Search Results

On Sept. 3, ASN RDA James Geurts announced the creation of Tech Bridges, a partnership between ONR and the Naval Expeditions (NavalX) Agility Office.

Four teams from the U.S. Naval Academy, Naval Postgraduate School and Navy Information Operations Command Texas pitched innovative solutions to naval challenges during an educational challenge at the Naval Agility Summit—held Sept. 21-25 in Alexandria, Virginia. The event—which people attended virtually and physically—was hosted by the NavalX Agility Cell (also known as NavalX) and supported by multiple partners, including the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

Gathered in a temporary maritime operations center in Arlington, Virginia, military, industry and political leaders watched multiple satellite images flash onto large monitor screens. These images showed three types of drug-running vessels hundreds of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean — a small, fast, highly maneuverable boat capable of transferring illicit cargo between ships on the high seas; a support ship with a crane for loading and unloading contraband; and a tugboat serving as the recipient ship for smuggling cargo into the U.S. The scenario was part of a larger July 2023 experimentation event designed to emulate drug-smuggling activities in the maritime domain as well as efforts to deter the flow of such contraband. Called the SCOUT Main Experimentation Event, the two-week exercise involved partners such as the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Joint Inter-Agency Task Force-South (JIATF-S), U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), and numerous naval warfare centers and industry and academic partners. Chief of Naval Research Rear Adm. Kurt Rothenhaus, who was one of several ONR leaders at the maritime operations center, said, “I’m truly impressed by the innovation, teaming and analytic rigor you’ve all brought to this exercise. Your pioneering approach is leading the way for us to learn faster with new partners to tackle the hardest operational challenges.”

The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps have been using simulators, virtual reality and video games to train Sailors and Marines for years. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is sponsoring research focused on understanding the cognitive effects that video games have on the human brain.

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) sponsored a project at Virginia Tech University nearly 20 years ago that is now growing in influence across the world for measuring aerospace and aeronautical acoustics. Since noise reverberates against solid surfaces, such as the walls of a wind tunnel where acoustical testing takes place, collecting accurate sound data had been nearly impossible at the time. Researchers were also struggling to discern the sound of the wind tunnel’s air flow from the noise of the object traveling through it. After learning about some experiments on Kevlar as a wind screen, William Devenport, an engineering professor and director of Virginia Tech’s Stability Wind Tunnel, said he and a colleague wrote a proposal to then-ONR program officer Ron Joslin to try adding Kevlar to their wind tunnel walls. Devenport submitted the original grant proposal (N00014–04–1–04933) through the FY 2004 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) for alterations to Virginia Tech’s existing Stability Wind Tunnel that would allow it to measure flow-induced noise of relevance to Navy applications.

The NavalX Agility Cell, or NavalX, will hold its Agility Summit on Sept. 21-25 in Alexandria, Virginia. The event—hosted by NavalX and supported by multiple partners, including the Office of Naval Research—is designed to build partnerships in the Department of the Navy on matters of innovation, acquisition and transition; share best practices; and discuss problems facing the fleet.

The Naval Agility Office (NavalX) recently announced the creation of six new Tech Bridge locations—doubling the number to 12.

Navy SBIR-STTR has announced expanded funding opportunities for small businesses through a Broad Agency Announcement, through Feb. 12.