Within months, a radical Israeli-developed display technology will be released to consumers, allowing users to watch high-definition video on lightweight screens worn like eyewear, or to overlay text and graphics on the real world. The same technology is in service with the U.S. Air Force on Lockheed Martin AC-130 gunships and is being tested for General Dynamics F-16s and Fairchild Republic A-10s, and could solve a problem for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.
The Indian army plans to release a global request for information for 12 aerostats of different sizes within the next 12 months. Responses are expected from major contractors such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Rosoboronexport, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, BAE, Israel Aerospace Industries and Thales. There is, however, a growing trend to tap Indian companies for specialized product needs.
Israel has begun the follow-on phase of the Digital Army Program, or DAP (also known as Tzayad, the Hebrew acronym for “ground forces digitalization”), which will extend the fielding of digital systems to more divisions. The prime contractor, Elbit Systems, announced the receipt of a $40 million order from the defense ministry, which is part of a multi-year program that is valued at $300 million. The program is to be completed over several years. DAP is currently in the advanced implementation part of Phase One.
A new center of German cyberdefense has opened here, tasked with speeding responses to Internet-based attacks on sensitive domestic targets and guarding a national digital economy pegged at €100 billion ($143 billion).
If scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) get their way, in a few years there may be networked clusters of dozens or even hundreds of small, cheap, easily replaceable satellites working together in place of the large, expensive and difficult-to-replace birds now in orbit.
France plans to acquire or lease an unspecified number of F-Heron TP medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Dassault Aviation. F-Heron TP will be based on the Heron TP operational with the Israeli air force. France wants it to replace the Harfang (Heron I) by 2014. Harfang, built by IAI and equipped by EADS, is operational with the French air force in Afghanistan. F-Heron TP is expected to remain in service until the early 2020s, as the new Telemos MALE UAV matures.
Rheinmetall has developed an economical solution for programming the fuze of its battle-proven DM11 120-mm high-explosive shell after it is loaded in a tank gun. The German company self-financed the development of a programmer kit that can be readily installed in a Leopard 2 or other tank with a 120-mm gun, with minor modifications and additional components.
The 155-mm/52-cal. PzH (Panzerhaubitze) 2000, developed by Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) and Rhein- metall Defense, is the gold standard of self-propelled artillery. It is also heavy—56 tons—and expensive. While the weapon is formidable, many armies want self-propelled artillery with greater strategic mobility and lower cost. Two candidates from KMW and Rheinmetall meet this need. KMW's entry is Donar (an ancient Germanic god of fire), a tracked system. The Rheinmetall weapon is the RWG-52, a wheeled platform. (RWG means Rheinmetall Wheeled Gun.)
The Soviet-made SA-6 Gainful (2K12 Kub) mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system was for decades one of the biggest threats to Western air forces. It is widespread in Eastern Europe and many other countries and has been upgraded numerous times over the years—nine times by Russia alone. The latest modernization combines work by Retia of the Czech Republic, which improved the electronics and capabilities of the system, with MBDA's semi-active, rocket-powered Aspide 2000 missile that replaces the original 9M9 missile, which has reached the end of its life.
High-intensity wars have been the domain of industrial militaries. These forces brought advanced technologies to the battlefield and prevailed with them through tactical leadership, discipline, superior logistics and political will.
On the edge of a World War II Royal Air Force station here that now houses a few private aircraft is the headquarters of Supacat Ltd. Its recent history and current plans highlight the sometimes challenging relationship between small, innovative companies and the military's urgent operational requirement process.
Contrary to the belief that smallpox is gone, there are at least two places where the virulent virus can be found. It is locked away in secure laboratories in Atlanta and the Russian city of Novisibirsk in Siberia. Pressure is mounting on the U.S. and Russia to destroy all remaining samples of the Variola virus that causes the disease. Both countries have resisted, claiming that the stocks are still vital and needed for study, especially for vaccination research in the event of an outbreak sparked by bioterrorism.
The evolving future of U.S. Army aviation will be on display Sept. 15-16 at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, as three of the service's project offices—Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Apache Attack Helicopter and Armed Scout Helicopter—stage an exercise demonstrating how manned and unmanned aircraft can work together in combat. The Army calls the exercise Music, for Manned-Unmanned Systems Integration Capability.
A significant aspect of the Aug. 6 shoot-down of a U.S. Army Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter by a militant's rocket-propelled grenade in Wardak, Afghanistan, which killed all 38 Afghan and American forces onboard—25 of whom were members of U.S. special operations—is that while the bird was on a special forces mission, it wasn't a special operations aircraft.
Recent months have seemed to be the best of times and the worst of times for the U.K.'s next-generation aircraft carrier program. The respected National Audit Office (NAO) published a detailed and damning report on the program's management. But before Parliament went into recess on July 22, Secretary of State for Defense Liam Fox seemed to say that the carriers are at the heart of the U.K.'s future defense capabilities, and will remain so.
As the Pentagon braces for recommendations from the 12-member congressional “Super Committee” tasked with finding a further $1.2 trillion in budget cuts this fall—on top of $350 billion already requested over 10 years—it could soon be lights out for some major defense programs. When it comes to the Army, which has already jettisoned the Future Combat Systems modernization plan along with other programs over the past several years, the cuts may strike at the heart of the service: the manned ground vehicle fleet.
Soldiers and law-enforcement personnel use non-lethal 40-mm sponge grenades to subdue rioters. With velocity of 70-110 meters (230-360 ft.)/sec., the projectile is accurate between 20 and 50 meters, so large it won't penetrate the body, and the deformable sponge nose packs a wallop that stuns a target. Nevertheless, with muzzle kinetic energy of 120-170 joules (88-125 ft.-lb.), a grenade can inflict lethal trauma, especially if fired at close range.
In urban battle zones, security checkpoints can be dangerous and traffic stops sometimes tragic. Miscommunication between civilian drivers and soldiers manning the checkpoints can lead to injury or death. A vehicle that doesn't slow down, however, could be a threat. German researchers are pursuing chemical technology that simplifies the situation: a mix of extinguisher chemicals that will shut down an internal combustion engine.
For the record, Israel lacks an “adequate response to targeted cyberattacks in the civilian sector,” says Isaac Ben-Israel, chairman of the National Council for Research and Development. However, this does not mean that the government, military and business communities are clueless when it comes to cyberdefense, or incapable of launching cyberattacks.
Experts in industrial control security fear the lesson of the world's most advanced malware is being forgotten: a glaring vulnerability in many countries' critical infrastructures. Even if the U.S. or Israel were responsible for the attack on Iran's nuclear infrastructure, there's no guarantee that other countries couldn't learn from the lesson of Stuxnet and use similar techniques to attack U.S. or Western facilities.
Acoustic sniper detection systems have been a component of military and security operations for several years. As the technology evolves, systems are becoming easier to install and use in a range of vehicles. The latest example is the Acoustic Shooter Location System (ASLS) from Rheinmetall Defense of Germany.
The takeaway from the U.S. Army's biennial Network Integration Exercise at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., and nearby Fort Bliss, Texas, this time around wasn't all about the network—at least not completely. It was about integration, experimentation with new technologies not yet in the Army budget cycle and the acquisition process itself. The tests aren't only “all about hardware,” says Paul Mehney of the Army's Program Executive Office Integration. “It's also about changing the culture” of how and what the Army buys.
Defense research, development and procurement in the U.S. are likely to take massive hits. Budgets have been rising for years, and even an $800 billion cut through 2020 leaves base budget levels above those of the George W. Bush administration. That puts those who argue for ring-fencing defense on shaky ground. But operations, maintenance and personnel costs are predicted to rise, squeezing procurement and R&D. This follows the pattern of previous drawdowns, when the percentage decline in investment far exceeded the cuts to operations and people.
Israel's leading defense electronics company, Elbit Systems of Haifa, has for more than 30 years been expanding via mergers, acquisitions and organic growth, becoming widely known as a multibillion-dollar global supplier of defense electronics, C4ISR (command, control, communications and computers/intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) technologies and systems, and unmanned air and ground vehicles. Elbit is also diversifying into businesses where its core technologies serve as a foundation for new and potentially lucrative ventures.
