News

APL — in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Navy — demonstrated the capability to detect, track, engage and intercept a medium-range ballistic missile target in the terminal phase of flight.

Researchers from APL and the University of Colorado Boulder are teaming up on a project to better understand and eventually predict wear and damage affecting thermal protection systems.

AIAA, or the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, is the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the aerospace profession, with more than 30,000 members worldwide. APL’s Kyle Zittle has been involved with the society since his student days at the University of Maryland and was recently named the director of AIAA Region 1.

APL researchers are reenergizing the thermal battery market with technology that enables smaller, yet more powerful batteries to power missile systems.

The SURPASS program forged between Johns Hopkins APL and the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering seeks cutting-edge ideas that “go beyond the possible” — and the problem-solving proposals funded in the initiative’s first year indicate that researchers are up to the challenge.

APL — in cooperation with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the United States Missile Defense Agency — played a key role in live-fire intercept demonstrations of the Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) and SM-3 guided missiles.

Johns Hopkins APL has been selected to lead a test campaign to collect critical radiation effects data for a wide range of materials to support future Department of Defense programs.

For a career of leadership and technical contributions to the nation’s missile defense programs, Joseph Mulé has earned the Missile Defense Agency’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense Pathfinder Award. He is the sixth Johns Hopkins APL staff member to receive the prestigious honor.

Submitting a Request for Analysis for AN/TPY-2 radar search plans used to be a long process that produced a limited result, but APL has conceptualized a way to transform a static document into a dynamic computer program, known as a planner.

Recognizing the leadership and technical contributions of two Johns Hopkins APL staff members, the Society of Women Engineers has honored Alice Bowman with the prestigious 2022 Resnik Challenger Medal and Kerri Phillips with its Emerging Leader Award.

James Miller and David Van Wie have been appointed to the Defense Science Board, a federal advisory committee chartered to provide Department of Defense leadership with independent advice and recommendations on matters related to strengthening national security.

A new technology’s value depends on whether people can actually use it. APL engineers played key roles in developing a Human Readiness Level scale, designed to indicate a system’s readiness for use by humans.

Years of APL engineering and technical leadership for the Missile Defense Agency Ground Sensors Directorate culminated last December as Lockheed Martin built and installed the multimission Long Range Discrimination Radar at Clear Space Force Station, Alaska.

Engineers at Johns Hopkins APL are addressing the challenges of collaborating across wide physical distances by taking advantage of new technologies, designing and implementing the Mixed Reality Collaboration Environment framework, or REACTOR. This unique system allows subject-matter experts and analysts to interact and collaborate globally, with no externally hosted servers and with the capability to customize the approach to the user’s needs.

Sylvie DeLaHunt, a senior guidance, navigation and control engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, has been honored with a WE Local 2022 Engaged Advocate Award from the Society of Women Engineers.

As one of 120 women in STEM to be honored with a statue on the National Mall, Johns Hopkins APL’s Ciara Sivels is part of the #IfThenSheCan exhibit, the centerpiece of the Smithsonian’s Women’s Futures Month. Her statue is on display in the National Air and Space Museum through March 27.

Three APL staff members were recently named as fellows to prestigious technical organizations across the country.

Marine veteran and APL engineer Justin Peters leads with enthusiasm — for his field of study, his colleagues and the warfighters he serves. Peters deeply enjoys the multiple roles he plays at APL, from his official job as a chief engineer to his informal role as a trusted advisor to colleagues who rely on his expertise in the niche field of explosives engineering.

David Van Wie, an internationally renowned expert in aerospace engineering and head of the Air and Missile Defense Sector at Johns Hopkins APL, was awarded the 2021 von Kármán Lectureship in Astronautics from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

An APL team led the development of system requirements for the Shipboard Passive Electro-Optical Infrared (SPEIR) program. SPEIR acts as a visual surveillance system providing persistent high-resolution image processing to operators from a new set of electro-optical/infrared cameras installed above the ship deck.

APL has been working with the U.S. Army to develop an experimental prototype for the Multi-Domain Task Force for situational awareness, targeting and intelligence preparation of the operational environment at the security level of the unit.

Graeme Smith is passionate about sharing knowledge and inspiring others. Serving as an associate editor for IEEE’s Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems allows him to contribute to the field and advocate for Johns Hopkins APL.

Raytheon and APL delivered the first Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) AN/SPY-6 (SPY-6) array for installation to the U.S. Navy for DDG-125, the latest destroyer in the Arleigh Burke class.

Six engineers and scientists from APL have earned Black Engineer of the Year Awards, joining a cadre of Laboratory staff members who have been recognized by the organization.

Engineers from Johns Hopkins APL, U.S. Navy sailors and industry partners watched years of work pay off when the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) successfully executed the first live-fire test of the Mark 57 Vertical Launching System with a Standard Missile-2 (SM‑2).

FTM-44 was a key demonstration of the Aegis Weapons System, using the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile to defeat a simple intercontinental ballistic missile threat. This facilitates the potential contribution of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense to a layered homeland defense architecture and augments the Ground-based Midcourse System.

Imagine an airport security zone where there's no lines, no traditional scanner, no pat-down. It might sound like security measures have been seriously relaxed, but really, they are more effective than ever – and everyone even keeps their shoes on.

Danielle Chou, a project manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in the Air and Missile Defense Sector, recently accepted a one-year AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship to work with the Department of Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office in Washington, D.C.

In late 2016, APL received a Missile Defense Agency (MDA) request to develop an advanced prototype of the next-generation mission planning tool, which MDA named Cerberus, in three years. APL demonstrated an initial working version in just twelve months.

NASA may be best known for focusing on what’s beyond Earth’s atmosphere, but the agency also has another role — searching for human life on our home planet, especially when those lives are in danger. APL staff members are working with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and its partners to upgrade NASA’s Search and Rescue system.

In January, the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) — part of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group — left San Diego for a scheduled Indo-Pacific deployment. Along with 6,000 service members spread between several ships is a new experimental unit designed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory that could one day change the way the Navy plans for defeating anti-ship missile attacks.

Jamie Porter, Mareena Robinson Snowden and Ciara Sivels were each the first black woman to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in nuclear engineering from their respective colleges. Now, they work in three different sectors at APL, dedicating their time and their brains to important challenges facing the nation — with an eye toward furthering a sea change in their wake.

As technical direction agent (TDA) for the SM-3 program, APL conducts analyses, risk assessments and critical experiments in key areas.

Johns Hopkins APL's Bob Reichert was recently honored with the Pathfinder Award from the Missile Defense Agency’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program.

Is hypersonic flight the next big thing? Among strong Johns Hopkins APL representation at the forum, Dave Van Wie was part of a panel that explored the state and potential of hypersonics technologies, the accomplishments and lessons learned, new developments, and remaining challenges to achieving reliable and sustained hypersonic flight.

As the new leader of the technical direction agent activity for the Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, Johns Hopkins APL will act as a key technical advisor for the government, providing technical expertise to conduct analyses, risk assessments and critical experiments in key areas.

In August, Zachary Burchfield represented Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in the Office of Naval Research’s Stratified Ocean Dynamics of the Arctic (SODA) initiative.

Patrick Stadter has earned the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Award for Exceptional Public Service, the highest such honor presented to a civilian by the Air Force.

Some people build race cars in their garages, others start a band in their basement, but few make equipment as a hobby that will help clean up the environment half a world away.

Ciara Sivels was selected as one of the 125 AAAS IF/THEN Ambassadors. IF/THEN seeks to further women in STEM by empowering current innovators and inspiring the next generation of pioneers.

The Air and Missile Defense Sector’s Evolve team, which aims to inspire staff members to lead no matter their position, hosted a Future Innovators STEM Kit Demo day on July 19 at APL’s Laurel, Maryland, campus, part of the Laboratory’s ongoing partnership with the United Way of Central Maryland.

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has tapped David Van Wie to head its Air and Missile Defense Sector, where he will oversee all work related to an APL mission that traces its roots to the Laboratory’s founding project: the radio proximity fuze.

Engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, working with industry partners, the Missile Defense Agency, and U.S. Navy sailors manning the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex (AAMDTC), played a key role in successfully intercepting an intermediate-range ballistic missile target using a Standard-Missile (SM)-3 Block IIA missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii.

Johns Hopkins APL earned first place overall and Election Forecaster honors in the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) Geopolitical Forecasting Challenge.

Engineers from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and U.S. Navy sailors aboard the U.S.S. John Finn (DDG-113) played a key role in the successful live-fire intercept using the new Standard Missile-3 Block IIA guided missile during an October 26, 2018, flight test off the west coast of Hawaii.

Staff members from the Air and Missile Defense Sector (AMDS) at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have collected more than 15,000 books for children living below the poverty line in the local area.

Sylvie DeLaHunt, a guidance, navigation and control engineer in the Air and Missile Defense Department, was among those honored at the Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council’s 16th annual Diversity Recognition Awards, held May 15 on JHU’s Homewood campus.

A team of engineers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), in Laurel, Maryland, has successfully demonstrated a high-bandwidth, free-space optical (FSO) communications system between two moving ships, proving operational utility of FSO technology in the maritime environment.

Vishal Giare has been named mission area executive for Air and Missile Defense at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

Engineers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Japan Ministry of Defense, and U.S. Navy sailors aboard USS John Paul Jones (DDG-53), played a key role in the first live-fire intercept using the new Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA guided missile during a Feb. 3 flight test off the west coast of Hawaii.

A team of APL engineers, working with the Missile Defense Agency and Sailors aboard USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53), played a key role in the successful firing of two Standard Missile-6 Dual I missiles against a complex, medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) target, demonstrating the Sea Based Terminal endo-atmospheric defensive capability during a flight test off the coast of Hawaii Dec. 14.

Mike White has been named head of the Air and Missile Defense Sector at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. As sector head, White will oversee all work related to an APL mission that traces its roots to the Laboratory’s founding project, the radio proximity fuze.

Engineers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in cooperation with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and U.S. Navy, played a key role in the first intercept flight test of the Aegis Ashore system, resulting in the successful intercept and destruction of a ballistic missile target at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF).

Engineers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in cooperation with the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the U.S. Navy, U.S. European Command and U.S. Pacific Command, played a key role in an MDA Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) operational test event.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, played a key role in the successful completion of a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA flight test in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and industry partners.

The Navy executed a successful flight test of the surface-to-air Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) at White Sands Missile Range Aug. 14.

Engineers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) played a major role in the successful intercept of a ballistic missile target with the second-generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System and Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IB guided missile.

Engineers from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., played an important role in the successful intercept of a separating ballistic missile target with the second-generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System and two SM-3 Block IB guided missiles.

Gary Sullins, an aerospace engineer and supervisor, was presented with a Missile Defense Agency Technology Achievement Award March 24 during the eighth annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference in Washington, D.C.