The US Navy’s top science and technology official, Mathias Winter, foresees flat R&D budgets in the coming years, with around $1 billion devoted to basic research at universities and naval facilities. Winter, chief of the Office of Naval Research (ONR), says improving outcomes in a stagnant budget environment will require increasing cooperative research with allies, partnering with small and medium-sized companies that perform basic research of their own, and leveraging work performed by universities that are using other sources of funding.
Winter took questions from reporters at a naval technology expo in Maryland on 17 May. The ONR displayed some systems under development and others that have been commercialized. One technology is the Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard, or EMILY, which he says has helped to save 295 Syrian refugees from drowning off the coast of the Greek island of Lesbos.
The Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard (EMILY) is a remote-controlled buoy recently used to rescue nearly 300 Syrian refugees from drowning off the Greek island of Lesbos. Resembling a small jet ski, EMILY is also being used as a lifesaving aid at Los Angeles County beaches. Its development began with a Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the Office of Naval Research.
The Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard (EMILY) is a remote-controlled buoy recently used to rescue nearly 300 Syrian refugees from drowning off the Greek island of Lesbos. Resembling a small jet ski, EMILY is also being used as a lifesaving aid at Los Angeles County beaches. Its development began with a Small Business Technology Transfer grant from the Office of Naval Research.
The ONR receives an annual budget of $2 billion—about 2% of the total navy budget—for basic and applied research and for advanced development. “I don’t see an increase in S&T budgets on the horizon, but I don’t see a decrease. We’ve been relatively stable over the last 20 years across the Department of Defense,” Winter says. The ONR funds about 7000 academic research grants annually, with work performed at both US and international institutions.
Basic research programs at the ONR include photonics, advanced materials, nanoparticles, bioinspired technologies, synthetic biology, and quantum sensing. One thrust is to study the combinations and permutations of advanced materials such as gallium nitride, graphene, and boron nitride to optimize their thermal, electronic, and other properties, Winter says.
Improved energy storage is another navy need, especially for directed-energy weapons, which remain on standby until they are deployed. “We need on-demand power supplies that outstrip our energy [sources] on our ships. We’re looking at everything from pulsed-energy storage to flywheel storage,” he says.
The ONR is developing two directed-energy weapon systems for ships: solid-state lasers and electromagnetic railguns. Both offer the potential to replace munitions and thereby decrease costly missile firings, minimize resupply requirements, free up space, and reduce the risk of magazine explosions during battle.
Persian Gulf deployment
The Laser Weapon System, known as LAWS, has been operational since 2014 aboard the USS Ponce, an amphibious transport ship deployed in the Persian Gulf. The system is designed to defend against attacks from unmanned aerial and surface vehicles. At a cost of just $1 per shot, the 30 kW IR system has disabled small boats and aerial targets in demonstrations but has yet to be fired in anger.
In 2018–19 LAWS will be scaled up to a 150 kW version, Winter says. Reaching that higher power will entail improving the repeatability of firing and focusing the beam from its multiple fiber lasers onto the target. The ONR is currently providing deployment options to senior navy leaders.
A demonstration of the electromagnetic railgun is set for this summer at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The system will fire a high-velocity projectile with a kinetic energy of 20–40 MJ, Winter says. A conventional shell fired from a 13 cm deck gun, Winter points out, attains 12–13 MJ. Ultimately, the navy wants its railgun to hit targets 200 nautical miles (370 km) away, a range that will require a muzzle energy of 50 MJ. Its power requirements will strain the existing capabilities of most warships.
The Low-Cost Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Swarming Technology is to be demonstrated this month in the Gulf of Mexico. Swarming technology is designed to overwhelm an adversary. In the demo, 30 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) launched from a ship will be controlled individually, in small groups, and as a whole. A small group will break off from the swarm for a simulated engagement with an adversary. According to Winter, algorithms being developed to control the swarms and keep the UAVs from colliding should be applicable to both undersea and surface unmanned vehicles.
