DARPA

Military lays out $4.4 M to supersize network monitoring technology

Layer 8 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:23:06 -0400

Bigger, better, faster, more are the driving themes behind the advanced network monitoring technology BBN Technologies is building for the military.

The high-tech firm got a $.4.4 million contract today from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop novel, scalable attack detection algorithms; a flexible and expandable architecture for implementing and deploying the algorithms; and an execution environment for traffic inspection and algorithm execution.

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DARPA earmarks $10M to keep heat out of electronics

Layer 8 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:58:50 -0400

Heat is one of the worst enemies of the semiconductors and electronics that drive advanced technology, such as high-power radars, and in the case of the military, electromagnetic weapons and aircraft circuitry.

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DARPA looking for wicked cool researchers for advanced study group

Layer 8 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:03:39 -0400

If you are looking to develop some far out advanced science project -- and the folks at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have a ton from airplanes that can fly for years without landing to skeletal putty for fractured bones – then DARPA wants you.

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Military set to advance bulletproof wireless IP network

Layer 8 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:41:22 -0400

The military’s advanced technology researchers will next week hold a one-day meeting to discuss features and go over the requirements for its next generation wireless IP network.

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Shape-shifting robot squeezes onto military radar

Layer 8 — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:43:13 -0400

iRobot today won a $3.3 million contract to build a shape-shifting, flexible robot for dangerous or hard to reach combat duties.

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DARPA attempting the impossible: Self-simulation for defense training

Noah Schiffman — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:14:25 -0400

Although this news item first broke several weeks ago, I have been awaiting public analysis regarding its impracticability. Bereft of criticism, I will provide my own.

The Internet began as a "store-and-forward" packet switching network, connecting computers via Interface Message Processors. In 1969, the first interconnected network, ARPANET, allowed communication between the first four nodes located at UCLA, Stanford, UCSB and University of Utah. When the project was acquired by the Department of Defense in 1975, it became known as DARPANET (Defense Advanced Research Projects Network).

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Military’s unmanned copter claims endurance record, completes tests

Layer 8 — Wed, 21 May 2008 11:43:38 -0400

The Army’s unmanned A160T Hummingbird helicopter has successfully completed all planned phase I flight test demonstrations which included an 18.7-hour endurance flight on May 14-15 that will be claimed as a world endurance record for unmanned aerial vehicles in the weight class of 1,102 to 5,511 pounds.

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Wireless networks getting pumped up

Layer 8 — Wed, 14 May 2008 11:14:04 -0400

The military’s next generation high-speed, high-capacity wireless network technology is taking shape. The Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) today said BAE Systems will next spring field-test a suite of what’s known as ad-hoc wireless tactical network protocols that the company says improves wireless network performance five-fold over current practices.

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NASA wants to take the blast out of sonic booms

Layer 8 — Fri, 09 May 2008 14:14:19 -0400

As the military and occasionally commercial aviation researchers look to fly aircraft higher, farther and faster - much faster, sonic booms such planes can create can cause problems on the ground.

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Military looking for a few good photon chips

Layer 8 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:16:14 -0400

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week issued a call for integrated photonic chip development that would support “fiber-like” losses for optical applications.

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Military lays out millions for ultra-endurance aircraft

Layer 8 — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:40:53 -0400

Looks like the Vulture will get the chance to fly.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Vulture program ultimately will build an unmanned aircraft capable of carrying a 1,000-pound payload on five kilowatts of power and can stay airborne for an uninterrupted period of at least five years while remaining in the required mission airspace 99% of the time.

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DARPA wants a quantum entanglement revolution

Layer 8 — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:56:31 -0400

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for innovative research proposals in the intriguing area of quantum entanglement -- a developing component of quantum physics that looks at the behavior between atoms and photons that could ultimately play a key role in developing security, unbelievably fast networks and even teleportation.

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Advanced 2lb radar system bolsters unmanned aircraft

Layer 8 — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:50:05 -0400

Looking to pack high-end radar and navigation systems into a small unmanned aircraft, Boeing today said it successfully tested a system that weighs 2lbs at various altitudes and flight ranges.

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DARPA chief outlines expansive array of future networking projects

Layer 8 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:09:33 -0400

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's incredible array of futuristic research projects - everything from advanced network and communications implementations to powerful laser and unmanned aircraft development as well as developing techniques to help military personnel survive myriad dangerous situations - was on display in a report delivered to the House Armed Services Committee today by the agency's director, Tony Tether.

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DARPA spends $13 million more for fast language translation software

Layer 8 — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:52:15 -0400

BBN Technologies this week got $13 million in additional funding by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for its system that quickly converts documents in foreign languages into English so that military personnel can react more rapidly to threats.

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DARPA looking for Mach 6-capable aircraft that can do a barrel roll

Layer 8 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:59:44 -0400

So what would it be like to do a barrel roll at Mach 6? Seems that DARPA wants to find out.

The agency this week opened competition for contract reportedly valued at $750 million for a hypersonic aircraft known as Blackswift that can take-off and land on a runway and of course handle that barrel roll maneuver.

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The Army gets its wireless robots

Layer 8 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:35:32 -0500

Looks like the Army is getting its wee mobile robots. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) this week gave the iRobot Corp. a contract to build LANdroids -- wireless, mobile devices soldiers wear or can spread over a battlefield that, once deployed, would then form a self-healing wireless mesh network capable of voice/data transmissions.

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Sophisticated unmanned aircraft get big military bucks

Layer 8 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:37:46 -0500

The Army has awarded General Atomics an $18.6 million contract to continue developing an extended range/multi-purpose unmanned aerial vehicle. The contract is but one of the extended range unmanned aircraft military planners are looking at for the next few years. In addition, there is more than $500 million for unmanned aircraft systems in the fiscal 2008 war supplemental, which Congress has yet to act on, according to

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IBM optical chip zips huge files using little power

Layer 8 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:09:44 -0500

IBM today announced it had developed a prototype chip that could transmit up to 8 terabit/sec of information -- equivalent to about 5,000 high-definition video streams -- using the power of a single 100-watt lightbulb.

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DARPA spends $38 million on first phase of virtual satellite network

Layer 8 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:53:12 -0500

DARPA this week opened its giant wallet to spend over $38 million for the initial development of its advanced space technology program that ultimately aims to replace traditional "monolithic" spacecraft with clusters of wirelessly-interconnected spacecraft modules.

The program, called the Future, Fast, Flexible, Fractionated, Free-Flying Spacecraft United by Information Exchange also known as the System F6, is intended to let the agency deploy individual pieces or what it call

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