ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Two Sandia National Laboratories employees will soon join the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics class of 2024 as associate fellows. “This distinguished group of professionals has made significant and lasting contributions to the aerospace profession,” said AIAA President and Sandia Deputy Laboratories Director Laura McGill. “They exemplify expertise and dedication to […]
Category Archives: Military / Defense
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Scorpius images to test nuclear stockpile simulations
October 5, 2023 – 1:03 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One thousand feet below the ground, three national defense labs and a remote test site are building Scorpius — a machine as long as a football field — to create images of plutonium as it is compressed with high explosives, creating conditions that exist just prior to a nuclear explosion. These nanosecond […]
The race to build the world’s smallest atomic clock, again
August 29, 2023 – 7:32 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Yuan-Yu Jau is on a quest to build the world’s smallest atomic clock, a device that measures time with extreme accuracy. If successful, he and his team at Sandia National Laboratories will have made one smaller than a sugar cube. But he’s not the only one pushing the limits of tiny timepieces. […]
Detecting threats beyond the limits of human, sensor sight
July 20, 2023 – 9:14 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Remember what it’s like to twirl a sparkler on a summer night? Hold it still and the fire crackles and sparks but twirl it around and the light blurs into a line tracing each whirl and jag you make. A new patented software system developed at Sandia National Laboratories can find the curves […]
An unlikely plan is helping the U.S. fast-track hypersonic conventional weapons
May 1, 2023 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Hypersonic weapons have been a top priority for modernizing the armed forces, with ultrafast, long-range and maneuverable munitions being touted as a revolutionary advance in modern warfare. The U.S. has fast-tracked their development and announced plans to field the first conventional hypersonic missile battery this year. To meet this deadline, some contributing […]
Sandia, AMD collaborate to improve stockpile mission
January 26, 2023 – 9:24 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories, in partnership with Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national labs, has awarded a contract to AMD that funds research and development of advanced memory technologies expected to accelerate high-performance simulation and computing applications in support of the nation’s stockpile stewardship mission. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and […]
Sandia, Intel seek novel memory tech to support stockpile mission
December 12, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In pursuit of novel advanced memory technologies that would accelerate simulation and computing applications in support of the nation’s stockpile stewardship mission, Sandia National Laboratories, in partnership with Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national labs, has announced a research and development contract awarded to Intel Federal LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of […]
Investigating stockpile stewardship applications for world’s largest computer chip
October 17, 2022 – 12:00 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories and its partners announced a new project today to investigate the application of Cerebras Systems‘ Wafer-Scale Engine technology to accelerate advanced simulation and computing applications in support of the nation’s stockpile stewardship mission. The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Advanced Simulation and Computing program is sponsoring the work and Sandia, […]
Radar gets a major makeover
July 19, 2022 – 8:24 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If radars wore pants, a lot of them would still be sporting bell-bottoms. Significant aspects of radar haven’t fundamentally changed since the 1970s, said Kurt Sorensen, a senior manager who oversees the development of high-performance radio frequency imaging technologies at Sandia National Laboratories. Like a record player, most military-grade systems are still […]
Sandia researchers receive two EO Lawrence Awards
July 14, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories pulsed-power physicist Daniel Sinars and quantum information scientist Andrew Landahl have each received 2021 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Awards, the U.S. Department of Energy’s highest scientific mid-career honor. Sinars won in the category “National Security and Nonproliferation;” Landahl in “Computer, Information and Knowledge Sciences.” Susan Seestrom, associate laboratories director for […]
Powerful Sandia machine-learning model shows diamond melting at high pressure
January 26, 2022 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Sandia National Laboratories supercomputer simulation model called SNAP that rapidly predicts the behavior of billions of interacting atoms has captured the melting of diamond when compressed by extreme pressures and temperatures. At several million atmospheres, the rigid carbon lattice of the hardest known substance on Earth is shown in SNAP (Spectral […]
US Department of Labor recognizes Sandia Labs for hiring veterans
January 24, 2022 – 10:26 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — U.S. Secretary of Labor Martin J. Walsh recently recognized Sandia National Laboratories as one of 849 recipients of the 2021 HIRE Vets Medallion Award during a virtual award ceremony presented by the Department of Labor. The Honoring Investments in Recruiting and Employing American Military Veterans Act Medallion Program recognizes employers who successfully […]
This device could usher in GPS-free navigation
October 26, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Don’t let the titanium metal walls or the sapphire windows fool you. It’s what’s on the inside of this small, curious device that could someday kick off a new era of navigation. For over a year, the avocado-sized vacuum chamber has contained a cloud of atoms at the right conditions for precise […]
1 day. 3 rockets. 23 experiments.
October 22, 2021 – 12:18 pm
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One year to design, build and test three rockets. Six weeks to unpack, assemble and test them at the flight range. One day to launch them. Sandia National Laboratories launched three sounding rockets in succession for the Department of Defense on Wednesday. The triple launch was conducted at NASA’s launch range at […]
Imaging tool under development exposes concealed detonators — and their charge
July 22, 2021 – 5:00 am
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Behold the neutron, the middle child of subatomic particles. At times overshadowed by its electrically charged siblings the proton and the electron, neutrons quietly play important roles in national security. They start nuclear reactions for weapons and power plants. They bombard materials for nuclear safety tests. And now they have a new […]