What is the Fluidic Telescope?

APRIL 28, 2023, by NASA

https://phys.org/news/2023-04-fluidic-telescope.html

Illustration of the current Fluidic Telescope’s (FLUTE’s) concept for a next-generation large space observatory. The space telescope’s mirror would be created in space from liquid materials and would be approximately 164 feet (50 meters) in diameter – half as long as a football field. The optics would be shaped by the natural surface tension force exerted by fluids. 

Credits: NASA

The Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) project team, jointly led by NASA and Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, envisions a way to make huge circular self-healing mirrors in-orbit to further the field of astronomy. Larger telescopes collect more light, and they allow astronomers to peer farther into space and see distant objects in greater detail.

These next-generation large space observatories would study the highest priority astrophysics targets, including first generation stars—the first to shine and flame out after the Big Bang—early galaxies, and Earth-like exoplanets. These observatories could help address one of humanity's most important science questions: "Are we alone in the universe?"

Like a carry-on suitcase, payloads launching to space need to stay within allowable size and weight limits to fly. Already pushing size limits, the state-of-the-art 21 foot (6.5 meter) aperture James Webb Space Telescope needed to be folded up origami-style—including the mirror itself—to fit inside the rocket for its ride to space. The aperture of an optical space observatory refers to the size of the telescope's primary mirror, the surface that collects and focuses incoming light.

The aperture for the space observatory envisioned by FLUTE researchers under the current concept would be approximately 164 feet (50 meters) in diameter—half as long as a football field.

Conventional technology for making optical components for telescopes is literally a grind. It involves an iterative process of sanding and polishing solid materials, such as glass or metal, to shape the precise curved surfaces of lenses and mirrors needed. Using current technologies, scaling up space telescopes to apertures larger than approximately 33 feet (10 meters) in diameter does not appear economically viable.

FLUTE's novel cost-effective technology approach, in contrast, takes advantage of the way fluids naturally behave in microgravity.

All liquids have an elastic-like force that holds them together at their surface. This force is called surface tension. It's what allows some insects to glide across water without sinking and gives water droplets their shape.

Eytan Stibbe aboard the International Space Station during the Axiom-1 (AX-1) mission in April 2022, shown here with his hands in the life sciences glovebox, or LSG, performing the Fluidic Space Optics experiment of Technion and NASA. During the experiment, Stibbe injected liquid polymers into circular frames to form lenses. He subsequently processed the lenses to harden them for later study on Earth. 

Credit: Axiom/NASA/Technion

On Earth, when droplets of water are small enough—0.08 inches (2 millimeters) or smaller—surface tension overcomes gravity, and they remain perfectly spherical, much like droplets of morning dew beading into tiny spheres on plant leaves. If a droplet grows much larger, it gets squished under its own weight. But in space, where fluids are free-floating, unhindered by gravity, even large amounts of liquids assume the most energy efficient shape possible, a perfect sphere.

Liquids can cling to surfaces due to a physical property called adhesion. In microgravity, if a sufficient amount of liquid is made to adhere to the interior surface of a circular, ring-like frame, the liquid will stretch across the inside of the frame and naturally form a curved shape—called a spherical section—thanks to surface tension.

By using the right volume of liquid, it is possible to make the surface of the liquid curve inward instead of bulging outward. If the liquid is reflective, that inwardly curved surface can serve as a telescope mirror.

FLUTE would launch liquids to space as the raw material to make optical components in orbit. The primary mirror would form within a huge circular frame and remain in liquid state with an extremely smooth surface for collecting light. FLUTE's technology approach is theoretically able to scale up to very large sizes. The technology could potentially enable telescopes with apertures measuring 10 times—or even 100 times—larger than telescopes to-date.

A unique feature of the liquid mirror would be its ability to self-repair if damaged in space. For instance, if a micrometeorite impacts the mirror's surface, it would naturally heal itself within a short period of time.

The FLUTE team has conducted small-scale experiments in shaping lenses from liquids in different environments: First using neutral buoyancy space analog conditions in a ground laboratory and then in a series of parabolic microgravity flights and aboard the International Space Station.

With the support of a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I award, the team is working to analyze options for the key components of a fluid telescope observatory, further develop the mission concept, and create an initial plan for a subscale small spacecraft demonstration in low-Earth orbit.

Milestones:December 2021: 

The FLUTE team conducted parabolic flight tests aboard Zero Gravity Corporation's G-FORCE ONE, a modified airplane that provides brief periods of microgravity to enable technology evaluation. The experiment tested the formation of free-standing liquid lenses from synthetic oils of different viscosities.

April 2022: Axiom-1 astronaut Eytan Stibbe conducted a microgravity experiment aboard the space station. The experiment used liquid polymers to form lenses that were hardened in orbit and returned to Earth for analysis. An additional, educational experiment was also performed, during which a large lens—which remained in its liquid state—was formed using regular water.

November 2022: The FLUTE team conducted parabolic flight tests aboard Zero Gravity Corporation's G-FORCE ONE. This set of experiments focused on creating liquid mirrors rather than lenses, which was done using ionic liquids and an alloy of gallium. Gallium is a non-toxic, highly reflective metal that has a very low melting temperature. Pure gallium melts at approximately 85 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning you can melt a piece of gallium by just holding it in your hand.

January 2023: FLUTE was selected by NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program for a Phase I study.

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Space News: Why does this asteroid look like a comet?

 

Why does this asteroid look like a comet? - study

An asteroid has puzzled scientists for years by mimicking comet-like behavior; now, researchers are questioning everything they knew about it.

By JOANIE MARGULIES, Jerusalem Post, APRIL 29, 2023

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-741595

This illustration depicts asteroid Phaethon being heated by the Sun. The asteroid’s surface gets so hot that sodium inside Phaethon’s rock likely vaporizes and vents into space, causing it to brighten like a comet and form a tail. (photo credit: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/IPAC)

Asteroid 3200 Phaethon is known to space researchers as resembling a comet, brightening and forming a tail when approaching the sun. It is also the source of the Geminid meteor shower that occurs annually - even though comets are usually the cause of meteor showers. Now, scientists have identified that this asteroid's abnormal habits are not as connected to the sun as previously thought.

According to a study published in the Planetary Science Journal, the tail of the Phaethon asteroid is not dust from being scorched by the sun, but rather sodium gas. This gives scientists a reason to believe that the gas is the reason for the asteroid's differential behavior.

“Our analysis shows that Phaethon’s comet-like activity cannot be explained by any kind of dust,” said study leader and California Institute of Technology PhD student Qicheng Zhang.

Asteroids are made up mostly of rocks, therefore keeping them from typically forming a tail when approaching the sun. Comets are different - they are comprised of both ice and rock and form tails near the sun as they are vaporized and blasting off any materials on their surface and producing a trail of anything in excess. They leave trails of this material in passing.

When Earth passes a debris trail, that's what creates what we see as a meteor shower - a swarm of shooting stars!

 The Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) imaged asteroid Phaethon through different filters as the asteroid passed near the Sun in May 2022. On the left, the sodium-sensitive orange filter shows the asteroid with a surrounding cloud (credit: ESA/NASA/QICHENG ZHANG)

Phaethon was first discovered by astronomers in 1983 and quickly led them to recognize the orbit as matching the patterns similar to comets, though it was identified as an asteroid instead of a comet.

Back in in 2009, NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spotted a short tail extending from Phaethon as the asteroid reached its closest point to the Sun (or “perihelion”) along its 524-day orbit. According to NASA, regular telescopes hadn’t spotted the tail before because it only forms when the asteroid is too close to the Sun to observe, and is only available to see in solar observatories.

STEREO noticed Phaethon’s tail develop on solar approaches  that came in 2012 and 2016. The way the tail looked supported the theory that dust was escaping the asteroid’s surface when heated by the Sun.

Just a couple of years later, though, a 2018 solar mission captured images of the debris trail revealing something unexpected. NASA's Parker Solar Probe revealed that the trail had more material than Phaethon could realistically shed during approaches to the sun.

According to the research team responsible for the study, this was what sparked their interest in learning more about just what could cause this comet-like behavior.

“Comets often glow brilliantly by sodium emission when very near the Sun, so we suspected sodium could likewise serve a key role in Phaethon’s brightening,” Zhang said.

Thanks to previous research, models and lab tests suggested that the Sun's intense heat during Phaethon's close solar approaches would be able to vaporize sodium that existed within the asteroid, leading it to mimic comet activity.

Years later in 2022, Zhang's team looked for this same pattern during Phaethon's latest solar approach. He used the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft — a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) – complete with color filters able to detect both sodium and dust. Zhang's team tapped into archival images from STEREO and SOHO to identify the tail on the asteroid's 18 close solar approaches between 1997 and 2022.

Spacecraft observations reveal unique asteroid behaviors

SOHO's observations noticed that the asteroid's tail was much brighter in the sodium-detecting filter, though not in the dust-detecting filter. This, combined with the shape of the tail and the way the stream brightened when passing the sun provided evidence that the Phaethon's tail is made of sodium instead of dust.

“Not only do we have a really cool result that kind of upends 14 years of thinking about a well-scrutinized object,” said team member Karl Battams of the Naval Research Laboratory, “but we also did this using data from two heliophysics spacecraft – SOHO and STEREO – that were not at all intended to study phenomena like this.”

This has made Zhang and his team reconsider the identification of many "comets" identified by SOHO, wondering how many of them actually have earned that identification.

“A lot of those other sunskirting ‘comets’ may also not be ‘comets’ in the usual, icy body sense, but may instead be rocky asteroids like Phaethon heated up by the Sun,” Zhang explained.

However, there's still an important question: If Phaethon doesn't shed as much dust as previously though, how can it create the meteor shower effect seen every December?

Zhang's team believes the answer dates back to something disruptive from thousands of years ago. It is possible that part of the asteroid had broken apart under the asteroid's rotation, leading Phaethon to eject more than a billion tons of the material associated with the Geminid debris stream. Still, that initial event remains a mystery to scientists.

This study awaits follow-up research from an upcoming Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission called DESTINY+ (short for Demonstration and Experiment of Space Technology for Interplanetary voyage Phaethon fLyby and dUst Science). In the coming years, the DESTINY+ spacecraft is expected to fly past Phaethon, capturing images of its rocky surface and studying any dust that could be revealed around this puzzling asteroid.             

One of the Weirdest Rocks in the Solar System - 3200 Phaethon

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Space News: Radio wave research has big implications for the field of astrophysics - study

 

Radio wave research has big implications for the field of astrophysics - study

The new tools have the potential to open up exciting new possibilities for the study of astrophysics and other related fields.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, APRIL 28, 2023

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-741515

 

The Andromeda Galaxy is the nearest large spiral galaxy from the Earth, and contains within itself over a trillion stars. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

A new study from the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto has developed new tools to more accurately calculate the probability of multiple radio wave bursts from similar locations, providing valuable insights into the origins and behavior of cosmic events. 

These findings, which have been published in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal, can help to better understand the origins of cosmic events and open up exciting new possibilities for the study of astrophysics and other related fields.

According to Dr. Ziggy Pleunis, a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute, the new tools have the potential to significantly impact the field of astronomy. 

This Hubble Space Telescope snapshot reveals an unusual ''see-through'' galaxy. (credit: NASA/ESA/STSCI/ZILI SHEN (YALE)/PIETER VAN DOKKUM (YALE)/SHANY DANIELI (IAS))

What can these new tools help with?

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and other radio telescopes have made significant strides in detecting fast radio bursts (FRBs) in recent years, with the number of detections growing from a few tens to thousands. 

Dr. Pleunis attributes this growth to CHIME's capacity to scan the entire northern sky every day, giving it an edge over other telescopes in discovering FRBs.

The study also found that some FRBs initially thought to be isolated instances or "one-off" events may actually be repeating but have not been observed for long enough periods to detect subsequent bursts from the source. 

In addition, the team was able to identify likely associated galaxies for two of the repeating FRB sources they observed. This represents a significant step forward in understanding the origins and behavior of FRBs.

Dr. Pleunis noted that studying repeating FRBs can provide valuable insights into the environments in which stellar explosions occur.

FRBs are thought to be produced by the remnants of these explosions, and by investigating them in detail, scientists can learn more about the end stages of a star's life and the materials that are ejected and returned to the galaxies where FRBs are detected.

Overall, this research has far-reaching implications for our understanding of the universe as a whole. By studying these powerful, short-lived radio signals, scientists can gain valuable insights into the complex processes that govern the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies.           

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Ultra-High Energy Absorption Breakthrough: Chinese Researchers Unveil Game-Changing Nanolattice Metamaterials

By CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES APRIL 28, 2023

https://scitechdaily.com/ultra-high-energy-absorption-breakthrough-chinese-researchers-unveil-game-changing-nanolattice-metamaterials/

The SEM image of a FIB-milled quasi-BCC beam nanolattice. Credit: Image from IMP

Mechanical Metamaterials Fabricated With Ultra-high Energy Absorption Capacity

Researchers have created a nanolattice metamaterial with ultra-high energy absorption capacity using ion track technology, achieving a record low beam diameter of 34 nm and demonstrating excellent energy absorption and compressive strength.

Chinese researchers have successfully fabricated mechanical metamaterials with ultra-high energy absorption capacity using the ion track technology. The results were published in Nature Communications as Editors’ Highlights.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Materials Research Center of the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators from Chongqing University.

Mechanical metamaterials refer to a class of composite materials with artificially designed structures, which exhibit extraordinary mechanical properties that traditional materials do not have. Among them, energy absorption mechanical metamaterials can absorb mechanical energy more efficiently, which requires the material itself to equip both high strength and high strain capacity, which, however, hardly co-exist in general.

Nanolattice is a new class of mechanical metamaterials with characteristic sizes on the nanoscale. Due to size effects, geometrical configuration, and material selection, the mechanical properties of this type of porous materials are very different from those of bulk materials. Given its even better mechanical properties with lighter weight, nanolattice is expected to bring revolutionary applications in the field of high-performance functional materials in the future.

Beam-structured nanolattice is the research focus of nanolattice metamaterials. However, it has been so challenging to fabricate metallic beam nanolattice with beam diameter less than 100 nm, and thus its mechanical properties still remain ambiguous.

In this work, based on the Heavy Ion Research Facility at Lanzhou (HIRFL), the researchers fabricated a new type of quasi-body centered cubic (quasi-BCC) beam nanolattice mechanical metamaterial with the ion track technology. The beam diameter of the quasi-BCC nanolattice can be as small as 34 nm, a record low beam diameter of mechanical metamaterials.

Besides, the researchers demonstrated that gold and copper quasi-BCC beam nanolattices have excellent energy absorption capacity and compressive strength. The experiments showed that the energy absorption capacity of the copper quasi-BCC beam nanolattice exceeds that of the previously reported beam nanolattice. The yield strength of the gold and copper quasi-BCC beam nanolattices exceeds that of the corresponding bulk materials at less than half the density of the latter.

Furthermore, the researchers revealed that the extraordinary mechanical properties are mainly due to the synergistic effect of size effects, quasi-BCC geometry, and good ductility of metals.

This study sheds light on the mechanical properties of the beam nanolattices, and applies the ion track technology as a new method for the exploration of beam nanolattice with ultra-high energy absorption capacity.

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Building telescopes on the moon could transform astronomy, and it's becoming an achievable goal

APRIL 19, 2023, by Ian Crawford, The Conversation

https://phys.org/news/2023-04-telescopes-moon-astronomy-goal.html

The far side of the moon is an attractive place to carry out astronomy. 

Credit: NASA / Ernie Wright

Lunar exploration is undergoing a renaissance. Dozens of missions, organized by multiple space agencies—and increasingly by commercial companies—are set to visit the moon by the end of this decade. Most of these will involve small robotic spacecraft, but NASA's ambitious Artemis program, aims to return humans to the lunar surface by the middle of the decade.

There are various reasons for all this activity, including geopolitical posturing and the search for lunar resources, such as water-ice at the lunar poles, which can be extracted and turned into hydrogen and oxygen propellant for rockets. However, science is also sure to be a major beneficiary.

The moon still has much to tell us about the origin and evolution of the solar system. It also has scientific value as a platform for observational astronomy.

The potential role for astronomy of Earth's natural satellite was discussed at a Royal Society meeting earlier this year. The meeting itself had, in part, been sparked by the enhanced access to the lunar surface now in prospect.

Far side benefits

Several types of astronomy would benefit. The most obvious is radio astronomy, which can be conducted from the side of the moon that always faces away from Earth—the far side.

The lunar far side is permanently shielded from the radio signals generated by humans on Earth. During the lunar night, it is also protected from the Sun. These characteristics make it probably the most "radio-quiet" location in the whole solar system as no other planet or moon has a side that permanently faces away from the Earth. It is therefore ideally suited for radio astronomy.

Radio waves are a form of electromagnetic energy—as are, for example, infrared, ultraviolet and visible-light waves. They are defined by having different wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum.

Radio waves with wavelengths longer than about 15m are blocked by Earth's ionoshere. But radio waves at these wavelengths reach the moon's surface unimpeded. For astronomy, this is the last unexplored region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and it is best studied from the lunar far side.

Artist’s conception of the LuSEE-Night radio astronomy experiment on the moon. 

Credit: Nasa/Tricia Talbert

Observations of the cosmos at these wavelengths come under the umbrella of "low frequency radio astronomy." These wavelengths are uniquely able to probe the structure of the early universe, especially the cosmic "dark ages"—an era before the first galaxies formed.

At that time, most of the matter in the universe, excluding the mysterious dark matter, was in the form of neutral hydrogen atoms. These emit and absorb radiation with a characteristic wavelength of 21cm. Radio astronomers have been using this property to study hydrogen clouds in our own galaxy—the Milky Way—since the 1950s.

Because the universe is constantly expanding, the 21cm signal generated by hydrogen in the early universe has been shifted to much longer wavelengths. As a result, hydrogen from the cosmic "dark ages" will appear to us with wavelengths greater than 10m. The lunar far side may be the only place where we can study this.

The astronomer Jack Burns provided a good summary of the relevant science background at the recent Royal Society meeting, calling the far side of the moon a "pristine, quiet platform to conduct low radio frequency observations of the early Universe's Dark Ages, as well as space weather and magnetospheres associated with habitable exoplanets."

Signals from other stars

As Burns says, another potential application of far side radio astronomy is trying to detect radio waves from charged particles trapped by magnetic fields—magnetospheres—of planets orbiting other stars.

This would help to assess how capable these exoplanets are of hosting life. Radio waves from exoplanet magnetospheres would probably have wavelengths greater than 100m, so they would require a radio-quiet environment in space. Again, the far side of the moon will be the best location.

A similar argument can be made for attempts to detect signals from intelligent aliens. And, by opening up an unexplored part of the radio spectrum, there is also the possibility of making serendipitous discoveries of new phenomena.

We should get an indication of the potential of these observations when NASA's LuSEE-Night mission lands on the lunar far side in 2025 or 2026.

Permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles could eventually host infrared telescopes. 

Credit: LROC / ASU / NASA  

Crater depths

The moon also offers opportunities for other types of astronomy as well. Astronomers have lots of experience with optical and infrared telescopes operating in free space, such as the Hubble telescope and JWST. However, the stability of the lunar surface may confer advantages for these types of instrument.

Moreover, there are craters at the lunar poles that receive no sunlight. Telescopes that observe the universe at infrared wavelengths are very sensitive to heat and therefore have to operate at low temperatures. JWST, for example, needs a huge sunshield to protect it from the sun's rays. On the moon, a natural crater rim could provide this shielding for free.

The moon's low gravity may also enable the construction of much larger telescopes than is feasible for free-flying satellites. These considerations have led the astronomer Jean-Pierre Maillard to suggest that the moon may be the future of infrared astronomy.

The cold, stable environment of permanently shadowed craters may also have advantages for the next generation of instruments to detect gravitational waves—"ripples" in space-time caused by processes such as exploding stars and colliding black holes.

Moreover, for billions of years the moon has been bombarded by charged particles from the sun—solar wind—and galactic cosmic rays. The lunar surface may contain a rich record of these processes. Studying them could yield insights into the evolution of both the Sun and the Milky Way.

For all these reasons, astronomy stands to benefit from the current renaissance in lunar exploration. In particular, astronomy is likely to benefit from the infrastructure built up on the moon as lunar exploration proceeds. This will include both transportation infrastructure—rockets, landers and other vehicles—to access the surface, as well as humans and robots on-site to construct and maintain astronomical instruments.

But there is also a tension here: human activities on the lunar far side may create unwanted radio interference, and plans to extract water-ice from shadowed craters might make it difficult for those same craters to be used for astronomy. As my colleagues and I recently argued, we will need to ensure that lunar locations that are uniquely valuable for astronomy are protected in this new age of lunar exploration.

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Space News: Astronomers solve mystery about quasars - and the likely future of the Milky Way

 

Astronomers solve mystery about quasars - and the likely future of the Milky Way

Quasars are objects of very high luminosity found in the centres of some galaxies and can be a trillion times brighter than the sun.

By Niamh Lynch, Sky News reporter, Wednesday 26 April 2023

https://news.sky.com/story/astronomers-solve-mystery-about-quasars-and-the-likely-future-of-the-milky-way-12866482

An artist's impression of a quasar - the brightest and most powerful objects in the universe

Astronomers have solved the mystery of how quasars - the brightest and most powerful objects in the universe - are ignited.

These celestial objects of very high luminosity are found in the centres of some galaxies and can be a trillion times brighter than the sun, according to NASA.

Although first discovered 60 years ago, quasars have remained a mystery because it was unclear how such powerful activity could be generated.

Now, research suggests it is a result of galaxies merging.

Scientists, led by the Universities of Sheffield and Hertfordshire, found what they describe as "the presence of distorted structures" in the galaxies that contain quasars.

The researchers analysed data from the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma, one of the Canary Islands.

The team compared observations of 48 quasars and their host galaxies with images of more than 100 non-quasar galaxies.

At the centre of most galaxies are thought to be supermassive black holes - many million times denser than the sun.

These galaxies also contain substantial amounts of gas that are out of reach of the black holes.

When galaxies collide, the gases are driven toward the black hole where they are then consumed, releasing "extraordinary amounts of energy in the form of radiation, resulting in the characteristic quasar brilliance", according to researchers.

They concluded that galaxies hosting quasars are approximately three times as likely to be interacting or colliding with other galaxies.

Professor Clive Tadhunter, from the University of Sheffield, said: "Quasars are one of the most extreme phenomena in the universe, and what we see is likely to represent the future of our own Milky Way galaxy when it collides with the Andromeda galaxy in about five billion years.

"It's exciting to observe these events and finally understand why they occur - but thankfully Earth won't be anywhere near one of these apocalyptic episodes for quite some time."

Dr Jonny Pierce, from the University of Hertfordshire, said: "It's an area that scientists around the world are keen to learn more about.

"One of the main scientific motivations for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was to study the earliest galaxies in the universe, and Webb is capable of detecting light from even the most distant quasars, emitted nearly 13 billion years ago.

"Quasars play a key role in our understanding of the history of the universe, and possibly also the future of the Milky Way."

The findings were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal.

Quasars and Early Galaxy Formation

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Level 4 Solar Storm, Electrical Fires, Big Earthquake | S0 News Apr.24.2023

Suspicous 0bservers News Apr.24.2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ereCAXudgU

https://youtu.be/5ereCAXudgU

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Defense News: Israel in ‘advanced negotiations’ to sell Arrow 3 to Germany

 

Israel in ‘advanced negotiations’ to sell Arrow 3 to Germany

 By Seth J. Frantzman, Defense News, 20th April 2023

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2023/04/20/israel-in-advanced-negotiations-to-sell-arrow-3-to-germany/

Germany is considering purchasing the Arrow 3 air defense system, jointly developed by Israel and the United States. (Israel Aerospace Industries)

JERUSALEM — The governments of Germany and Israel, as well as Israel Aerospace Industries, are in “advanced negotiations” over delivering the Arrow 3 air defense system to Germany, according to the Israeli Defense Ministry.

The ministry said in an April 20 statement that the countries “have launched discussions regarding the drafting of an agreement for the procurement of the Arrow-3 system.”

IAI Arrow 3 Interceptor

Photos provided by the ministry showed an Israeli delegation in Germany meeting with their counterparts. Moshe Patel, the director of the Israel Missile Defense Organization, led the team and is pictured with several officials, including Col. Carsten Koepper, the head of the program that could see the Arrow 3 exported to Germany, and Israeli personnel associated with the division charged with the country’s upper-tier air defense architecture as well as the head of the Arrow weapon system engineering department.

From left to right, an unnamed person; adviser Nissim Zimber; Lt. Col. R, head of the Arrow weapon system engineering department; Moshe Patel, director of IMDO; Col. T, head of the upper-tier division in the IMDO; and Col. Carsten Koepper, head of the program to export the Arrow 3 to Germany. (Israeli Defense Ministry)

“The launch of advanced negotiations for the delivery of the strategic Arrow-3 system to Germany is an important milestone, which further strengthens the ties between our countries. We look forward to a fruitful negotiation process in the weeks ahead of us,” Patel said.

An export of this kind would be contingent on U.S. approval, the Israeli statement noted, given the Arrow system was jointly developed with the American government.

Israel Aerospace Industries, which is the prime contractor of the system, praised the development. “The cutting-edge Arrow-3 system plays a central role in Israel’s multi-tier air defense array. We value the opportunity to share our capabilities with the partners and allies of the State of Israel. Within the framework of this agreement, we further deepen our security ties between Israel and Germany,” CEO Boaz Levy said.

The Arrow 3 is part of Israel’s multilayered air defense architecture. Along with the Iron Dome and David’s Sling, the Arrow weapon provides the upper tier, which is responsible for intercepting and countering exo-atmospheric ballistic missiles.

The Israel Missile Defense Organization — part of the Defense Ministry’s Directorate for Defense Research and Development — and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency jointly developed the system. In 2015, Israel said the technology successfully engaged a ballistic missile target for the first time. Other successful tests followed, including as recently as 2019.

RAW VIDEO: Arrow 3 missile test in Alaska 2019

Last year, the German Air Force acknowledged it was considering the Arrow 3 as an option to counter threats such as the Russian Iskander missile. The news came in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The announcement of advanced negotiations follows the sale of David’s Sling to Finland. The U.S. also helped develop that air defense system. Israel has also recently sold Spike missiles to Greece, and other countries in Europe have developed Israeli radars made by Elta, a subsidiary of IAI, that are used with the Iron Dome interceptor.

The Israeli Defense Ministry and IAI did not mention the possible value of a contract with Germany or a timeline for negotiations and potential delivery. Neither responded to Defense News’ requests for further details by press time.

Arrow 3 Review: Israel's First Exoatmospheric Anti-Ballistic Missile

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Defense News: Netherlands to procure Israeli-made Rocket launchers

 

Netherlands to procure Israeli-made Rocket launchers

The Dutch army will be equipped with PULS (Precise and Universal Launching System) rocket launchers made by Elbit Land Systems. The value of the deal is estimated at over 0.5 billion euros

By  Eyal Boguslavsky, Israel Defense, 04/20/2023

https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/57934

                                                     The PULS rocket launcher. Photo: Elbit

The Netherlands is about to purchase artillery rocket systems from Israel. The Dutch Minister of Defense, Christoph van der Maat, confirmed that the Dutch army is going to be equipped with PULS (Precise and Universal Launching System) rocket launchers made by Elbit Land Systems. The minister did not disclose the value of the deal, but the Spanish website Infodefensa indicates that its value is estimated at over 0.5 billion euros.

In his announcement, the Dutch minister explained that he has evaluated two systems that meet his requirements: the Himars and the PULS and concludes that the latter stands out in several areas. Compared to the American Himars system, it can carry more missiles, it also makes it possible to buy more rockets with the same budget and they can also be available sooner. And to all this he adds that the PULS will be suitable for ammunition from European manufacturers in the future.

Elbit Systems describes the launcher as an ‘autonomous’ artillery rocket system. Unlike standard artillery, with PULS there is no need to move artillery units based on the required firing range; the versatile solution can fire a variety of ammunition types to various ranges from the same position, to ranges of up to 300km.

The multi-purpose launcher features two PODS; each POD is designed for a specific rocket type: the Accular 122mm (18 rockets) with a range of up to 35km, the Accular 160mm (10 rockets) with a range of up to 40km, the EXTRA (4 rockets) with a range of up to 150km and the Predator Hawk (2 rockets) with a range of up to 300km.

Elbit Systems / PULS™

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