U.S. special operations forces (SOF) have identified more than 1,000 “high-value individuals” using biometrics, says Special Operations Command (Socom). When SOF started using biometrics to identify individuals on the battlefield, they only made a handful of matches, says Craig Archer, chief of identity intelligence for Socom. Now identification is up to a 40% rate, and matches can be often be confirmed in “2 min. or less,” he says. According to Socom, 1,103 high-value individuals have been identified using biometrics.
Israel is preparing to protect its newest strategic resource: a natural gas bonanza in the eastern Mediterranean, parts of which Lebanon and the Palestinians claim are within their territorial waters. Accordingly, the Israeli navy plans to upgrade its arsenal with the acquisition of frigates larger than the warships it has. A lack of funding and minimal support from the defense ministry had halted these plans until recently.
The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was not supposed to live this long. But with the latest slippages in the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and aging fighter forces worldwide, Boeing talks about stretching production to 1,000 aircraft and keeping the line open to the end of the decade, despite the recent loss in India's Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft competition. The program is close to 700 aircraft, including 41 additional U.S. Navy aircraft announced this year to mitigate JSF delays.
Germany will receive equipment upgrades for Afghanistan from Rheinmetall by year-end. The $34 million order consists of four refitted Buffalo armored recovery vehicles and seven road-clearing systems. The Buffalo is a 59-ton tracked armored vehicle that supports, recovers and tows Leopard 2 tanks and other tracked vehicles (see photo). The upgrades include antimine hull reinforcements, and up-armored flanks and top armor to protect against roadside bombs, rocket-propelled grenades and light antitank weapons.
Since its launch in 2010, a Chinese conventional submarine (SSK) has puzzled observers (see top photo). It is bigger than current SSKs and features an unusually large sail, reminiscent of Soviet Golf- and Hotel-class ballistic missile subs. While this has led to speculation that the SSK will perform antiship and antisubmarine missions with an antiship cruise missile, India's reputable Force Magazine reported that a version of the submarine that will be sold to Pakistan could carry a nuclear version of China's CJ-10 cruise missile.
Soldiers at a forward operating base in Afghanistan first fired a 120-mm Precision-Guided Mortar round in March. The bomb hit its target within 4 meters (13 ft.) circular error probable (CEP), a major improvement over conventional mortar fire.
The U.S. Marine Corps and FN Manufacturing, which supplies barrels for most military small arms, will evaluate a ceramic bore coating with enhanced thermal barrier that could substantially reduce barrel temperature during sustained firing. The benefit, says John Massingill, president of Advanced Materials and Processes (AMP) of San Marcos, Texas, is reducing the need to change overheated barrels in battle. Current barrels are steel with chrome bore coatings. Massingill added nanotubes to a ceramic coating, increasing thermal properties.
The biennial International Defense (IDEF) exhibition, held in Istanbul in May, has been a showcase of Turkish and joint development aimed at allowing the country to showcase its military technology. Ankara has ambitious goals in this area and wants not only to develop the local defense industry but to be a factor in the international market.
China was until the late 1990s content to follow Western unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developments and keep pace by copying or purchasing foreign technology. But when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) launched a modernization program in the late 1990s to prepare for possible conflict over Taiwan, development of unmanned systems became a priority. The result has been phenomenal growth in the UAV sector, which engages aircraft, helicopter, cruise missile and model aircraft companies, private concerns and university research centers.
As requirements grow for the proposed DDG-51 Arleigh Burke Flight III-class destroyers, so does concern that the U.S. Navy may try to pack too much into the ships and end up with a program that is behind schedule and over budget. The ship was selected as the fastest and most affordable way to endow the Aegis defense system with enhanced ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability. And yet it is the need to field the radar necessary for BMD upgrades that is driving additional requirements for the DDG-51 Flight III.
Airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft from NATO, the U.S., Britain and France are coordinating air-attack missions and refueling operations over Libya and the Mediterranean on a 24/7 basis. Eight aircraft take turns directing the routes of coalition air forces: three Boeing E-3A Sentry NATO aircraft and two Royal Air Force Boeing E-3Ds forward-based in Trapani, Sicily; two U.S. Air Force E-3B/Cs operating from Souda Bay, Crete; and a French air force E-3D flying from Avord Air Base in central France.
There is an unofficial but lethal drone war taking place over Pakistan, Yemen and Libya that has expanded the area of operation for U.S. forces beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, with no real acknowledgement from the government that anything extraordinary is happening. The undeclared conflict on these three fronts might be the first Drone War, and warfare has never seen anything like it. On just one front of this undeclared war, in Pakistan, the U.S. had launched 37 drone strikes this year as of June and 118 in all of 2010.
Robert Brammer, vice president and chief technology officer of Northrop Grumman Information Systems, has spent more than 40 years working on an array of scientific programs in aerospace and defense—from the Apollo space program to cybersecurity. Among his recent professional concerns—and personal interests—is climate change and the impact it could have on national policy and corporate strategy.
Naval vessels are prey to all sorts of threats when operating in littoral waters. Some of the most dangerous are those that use lasers to guide rockets and missiles—including man-portable systems—to a targeted ship from positions on land or water. One country that is looking to counter this threat through early detection of laser-targeting systems is Canada.
Reviewed By Pat Toensmeier Seal Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper BY Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin St. Martin's Press, 2011 331 pp., $26.99 In 2009, three SEAL snipers took out three Somali pirates simultaneously, firing one shot each from a rolling ship at sea to rescue a hostage held onboard a lifeboat. In May, SEALs killed Osama bin Laden. In both incidents it was the Naval Special Warfare Development Group—Seal Team Six (ST6)—that executed the missions.
In this issue, we look at the question of whether push-button warfare, the ability of one person to kill another on live video, from the other side of the world, has made war too easy (see p. 40). Soldiers and airmen say it does not—but they speak from the perspective of people who will go into harm's way if the mission requires it.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) wants to miniaturize hemispherical resonating-rate gyroscopes—stable, accurate inertial-rate sensors that would be used as navigation aids by soldiers or in micro assemblies such as unmanned aerial vehicles (see photo) and other platforms. Several teams are working on technologies in this area (DTI June, p. 56). One is Systron Donner Inertial (SDI), which specializes in fabricating quartz microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and Tronics, a MEMS microfrabrication house.
As the U.S. Army makes plans for its future after operations wind down in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is looking to small units—platoons and squads—to drive new tactics and technologies. This is apparent in the Army's Brigade Combat Team Modernization program, which is focused on the brigade and below. One emphasis here is communication capabilities that connect small units with each other, while plugging them into larger networks and sensor platforms such as unmanned aerial systems.
French air force and navy Rafale F3 combat aircraft are touted as true “omnirole fighters.” Military officials say there are multirole fighters that conduct reconnaissance, air-to-air combat, air-to-surface attack or deterrence, but only one at a time. The F3 can perform all in a single mission, they maintain. Stephane Reb, Rafale program manager at French procurement agency DGA, explains: “The intention from the outset [with the F3] was to have a joint and omnirole fighter to replace all other aircraft in the air force.”
Glass cockpits and digital displays are as much a part of military operations as night missions. The light emitted by displays can cause problems in the dark, however. For pilots, digital displays create canopy reflections that are distracting and disorienting; for soldiers in vehicles or on foot, the light from a transflective LCD may betray a position. Schott Defense has developed a product that controls light emission by directing the viewing angle of an image toward the user, thereby significantly reducing, even eliminating light signatures.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory found a conductive carbon-fiber nanocoating that provides electromagnetic shielding from high-power microwave and directed-energy weapons. The coating is nickel chemical vapor deposition (NiCVD). Trials were performed by Conductive Composites Co. of Heber City, Utah. A film 50 nanometers to 1-2 microns thick is applied in a continuous process by a NiCVD reactor. The coating is most effective on nonwoven carbon-fiber broad goods such as paper or cloth, but can be applied to felts, foams, woven cloths and Kevlar.
A new main battle tank (MBT), wheeled armored fighting vehicles (AFV) and a mine-resistant vehicle are the latest additions to the growing range of Turkish armor. The Altay MBT was shown, albeit as a mock-up, at the International Defense Exhibition (IDEF) here in May. A joint effort of Turkish companies Otokar, Aselsan and Roketsan, and international technology partner Hyundai Rotem of South Korea, it will be the mainstay of the Turkish armored force.
Extreme endurance is a desirable quality for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Very-long-endurance UAVs reduce landings and takeoffs, reducing the need for ground crews. They can be based far from an area of operations, where crews are not subject to attack. Long endurance also translates into responsiveness, if the vehicle can be loitering for days close to an area of interest.
Sending high-resolution videos or photos from an airborne platform via satellite usually calls for a large, heavy antenna. This may change for French forces. An airborne satcom developed by Thales Alenia Space and Thales Defense and Security C4I Systems will enable mission aircraft to transmit 10 megabytes of visual data/sec., by bouncing the signal off a Ka-bandwidth satellite built by Thales Alenia Space. The key to the operation is a flat antenna, 80 X 30 cm (31.5 X 11.8 in.), on the body of an aircraft.
BAE Systems Bofors will start delivering its fourth-generation 40-mm naval gun system, the Mk 4, by 2012, following firing trials that began this year. The Mk 4 is lighter, more compact and flexible, and less expensive to operate than the predecessor Mk 3. It is designed to meet evolving operational requirements, while retaining the proven 40/70-mm gun.
