Directing Our Energy Toward Multi-Domain Environments With Laser Focus.
Lasers targeting space and atmospheric systems; missiles traveling 20 times the speed of sound and are virtually untraceable; neural networks anticipating adversary actions and effects—it’s increasingly difficult to distinguish between science fiction and today’s military technology advancements. Directed Energy, Artificial Intelligence, Hypersonic missile defense, and Multi-Domain warfare will be headlining the Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville from August 6-8 at the Von Braun Center.
The Space and Missile Defense Symposium (SMD) is a critical forum that enables military leaders and technology innovators to mutually explore both the challenge and solutions sides of defense. The three-day event includes presentations and panel discussions on priority trends in missile defense. “Especially here in Huntsville, we understand how critical industry and contractors are in achieving national objectives,” said Harold Brewer, Chairman and Co-founder of Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation (INTUITIVE). “Whether it’s companies providing insight into potent technologies or military leaders describing and defining the solution space, the dialogue at this important event will influence national defense solutions for the foreseeable future.” Nearly 200 companies and organizations will operate trade booths to network and showcase capabilities.
Featured speakers this year represent top military and technological leaders, including:
- General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy – Commander, United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. USNORTHCOM partners to conduct homeland defense, civil support and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests. NORAD conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control and maritime warning in the defense of North America. General O’Shaughnessy will describe priorities for Multi-Domain Operations.
- Rebeccah L. Heinrichs – Hudson Institute Senior fellow with expertise in National Security, International Relations, Arms Control and Nonproliferation, and Missile Defense. Her work has appeared in major newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Times, and Investor’s Business Daily as well as political journals such as Politico and The Hill.
- Dr. Michael Griffin – Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. He is responsible for the research, development, and prototyping activities across the DoD enterprise and is mandated with ensuring technological superiority for the Department of Defense.
This year’s SMD theme is “Space and Missile Defense Preeminence in a Multi-Domain Environment.” Historically stove-piped military capabilities are now challenged to coordinate and integrate in time and space for combined effects. Space, cyber, air, land, and sea capabilities must combined to create overwhelming advantage. Key-note speakers will address this new paradigm, and subject matter experts from across the globe will address some of the advancements driving this change in thinking.
Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation (INTUITIVE), an aerospace engineering and analysis firm headquartered in Huntsville, has experience and expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Directed Energy, and Hypersonics. Rapid technology advancements in each of these fields have both offensive and defensive applications for multi domain warfare. Companies such as INTUITIVE are contributing to Huntsville’s continued and increasing relevance to preeminent space and missile defense.
Hypersonics
According to Daron Drown, Senior Program Lead at INTUITIVE, significant advances in hypersonic missile capabilities among peer nations require both technology and acquisition process innovation.
In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2019, the head of U.S. Strategic Command expressed concern over the threat of Russian and Chinese hypersonic missiles. U.S. Air Force General John Hyten testified that current missile defense sensors can track such weapons for a short while after launch, but then the hypersonic missile “disappears and we don’t see it until the effect is delivered.”
Drown noted that although today’s ballistic missiles already fly at hypersonic speeds (above Mach 5, or 5 times the speed of sound), this new class of missiles leverages three characteristics that combine to challenge our defenses:
- Maneuverability: Technical challenges of maneuvering at very high speeds are being overcome, giving these weapons an unpredictable flight path, which makes defense much more difficult.
- Low-altitude flight: These new weapons fly at much lower altitudes than traditional ballistic missiles, enabling them to remain below the view of our long-range ballistic missile defense radars. Our current ballistic missile defense radars are pointed at higher angles to see ballistic threats, and any view of low-altitude missiles is masked by the Earth’s horizon.
The combination of maneuverability, low-altitude flight, and speed decreases our warning time and defense decision time, putting strategic targets at risk. Drown noted that ballistic missiles will far outnumber new hypersonic weapons for some time, requiring the addition of new defensive capabilities while maintaining and improving our ballistic missile defense capabilities.
Artificial Intelligence
Faster, more maneuverable weapons shorten the reaction time of defensive forces. Artificial Intelligence is poised to improve missile defense by aiding humans in complex battle management, “thinking” through threat dynamics and defense options quickly. According to Marc Mahanna, INTUITIVE Engineering Technical Lead, networks of sensors and interceptors must be equipped with AI. He argues that “AI will provide additional layers of processing, gaining back precious time that may be the difference between threat mitigation and missing the mark entirely.” But AI contributions go beyond smarter interception of missiles in flight. According to Mahanna, “AI-enabled systems can digest a wider range of inputs providing continuous comprehension of possible threats.” AI-enabled systems will be able to assess potential threat actions and assess risk in diverse scenarios.
INTUITIVE and other companies will have much more to say about applications of AI at the symposium. For example, INTUITIVE’s Michael Yohe will be speaking to SMD attendees on Wednesday, Aug 7th on the topic of AI/Machine Learning and Virtual Reality as a Big Data User Interface with Space and Missile Defense Applications.
Directed Energy
Some weapon technology is abandoning the kinetic weapon paradigm altogether. “A directed energy weapon emits energy as a focused beam or pulse of electromagnetic, light, or sound energy and affects the target primarily by heating it to achieve the desired effects,” said INTUITIVE Program Manager, Jeff Souder. Non-lethal counter-personnel systems have demonstrated effectiveness in safely controlling crowds from as far as 1,000 yards away with millimeter wave radio frequency beams. And the Army’s Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) has destroyed rockets, artillery and mortars at tactically relevant ranges with rays of invisible light.
High-energy lasers are a promising technology for missile defense in the near future, according to Souder. Though solid-state lasers must be refueled because they generate the beam electrically, they avoid the supply chain associated with traditional ammunition. And although there is a dwell time for requirement for heat to build and destroy the target, the effect begins instantly when the laser is fired.
Souder explained overarching advantages of high energy lasers:
One of the greatest advantages of DE is the nearly instantaneous application of effects on a target – there is no fly-out time from decision to fire until the effect is applied. This can add command decision time—especially valuable in an air and missile defense engagement.
As long as the target can be maintained within line of sight of the emitter, it can be followed and lased—important for fast maneuvering missiles. Traditional kinetic energy weapons may maneuver once launched, but will eventually run out of momentum and/or propellant. The high-energy laser beam can follow the target as long as is necessary to defeat it. The accurate field of fire for a high-energy laser could be thousands of miles into space.
Government and industry collaboration on Directed Energy weapons and Hypersonic missile defense is vital to our national defense. The Space and Missile Defense Symposium provides a vital information and idea exchange that fuels public/private cooperation in achieving American innovation.
To learn more about these important topics and other advancing technologies, visit the SMD Symposium August 6-8 at the Von Braun Center. The exhibit hall is free and open to the public.
For more information about how you can join the team that solves hard problems, search here for open positions at INTUITIVE.
For more information:
Arlee Holmes
arlee.holmes@irtc-hq.com
(256)-922-9300