Rusty's Naval/Military History thread

[Buster's Uncle]

Dig at Colonial battleground turns up artifacts
Associated Press
By CHRIS CAROLA  18 minutes ago



Volunteer Heather Engwer of Lake George examines an artifact during an archaeological field school dig at Lake George Battlefield Park on Friday, July 11, 2014, in Lake George, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)



LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) — An archaeological dig at a Colonial military site in the southern Adirondacks of New York has turned up thousands of artifacts, from butchered animal bones to uniform buttons, along with a lime kiln used to make mortar for a British fort that was never completed.

The six-week project that ended Friday at the Lake George Battlefield Park also uncovered a section of a stone foundation and brick floor of a small building likely constructed alongside a barracks in 1759, during the French and Indian War.

"That's the sort of clear-cut structure archaeologists love to see," said David Starbuck, leader of the State University of New York at Adirondack's annual archaeology field school.

Starbuck said the majority of the artifacts found were bones from butchered cattle and pigs, the main food sources for the American provincial soldiers and redcoats manning the wilderness outpost in the 18th century. But the team of some two dozen volunteers and college students conducting the first dig at the park since 2001 also turned up numerous uniform buttons, musket balls, gun flints and pottery shards.

Lake George was the scene of heavy military activity over a 25-year span beginning with the start of the French and Indian War in 1755 and running through the end of the American Revolution. Thousands of American and British soldiers and American Indian warriors passed through the forts built along the lake's southern end, and many of them left stuff behind, either lost or discarded in trash heaps at their encampments.

University of Vermont student Emilee Conroe of Ballston Spa, didn't expect to find much during her two-week stint digging for college credit. She wound up uncovering piles of animal bones and a set of cufflinks that likely belonged to an officer.



Volunteer Heather Engwer of Lake George removes dirt from an artifact during an archaeological field school dig at Lake George Battlefield Park, Friday, July 11, 2014, in Lake George, N.Y. The summer project is focusing on a site that saw heavy military activity during the 18th century, with American, British, French and American Indian forces battling for control of the region’s waterways. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)


"I really came in to just learn about archaeology," said the 19-year-old sophomore. "I expected to find one or two items."

Starbuck said the lime kiln was found next to the ruins of Fort George, located in the park. The British abandoned the fort in mid-construction at the end of the French and Indian War.

Many of the artifacts were found in shallow pits excavated just yards from a road that runs through the state-owned park and connects to another busy road. Clearly visible from both, the excavations drew thousands of visitors from among the throngs that descend on this popular tourist destination every summer, Starbuck said.

Many left with a better understanding of the site's significance in American history, he said.

"One of our goals was to make it a public education project, and we definitely had that," Starbuck said.

http://news.yahoo.com/dig-colonial-battleground-turns-artifacts-152852094.html

[Lord Avalon]

Just eyeballing the map, the lake's southern end appears to be about 200 mi (320 km) north of New York City and about 125 mi (200 km) south of the Canadian border. I forgot how far north New York State goes.

[gwillybj]

The south end of Lake George is about 5 miles from my house

[Rusty Edge]

My aunt used to live in Balston Spa. Her husband was from Lake George. We used to go to the horse races. I went rafting on the Scanandaga a couple of times.

[Lord Avalon]

The south end of Lake George is about 5 miles from my house

Well, then you have an advantage in this case.

I like to have a map, because it gives you a visual of the location in question (and some context for location in its region), especially when the location might not be well known. It bugs me when military books don't have enough maps: the text gives locations, but if the text isn't descriptive enough, then you don't get a good idea of the relation between locations and the deployment of forces.

[gwillybj]

There was, back in the days The Revolution (the American one), an area called The Portage, between the south end of Lake Champlain and the north end of Lake George. It's all overgrown now, but if you know where to look you can still find the foundations of the old plank roads up in those mountains. Most of the old stone bridges are long gone, but a few remain just as sturdy now as if they were built yesterday. Sometimes it's neat to know you live near where history was made.

[Lord Avalon]

Looks like La Chute River connects them - is it insufficient for transportation? Well, if it's mountainous, I can see the need for areas of portage. I see there's now a road called The Portage.

Sometimes it's neat to know you live near where history was made.

I get your point, but even as a USAian, I find it somewhat amusing. If you live in the Old World, there's a lot more history.

[Geo]

If you live in the Old World, there's a lot more history.

Heh.
I was born less then a mile from a castle that already stood there for almost eight centuries before I even opened my eyes.

[gwillybj]

We have some nice monuments over here, but I can't think of anything that competes with Europe's castles.

[Geo]

Well, you have native sites like Cahokia...

[Lord Avalon]

According to Wikipedia the oldest buildings in the US are ancestral Puebloan communities in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado & Utah dating back to 750 CE.


Other than Pueblos there's the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico (US territory) built in 1521. Some of the current structure dates to 1540, as the original was destroyed by a hurricane.


Our oldest fort is also in Old San Juan: La Fortaleza, residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico (oldest executive mansion  in continuous use in the New World), construction started in 1533. Reconstructed in 1846 to be more palatial, less fort-like.

[Buster's Uncle]

Fighter Jets and Drones Practice Rapid-Fire Launches
LiveScience.com
By Elizabeth Palermo, Staff Writer  12 hours ago



The U.S. Navy's unmanned X-47B lands aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.



The U.S. Navy recently conducted its first successful tests of drones and jets operating together aboard an aircraft carrier. The test flights, which took place Sunday (Aug. 17) aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, focused on assessing whether unmanned drones could be deployed quickly and safely alongside manned fighter jets.

Despite tight space and time constraints, the X-47B drones and the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets performed well in the tests, according to the U.S. Navy.

In urgent situations, fighter jets must take off and land in quick succession. That means that when one jet is taking off, another is close behind it, shielded from the blast of the first jet's engines by huge metal shields called "jet blast deflectors," according to online defense magazine Breaking Defense. As soon as one jet takes to the air, these metal walls are retracted and the next jet taxis onto the aircraft carrier's catapult.

When landing to refuel, a jet must automatically disconnect from the cables that help it come to a stop. This makes it possible for an aircraft to get out of the way quickly so that another jet can land behind it.

For manned aircraft, the Navy has the precise timing needed to deploy a whole squadron of fighter jets down to science. But in the past, getting a drone to fall into this hectic rhythm has been a challenge, according to Breaking Defense.

"Our goal was to minimize the [X-47B's] time in the landing area and improve the flow with manned aircraft in the landing pattern," said Lt. Cmdr. Brian Hall, the flight test director for the X-47B drones. Hall said that to achieve this goal, the X-47B aircraft, which flew for the first time in 2011, needed a few upgrades.

Most of the X-47B's improvements focused on decreasing the time it takes for the drone to get out of the way of piloted aircraft after landing on the aircraft carrier. This is no easy feat, since a drone has only about 90 seconds to clear the landing area before another aircraft comes speeding down behind it.

For the recent test flights, the drone's operating software was updated, thus speeding up the time it takes for the aircraft to fold its wings and clear the landing area. Other improvements to the physical design of the plane also help move the drone out of the way as quickly as possible.

Getting drones and jetsto work seamlessly and safely together is crucial to the success of the Navy's so-called carrier air wings — naval aviation units comprising aircraft carriers and the different kinds of aircraft they carry — said Capt. Beau Duarte, program manager for the Navy's unmanned carrier aviation office.

"Today, we showed that the X-47B could take off, land and fly in the carrier pattern with manned aircraft while maintaining normal flight-deck operations," Duarte said.

This type of cooperation between drones and jets will be tested several more times, according to a statement from the U.S. Navy. The next challenge includes performing all of these same tasks in the dark of night— a procedure known as "night deck handling."

http://news.yahoo.com/fighter-jets-drones-practice-rapid-fire-launches-123601419.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Beyond Bulletproof: New 'X-Vehicles' Take Stealth to the Extreme
LiveScience.com
By Elizabeth Palermo, Staff Writer  5 hours ago



An artistic rendering of what the new generation of armored vehicles might look like under the DARPA X-vehicle guidelines.



Imagine an armored truck that can drive itself, is invisible to enemies and can travel at extreme speeds. That's the type of truck the Pentagon is hoping to develop through its new ground X-vehicle (GXV-T) program.

Ever since the U.S. military started using armored ground vehicles over a century ago, the process for making these transports safer for soldiers has remained more or less unchanged, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the Pentagon tasked with developing new technologies for the military.

The basic formula for building better bulletproof trucks, it seems, is simply adding more armor. But DARPA researchers say this decades-old approach isn't cutting it anymore. Piling on armor makes vehicles heavier and more expensive, and offers little extra  protection for soldiers, the agency said. [See what these stealthy armored trucks could look like]

To make ground vehicles both safer and better suited for the battlefield, these machines need to take advantage of other technologies, such as those that can help troops avoid detectionby enemy forces, DARPA said.

"GXV-T's goal is not just to improve or replace one particular vehicle — it's about breaking the 'more armor' paradigm and revolutionizing protection for all armored fighting vehicles," Kevin Massey, a program manager for DARPA, said in a statement.

Massey said that the ground X-vehicle program was inspired in part by the success of DARPA's X-plane programs, which he said have improved the U.S military's aircraft capabilities significantly over the past 60 years.

Based on the same principles of experimental design inherent in the new X-vehicle program, the agency's X-plane programs have given rise to an array of cutting-edge aircraft over the years. DARPA's most recent X-plane program awarded contracts to private companies to build an unmanned vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Another recent program is aimed at developing a next generation space plane for both military and civilian use.

"We plan to pursue groundbreaking, fundamental research and development to make future armored fighting vehicles significantly more mobile, effective, safe and affordable," Massey said.



An artist's rendition of what the new X-vehicle might look like.


Successful proposals for the armored vehicle of the future must achieve the following goals, as outlined by DARPA:

·       Reduce vehicle size and weight by 50 percent

·       Reduce onboard crew needed to operate the vehicle by 50 percent

·       Increase vehicle speed by 100 percent

·       Access 95 percent of terrain

·       Reduce "signatures" (like noise and infrared) that enable enemies to detect and engage vehicles

DARPA also outlined four areas in which the X-vehicle program presents an opportunity for the development of new technologies. These areas include:

·       Better mobility: DARPA defines this as the ability of the armored vehicle to handle diverse off-road terrains, including slopes and different elevations. This ability would require advanced suspensions and different track or wheel configurations.

·       Greater agility: Rather than adding more armor to the outside of the vehicle, DARPA wants designers to build a vehicle capable of avoiding threats altogether. The agency is looking for agile machines that can dodge bullets and reposition armor as needed during an attack.

·       Crew assistance: The army truck of the future needs sensors and other equipment that keeps track of the vehicle's surroundings  keeping people inside the vehicle aware of what's going on outside the vehicle. DARPA is also looking for semi-autonomous control systems that allow the vehicle to drive itself at least part of the time.

·       Evading radar: By avoiding enemy detection altogether, future vehicles can get safer without adding armor. The X-vehicle aims to reduce the visible, infrared, acoustic and electromagnetic footprint of these trucks so they can evade enemy radar.

DARPA said it plans to award the first contracts for the X-vehicle program before April 2015. A proposers' day is scheduled for Sept. 5, 2014, at DARPA's offices in Arlington, Virginia.

http://news.yahoo.com/beyond-bulletproof-x-vehicles-stealth-extreme-131956978.html

[Rusty Edge]

Good 'ol SKYNet.

[Geo]

The plating makes me think of it as a mobile greenhouse.