⚡️ POWER: RTX awarded $10M to build aerial ‘Energy Web’ for US military

Like an internet for electricity, the US military is developing a scheme that will see a network of blimps and drones across battlespaces that are able to redirect energy to aerial and ground robots fighting behind enemy lines.

No longer constrained by fuel convoy ambushes or tethered to distant generators, swarms of sensors and lethal munitions accessing this laser-linked power grid could remain indefinitely over target areas.

While still firmly conceptual, the foundations are being laid, and the funding is allocated to build an unprecedented capability to distribute power across hundreds of square miles as easily as data moves globally through data clouds today. Learn more in today’s Must Read.

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Like WiFi hotspots furnishing internet across cities, invisible “energy webs” could soon project power to troops in warzones from aerial hubs.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has granted RTX (a Raytheon company) $10 million to develop an airborne laser grid transmitting wireless energy. Called the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay program, POWER for short, the system aims to create resilient optical relay networks rapidly redirecting energy across land, sea and air military assets as needed without resupply.

Solar power harvested from safe zones could be beamed to deployed forward robots and sensors, reducing the need for vulnerable fuel convoys. By enabling flexible energy flows, the innovative technology could provide commanders unmatched capability to dominate modern battlespaces.

Researchers developed two artificial DNA nucleotides that flawlessly bind with natural pairs, validating their integration into life’s machinery. The amended six-letter genetic alphabet, created using a system called AEGIS, was accurately processed by enzymes that read and build proteins. By mimicking the geometry of standard adenine and thymine, the novel substitutes sneak in as guanine and cytosine analogs. The breakthrough now allows engineering custom proteins with tailored medical or industrial properties. Learn how expanding DNA’s dictionary unlocks new biological potential.

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