#defense advanced research projects agency

[sohaibsmart]

Amazon execs doubt Microsoft's quantum computing breakthrough

In This Story Final month, Microsoft (MSFT-1.51%) introduced that it created a brand new state of matter for its first quantum computing chip — a declare that Amazon (AMZN-1.15%) is reportedly not offered on. Trump freezes his 25% tariffs on Mexican imports for one month The identical day that Microsoft unveiled its Majorana 1 quantum computing chip, Amazon’s head of quantum applied sciences,…

[leapingmonkeys]

The ARPA Model: A Reading List

[jcmarchi]

Toward a code-breaking quantum computer

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/toward-a-code-breaking-quantum-computer/

Toward a code-breaking quantum computer

The most recent email you sent was likely encrypted using a tried-and-true method that relies on the idea that even the fastest computer would be unable to efficiently break a gigantic number into factors.

Quantum computers, on the other hand, promise to rapidly crack complex cryptographic systems that a classical computer might never be able to unravel. This promise is based on a quantum factoring algorithm proposed in 1994 by Peter Shor, who is now a professor at MIT.

But while researchers have taken great strides in the last 30 years, scientists have yet to build a quantum computer powerful enough to run Shor’s algorithm.

As some researchers work to build larger quantum computers, others have been trying to improve Shor’s algorithm so it could run on a smaller quantum circuit. About a year ago, New York University computer scientist Oded Regev proposed a major theoretical improvement. His algorithm could run faster, but the circuit would require more memory.

Building off those results, MIT researchers have proposed a best-of-both-worlds approach that combines the speed of Regev’s algorithm with the memory-efficiency of Shor’s. This new algorithm is as fast as Regev’s, requires fewer quantum building blocks known as qubits, and has a higher tolerance to quantum noise, which could make it more feasible to implement in practice.

In the long run, this new algorithm could inform the development of novel encryption methods that can withstand the code-breaking power of quantum computers.

“If large-scale quantum computers ever get built, then factoring is toast and we have to find something else to use for cryptography. But how real is this threat? Can we make quantum factoring practical? Our work could potentially bring us one step closer to a practical implementation,” says Vinod Vaikuntanathan, the Ford Foundation Professor of Engineering, a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and senior author of a paper describing the algorithm.

The paper’s lead author is Seyoon Ragavan, a graduate student in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The research will be presented at the 2024 International Cryptology Conference.

Cracking cryptography

To securely transmit messages over the internet, service providers like email clients and messaging apps typically rely on RSA, an encryption scheme invented by MIT researchers Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman in the 1970s (hence the name “RSA”). The system is based on the idea that factoring a 2,048-bit integer (a number with 617 digits) is too hard for a computer to do in a reasonable amount of time.

That idea was flipped on its head in 1994 when Shor, then working at Bell Labs, introduced an algorithm which proved that a quantum computer could factor quickly enough to break RSA cryptography.

“That was a turning point. But in 1994, nobody knew how to build a large enough quantum computer. And we’re still pretty far from there. Some people wonder if they will ever be built,” says Vaikuntanathan.

It is estimated that a quantum computer would need about 20 million qubits to run Shor’s algorithm. Right now, the largest quantum computers have around 1,100 qubits.

A quantum computer performs computations using quantum circuits, just like a classical computer uses classical circuits. Each quantum circuit is composed of a series of operations known as quantum gates. These quantum gates utilize qubits, which are the smallest building blocks of a quantum computer, to perform calculations.

But quantum gates introduce noise, so having fewer gates would improve a machine’s performance. Researchers have been striving to enhance Shor’s algorithm so it could be run on a smaller circuit with fewer quantum gates.

That is precisely what Regev did with the circuit he proposed a year ago.

“That was big news because it was the first real improvement to Shor’s circuit from 1994,” Vaikuntanathan says.

The quantum circuit Shor proposed has a size proportional to the square of the number being factored. That means if one were to factor a 2,048-bit integer, the circuit would need millions of gates.

Regev’s circuit requires significantly fewer quantum gates, but it needs many more qubits to provide enough memory. This presents a new problem.

“In a sense, some types of qubits are like apples or oranges. If you keep them around, they decay over time. You want to minimize the number of qubits you need to keep around,” explains Vaikuntanathan.

He heard Regev speak about his results at a workshop last August. At the end of his talk, Regev posed a question: Could someone improve his circuit so it needs fewer qubits? Vaikuntanathan and Ragavan took up that question.

Quantum ping-pong

To factor a very large number, a quantum circuit would need to run many times, performing operations that involve computing powers, like 2 to the power of 100.

But computing such large powers is costly and difficult to perform on a quantum computer, since quantum computers can only perform reversible operations. Squaring a number is not a reversible operation, so each time a number is squared, more quantum memory must be added to compute the next square.

The MIT researchers found a clever way to compute exponents using a series of Fibonacci numbers that requires simple multiplication, which is reversible, rather than squaring. Their method needs just two quantum memory units to compute any exponent.

“It is kind of like a ping-pong game, where we start with a number and then bounce back and forth, multiplying between two quantum memory registers,” Vaikuntanathan adds.

They also tackled the challenge of error correction. The circuits proposed by Shor and Regev require every quantum operation to be correct for their algorithm to work, Vaikuntanathan says. But error-free quantum gates would be infeasible on a real machine.

They overcame this problem using a technique to filter out corrupt results and only process the right ones.

The end-result is a circuit that is significantly more memory-efficient. Plus, their error correction technique would make the algorithm more practical to deploy.

“The authors resolve the two most important bottlenecks in the earlier quantum factoring algorithm. Although still not immediately practical, their work brings quantum factoring algorithms closer to reality,” adds Regev.

In the future, the researchers hope to make their algorithm even more efficient and, someday, use it to test factoring on a real quantum circuit.

“The elephant-in-the-room question after this work is: Does it actually bring us closer to breaking RSA cryptography? That is not clear just yet; these improvements currently only kick in when the integers are much larger than 2,048 bits. Can we push this algorithm and make it more feasible than Shor’s even for 2,048-bit integers?” says Ragavan.

This work is funded by an Akamai Presidential Fellowship, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Science Foundation, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, a Thornton Family Faculty Research Innovation Fellowship, and a Simons Investigator Award.

[reality-detective]

Here you have it folks!

Not Pfizer or Moderna, but the US government pioneered mRNA.  DARPA (US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) began investing in gene-encoded vaccines in 2012.

In other words, the military came up with the idea of messenger RNA vaccines, not Pfizer or Moderna.

"This is a military program."

[insert-witty-user-name-here]

One more thing, if you have capacity, please consider donating to advocacy organizations working to protect our rights.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on an already bad news day, progressive advocacy organizations have seen their funding slashed since the election.

Lots of folks know about big orgs like the ACLU, HRC, BLM, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, and Trevor Project. These are incredible orgs doing good work.

Here are some smaller national orgs that don’t always get attention but are doing important work and could use some extra money:

Arab American Institute

Asian Americans Advancing Justice| AAJC

Autistic Self Advocacy Network

Black Alliance for Just Immigration

Black Voters Matter

Equality Federation (specifically donate to your local chapter! Organization serving LGBTQ+ people)

Immigrant Defense Project

Lambda Legal (legal agency for LGBTQ+ individuals)

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

League of Conservation Voters (environmental protection organization)

Mexican American Legal Defense Fund

Advocates for Trans Equality

National Council of Jewish Women

National Disability Rights Network

National Immigration Law Center

National Women’s Law Center

Native American Rights Fund

REFORM alliance (justice reform organization)

Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice)

Sierra Club (environmental protection organization)

Advocacy organizations could really use your support to fight these upcoming attacks.

Where we saw an outpouring of rage and support in 2016 from big political donors, that sadly hasn’t happened this time.

Last, noting local organizations are always best to donate to though can be harder to find.

If you’ve got time, I’d do some research and type into a search engine your state or city+ issue you care about+ advocacy organization. Browse their website and social media and see if they fit your vibe!

Wait there are even more awesome orgs doing awesome work if you have a specific interest! Give these groups a follow.

American Atheists

American Humanist Association

CASA (specifically donate to your local chapter! Organization serving immigrants)

Common Cause (multi-issue)

GLSEN (formerly Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network)

Interfaith Alliance

Jewish Council for Public Affairs

LatinoJusticePRLDEF

League of Woman Voters (specifically your local chapter)

MomsRising (multi-issue, just moms who want to protect their families 🩷)

PGLAG (formerly Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)

Public Citizen (multi-issue)

Red, Wine, and Blue (group of moms who fight book bans locally)

Sikh Coalition

The Arc (organization that serves the disability community)

The Innocence Project (justice reform organization)

The Sentencing project (Justice reform organization)

Voto Latino

YWCA (specifically donate to your local chapter, organization that serves women)

Unite Against Book Bans

United We Dream (organization to protect DACA)

Union of Concerned Scientists (environmental protection)

Zinn Education Project (organization that supports an accurate teaching of history)

I hope this massive list also helps shed some light on how many brilliant people there are in this movement ready to fight for the rights of everyone.

Onwards. ❤️

[usafphantom2]

The F-16 Will Be Equipped with the AGM-158C LRASM

NAVAIR is looking to award a contract for the integration of the AGM-158C-1 Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) on the F-16.

Stefano D'Urso

F-16 LRASM

The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) released on Mar. 17, 2025, a presolicitation to negotiate a contract with Lockheed Martin for the integration and test support of the AGM-158C-1 Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) on the F-16. This development follows the recent news of a new contract to Lockheed Martin to increase the production of the JASSM (Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) and LRASM.

NAVAIR is looking to award a contract for the integration of the AGM-158C-1 Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) on the F-16.The AGM-158 production increaseThe LRASM

The notice mentions that NAVAIR “intends to enter into sole source negotiations and subsequently award a Cost-Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) Delivery Order (DO) to Lockheed Martin Corporation-Missiles Fire Control.” Also, the notice mentions that the “requirement includes testing both the AGM-158C-1 Legacy and UAI interfaces.”

The UAI, or Universal Armament Interface, is the result of a U.S. Department of Defense program to develop standardized functional interfaces in both aircraft and weapons to support a rapid integration of new weapons independent of an aircraft’s Operational Flight Program (OFP) cycles. The F-16 and JASSM were already tested with the new interface.

NAVAIR has not released additional details about the integration of LRASM on the F-16 at this time, although we might have more info after the response day planned for Apr. 1. Earlier this month, Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Pax River Integrated Test Force (ITF) disclosed that the F-35B Lightning II started flight testing as part of the integration with LRASM.

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Peter Giesige and Airman 1st Class Brian Bowser, both weapons specialists assigned to the Ohio National Guard’s 180th Fighter Wing, and Staff Sgt. Katelyn Barrow, a munitions specialist also assigned to the 180FW, successfully load a JASSM AGM-158 on to a F-16 Fighting Falcon during an Agile Combat Employment stress test in Swanton, Ohio, Sept. 12, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Camren Ray)

The AGM-158 production increase

On Mar. 14, 2025, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control has been awarded a $122,6 million contract modification to the original production increase’s contract awarded in 2018. As part of the contract, the company will “procure tooling and test equipment needed to increase production quantities of Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile.”

Lockheed Martin has been investing in the increase of the AGM-158’s production since 2022, when it added a new 225,000-square-foot factory to its existing production facilities. In 2024, another contract modification was awarded to “enable the ability to increase annual production quantities by providing additional resources for long-lead procurements and facilitating production line efficiencies.”

In the fiscal year 2025 budget the U.S. Air Force requested 550 JASSMs, after the same number was also requested in 2024 and 600 were requested in 2023. The Air Force budget requested for its own and the Navy’s stocks 115 LRASMs in FY2025, 27 in FY2024 and 57 in FY2023.

An F-35 Lightning II test pilot conducts flight test Sept. 9 to certify the carrier variant of the fighter aircraft for carrying the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). (Image credit: Dane Wiedmann).

The LRASM

The AGM-158C LRASM, based on the AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile – Extended Range (JASSM-ER), is the new low-observable anti-ship cruise missile developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. NAVAIR describes the weapon as a defined near-term solution for the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) air-launch capability gap that will provide flexible, long-range, advanced, anti-surface capability against high-threat maritime targets.

NAVAIR says the weapon reduces dependency on Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, network links, and GPS navigation in electronic warfare environments. In fact, once launched, LRASM guides to an initial point using a GPS guidance system and employs onboard sensors to locate, identify, and provide terminal guidance to the target. Semi-autonomous guidance algorithms will allow it to use less-precise target cueing data to pinpoint specific targets in the contested domain.

There are currently three variants which comprise the OASuW Increment 1 program, designated LRASM 1.0, LRASM 1.1, and LRASM C-3. The LRASM 1.0 variant, which was fielded with early operational capability in 2019, has already been integrated on the B-1B Lancer and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

An F-35 Lightning II test pilot conducts the first flight test to certify the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing variant of the fighter aircraft for carrying the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). (Image credit: Kyra Helwick)

The newer LRASM 1.1 variant was fielded in 2023 and is undergoing Initial Operational Test & Evaluation, according to the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation’s report. The weapon is also being integrated on the P-8A Poseidon, with the activities expected to be completed by Summer 2024, although no updates about the status were released.

As for the future LRASM C-3, which adds extended range capability, the program planned a land strike capability was part of the LRASM C-3 upgrade but has since decided to remain focused on surface warfare capabilities. The missile concept of operations and system requirements were completed last year, focusing on anti-surface warfare employment range and updating the missile target threat library compared to LRASM 1.1.

The Navy has scheduled LRASM C-3 early operational capability (EOC) for 4QFY26. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense continues to plan for OASuW Increment 2 to be developed via full and open competition, with EOC anticipated in FY29 and initial operational capability anticipated in FY31. The Navy funded LRASM C-3 to bridge the gap until an OASuW Increment 2 program of record is established.

LRASM

File photo of an F/A-18F Super Hornet launching an AGM-158C LRASM during a test event in 2019. (Photo: NAVAIR)

In January 2025, NAVAIR disclosed that the U.S. Air Force’s F-15E Strike Eagle and F-15EX Eagle IIs are now set to be armed with the LRASM. Similarly to the F-16, the F-15E/EX has already been tested with the similar JASSM and the UAI.

In September 2024, an F-35C test aircraft from Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Maryland, conducted the first test flights for the integration of the AGM-158, both in the JASSM and LRASM variants. In January 2025, the same testing was also conducted with the F-35B.

@TheAviationist.com

[darkmaga-returns]

Catch Up Quick:

The tech was described in a DARPA-funded March 2022 paper authored by researchers from Columbia University, MIT, and George Mason University.

Patent filings confirm Columbia submitted the invention to the U.S. patent system before publishing the study. A U.S. provisional patent was filed on September 29, 2021, followed by an international patent application (PCT/US2022/077135) on September 28, 2022.

The patent (WO2023/107765) is active as of March 2025.

Named inventors on the patent are the same as the lead authors on the paper: Samuel Sia, Rachel D. Field, and Margaret A. Jakus.

The patent states: “This invention was made with government support under D20AC00004 awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The government has certain rights in the invention.”

How It Works: The microcapsules are made from a dual-layer hydrogel:

Inner core: High molecular weight dextran mixed with drug payloads.

Outer shell: PEGDA (polyethylene glycol diacrylate), a material that resists premature leakage.

When focused ultrasound (FUS) is applied, it causes inertial cavitation—the collapse of microscopic bubbles—which breaks down the capsule and releases the contents.

The authors wrote: “The amount released by the microcapsule is tunable depending on the applied FUS parameters, which allows for real-time dosage control.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ben Makuch at The Guardian:

Donald Trump’s administration has ended funding for a slew of counter-terrorism research projects, in a move experts say will hinder future law enforcement abilities to predict and prevent attacks on the public, especially from the far right. The cuts, affecting multiple agencies and departments, come after the US president granted “unconditional” pardons to about 1,500 people involved in the January 6 attacks on Capitol Hill and the appointment of the Trump ultra-loyalist Kash Patel to the helm of the FBI. The National Institute of Justice has now scuppered its research into improving the “understanding of radicalization to violent extremism” in local communities. The Department of Defense has also followed up the recent deletion of its social sciences-focused Minerva program by culling $30m in annual funding for academic studies focusing on extremism, disinformation and other subjects. Then, last week, the University of Maryland announced that its invaluable dataset tracking hate crimes, antisemitism, domestic terrorist attacks and school shootings was also being defunded by the Department of Homeland Security. So far, the broader academic counter-terrorism and national security community has been voicing its shock at the vast scale of cuts as this reimagining of counter-terrorism strategies undermines Trump’s own promises of ending stateside terrorism. “NIJ, Minerva, and now DHS. Terrorism research portfolios gone,” wrote John Horgan, a professor at Georgia State University who worked with DHS, in a LinkedIn post. “Just wiped out.” Horgan continued: “Years of progress, years of partnerships, years of producing actionable knowledge to make communities safer just down the toilet.” In response to Horgan, one of DHS’s own social scientists at its Science and Technology directorate offered his condolences and confirmed the benefits of scholars’ research that had helped the government in “advancing our understanding of human behavior and psychology as it impacts terrorism and targeted violence”. [...] On-the-ground policing has also sharply pivoted since Trump reassumed the presidency. Multiple sources familiar with FBI investigations into domestic terrorism say the agency is reassigning agents to focus on Latin American street gangs, border taskforces and leftwing radical groups, rather than the far right. Publicly, for example, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, has promised counter-terrorism resources to combat the vandalism of Tesla cars and dealerships.

The cuts to counter-terrorism efforts by the Trump Regime will hurt the fight against the far-right.

[unwelcome-ozian]

Scientists Gingerly Tap into Brain's Power From: USA Today - 10/11/04 - page 1B By: Kevin Maney

Scientists are developing technologies that read brainwave signals and translate them into actions, which could lead to neural prosthetics, among other things. Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems' Braingate is an example of such technology: Braingate has already been deployed in a quadriplegic, allowing him to control a television, open email, and play the computer game Pong using sensors implanted into his brain that feed into a computer. Although "On Intelligence" author Jeff Hawkins praises the Braingate trials as a solid step forward, he cautions that "Hooking your brain up to a machine in a way that the two could communicate rapidly and accurately is still science fiction." Braingate was inspired by research conducted at Brown University by Cyberkinetics founder John Donoghue, who implanted sensors in primate brains that picked up signals as the animals played a computer game by manipulating a mouse; the sensors fed into a computer that looked for patterns in the signals, which were then translated into mathematical models by the research team. Once the computer was trained on these models, the mouse was eliminated from the equation and the monkeys played the game by thought alone. The Braingate interface consists of 100 sensors attached to a contact lens-sized chip that is pressed into the surface of the cerebral cortex; the device can listen to as many as 100 neurons simultaneously, and the readings travel from the chip to a computer through wires. Meanwhile, Duke University researchers have also implanted sensors in primate brains to enable neural control of robotic limbs. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) is pursuing a less invasive solution by funding research into brain machine interfaces that can read neural signals externally, for such potential applications as thought-controlled flight systems. Practical implementations will not become a reality until the technology is sufficiently cheap, small, and wireless, and then ethical and societal issues must be addressed. Source

[progressivemillennial]

Project 2025 Revisited, Part 2: Notable Quotes

As noted in Part 1, I spent time in November reviewing Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership and compiled a summary and quotes for my community. My hope is to share this information now to help make sense of the Trump presidency so far and to help us understand what might be coming in the future.

Many have credulously believed that Donald Trump did not know about Project 2025. What I'm hoping to convey with today's and tomorrow's quotes is that, regardless of what Trump knew or didn't know, we can see in the administration's actions a clear connection to many of the priorities of the Mandate for Leadership. This makes sense because the Trump administration is ideologically aligned with many of the folks and organizations who contributed to Project 2025.

Without further ado, please find below a selection of quotes from the Mandate for Leadership, bold text added by me for emphasis:

Administrative State 1. "When it comes to ensuring that freedom can flourish, nothing is more important than deconstructing the centralized administrative state."

Public Education 1. "The new Administration must end the prior Administration’s abuse of the agency’s payment pause and HEA loan forgiveness programs, including borrower defense to repayment, closed school discharge, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness."

2. "Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated."

Race 1. “Treat the participation in any critical race theory or DEI initiative, without objecting on constitutional or moral grounds, as per se grounds for termination of employment.”

Climate Change 1. “Climate-change research should be disbanded. … The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be broken up and downsized. … [The Office of Air and Radiation] … is the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism.”

Multiple Topics 1. "The noxious tenets of 'critical race theory' and 'gender ideology' should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country."

2. "The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."

3. "Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered."

4. “The next Administration will face a significant challenge in unwinding policies and procedures that are used to advance radical gender, racial, and equity initiatives under the banner of science. Similarly, the Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding.”

5. “No public education employee or contractor shall use a name to address a student other than the name listed on a student’s birth certificate, without the written permission of a student’s parents or guardians. No public education employee or contractor shall use a pronoun in addressing a student that is different from that student’s biological sex without the written permission of a student’s parents or guardians. No public institution may require an education employee or contractor to use a pronoun that does not match a person’s biological sex if contrary to the employee’s or contractor’s religious or moral convictions.”

6. “Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society. … The male–female dyad is essential to human nature and … every child has a right to a mother and father.”  

[mariacallous]

On October 10, 2018, Tyndall Air Force Base on the Gulf of Mexico—a pillar of American air superiority—found itself under aerial attack. Hurricane Michael, first spotted as a Category 2 storm off the Florida coast, unexpectedly hulked up to a Category 5. Sustained winds of 155 miles per hour whipped into the base, flinging power poles, flipping F-22s, and totaling more than 200 buildings. The sole saving grace: Despite sitting on a peninsula, Tyndall avoided flood damage. Michael’s 9-to-14-foot storm surge swamped other parts of Florida. Tyndall’s main defense was luck.

That $5 billion disaster at Tyndall was just one of a mounting number of extreme-weather events that convinced the US Department of Defense that it needed new ideas to protect the 1,700 coastal bases it’s responsible for globally. As hurricanes Helene and Milton have just shown, beachfront residents face compounding threats from climate change, and the Pentagon is no exception. Rising oceans are chewing away the shore. Stronger storms are more capable of flooding land.

In response, Tyndall will later this month test a new way to protect shorelines from intensified waves and storm surges: a prototype artificial reef, designed by a team led by Rutgers University scientists. The 50-meter-wide array, made up of three chevron-shaped structures each weighing about 46,000 pounds, can take 70 percent of the oomph out of waves, according to tests. But this isn’t your grandaddy’s seawall. It’s specifically designed to be colonized by oysters, some of nature’s most effective wave-killers.

If researchers can optimize these creatures to work in tandem with new artificial structures placed at sea, they believe the resulting barriers can take 90 percent of the energy out of waves. David Bushek, who directs the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory at Rutgers, swears he’s not hoping for a megastorm to come and show what his team’s unit is made of. But he’s not not hoping for one. “Models are always imperfect. They’re always a replica of something,” he says. “They’re not the real thing.”

The project is one of three being developed under a $67.6 million program launched by the US government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa. Cheekily called Reefense, the initiative is the Pentagon’s effort to test if “hybrid” reefs, combining manmade structures with oysters or corals, can perform as well as a good ol’ seawall. Darpa chose three research teams, all led by US universities, in 2022. After two years of intensive research and development, their prototypes are starting to go into the water, with Rutgers’ first up.

Today, the Pentagon protects its coastal assets much as civilians do: by hardening them. Common approaches involve armoring the shore with retaining walls or arranging heavy objects, like rocks or concrete blocks, in long rows. But hardscape structures come with tradeoffs. They deflect rather than absorb wave energy, so protecting one’s own shoreline means exposing someone else’s. They’re also static: As sea levels rise and storms get stronger, it’s getting easier for water to surmount these structures. This wears them down faster and demands constant, expensive repairs.

In recent decades, a new idea has emerged: using nature as infrastructure. Restoring coastal habitats like marshes and mangroves, it turns out, helps hold off waves and storms. “Instead of armoring, you’re using nature’s natural capacity to absorb wave energy,” says Donna Marie Bilkovic, a professor at the Virginia Institute for Marine Science. Darpa is particularly interested in two creatures whose numbers have been decimated by humans but which are terrific wave-breakers when allowed to thrive: oysters and corals.

Oysters are effective wave-killers because of how they grow. The bivalves pile onto each other in large, sturdy mounds. The resulting structure, unlike a smooth seawall, is replete with nooks, crannies, and convolutions. When a wave strikes, its energy gets diffused into these gaps, and further spent on the jagged, complex surfaces of the oysters. Also unlike a seawall, an oyster wall can grow. Oysters have been shown to be capable of building vertically at a rate that matches sea-level rise—which suggests they’ll retain some protective value against higher tides and stronger storms.

Today hundreds of human-tended oyster reefs, particularly on America’s Atlantic coast, use these principles to protect the shore. They take diverse approaches; some look much like natural reefs, while others have an artificial component. Some cultivate oysters for food, with coastal protection a nice co-benefit; others are built specifically to preserve shorelines. What’s missing amid all this experimentation, says Bilkovic, is systematic performance data—the kind that could validate which approaches are most effective and cost-effective. “Right now the innovation is outpacing the science,” she says. “We need to have some type of systematic monitoring of projects, so we can better understand where the techniques work the best. There just isn’t funding, frankly.”

Rather than wait for the data needed to engineer the perfect reef, Darpa wants to rapidly innovate them through a burst of R&D. Reefense has given awardees five years to deploy hybrid reefs that take up to 90 percent of the energy out of waves, without costing significantly more than traditional solutions. The manmade component should block waves immediately. But it should be quickly enhanced by organisms that build, in months or years, a living structure that would take nature decades.

The Rutgers team has built its prototype out of 788 interlocked concrete modules, each 2 feet wide and ranging in height from 1 to 2 feet tall. They have a scalloped appearance, with shelves jutting in all directions. Internally, all these shelves are connected by holes.

What this means is that when a wave strikes this structure, it smashes into the internal geometry, swirls around, and exits with less energy. This effect alone weakens the wave by 70 percent, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers, which tested a scale model in a wave simulator in Mississippi. But the effect should only improve as oysters colonize the structure. Bushek and his team have tried to design the shelves with the right hardness, texture, and shading to entice them.

But the reef’s value would be diminished if, say, disease were to wipe the mollusks out. This is why Darpa has tasked Rutgers with also engineering oysters resistant to dermo, a protozoan that’s dogged Atlantic oysters for decades. Darpa prohibited them using genetic-modification techniques. But thanks to recent advances in genomics, the Rutgers team can rapidly identify individual oysters with disease-resistant traits. It exposes these oysters to dermo in a lab, and crossbreeds the survivors, producing hardier mollusks. Traditionally it takes about three years to breed a generation of oysters for better disease resistance; Bushek says his team has done it in one.

Oysters may suit the DoD’s needs in temperate waters, but for bases in tropical climates, it’s coral that builds the best seawalls. Hawaii, for instance, enjoys the protection of “fringing” coral reefs that extend offshore for hundreds of yards in a gentle slope along the seabed. The colossal, complex, and porous character of this surface exhausts wave energy over long distances, says Ben Jones, an oceanographer for the Applied Research Laboratory at the University of Hawaii—and head of the university’s Reefense project. He said it’s not unusual to see ocean swells of 6 to 8 feet way offshore, while the water at the seashore laps gently.

Inspired by this effect, Jones and a team of researchers are designing an array that they’ll deploy near a US Marine Corps base in Oahu whose shoreline is rapidly receding. While the final design isn’t set yet, the broad strokes are: It will feature two 50-meter-wide barriers laid in rows, backed by 20 pyramid-like obstacles. All of these are hollow, thin-walled structures with sloping profiles and lots of big holes. Waves that crash into them will lose energy by crawling up the sides, but two design aspects of the structure—the width of the holes and the thinness of the walls—will generate turbulence in the water, causing it to spin off more energy as heat.

In the team’s full vision, the units are bolstered by about a thousand small coral colonies. Jones’ group plans to cover the structures with concrete modules that are about 20 inches in diameter. These have grooves and crevices that offer perfect shelters for coral larvae. The team will initially implant them with lab-bred coral. But they’re also experimenting with enticements, like light and sound, that help attract coral larvae from the wild—the better to build a wall that nature, not the Pentagon, will tend.

A third Reefense team, led by scientists at the University of Miami, takes its inspiration from a different sort of coral. Its design has a three-tiered structure. The foundation is made of long, hexagonal logs punctured with large holes; atop it is a dense layer with smaller holes—“imagine a sponge made of concrete,” says Andrew Baker, director of the university’s Coral Reef Futures Lab and the Reefense team lead.

The team thinks these artificial components will soak up plenty of wave energy—but it’s a crest of elkhorn coral at the top that will finish the job. Native to Florida, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean, elkhorn like to build dense reefs in shallow-water areas with high-intensity waves. They don’t mind getting whacked by water because it helps them harvest food; this whacking keeps wave energy from getting to shore.

Disease has ravaged Florida’s elkhorn populations in recent decades, and now ocean heat waves are dealing further damage. But their critical condition has also motivated policymakers to pursue options to save this iconic state species—including Baker’s, which is to develop an elkhorn more rugged against disease, higher temperatures, and nastier waves. Under Reefense, Baker says, his lab has developed elkhorn with 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius more heat tolerance than their ancestors. They also claim to have boosted the heat thresholds of symbiotic algae—an existentially important occupant of any healthy reef—and cross-bred local elkhorn with those from Honduras, where reefs have mysteriously withstood scorching waters.

An unexpected permitting issue, though, will force the Miami team to exit Reefense in 2025, without building the test unit it hoped to deploy near a Florida naval base. The federal permitting authority wanted a pot of money set aside to uninstall the structure if needed; Darpa felt it couldn’t do that in a timely way, according to Baker. (Darpa told WIRED every Reefense project has unique permitting challenges, so the Miami team’s fate doesn’t necessarily speak to anything broader. Representatives for the other two Reefense projects said Baker’s issue hasn’t come up for them.)

Though his team’s work with Reefense is coming to a premature end, Baker says, he’s confident their innovations will get deployed elsewhere. He’s been working with Key Biscayne, an island village near Miami whose shorelines have been chewed up by storms. Roland Samimy, the village’s chief resilience and sustainability officer, says they spend millions of dollars every few years importing sand for their rapidly receding beaches. He’s eager to see if a hybrid structure, like the University of Miami design, could offer protection at far lower cost. “People are realizing their manmade structures aren’t as resilient as nature is,” he says.

By no means is Darpa the only one experimenting in these areas. Around the world, there are efforts tackling various pieces of the puzzle, like breeding coral for greater heat resistance, or combining coral and oysters with artificial reefs, or designing low-carbon concrete that makes building these structures less environmentally damaging. Bilkovic, of the Virginia Institute for Marine Science, says Reefense will be a success if it demonstrates better ways of doing things than the prevailing methods—and has the data to back this up. “I’m looking forward to seeing what their findings are,” she says. “They’re systematically assessing the effectiveness of the project. Those lessons learned can be translated to other areas, and if the techniques are effective and work well, they can easily be translated to other regions.”

As for Darpa, though the Reefense prototypes are just starting to go in the water, the work is just beginning. All of these first-generation units will be scrutinized—both by the research teams and independent government auditors—to see whether their real-world performance matches what was in the models. Reefense is scheduled to conclude with a final report to the DoD in 2027. It won’t have a “winner” per se; as the Pentagon has bases around the world, it’s likely these three projects will all produce learnings that are relevant elsewhere.

Although their client has the largest military budget in the world, the three Reefense teams have been asked to keep an eye on the economics. Darpa has asked that project costs “not greatly exceed” those of conventional solutions, and tasked government monitors with checking the teams’ math. Catherine Campbell, Reefense’s program manager at Darpa, says affordability doesn’t just make it more likely the Pentagon will employ the technology—but that civilians can, too.

“This isn’t something bespoke for the military … we need to be in line with those kinds of cost metrics [in the civilian sector],” Campbell said in an email. “And that gives it potential for commercialization.”

[anarkissm]

in ancient japan, onmyōji (literally: yin-and-yang master) were one of the official positions belonging to the Bureau of Onmyō of the Ministry of the Center under the ritsuryō system during the middle ages, and was assigned as a technical officer in charge of divination, geomorphology and spiritism based on the theory of the yin-and-yang five phases. in the 21st century, the onmyōji does not officially exist within japan's government. however, the Bureau of Onmyō (BOO) is "unofficially" an active agency within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in a joint program with the Japan Ministry of Defense (JMOD). the bureau was earnestly revived and modernized during the cold war, prompted by the serious research into mind-control, parapsychology and extrasensory psionic perceptions by the CIA's Gateway Process, MKUltra, Project STARGATE, and the DIA's Project SUN STREAK. when arella returned to japan with rachel, BOO was made fully aware of her existence as an interdimensional hybrid, an offspring of the multidimensional overlord trigon, and her role as a living portal (interdimensional nexus) from trigon's universe(s) to earth. she has a classified file within BOO's database of highly dangerous metahumans, para-natural entities, and omnidimensional beings. other intelligence agencies such as the CIA, MI6, and china's MSS are also incentivized to monitor her history and current activities, given the destructive nature of her existence. when she was karasuno rin, at the behest of her mother, an official onmyōji from BOO was assigned to train her in yin-and-yang mastery, as well as various other techniques in parapsychology, psionic warfare, and western occultism. reinforced by the onmyōji's taoist teachings, zen buddhism played a vital role in maintaining control of mera-trogun-hem, and protecting herself against psychic soldiers from various government agencies ("ghosts," "spooks"), aetheric revenants, and psychic pirates; from earth's reality and the multiple realities parallel to it within the aetheric field.

rachel's yin-and-yang training began at 8 years of age, physically took place in the temple of eternal peace in fujuku, japan, and lasted 6 years, meditating and studying for thousands of hours. but it also took place within the aetheric field, or akasha, in an immaterial dimension of pure thought that may be likened to dreaming. through deep meditation (and even in her sleep), she trained with an onmyōdō master for several "centuries" in a paracosm projected by her soul-self, as linear time and material decay were not natural phenomenons within the mindstream. after trigon's cult operatives attacked her home, rachel fled japan to tibet, where she spent the next ten years of her life. then europe, and, finally, north america. travel expenses were primarily funded by the u.s. federal agency known as Advanced Research Group Uniting Superhumans (ARGUS). ARGUS classifies rachel as a "supernatural doomsday device," and she is neither the first or the last within this class of metahumans: powerful psychics whom were deified as gods, goddesses and divinely-ordained rulers in humanity's ancient past. however, in the 21st century, ruled by modernity and western sciences, a living deity is considered a "psychic bomb" and extremely dangerous. fortunately for ARGUS, rachel is fully aware that all of life in the universe is in constant danger of trigon's wrath, because of her. this is apparent in her desperation, allowing herself to work with the u.s. government, which was incentivized to "protect" rachel in an effort to prevent trigon from entering their reality and conquering everything. love and hate. joy and suffering. pleasure and violence. all a part of this transient illusion called life. that was what her teachers had taught her. everything on earth is temporary, impermanent. acknowledge it. accept it. let it go. rachel respectfully disagreed. the calming platitudes of monks could not negate her own reality, and the reality of billions of innocent lives. she was the living gateway to a personified evil the likes of which their universe can only imagine. her desperation to prevent trigon's arrival forced her to seek aid from amanda waller's ARGUS agency and various allied "superhero" organizations. relying on the western empire's motivations to protect their interests, capital and world-dominating power on earth. she trusted that their stubborn, power-hungry individualism would actually be a match against trigon's bloodthirst. fight fire with fire. through the Justice League of America (JLA), she was assigned to the titans. her "destiny" remained classified. her code name, the raven, was given to her by ascended mystics who visited her telepathically during her stay in tibet. this is because her "soul-self," completely separate from mera-trogun-hem and comprised of pure intuition, is often revealed in the form of a dark, massive bird resembling a raven. known as the "subtle body" in buddhism and the "astral body" in new age spiritism, raven's soul-self is the driving force of her humanity, capable of traveling through realms that exist between realities and outside of space-time. rachel's body and soul are not always in the same place, existing in a state of psionic superposition, simultaneously on earth and the "spirit worlds" or parallel realities connected to their material world.

[stevebattle]

Ariel (1996) by IS Robotics (iRobot), Somerville, MA. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Office of Naval Research contracted IS Robotics to develop a minesweeping robot to work underwater, where legs, not wheels, are an advantage. They studied the way ghost crabs walk in surf zones despite the pull of tides and currents. It has one advantage over crabs, its flexible legs allow it to walk even if it gets turned upside down. “Just below the surface of a reservoir outside Boston, robot Ariel walks sideways like the crab it is patterned on. A machine with a serious purpose, it is designed to scuttle from the shore through the surf to search for mines on the ocean floor. Ariel was funded by the Defense Advanced research Projects Agency and built by iRobot, a company founded by MIT robot guru Rodney Brooks. Inspired by research on crabs at Robert Full's lab at Berkeley, Ariel takes advantage of the animal's stability - and improves on it. Unlike real crabs, which must struggle to right themselves if a wave flips them on their backs, the robot simply reorients itself and keeps walking with its body upside down. But despite its abilities, the technician in charge of the machine, Ed Williams, supervises Ariel's excursions with great anxiety - the machine still gets stuck when it encounters big rocks. "Robots can't do much now," he says, philosophically, "but airplanes couldn't do much in 1910.” ” – Robo Sapiens, by Peter Menzel, and Faith D'Aluisio.

[reality-detective]

This 👆 should really piss you off about our corrupt government.

D.A.R.P.A. - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 👇

DARPA has been involved in a lot.

They are involved with a lot of other corrupt companies.

And this 👆 Moderna's death jab.

Their budget is in the billions annually and was formed in 1958. I AM sure the Rabbit 🐇 Hole 🕳️ goes much deeper than the samples I'm showing here. 🤔

[jbfly46]

Project PANDORA & BIZARRE: The U.S. Government’s Goal to Control Minds Using Electromagnetic Waves

This is VERY IMPORTANT history and context that you NEED to understand, it will give you an idea for how advanced these technologies likely are now....

Researchers discovered that microwaves could be used to transmit sounds directly into a person’s brain, without the need for any external speakers or devices. Essentially, by modulating microwave frequencies, they could make someone hear voices in their head.

In the murky depths of Cold War secrecy, the U.S. government launched some of its most exotic and controversial experiments, including efforts to harness electromagnetic radiation as a tool for mind control. What started as a response to Soviet-directed microwave beams at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow evolved into a highly classified project called Project PANDORA, and its even more enigmatic subproject, Project BIZARRE.

It all began with what became known as the Moscow Signal. In the 1950s and 60s, U.S. intelligence discovered that the Soviets were beaming low-intensity microwave radiation at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. This wasn’t just a harmless background signal, it was deliberate, sustained, and seemingly designed to affect embassy personnel. American officials were concerned that the Soviets had developed a way to influence human behaviour using microwaves.

This mystery prompted the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to launch Project PANDORA in 1965, a secretive research effort to investigate the effects of microwave radiation on human beings. The most bizarre and advanced discovery under Project PANDORA was something called the Microwave Auditory Effect, also known as the Frey Effect (named after Dr. Allan H. Frey, who first documented it).

Here’s where things get weird(er)

Researchers discovered that microwaves could be used to transmit sounds directly into a person’s brain, without the need for any external speakers or devices. Essentially, by modulating microwave frequencies, they could make someone hear voices in their head. This wasn’t science fiction. It was proven in experiments.

In one such experiment, Dr. Joseph C. Sharp, a researcher at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, successfully transmitted spoken words into his own brain using microwaves. He reported hearing the words “loud and clear” in his head, despite no external sound source being present.

This discovery paved the way for what’s now known as “Voice-to-Skull” (V2K) technology, a covert communication method that beams voices directly into a person’s mind.

The potential applications of the Microwave Auditory Effect:

Covert Communication

Secret messages could be sent directly into someone’s mind without detection.

Psychological Warfare

Enemies could be bombarded with voices in their heads, causing confusion or mental breakdowns.

Behaviour Modification

The possibility of using microwave signals to influence thoughts and emotions was explored.

One of the most classified aspects of Project PANDORA was Project BIZARRE, a subproject focused specifically on the effects of microwave radiation on behaviour. The goal? To determine whether microwaves could be used to disrupt a person’s central nervous system and influence their behaviour.

Here’s what we know:

• Rhesus monkeys were subjected to microwave radiation to observe changes in their cognitive functions and behaviour.

• Researchers noted that exposure to certain frequencies impaired the monkeys’ ability to perform simple tasks, suggesting that microwave exposure could disrupt cognitive processes.

The classified nature of Project BIZARRE meant that much of what was discovered remains shrouded in secrecy. However, what we do know is that the potential for using microwave radiation as a psychological weapon was taken seriously.

Another wild subproject within Project PANDORA focused on the concept of brainwave entrainment. The idea was that electromagnetic fields could be used to synchronise a person’s brainwaves to specific frequencies, thereby altering their mental state.

This concept became the basis for research into remote behaviour modification.

What Is Brainwave Entrainment?

• The human brain operates at specific frequencies (measured in Hertz), depending on a person’s mental state.

• By exposing a person to specific EM frequencies, researchers believed they could induce certain emotional or cognitive states—such as calmness, confusion, or even fear.

• This could potentially be used to amplify suggestibility, making targets more susceptible to influence or control.

In practical terms, brainwave entrainment could be a powerful tool for mind control. If you could remotely alter someone’s mental state, you could potentially manipulate their behaviour without them even realising it.

Ultimately, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies wanted to know: Could microwave radiation be weaponised? The answer was yes, it could. There was serious discussion about developing a “psychotronic weapon” a device that could remotely influence a person’s mind or behaviour using electromagnetic fields.

These weapons could:

• Cause confusion, disorientation, or mental breakdowns in enemy personnel.

• Beam voices into the heads of targets to destabilise them psychologically.

• Disrupt cognitive processes to impair decision-making abilities.

While Project PANDORA officially ended in the 1970s, its discoveries laid the groundwork for ongoing research into electromagnetic mind control, directed energy weapons, and covert communication technologies.

The “Voice-to-Skull” (V2K) technology has certainly been refined and is still in use today by intelligence agencies and military operations.

[usafphantom2]

B-2 Stealth Bomber Demoes QUICKSINK Low Cost Maritime Strike Capability During RIMPAC 2024

The U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit carried out a QUICKSINK demonstration during the second SINKEX (Sinking Exercise) of RIMPAC 2024. This marks the very first time a B-2 Spirit has been publicly reported to test this anti-ship capability.

David Cenciotti

B-2 QUICKSINK

File photo of a B-2 Spirit (Image credit: Howard German / The Aviationist)

RIMPAC 2024, the 29th in the series since 1971, sees the involvement of 29 nations, 40 surface ships, three submarines, 14 national land forces, over 150 aircraft, and 25,000 personnel. During the drills, two long-planned live-fire sinking exercises (SINKEXs) led to the sinking of two decommissioned ships: USS Dubuque (LPD 8), sunk on July 11, 2024; and the USS Tarawa (LHA 1), sunk on July 19. Both were sunk in waters 15,000 feet deep, located over 50 nautical miles off the northern coast of Kauai, Hawaii.

SINKEXs are training exercises in which decommissioned naval vessels are used as targets. These exercises allow participating forces to practice and demonstrate their capabilities in live-fire scenarios providing a unique and realistic training environment that cannot be replicated through simulations or other training methods.

RIMPAC 2024’s SINKEXs allowed units from Australia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, South Korea, and various U.S. military branches, including the Air Force, Army, and Navy, to enhance their skills and tactics as well as validate targeting, and live firing capabilities against surface ships at sea. They also helped improve the ability of partner nations to plan, communicate, and execute complex maritime operations, including precision and long-range strikes.

LRASM

During the sinking of the ex-Tarawa, a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet deployed a Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM). This advanced, stealthy cruise missile offers multi-service, multi-platform, and multi-mission capabilities for offensive anti-surface warfare and is currently deployed from U.S. Navy F/A-18 and U.S. Air Force B-1B aircraft.

The AGM-158C LRASM, based on the AGM-158B Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile – Extended Range (JASSM-ER), is the new low-observable anti-ship cruise missile developed by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy. NAVAIR describes the weapon as a defined near-term solution for the Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) air-launch capability gap that will provide flexible, long-range, advanced, anti-surface capability against high-threat maritime targets.

QUICKSINK

Remarkably, in a collaborative effort with the U.S. Navy, a U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber also took part in the second SINKEX, demonstrating a low-cost, air-delivered method for neutralizing surface vessels using the QUICKSINK. Funded by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, the QUICKSINK experiment aims to provide cost-effective solutions to quickly neutralize maritime threats over vast ocean areas, showcasing the flexibility of the joint force.

The Quicksink initiative, in collaboration with the U.S. Navy, is designed to offer innovative solutions for swiftly neutralizing stationary or moving maritime targets at a low cost, showcasing the adaptability of joint military operations for future combat scenarios. “Quicksink is distinctive as it brings new capabilities to both current and future Department of Defense weapon systems, offering combatant commanders and national leaders fresh methods to counter maritime threats,” explained Kirk Herzog, the program manager at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

Traditionally, enemy ships are targeted using submarine-launched heavyweight torpedoes, which, while effective, come with high costs and limited deployment capabilities among naval assets. “Heavyweight torpedoes are efficient at sinking large ships but are expensive and deployed by a limited number of naval platforms,” stated Maj. Andrew Swanson, division chief of Advanced Programs at the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron. “Quicksink provides a cost-effective and agile alternative that could be used by a majority of Air Force combat aircraft, thereby expanding the options available to combatant commanders and warfighters.”

Regarding weapon guidance, the QUICKSINK kit combines a GBU-31/B Joint Direct Attack Munition’s existing GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance in the tail with a new radar seeker installed on the nose combined with an IIR (Imaging Infra-Red) camera mounted in a fairing on the side. When released, the bomb uses the standard JDAM kit to glide to the target area and the seeker/camera to lock on the ship. Once lock on is achieved, the guidance system directs the bomb to detonate near the hull below the waterline.

Previous QUICKSINK demonstrations in 2021 and 2022 featured F-15E Strike Eagles deploying modified 2,000-pound GBU-31 JDAMs. This marks the very first time a B-2 Spirit has been publicly reported to test this anti-ship capability. Considering a B-2 can carry up to 16 GBU-31 JDAMs, this highlights the significant anti-surface firepower a single stealth bomber can bring to a maritime conflict scenario.

Quicksink

F-15E Strike Eagle at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. with modified 2,000-pound GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions as part of the second test in the QUICKSINK Joint Capability Technology Demonstration on April 28, 2022. (U.S. Air Force photo / 1st Lt Lindsey Heflin)

SINKEXs

“Sinking exercises allow us to hone our skills, learn from one another, and gain real-world experience,” stated U.S. Navy Vice Adm. John Wade, the RIMPAC 2024 Combined Task Force Commander in a public statement. “These drills demonstrate our commitment to maintaining a safe and open Indo-Pacific region.”

Ships used in SINKEXs, known as hulks, are prepared in strict compliance with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations under a general permit the Navy holds pursuant to the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act. Each SINKEX requires the hulk to sink in water at least 6,000 feet deep and more than 50 nautical miles from land.

In line with EPA guidelines, before a SINKEX, the Navy thoroughly cleans the hulk, removing all materials that could harm the marine environment, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), petroleum, trash, and other hazardous materials. The cleaning process is documented and reported to the EPA before and after the SINKEX.

Royal Netherlands Navy De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate HNLMS Tromp (F803) fires a Harpoon missile during a long-planned live fire sinking exercise as part of Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024. (Royal Netherlands Navy photo by Cristian Schrik)

SINKEXs are conducted only after the area is surveyed to ensure no people, marine vessels, aircraft, or marine species are present. These exercises comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and are executed following permits and authorizations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act, and Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act.

The ex-Dubuque, an Austin-class amphibious transport dock, was commissioned on September 1, 1967, and served in Vietnam, Operation Desert Shield, and other missions before being decommissioned in June 2011. The ex-Tarawa, the lead amphibious assault ship of its class, was commissioned on May 29, 1976, participated in numerous operations including Desert Shield and Iraqi Freedom, and was decommissioned in March 2009.

This year marks the second time a Tarawa-class ship has been used for a SINKEX, following the sinking of the ex-USS Belleau Wood (LHA 3) during RIMPAC 2006.

H/T Ryan Chan for the heads up!

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

@TheAviationist.com