The Defense Department‘s strategic capabilities office aims to repurpose existing military technologies in support of the agency’s third-offset strategy against threats posed by U.S. adversaries, DoD News reported Tuesday.“We selected the area of repurposing not based on fiscal requirements or because we were told go repurpose stuff, but we think it… is the right first disruptive move against opponents of the U.S.,” SCO Director Will Roper told a media roundtable.
Cheryl Pellerin writes Roper pointed to SCO’s efforts to build a miniature umanned aerial vehicle using three-dimensional printing technology, Pellerin reports.
The report said the Perdix micro-UAV is made of commercial components and designed to launch in balloons as well as to support military aircraft in high-threat environments.
Another SCO project focuses on using hypervelocity smart projectiles originally built for the U.S. military’s future electromagnetic railguns to develop a new defensive system.
The organization also seeks to build navigation technology with components that will be derived from smartphone cameras and commercial weapon systems such as small-diameter bombs.
