US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
I knew it would be rolled out soon. I think the first sea going squadrons are scheduled for service in 2012.Were in the future people:
The DARPA prosthetics program is an ambitious effort to provide the most advanced medical and rehabilitative technologies for military personnel injured in the line of duty. Over the last year, the APL-led Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 (RP 2009) team has worked to develop a prosthetic arm that will restore significant function and sensory perception of the natural limb.
Proto 1 and its virtual environment system were delivered to DARPA ahead of schedule, and Proto 1 was fitted for clinical evaluations conducted by team partners at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) in January and February.
The Proto 1 limb system includes a natural-looking artificial covering developed using photographs of the patient's native limb taken before the accident. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
More Military Pictures
"This progress represents the first major step in a very challenging program that spans four years and involves more than 30 partners, including government agencies, universities, and private firms from the United States, Europe, and Canada," says APL's Stuart Harshbarger, who leads the program. "The development of this first prototype within the first year of this program is a remarkable accomplishment by a highly talented and motivated team and serves as validation that we will be able to implement DARPA's vision to provide, by 2009, a mechanical arm that closely mimics the properties and sensory perception of a biological limb."
Making Use of Residual Nerves
The advanced degree of natural control and integrated sensory feedback demonstrated with Proto 1 are enabled by Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (TMR), a technique pioneered by Dr. Todd Kuiken at RIC that involves the transfer of residual nerves from an amputated limb to unused muscle regions in appropriate proximity to the injury.
In this case, the nerves were transferred to the pectoral area of the patient's chest. This procedure provides for a more intuitive use of a prosthetic arm and allows for the natural sensation of grip strength and touch.
During clinical evaluation of the limb at RIC, Jesse Sullivan, a patient of Dr. Kuiken, demon-strated substantial improvements in functional testing, such as the ability to reposition his thumb for different grips, remove a credit card from a pocket, stack cups while controlling his grip force using sensory feedback verses vision, and to walk using the free swing mode of the limb for a more natural gait.
Harshbarger says that critical to Proto 1's development was closely working with patients such as Sullivan to help the team understand the attributes patients look for in new prosthetic limbs. The limb system also includes a natural-looking artificial covering that was created using photographs of the patient's native limb taken before the accident.
"The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago continues to advance this applied research and bring the application of the Targeted Reinnervation technique to the forefront to benefit our nation's service men and women," says Dr. Kuiken, the director of the Neural Engineering Center for Bionic Medicine at RIC.
"The results we are achieving in this highly collaborative project are very exciting and I am confident that these discoveries will bring more natural control of prostheses, better artificial limbs and make a difference in the lives of amputees worldwide."
More Advanced Prototype Within Reach
\
APL, which was responsible for much of the design and fabrication of Proto 1, and other team members are already hard at work on a second prototype, expected to be unveiled in late summer. It will have more than 25 degrees of freedom and the strength and speed of movement approaching the capabilities of the human limb, combined with more than 80 individual sensory elements for feedback of touch, temperature, and limb position.
"There is still significant work to be done to determine how best to control this number of degrees of freedom, and ultimately how to incorporate sensory feedback based on these sensory inputs within the human nervous system," Harshbarger says. "The APL team is already driving a virtual model of Proto 2 with data recorded during the clinical evaluation of Proto 1, and the team is working to identify a robust set of grasps that can be controlled by a second patient later this year."
Another exciting development is the functional demonstration of Injectable MyoElectric Sensor (IMES) devices-very small injectable or surgically implantable devices used to measure muscle activity at the source verses surface electrodes on the skin that were used during testing of the first prototype.
"The IMES devices, coupled with TMR procedures, promise to increase the fidelity of control and can be used in certain injury scenarios to provide a significant improvement on their own merit," Harshbarger notes. Further neural integration work includes fabrication of early devices to integrate directly with the peripheral nervous system and the cortex.
"APL and DARPA are united in the mission to improve technology and quality of life for our injured warfighters," Harshbarger continues. "There are a lot of people working very hard to accomplish DARPA's vision of a final limb system that approaches the natural appearance and control of the native limb. It remains a significant challenge, but the progress to date should give hope that the performance of the final RP 2009 limb will significantly improve the capabilities of upper extremity prosthetic limbs."
As the team prepares for further evaluations this summer, Proto 1 is already generating considerable interest from government agencies wanting to transition the prototype for use with other patients."
Total Ghost in the Shell shtuff right there.
The DARPA prosthetics program is an ambitious effort to provide the most advanced medical and rehabilitative technologies for military personnel injured in the line of duty. Over the last year, the APL-led Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 (RP 2009) team has worked to develop a prosthetic arm that will restore significant function and sensory perception of the natural limb.
Proto 1 and its virtual environment system were delivered to DARPA ahead of schedule, and Proto 1 was fitted for clinical evaluations conducted by team partners at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) in January and February.
The Proto 1 limb system includes a natural-looking artificial covering developed using photographs of the patient's native limb taken before the accident. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
More Military Pictures
"This progress represents the first major step in a very challenging program that spans four years and involves more than 30 partners, including government agencies, universities, and private firms from the United States, Europe, and Canada," says APL's Stuart Harshbarger, who leads the program. "The development of this first prototype within the first year of this program is a remarkable accomplishment by a highly talented and motivated team and serves as validation that we will be able to implement DARPA's vision to provide, by 2009, a mechanical arm that closely mimics the properties and sensory perception of a biological limb."
Making Use of Residual Nerves
The advanced degree of natural control and integrated sensory feedback demonstrated with Proto 1 are enabled by Targeted Muscle Reinnervation (TMR), a technique pioneered by Dr. Todd Kuiken at RIC that involves the transfer of residual nerves from an amputated limb to unused muscle regions in appropriate proximity to the injury.
In this case, the nerves were transferred to the pectoral area of the patient's chest. This procedure provides for a more intuitive use of a prosthetic arm and allows for the natural sensation of grip strength and touch.
During clinical evaluation of the limb at RIC, Jesse Sullivan, a patient of Dr. Kuiken, demon-strated substantial improvements in functional testing, such as the ability to reposition his thumb for different grips, remove a credit card from a pocket, stack cups while controlling his grip force using sensory feedback verses vision, and to walk using the free swing mode of the limb for a more natural gait.
Harshbarger says that critical to Proto 1's development was closely working with patients such as Sullivan to help the team understand the attributes patients look for in new prosthetic limbs. The limb system also includes a natural-looking artificial covering that was created using photographs of the patient's native limb taken before the accident.
"The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago continues to advance this applied research and bring the application of the Targeted Reinnervation technique to the forefront to benefit our nation's service men and women," says Dr. Kuiken, the director of the Neural Engineering Center for Bionic Medicine at RIC.
"The results we are achieving in this highly collaborative project are very exciting and I am confident that these discoveries will bring more natural control of prostheses, better artificial limbs and make a difference in the lives of amputees worldwide."
More Advanced Prototype Within Reach
\
APL, which was responsible for much of the design and fabrication of Proto 1, and other team members are already hard at work on a second prototype, expected to be unveiled in late summer. It will have more than 25 degrees of freedom and the strength and speed of movement approaching the capabilities of the human limb, combined with more than 80 individual sensory elements for feedback of touch, temperature, and limb position.
"There is still significant work to be done to determine how best to control this number of degrees of freedom, and ultimately how to incorporate sensory feedback based on these sensory inputs within the human nervous system," Harshbarger says. "The APL team is already driving a virtual model of Proto 2 with data recorded during the clinical evaluation of Proto 1, and the team is working to identify a robust set of grasps that can be controlled by a second patient later this year."
Another exciting development is the functional demonstration of Injectable MyoElectric Sensor (IMES) devices-very small injectable or surgically implantable devices used to measure muscle activity at the source verses surface electrodes on the skin that were used during testing of the first prototype.
"The IMES devices, coupled with TMR procedures, promise to increase the fidelity of control and can be used in certain injury scenarios to provide a significant improvement on their own merit," Harshbarger notes. Further neural integration work includes fabrication of early devices to integrate directly with the peripheral nervous system and the cortex.
"APL and DARPA are united in the mission to improve technology and quality of life for our injured warfighters," Harshbarger continues. "There are a lot of people working very hard to accomplish DARPA's vision of a final limb system that approaches the natural appearance and control of the native limb. It remains a significant challenge, but the progress to date should give hope that the performance of the final RP 2009 limb will significantly improve the capabilities of upper extremity prosthetic limbs."
As the team prepares for further evaluations this summer, Proto 1 is already generating considerable interest from government agencies wanting to transition the prototype for use with other patients."
Total Ghost in the Shell shtuff right there.
4,000 US Army troops arrive in Baghdad
4,000 U.S. soldiers arrive in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have arrived in the capital to strengthen the 12-week crackdown aimed at quelling sectarian violence, the U.S. military said Wednesday, as bombings and shootings killed 12 people across the country.
The developments came on the eve of an international conference on Iraq being held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik at which the U.S. administration is expected to press hard for countries to forgive billions of dollars in Iraqi debt to help the Shiite-led government.
The U.S. military said Wednesday that the fourth of five brigades being sent to help Iraqi security forces as part of the crackdown had arrived this week.
The 4th Brigade, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Lewis, Wash., which includes about 3,700 soldiers, will be deployed in the Baghdad area and in northern Iraq, the military said. Officials want the rest in place by June, for a total in Iraq of 160,000.
U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said Wednesday that Iraqi and U.S. forces now have 57 joint security stations and combat outposts in the Baghdad area and that "while the security situation remains exceedingly challenging, we've seen some encouraging signs of progress."
"We continue to see a reduced total number of sectarian incidents in comparison to before the Baghdad security operation, including murders and kidnappings," Fox told reporters in Baghdad. But he said car bomb attacks have increased, including some with very high casualties.
When complete, the Baghdad security operation will include about 28,000 additional U.S. forces, including 20,500 combat soldiers and about 8,000 service members involved in support services such intelligence, military police and logistics.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said most of the crackdown's operations were taking place in volatile areas outside Baghdad, including the Sunni cities of Mahmoudiyah and Madain.
Al-Moussawi said insurgent operations had dropped significantly in Baghdad as the groups had fled to other areas.
"Next week will witness more military operations in both halves of Baghdad," he said, referring to the two sides of the Tigris River that divides Baghdad. "Almost all our military operations are now taking place on Baghdad's outskirts."
The security efforts come as President Bush is engaged in a fierce debate with the Democratic-led Congress over the war in Iraq. Bush vetoed legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq Tuesday night in a historic showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular and costly war should end or escalate.
The measure would would require the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.
"This is a prescription for chaos and confusion and we must not impose it on our troops," Bush said in a nationally broadcast statement from the White House. He said the bill would "mandate a rigid and artificial deadline" for troop pullouts, and "it makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing."
Democrats accused Bush of ignoring Americans' desire to stop the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,350 members of the military.
Ismail Qassim, a 41-year-old Shiite electricity ministry employee in Baghdad, welcomed the move.
"In spite of all the problems Iraq is facing because of the American presence, there is some need for them at least for one more year because of the sectarian strife in Iraq and corruption in the security services," he said.
But Sameer Hussein, a 22-year-old Sunni college student in Baghdad, said he wanted the U.S. forces to withdraw but didn't think they ever would.
"Even if they will withdraw they will leave permanent military bases in Iraq and that is something Iraqi people will reject," he said.
A senior Interior Ministry official, meanwhile, said officials were trying to gain custody of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's body amid widespread skepticism over claims that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq had been killed.
Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal declined to comment further, but a police official in Anbar province said al-Masri died when his explosives belt detonated during fighting but security forces could not retrieve the body because it was in a part of the desert controlled by the terror group.
U.S. authorities urged caution about the reports, saying they had not been confirmed and warning that even if the claim were true, the death of the shadowy Egyptian militant likely would not spell the end of the terror movement in Iraq.
4,000 U.S. soldiers arrive in Baghdad
BAGHDAD (AP) -- Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have arrived in the capital to strengthen the 12-week crackdown aimed at quelling sectarian violence, the U.S. military said Wednesday, as bombings and shootings killed 12 people across the country.
The developments came on the eve of an international conference on Iraq being held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik at which the U.S. administration is expected to press hard for countries to forgive billions of dollars in Iraqi debt to help the Shiite-led government.
The U.S. military said Wednesday that the fourth of five brigades being sent to help Iraqi security forces as part of the crackdown had arrived this week.
The 4th Brigade, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from Fort Lewis, Wash., which includes about 3,700 soldiers, will be deployed in the Baghdad area and in northern Iraq, the military said. Officials want the rest in place by June, for a total in Iraq of 160,000.
U.S. military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said Wednesday that Iraqi and U.S. forces now have 57 joint security stations and combat outposts in the Baghdad area and that "while the security situation remains exceedingly challenging, we've seen some encouraging signs of progress."
"We continue to see a reduced total number of sectarian incidents in comparison to before the Baghdad security operation, including murders and kidnappings," Fox told reporters in Baghdad. But he said car bomb attacks have increased, including some with very high casualties.
When complete, the Baghdad security operation will include about 28,000 additional U.S. forces, including 20,500 combat soldiers and about 8,000 service members involved in support services such intelligence, military police and logistics.
Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said most of the crackdown's operations were taking place in volatile areas outside Baghdad, including the Sunni cities of Mahmoudiyah and Madain.
Al-Moussawi said insurgent operations had dropped significantly in Baghdad as the groups had fled to other areas.
"Next week will witness more military operations in both halves of Baghdad," he said, referring to the two sides of the Tigris River that divides Baghdad. "Almost all our military operations are now taking place on Baghdad's outskirts."
The security efforts come as President Bush is engaged in a fierce debate with the Democratic-led Congress over the war in Iraq. Bush vetoed legislation to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq Tuesday night in a historic showdown with Congress over whether the unpopular and costly war should end or escalate.
The measure would would require the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.
"This is a prescription for chaos and confusion and we must not impose it on our troops," Bush said in a nationally broadcast statement from the White House. He said the bill would "mandate a rigid and artificial deadline" for troop pullouts, and "it makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing."
Democrats accused Bush of ignoring Americans' desire to stop the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,350 members of the military.
Ismail Qassim, a 41-year-old Shiite electricity ministry employee in Baghdad, welcomed the move.
"In spite of all the problems Iraq is facing because of the American presence, there is some need for them at least for one more year because of the sectarian strife in Iraq and corruption in the security services," he said.
But Sameer Hussein, a 22-year-old Sunni college student in Baghdad, said he wanted the U.S. forces to withdraw but didn't think they ever would.
"Even if they will withdraw they will leave permanent military bases in Iraq and that is something Iraqi people will reject," he said.
A senior Interior Ministry official, meanwhile, said officials were trying to gain custody of Abu Ayyub al-Masri's body amid widespread skepticism over claims that the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq had been killed.
Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal declined to comment further, but a police official in Anbar province said al-Masri died when his explosives belt detonated during fighting but security forces could not retrieve the body because it was in a part of the desert controlled by the terror group.
U.S. authorities urged caution about the reports, saying they had not been confirmed and warning that even if the claim were true, the death of the shadowy Egyptian militant likely would not spell the end of the terror movement in Iraq.
The_Zergling
Junior Member
This quote is what saddens me the most about the whole affair.
LCAC's aid in Catalina Island fire
USN LCAC's based at MCB Camp Pendelton Ca have shuttled firemen and firefighting equipment to the fire struck island of Catalina 22 miles off the S. Cal coast.
On Fox news they described the LCAC's as being operated by the USMC.( say what??)They also reported that USMC "choppers" Chinooks and Blackhawks were providing airlift for the fire struck island. I'm sure the USMC would be happy to have Chinooks and Blackhawks. Actually CH-53's and CH-46 are being used...And Marines call helos..well helos!!!! Not choppers.
Never-the-less>>>>Great job by the worlds greatest navy.
Here are some pictures of the LCAC's being loaded.
USN LCAC's based at MCB Camp Pendelton Ca have shuttled firemen and firefighting equipment to the fire struck island of Catalina 22 miles off the S. Cal coast.
On Fox news they described the LCAC's as being operated by the USMC.( say what??)They also reported that USMC "choppers" Chinooks and Blackhawks were providing airlift for the fire struck island. I'm sure the USMC would be happy to have Chinooks and Blackhawks. Actually CH-53's and CH-46 are being used...And Marines call helos..well helos!!!! Not choppers.
Never-the-less>>>>Great job by the worlds greatest navy.
Here are some pictures of the LCAC's being loaded.
Attachments
-
morey7.jpg -
morey8.jpg -
morey9.jpg -
morey11.jpg -
morey10.jpg
Last edited:
I saw videos of this...awesome effort and use of this equipment. Heck...it may boost sales to civilian agencies for future use along the coasts in any type of rescue, fire fighting, or even law enforcement work...when you need to get to a difficult coastline.
Thanks for posting this Popeye.
Hey! That was right next to my house! No kidding. I could see the plumes of smoke rising from the perfectly sillhouted island for the last two days. They saved the town (Avalon) which is good because I frequently spend the weekened there for vacation. Everybody on the island knew that one of these days a fire like that was gonna happen because the whole island is perfect wildfire material.
I've been having trouble trying to figure out how exactly the LCACs disembarked the fire engines. There are no long sloping beaches, at least not anywhere near the fire and no where else on the island has paved roads, so they couldn't have dropped them off at some beach I don't no about and driven them to the site of the fire. In town there is a beach but its only about 30 fot wide and is totally blocked off by a sea wall, and submerged at high tide. There's a boat ramp by the ferry dock...I guess that's how they did it. But it probably was tough.
I've been having trouble trying to figure out how exactly the LCACs disembarked the fire engines. There are no long sloping beaches, at least not anywhere near the fire and no where else on the island has paved roads, so they couldn't have dropped them off at some beach I don't no about and driven them to the site of the fire. In town there is a beach but its only about 30 fot wide and is totally blocked off by a sea wall, and submerged at high tide. There's a boat ramp by the ferry dock...I guess that's how they did it. But it probably was tough.
Last edited: