ROCKETRY PIONEER AND PHYSICIST DR. ROBERT H. GODDARD ONCE SAID, “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”
Goddard made many of his dreams come true, helping develop the technology that eventually would take us to the moon and beyond. Today, military laboratories in all major branches of the armed forces are following his lead, inventing cutting-edge solutions to meet the needs of the warfighter.
Much of the technology developed for the military finds its way into our everyday lives. For example, the first modern computer, ENIAC I (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator), arose from the need to accurately calculate artillery firing tables. It contained about 17,500 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches, and 5 million soldered joints and took up 1,800 feet of floor space. Although it was dedicated in 1946, it’s a direct ancestor of your home computer.
Army
ENIAC I was built under the auspices of the Army’s Ballistics Research Laboratory, which, along with other labs, has evolved into the Army Research Laboratory (ARL), commissioned in 1992. But the ARL’s history goes back much further. In 1945, the Army published an official policy recognizing civilian scientists could do much of the research and development.
As various independent labs grew in size and capability, their technical accomplishments soared. The Zahl tube that revolutionized radar was an Army project, as was the development of proximity fuzes for mortar shells, the photolithographic process to create integrated circuits, and of course, the ENIAC. By the 1950s, the space race was in full swing, with the Army fielding the country’s first large ballistic missile (Redstone) and first medium-range missile (Jupiter).
In 1985, all Army laboratories were brought together under the aegis of LABCOM. When Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm began, LABCOM supported the effort with technologies such as friend-or-foe identification systems, adapters for night-vision equipment, advanced power sources, armor battle-damage assessment equipment, and procedures to deal with chemical and biological weapons. In 1992, another reorganization gave birth to the ARL in its present form.
Today, the ARL’s work is breaking ground in fields such as nanotechnology, advanced weaponry, robotics, and others. One major avenue of development is in human robotic interaction, which promises to bring sci-fi concepts into reality on the battlefield. Eventually, autonomous or semi-autonomous robots will assist soldiers when needed, creating human/robot teams that increase performance and effectiveness.
Navy/Marine Corps
The Navy has the distinction of hosting the first research laboratory, prompted by the 1915 sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German U-boat. When asked by a journalist from The New York Times to comment on the incident, Thomas Edison said the U.S. needed a world-class research laboratory to help counter the threats posed by newly emerging enemy weapons. Edison was appointed to the Naval Consulting Board to advise the War Department on scientific matters,
62 MILITARY OFFICER DECEMBER 2012
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