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Two Navy Standard Missiles Divide and Conquer 62 Miles Up (From National Interest)
By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D. - January 06, 2025 - The confusion over SM-3 highlights why the incoming Trump administration must pay closer attention to missile defense production priorities, as I wrote here for National Interest. Standard Missile 3 Block IB, launched by Navy destroyers, made its combat debut on April 13, countering Iran’s barrage attacks on Israel by intercepting Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles in the exo-atmosphere, more than 62 miles above the Earth’s surface. Yet just a few weeks earlier, President Joe Biden’s defense budget terminated production of that same missile in an attempt to budget release decision to “pivot from and discontinue” the SM-3 Block IB procurements in favor of the longer-range SM-3 Block IIA. In fact, these missiles are a matched pair with different capabilities needed by the Navy to operate in the harsh regime of exo-atmospheric defense. Missile defense has not always been a high priority for the political or defense establishment in Washington. But the war in Ukraine, missile attacks on Israel, and the rising threat of China have gotten everyone’s attention. The confusion over SM-3 highlights why the incoming Trump administration must pay closer attention to missile defense production priorities.
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Boosting The Maritime Industrial Base for Navy Combat Power (From RealClearDefense)
By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D. - The full text is available below and on the RealClearDefense website here - January 02, 2025 - President-elect Trump’s incoming defense team will soon face a sobering fact: China’s navy is bigger than the U.S. Navy. “Our U.S. Navy shipbuilding is in a crisis and the U.S. Navy is dramatically shrinking, Sen. Dan Sullivan has said. By 2027, the U.S. Navy may be down to 280 ships while China’s navy hits 400. China’s navy “has been on a historic trajectory these last 25 years,” according to ADM Samuel Paparo, Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. “We are not overmatched, but I don’t like the pace of the trajectory.” The U.S. Navy must ramp up production. While investments in the shipyards are crucial, sparking a renaissance in Navy shipbuilding also depends on careful attention to the whole of the supplier base. Navy suppliers are found all over America. “We will not be successful in building these ships if we do not have the supplier base fully engaged and participating,” Navy Rear Admiral Todd Weeks, Program Executive Officer for Strategic Submarines, said on December 16. “There’s a lot more folks working in those suppliers than there are in the shipyards,” he noted.
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AI Can Boost Urban Farming Productivity
By Paolo von Schirach - December 30, 2024 - Artificial Intelligence, AI, can help boost the growth of a new modality to grow food: vertical urban farming. Yes, we are talking about growing edible plants in appropriately configured buildings in which the natural environment for various types of plants can be replicated, in fact optimized. This is what we learn from reading an article by Gaurav Roy in Securities.io titled Indoor Farming Set to See Efficiency Boost Through AI (September 11, 2024) AI will optimize urban farms According to the article, through the analysis of enormous quantities of data collected related to growth time, humidity, temperatures, nutrition provided, and more AI will be able to create optimized, cost-effective environments that will guarantee the best growing conditions, especially by recommending exactly how to use artificial light, essential for growing plants in an enclosed environment, in an optimal way. By continuous refinement of best practices, AI will ensure best results at the lowest possible cost, this way making urban farming more competitive and therefore more profitable.
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Will AI Restructure U.S. Healthcare Policy?
By Janice Tagoe, MBA, MSc. - December 26, 2024 - The Changing Face of AI in U.S. Healthcare. As we approach the end of 2024, the integration of AI in the U.S. healthcare sector continues to evolve dynamically. An article by DLA Piper provides some insights about the latest moves in Congress regarding AI in healthcare. This revealed increased activity within Congress and federal agencies around the topics of drug development, care delivery, and insurance coverage, thus reflecting a growing recognition of AI’s transformative potential in patient care, medical research, and healthcare economics nationwide. Just a few years ago, discussions about public policy for AI in healthcare were steeped in caution and uncertainty. Today, lawmakers are taking bolder strides, crafting policies that balance innovation with safety and ethical considerations. Recent congressional initiatives to enhance oversight, improve data governance, and establish frameworks for the responsible deployment of AI highl
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The Digital Divide Delays Africa’s Development
By Paolo von Schirach - December 23, 2024 - The internet revolution affected every aspect of business, corporate organizations, government activities, military operations, and the lives of people in developed countries. To a lesser extent, it also changed the lives of hundreds of millions in emerging economies, depending on the degree of internet adoption and related costs and fees for companies and average consumers. Fast changes In the span of just a few decades, internet related technology evolved at fantastic speed. We went from copper telephone lines to satellites and fiber optic cables. These technology upgrades expanded enormously the amount of data that can be carried, and the transmission speed.
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Slam the Backdoor on China but Keep American Global Business, Allies in AI
By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D. - December 20, 2024 - Outgoing Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo has been tireless and effective in her efforts to keep China from accessing the most advanced semiconductor chips and other technology used to advance artificial intelligence. Thanks to the hard work of the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Standards, Communist China can’t buy top-of-the-line chips without a license anymore. On December 2, the BIS was applauded for releasing another round of controls on semiconductor manufacturing and high-bandwidth memory and sanctioned another 140 Chinese entities. China is feeling the heat. Xi Jinping is stockpiling lower-grade chips and trying to boost indigenous production. Of course, the Chinese are also seeking ways to acquire chips through third-party sales, and to gin up AI business with global customers. As a result, another round of controls may be in the works as the Biden Administration packs its bags. This round might seek to limit sales or cap licenses to other countries, in a broad effort to deny Chinese access.
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Filter Caps Provide Drinkable Water at a Low Price
By Paolo von Schirach - December 18, 2024 - Imagine an extended bottle cap that contains filtering agents capable of making polluted water drinkable. The cap has two ends. You screw one end on an empty plastic water and on the other end you screw another plastic bottle containing dirty water. You hold the bottle with the contaminated water up and gravity will make it go through the built-in filter. This way, thanks to the filtering, clean, safe water flows into the empty bottle below. This ingenious, small size and light weight device is made by a company based in South America called Filter Caps. An ingenious device As the company website https://filtercaps.co/en/ explains: “Focused on generating a universal design, Filter Caps is developed with the universal PCO 28 mm thread, which fits any type of bottle. Additionally, it uses 3D additive technology composed of minerals, metals, and natural extracts, making it accessible, affordable, cost-effective.”
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Is Urolithin A the “Elixir of Long Life?”
By Paolo von Schirach - December 16, 2024 - A great deal of money has been and is invested in the “wellness” industry around the world. Some of it goes into longevity therapies: supplements, treatments, and/or lifestyle changes that will allow humans to live much longer, without any of the ailments and impediments that we normally associate with aging, in terms of pain, reduced muscle strength and chronic diseases. The promise of long life The promise made by many innovators seeking funding and markets for their (supposedly) breakthrough discoveries is that they have discovered something akin to the legendary “Elixir of Long Life.”
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Texas Will be a Green Hydrogen Hub
By Paolo von Schirach - December 13, 2024 - When most people think of Texas, they think of old western movies. They envision vast open spaces, huge cattle ranches, cowboys, and plenty of oil rigs and refineries. Those who are more up to date can also picture many LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) terminals on the Texas coast filling tankers that deliver massive quantities of U.S. LNG all over the world –in particular to energy hungry Europe in support of its major effort to end dependence on Russian piped gas. Texas is a renewable energy hub Well, all this is true. But it is also true that Texas –the oil and gas hub of America– has a vast renewable energy sector. Solar and wind facilities are everywhere. Indeed, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Texas currently produces the most green energy in the United States, primarily due to its leading position in wind power generation. Texas generates roughly a quarter of all U.S. wind-powered electricity. Texas’ renewable sources provided almost three-tenths of total state electricity net generation in Texas in 2023. The state accounted for about 16% of America’s total electricity generation from renewable sources.
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The U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Orca Anti-Submarine Drone, China and the Pacific (From CBS Radio “Eye on the World” with John Batchelor)
By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D. - December 11, 2024 - Meet Orca, an autonomous submarine, nearly the size of an 18-wheeler truck, and the biggest unmanned underwater vehicle in the Navy inventory. Its technical name is the Extra Large Unmanned Underwater Vehicle. What it’s designed to do is carry out autonomous missions. It has a tremendous capability to go out and lay mines to counter Chinese ships and submarines. Host John Batchelor, Gordon Chang and I discussed Orca’s unique mission in deterring China’s submarine force, and prospects for a renaissance in U.S. Navy shipbuilding. Highlights follow or listen here.
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