will be used to provide dogs with commands and cues; it’s not for the dog to interact with it like a human does.”
Ira Pastor, ideaXme life sciences ambassador interviews Brian Holmes Ph.D., Dean of The National Intelligence University, Anthony G. Oettinger School of Science and Technology Intelligence.
Ira Pastor comments:
The National Intelligence University (NIU), is a federally chartered research university which serves as the United States Intelligence Community’s institution for higher learning in fields of study central to the profession of intelligence and national security.
National Intelligence University’s interdisciplinary programs emphasize education through scholarly and applied research designed to help U.S. intelligence officers better understand the diverse range of geopolitical, strategic, and technological threats and opportunities affecting intelligence and national security.
The university is organized into two separate academic units: the College of Strategic Intelligence and the Oettinger School of Science and Technology Intelligence. Combined, the colleges cover a diverse and evolving range of international affairs issues and adversarial threats and capabilities, from cultural and religious conflicts, to weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation, cybersecurity threats, terrorism, transnational crime, and more. NIU is the only university in the United States where students can study and complete research at the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level. The School of Science and Technology Intelligence within the National Intelligence University is focused on science and technical analytic education, research and external engagement across the intelligence and national security communities.
Dr. Holmes served as an all-source intelligence analyst and Branch Chief in the Defense Intelligence Agencies’ (DIA) Counter-proliferation Support Office from 2006–2010 before accepting a managerial position in the Directorate for Analysis’ Staff Operations Division. He was a Direct Commission intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve, serving from 2007–2011 and reached the rank of Lieutenant. For three years he supported the Afghanistan-Pakistan Task Force as an all-source intelligence analyst in DIA’s Directorate for Intelligence.
Jared Isaacman made a small fortune training fighter pilots but his wealth soared this summer when he took his payments processing business public amid the pandemic.
#SpaceX just partnered with the U.S. military’s #Space Development Agency (SDA) to manufacture four new satellites that the Pentagon will use to detect and track missiles from space.
The $149 million contract is for four satellites, according to Reuters, which are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2022. The actual #missile-tracking sensors will be developed by a separate subcontractor and attached to the #satellites later, but the military is hoping to piggyback on SpaceX’s recent success in ramping up satellite production for its #Starlink network.
It’s the first time SpaceX is building satellites for the military.
SpaceX is developing a new satellite bus for the Space Development Agency based on the Starlink design.
WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency awarded SpaceX a $149 million contract and L3Harris a $193.5 million contract to each build four satellites to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
The contracts announced Oct. 5 are for the first eight satellites of a potentially much larger Space Development Agency constellation of sensor satellites known as Tracking Layer Tranche 0. This is SpaceX’s first military contract to produce satellites.
