After a year's work, MBDA's KFK missile carried out its first test-firing Sept. 19 at a military training center in Baumholder, Germany. The demonstration, witnessed by German officials, saw two successful unguided firings with the missile traveling the planned distance in each case, the company stated recently. MBDA and “various” government agencies have been funding missile development.
The defector they all talk about here is the 18-year-old North Korean soldier who, on Oct. 6, shot his two superiors at a guard post near the border and then ran 400 meters (1,312 ft.) to freedom while being cheered on with a megaphone by South Korean counterparts at their border post.
Military officials have long expected the scenario where a tank is hit by an artillery shell doctored with chemical weapons, splashing sulfur mustard agent across its hull and likely rendering the vehicle useless due to uncertainty. Now, not only can engineers more easily decontaminate the vehicle using paint being developed by the U.K.'s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), it is increasingly likely that this paint will be able to change color to indicate exactly what is contaminated.
Although France's relationship with its last monarchs was not a happy one, the nation's navy is fondly referred to as “La Royale.” This has little to do with the service's history that goes back to France's royal past, but more to do with the fact that naval headquarters are (for another two years at least) in a splendid building on the Rue Royale in Paris. There, Aviation Week Contributing European Editor Christina Mackenzie caught up with Adm.
UAVs have largely been used for passive tasks in controlled skies such as surveillance and reconnaissance. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a three-year, $649,999 grant to researchers at Drexel University of Philadelphia to examine the feasibility of attaching dexterous limbs to hovering UAVs, with the idea of using them in situations ranging from search-and-rescue to emergency response and infrastructure repair. Engineering Prof.
Iran on Sept. 21 revealed four copies of its Ra'd (Thunder) surface-to-air-missile system, with each transporter carrying three Taer (Bird) missiles. Iranian military officials told the Fars News Agency that the Taer has a range of up to 50 km (31 mi.) and can reach an altitude of 75,000 ft. They said it was in production for the Iranian armed forces. However, Iran likely did not develop this missile indigenously, and while its configuration defies clear determination of its parentage, Western missile experts believe it is likely either Russian or Chinese.
Poland recently announced plans to replace some of its Soviet-built fighter aircraft with armed UAVs. “By 2018, we should have three squadrons [of armed UAVs],” says Waldemar Skrzypczak, Poland's vice minister of defense. He adds that the country's armed forces might purchase up to 30 combat UAVs. Since joining NATO, Poland has already upgraded its air force with 48 U.S.-built F-16C/D Block 52 aircraft, but the country still has more than several dozen aging Su-22 fighters.
Combat medicine has traditionally focused on stabilization and transport, to get casualties back to a treatment center. However, a group of European researchers, universities and technology companies are developing systems and imaging equipment to move the way forward in robotic and remote surgeries—complex automated and machine-assisted operations that could deliver the surgeon's skills closer to the battlefield.
The U.S. Army has gained a tool in its efforts to combat improvised explosive devices (IEDs): software that uses algorithms based on geospatial abduction to predict where IED caches in Afghanistan are hidden. The information is based on attacks and other intelligence. The software is called C-Scare/A – as in Combat-Scare/Afghanistan, with Scare an acronym for Spatio-Cultural Abductive Reasoning Engine. The software was fine-tuned by students and faculty at the U.S.
Several European defense and security contractors showed their wares together last month at the Integrated Mobile Security Kit (IMSK), a European Union project that enables security teams at high-profile events such as economic summits to deliver improved security through better situational awareness. Finmeccanica's Selex Galileo led a team of 26 partner organizations during the demonstration at Hylands House in Chelmsford, England, on Sept. 20.
Researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi led by Prof. Robert Lochhead have developed a high-performance color cosmetic coating that is designed to protect faces and hands from the intense heat associated with blasts from IEDs. According to InnovationNewsDaily, the waterproof material, which can be colorless or supplied as camouflage paint, resists the 600C (1,112F) temperature of an IED's thermal wave, which immediately follows the high-pressure blast wave. A thermal wave typically lasts for 2 sec.
As he predicted earlier to Aviation Week, Barrett Brown, an activist who occasionally has acted as a spokesman for hackers aligned with the Antisec and Lulzsec groups, was arrested last month and charged with threatening a U.S. federal officer. Brown was later remanded into custody without bail. Interestingly, the federal website that posted details of his detention had a cross-site scripting vulnerability, enabling outsiders to amend records of Brown's arrest (in the screen grab above, details altered include the Race field, which reads “Twilight Vampirelulz”).
MBDA Germany reports the successful test of a 40-kw fiber laser (left photo). The company says the demonstration was the first time its patented beam-coupling technology had been used. The laser tracked and destroyed targets—such as mortars—in seconds and penetrated 40-mm (1.57-in.) steel plate. This fall, MBDA will expand laser testing to include detection and destruction of a flying target. Meanwhile, the U.S. Office of Naval Research is calling for development of a shipboard laser by 2016.
Rheinmetall Airborne Systems and Swiss UAV are teaming to offer a hybrid UAV—part helicopter, part fixed-wing aircraft—that they say will perform a wide range of missions. The TU-150, still in concept phase, was unveiled at the ILA Berlin Airshow last month. Rheinmetall says the TU-150 will join the company's existing airborne platforms, creating a “product family.” Hybrid helo/winged UAVs are nothing new—there was the ill-fated Bell Eagle Eye for the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army has eyed a potentially unmanned Quad Tiltrotor idea from Bell Helicopter Textron for years.
The U.S. Homeland Security Department (DHS) is taking its cues from tuna. The department's Science and Technology Directorate is funding development of an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) designed to resemble a tuna, called the BIOSwimmer, because tuna have a natural body framework ideal for meeting propulsion and maneuverability problems that plague conventional UUVs. “It's called 'biomimetics.' We're using nature as a basis for design and engineering a system that works exceedingly well,” says David Taylor, DHS program manager for the BIOSwimmer.
As contractors make greater use of composites and high-strength metals in aircraft structures, attention is focusing on ways of improving manufacturing productivity and reducing per-part cost. One technique to emerge for the machining of parts is cryogenic cooling, which can increase machining speed, reduce cutting force, extend cutting tool life, and lower the time and cost required to finish components.
