Black Technology

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    From:  Jim Graham                 Submitted:  02 Apr 92 15:00:00  

 Subject:  Black Technology...           Status:  Public

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I found this on UseNet, newsgroup "sci.space" today.

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Newsgroups: sci.space

Subject: U.S. black programs

Message-ID: <Added.IdqRxFC00UkT4MvE9n@andrew.cmu.edu> Date: 1 Apr

92 23:04:05 GMT

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AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY, March 9, 1992  -  "Black World"

Engineers, Scientists Encourage Using Highly Classified

Technology for Civil Applications  -  William B. Scott/Los Angeles:

 

''A small fraction of "black world" engineers and scientists are

  encouraged by recent government commitments to open intelligence

  agency files, and congressional threats to curtail funding for

  some highly classified projects.

 

    Such chilling prospects normally would be viewed with alarm by

  all who get paychecks from U.S. intelligence agencies, but a few

  technical personnel see opportunity instead of gloom. This minority

  hopes issues raised over the last two years are bearing fruit now,

  and might push some black technology into the open eventually.

 

    In voicing their view, this small group of scientific professionals

  dared to break a code of silence that rivals the Mafia's, and

  several individuals claim they have suffered accordingly. Two said

  they can prove their civil rights were blatantly abused - always in

  the name of security - either to keep them quiet or to prevent their

  leaving the loosely structured, yet highly controlled R&D community.

 

    "Once you're in, they don't let you go," an engineer said.

 

    Many dedicated "spooks" undoubtly went into a defensive crouch

  when Robert M. Gates, director of the Central Intelligence Agency,

  announced last month that some CIA files would be opened. Openness

  is anathema to the intelligence professional; it defies all Cold

  War rules of business. But the world has changed, and Gates realized

  that CIA and its sister agencies must adapt.

 

    Within days of Gate's announcement, several congressmen declared

  open season on black programs they believed were unnecessary since

  the Soviet Union disbanded (AW&ST Mar. 2, p. 62).

 

    Proponents of "deep black" programs point to the lessons of history,

  noting that dictators and tyrants with dreams of world domination

  have popped up repeatedly. And when that happens, the U.S. must have

  a technological arsenal capable of stomping out the threat, they

  argue. The nation's "silver bullets" are best developed in the black,

  where neither friend nor foe knows they even exist, let alone how

  effective they are.

 

    Opponents of the status-quo, keep-it-all-classified school see a

  different "new world order" emerging. These engineers, scientists,

  technicians and aircraft mechanics believe that U.S. *economic*

  national security is more at risk now than military security. One

  way to combat economic threats to each citizen's standard of living

  is to release some of the secret technology already developed at

  taxpayer expense, they maintain.

 

    One scientist identified several "black world" breakthrough that,

  he believes, have both military and commercial potential. The

  technologies include:

 

  # Very sensitive infrared sensors that do not require cryogenic

  cooling. The researcher claimed that, by reducing IR sensor thermal

  noise through "electrostatic heat transfer" techniques, today's best

  IR array could operate at sensitivities "several orders of magnitude

  better than is possible with cryogenic cooling". Environmental

  monitoring satellites - as well as strategic defense sensors on

  Brilliant Pebbles and Brilliant Eyes spacecraft - could use this

  technology to extend the on-orbit life of infrared sensors

  indefinitely. Currently, the operational life of an IR space sensor

  is limited by the amount of cryogenic cooling material available.

 

  # Instantly altering the thermal equilibrium of a large optical lens

  or mirror through electrostatic "bulk cooling" methods. The result

  is analogous to that attained with phase conjugate optics in

  telescopes or imaging devices employing an elastic-type mirror. "We

  spent a lot of time in the [1980s] developing a micro-processor

  interface to a high-voltage power supply ... to control optical

  arrays," he said. "The results were absolutely astounding".

 

  # Using sensitized random access memory (RAM) to detect or transmit

  low levels of near and far-infrared energy. When incorporated into a

  feedback system for temperature stabilization, the RAM could be used

  as "an esoteric IR detector that is simple and reliable," he claimed.

 

  # Low-observable ceramics made from powdered, depleted uranium. The

  resulting dielectric material has approximately 92% the bulk density

  of depleted uranium, but is about 20 times harder. So far, the

  ceramic has been demonstrated in a "stealth artillery shell" that

  cannot be detected by radar. Although the ceramic is of great interest

  to the U.S. Army, "black world" power struggles over ownership of its

  manufacturing process is preventing the material's broad application.

 

  # Short-pulse Doppler radar (SPDR) - which may be the black world's

  term for ultra-wideband radar (UWB) (AW&ST Dec. 4, 1989, p. 38). One

  black-world researcher claimed an over-the-horizon SPDR operating at

  50 kw. output power, transmitting a short pulse with a duty cycle of

  approximatively 0.003, could detect air vehicles 2,500 naut. mi. away

  in all weather conditions. The receiver employed a "Bragg cell

  channelizer", he said.

 

    However, the capability of SPDR to also detect stealthy vehicles

  has kept the technology in the limbo since the mid-1980s. "Anybody

  who brought it up at [a company] got his nose cut off," the scientist

  said. Although he was not familiar with the bitter controversy over

  UWB since 1989, he said the earlier suppression of SPDR "was absolutely

  criminal, because any stealth technology stood out like a sore thumb

  when hit with short-pulse Doppler" (AW&ST Oct. 21, 1991, p 22; Nov. 19,

  1990, p. 18).

 

    Engineers working on highly classified programs cited other

  technologies that appeared to this editor as only military related.

  They said that - if the principles were widely understood - though,

  there would be definite commercial applications.

 

    One was a "thermal signature masking technology ... which is used on

  the B-2 [stealth bomber]," an engineer said. "Basically, it's an

  electrostatic heat transfer phenomena that charges the jet engine

  exhaust stream to disperse the heat - by a factor of about 800. It

  does a remarkable job of altering the thermal signature."

 

    He said the same basic technology, used in wing leading edges, can

  reduce a flying vehicle's radar cross section (RCS) by masking thermal

  signatures created by aerodynamic perturbations of the air. "The radar

  signature of an incoming warhead can be reduced to less than 10%" of

  its normal value, the engineer said. "We found that radar cross

  section has a lot to do with aerodynamics and turbulence - past

  certain speeds."

 

    Electrostatic field-generating techniques in the B-2's wing leading

  edges may help reduce its RCS. The bomber's leading edges posed a

  particularly challenging production problem on the first aircraft,

  and may have been the source of diminished results during early

  stealth flight tests.

 

    In 1968, Aviation Week reported that Northrop was evaluating

  "electrical forces to condition the air flowing around an aircraft at

  supersonic speeds" to reduce drag, heating and sonic boom effects.

  The findings were promising enough to justify funding of additional

  research (AW&ST Jan. 22, p. 21).

 

    By negatively ionizing air molecules ahead of an aircraft, then

  charging the nose to the same polarity, an electrostatic field was

  formed. The field tended to repel or alter the molecules' path as the

  aircraft approached, according to the article.

 

    If the "black world" actually has developed feasible ways to reduce

  airframe drag substantially with controlled electrostatic fields,

  commercial aircraft manufacturers and airlines should be campaigning

  mightily for the technology. The potential fuel and cost savings for

  just American, United and Delta would be staggering.

 

    A scientist said other, more dramatic, classified technologies are

  applicable to lasers, aircraft control and propulsion. However, the

  scientists and engineers were especially hesitant to discuss these

  projects. One said they are "very black. Besides, it would take about

  20 hr. to explain the principles, and very few people would understand

  them anyway."

 

    Whether or not black technology will be released in the near future

  or not will depend more on political power wielded in Washington than

  the recommendations of dissident "insider" factions. It appears that

  most within the intelligence research and development community are

  highly skeptical of even Gates' born-again approach, despite the high

  hopes of openness proponents.

 

    Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney said there was no near-term plan

  to declassify technology now trapped in the "black world". He said the

  need to maintain a qualitative edge over potential adversaries "always

  will take precedence" over economic competitiveness issues (AW&ST Feb.

  17, p. 17).

 

    Whether that status-quo posture will stand in face of intense

  Japanese and European competition during a presidential election year

  is yet to be determined - especially when U.S. and allied contractor

  executives are scrambling anxiously for ways to turn defense

  technology into commercial profits.''

  

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