United States Naval Research Laboratory
The United States Naval Research Laboratory is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological development and prototyping. The laboratory's specialties include plasma physics, space physics, materials science, and tactical electronic warfare. NRL is one of the first US government scientific R&D laboratories, having opened in 1923 at the instigation of Thomas Edison, and is currently under the Office of Naval Research.
As of 2016, NRL was a Navy Working Capital Fund activity, which means it is not a line-item in the US Federal Budget. Instead of direct funding from Congress, all costs, including overhead, were recovered through sponsor-funded research projects. NRL's research expenditures were approximately $1 billion per year.
Research
The Naval Research Laboratory conducts a wide variety of basic research and applied research relevant to the US Navy. NRL scientists and engineers author over 1200 openly published research papers in a wide range of conferences, symposia, and journals each year.It has a history of scientific breakthroughs and technological achievements dating back to its foundation in 1923. In some instances the laboratory's contributions to military technology have been declassified decades after those technologies have become widely adopted.
In 2011, NRL researchers published 1,398 unclassified scientific and technical articles, book chapters and conference proceedings. In 2008, the NRL was ranked No. 3 among all U.S. institutions holding nanotechnology-related patents, behind IBM and the University of California.
Current areas of research at NRL include, for example:
- Advanced radio, optical and infrared sensors
- Autonomous systems
- Computer science, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence
- Communications Technology
- Directed energy technology
- Electronic electro-optical device technology
- Electronic warfare
- Enhanced maintainability, reliability and survivability technology
- Environmental effects on naval systems
- Human-robot interaction
- Imaging research and systems
- Information Security
- Marine geosciences
- Materials
- Meteorology
- Ocean acoustics
- Oceanography
- Optical physics
- Plasma physics
- Space systems and technology
- Surveillance and sensor technology
- Undersea technology
The laboratory includes a range of R&D facilities. 2014 additions included the NRL Nanoscience Institute's Class 100 nanofabrication cleanroom; quiet and ultra-quiet measurement labs; and the Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research.
Notable accomplishments
Space sciences
The Naval Research Laboratory has a long history of spacecraft development. This includes the second, fifth and seventh American satellites in Earth orbit, the first solar-powered satellite, the first surveillance satellite, the first meteorological satellite and the first GPS satellite. Project Vanguard, the first American satellite program, tasked NRL with the design, construction and launch of an artificial satellite, which was accomplished in 1958., Vanguard I and its upper launch stage are still in orbit, making them the longest-lived man-made satellites. Vanguard II was the first satellite to observe the Earth's cloud cover and therefore the first meteorological satellite. NRL's Galactic Radiation and Background I was the first U.S. intelligence satellite, mapping out Soviet radar networks from space. The Global Positioning System was invented at NRL and tested by NRL's Timation series of satellites. The first operational GPS satellite, Timation IV was designed and constructed at NRL.NRL pioneered the study of the sun Ultraviolet and X-Ray spectrum and continues to contribute to the field with satellites like Coriolis launched in 2003. NRL is also responsible for the Tactical Satellite Program with spacecraft launched in 2006, 2009 and 2011.
The NRL designed the first satellite tracking system, Minitrack, which became the prototype for future satellite tracking networks. Prior to the success of surveillance satellites, the iconic parabolic antenna atop NRL's main headquarters in Washington, D.C. was part of Communication Moon Relay, a project that utilized signals bounced off the Moon both for long-distance communications research and surveillance of internal Soviet transmissions during the Cold War.
NRL's spacecraft development program continues today with the TacSat-4 experimental tactical reconnaissance and communication satellite. In addition to spacecraft design, NRL designs and operates spaceborne research instruments and experiments, such as the Strontium Iodide Radiation Instrumentation and RAM Angle and Magnetic field sensor aboard STPSat-5, the Wide-field Imager for Solar PRobe aboard the Parker Solar Probe, and the Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was tested at NRL spacecraft testing facilities, and NRL built its calorimeter, a major subsystem. NRL scientists have most recently contributed leading research to the study of novas and gamma ray bursts.
Meteorology
The Marine Meteorology Division, located in Monterey, California, contributes to weather forecasting in the United States and around the world by publishing imagery from 18 weather satellites. Satellite images of severe weather that are used for advanced warning often originate from NRL–MRY, as seen in 2017 during Hurricane Harvey. NRL is also involved in weather forecasting models such as the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model released in 2007.Materials science
NRL has a long history of contributions to materials science, dating back to the use of Industrial radiography with gamma rays for the nondestructive inspection of metal casings and welds on Navy vessels beginning in the 1920s. Modern mechanical fracture mechanics were pioneered at NRL and were subsequently applied to solve fracture problems in Navy vessels, commercial aircraft and Polaris missiles. That knowledge is in widespread use today in applications ranging from design of nuclear reactors to aircraft, submarines and toxic material storage tanks.NRL developed the synthesis of high-purity GaAs crystals used in a myriad of modern high frequency transceivers including cellular phones, satellite communication systems, commercial and military radar systems including those aboard all US combat aircraft and ARM, Phoenix, AIM-9L and AMRAAM missiles. NRL's GaAs inventions were licensed by Rockwell, Westinghouse, Texas Instruments and Hughes Research. High-purity GaAs is also used for high-efficiency solar cells like those aboard NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers currently on Mars.
NRL discovered solar-wind hydrogen in Apollo lunar soil samples provided by a NASA-funded research mission.
Fundamental aspects of stealth technology were developed at NRL, including the radar absorption mechanisms in ferrite-containing materials. Metal bearing surface treatments using Cr ion implantation researched at NRL nearly tripled the service life of Navy turbine engine parts and was adopted for Army helicopter parts as well. Fluorinated polyurethane coatings developed at NRL are used to line fuel storage tanks throughout the US Navy, reducing leakage and environmental and fuel contamination. The same polymer films are used in Los Angeles-class submarine radomes to repel water and enable radar operation soon after surfacing.
Scientists at NRL frequently contribute theoretical and experimental research on novel materials, particularly magnetic materials and nanomaterials and thermoplastic.