They looked at “far-out, game-changing technologies which will expand the SOF operators’ abilities to perform rapid collection and analysis by leveraging capabilities that are small, lightweight, rugged and deployable,” the SOFWERX website said.Ī recent broad agency announcement called on industry to provide ideas for facial recognition and iris scanners that can collect data at long distances in different environmental conditions.Īn even tougher challenge is that the command wants to confirm an identity - with low error rates - at speeds of less than two minutes. The command’s SOFWERX outreach center in Tampa, Florida, recently invited all interested parties to discuss ways to get at this problem. Operators may also want to collect data that identifies people who are found in the same house as a suspected terrorist to create databases of possible associates. SOCOM is looking for lightweight, handheld devices that can help it collect DNA, iris scans, fingerprints, and do voice recognition, along with other means to identify persons living or dead. Commandos on raids do not have the time to collect biometric data and send it to some far off laboratory for analysis. They did so by taking samples containing his DNA. When a Navy SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, they needed proof positive that operators had eliminated the right person. National Defense Magazine looks at some of the unique technology needs chosen from a list Geurts presented at the conference. Nevertheless, SOCOM has some fields where it must go it alone. As its chief acquisition executive James “Hondo” Geurts put it at the National Defense Industrial Association Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict conference, “I cannot build an AC-130 without a C-130 from the Air Force and an MH-47 without a CH-47 from the Army.” Still, SOCOM must rely on the services for the basics. Its unique set of missions sometimes requires singular tools to help its operators do what they do best. For example, the funding would help researchers come up with ways for Air Force loadmasters to load or unload a rocket, rapidly launch one from “unusual sites,” figure out where it might be able to land and detect enemies, and even investigate whether the rocket could airdrop its payload after reentry.Special Operations Command’s technology development enterprise is charged with acquiring items that the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are unlikely to need. Instead the funding is meant to help the Air Force understand if and how it can use the rocket for military applications. The Air Force was clear in its budget justification that the service does not intend to invest in developing Starship. Once completed it will be the world’s “most powerful launch vehicle ever developed,” the company boasts.īut don’t pull on your Halo Orbital Drop Shock Trooper cosplay just yet. A fully reusable heavy launch rocket, Starship is designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond, according to SpaceX’s website. While the Air Force did not specify which commercial rocket it hopes to strap its cargo to, Ars Technica pointed out that only one matches its description: the Starship rocket being developed by the private space exploration company SpaceX.
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