Russia continues to reform its military to face regional threats, the most serious of which comes from the Caucasus. The new military doctrine approved in February 2010 marks the transition from the threat perception of the Cold War to a more realistic scenario. The doctrine recognizes the decreased possibility of a large-scale war being launched against Russia, while identifying conflicts in neighboring regions and terrorism as among the major external threats.
The German army has become the first service to disclose the operational use of infantry-portable fuel cell systems to replace batteries. German forces in Afghanistan are using the Jenny methanol fuel cell system from SFC Energy AG of Munich, which won the Pentagon’s energy prize in 2008. Two substantial orders were placed during 2010, and Austria is using the new system, according to SFC executives at October’s Future Soldier conference here.
Compact weapons need compact guidance systems. Atlantic Inertial Systems, a unit of Goodrich Corp., designed a 1-cu.-in. inertial measurement device called MinIM. The component weighs less than 2 oz., making it substantially smaller and lighter than the previous generation of inertial guidance devices. MinIM measures rotational and linear acceleration, and provides guidance, navigation and control in a range of small weapons.
In the last two years, North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon, sunk a South Korean ship and killed 46 sailors, and now killed two more South Korean servicemen in another act of cold-blooded murder. Why does North Korea continue its provocations? The answer is obvious: because it gets away with them. Brinksmanship brings global prominence and economic aid, as the international community prefers to offer a few carrots rather than force a confrontation with an unpredictable state.
India is expected to increase defense spending for Fiscal 2011 (April-March 2012) by 10%, which would add approximately $3.2 billion to annual expenditures. Firm numbers will not be released until March.
The next big development in robotic land vehicles may come from truck manufacturer Oshkosh Defense. The company has developed an autonomous navigation kit for use on its Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV). Called TerraMax, the kit, which can be added during manufacturing or as a retrofit, converts the truck to an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), which can operate autonomously in a leader-follower mode where it follows the route of a lead vehicle, or with supervision from an escort vehicle at a safe standoff distance.
Two of the longest-range sniper kills in Afghanistan have been by British forces firing the L115A3 rifle from Accuracy International (AI), a U.K. specialist in precision rifles. The weapon, which the company calls the AW338, made the news last May when a sniper in the Household Cavalry killed two Taliban insurgents firing a machine gun at British troops, with a 1.54-mi. shot—confirmed by GPS—in perfect shooting conditions (high elevation, clear day, no wind). A third round disabled the machine gun.
Bill Sweetman (Washington), Pat Toensmeier (New York)
SAIC supplies engineering and technical capabilities in areas as diverse as sensors, battlefield biometrics, testing, training and simulation, networked communications, high-power microwave systems that disrupt communications or disable vehicles, nanotechnology, energy and environment, and medicine. As a result, it has become a go-to provider of critical services.
As developers of UAVs look for ways to increase performance, more than a few innovative concepts are jumping off the drawing board and taking flight. One such is Zephyr, a solar-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance UAV from Qinetiq of the U.K., a specialist in technology development and small-scale production. Zephyr combines a number of design features that are of interest for UAV operations. One is low weight. Although it has a wingspan of 22.5 meters (73.8 ft.), the ultralight carbon-fiber wing that comprises most of the structure weighs only about 50 kg. (110 lb.).
It has been a long road for the U.S. Army’s big modernization initiative, once known as Future Combat Systems (FCS). But in many respects 2011 is emerging as a make-or-break year for the ground sensors, unmanned ground and air vehicles, and communications gear that survived the purge of FCS by Defense Secretary Robert Gates in April 2009.
There are plenty of challenges to keep policy-makers busy in 2011. Budgetary cutbacks, procurement programs, nuclear proliferation, regional tensions and cyberattacks will be key issues throughout the year. DTI asked six experts for their views on how these concerns will develop. Here are their perspectives.
Internal security is a growing concern in India, as the country deals with the persistent Naxalite insurgency and with a large, and largely unsecured, coastline and regional waters, which terrorists, smugglers and pirates regularly threaten. Add to this the relatively unsecured land borders where dangerous activities flourish. The government is, consequently, increasing funding to strengthen coastal and border surveillance and to provide the necessary equipment and personnel for security enforcement.
Japan’s 2011 defense budget request is virtually unchanged (up 0.1%) from 2010, but seeks enhanced surveillance capability, improved ballistic missile defense (BMD) and defense of the Senkaku Islands, which are at the center of a dispute with China. Major equipment acquisitions for surveillance include a seventh Soryu-class diesel/electric submarine with better satellite communications, at ¥55.7 billion ($666 million); three Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft, ¥55.1 billion; and four Mitsubishi SH-60K maritime helicopters, ¥23.3 billion.
A specialist in advanced aerospace engineering, Aurora designed and built the 150-ft.-long Phantom Eye Wing for Boeing’s Phantom Eye high-altitude long-endurance aerial vehicle. The wing uses core-stiffened bonded assemblies and internal ribs and spars made of composites. The wing is braced by a tension strap to reduce root-bending movements. This contributes to the design’s low mass, which increases performance. The twin-engine Phantom Eye is designed for endurance of four days at 65,000 ft., while carrying a 450-lb. payload.
Canadian Air Force Lt. Gen. Andre Deschamps, chief of the Air Staff, is overseeing an ambitious modernization of the service. In 2011, the CAF will begin competitions for two new aircraft while absorbing four others and gearing up to buy F-35A Joint Strike Fighters starting as soon as 2016. Contributing Editor Richard Whittle interviewed Deschamps at the Canadian embassy in Washington about the CAF’s procurement plans. Defense Technology International: What aircraft is Canada buying aside from the F-35?
Sometimes simple is best. For Blue Sky, a U.K. design firm, the easiest route to a seating management system for economy-class cabins is seats with adjustable pitch. The company’s Stella Seat can be converted to premium economy seating without changing pitch by adjusting it for 6 extra in. of legroom or moving it 3 in. closer to the floor to increase the recline angle 40%. The seat thus permits creation of premium space without altering seating layout and can be changed according to individual flight needs. Winner: Aero Structures.
Bill Sweetman (Washington), Pat Toensmeier (New York)
Almost 10 years ago, Prof. John Roulston—one of the leading technologists at a BAE Systems unit that is now part of Selex Galileo, Finmeccanica’s sensor unit—said that the company would get into active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars when they could be made less costly and better-performing. Selex believes that day has come: The “better-performing” side is the wide-angle AESA design adopted for the Gripen NG and Typhoon fighters; “lower cost” is represented by AESAs that Selex Galileo has (uniquely) sold to the U.S.
Russia continues to develop its nuclear deterrent as part of a general rearmament of the armed forces (see p. 53). Planned expenditures on nuclear weapons in 2011 will grow by 44% compared with 2010 and amount to $870 million. According to Viktor Zavarzin, head of the parliament’s defense committee, expenditures for weapons procurement, modernization of the country’s nuclear triad and maintaining the triad’s combat readiness will increase by 50% during the next three years.
Sabic put its materials expertise to good use in developing Ultem rigid polyetherimide foam for use as the structural core in composite aircraft applications. Ultem is lightweight, with low moisture absorption, high energy absorption and low dielectric loss. It is transparent to radar, and suitable for a number of composite manufacturing processes—machining, vacuum bagging, compression molding and thermoforming.
One advance in satellite technology is equipping miniature satellites, or cubesats, with inexpensive sensors and orbiting them in distributed arrays, from which they transmit combined images with the resolution of a larger-aperture device. Cubesats can be deployed rapidly and at low cost for many missions. One person involved in such work is Stuart Eves, head of military business at Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) of Guildford, England. Contributing Editor Michael Dumiak spoke with him about the changing nature of space imaging.
An attempt to put the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program into an achievable trajectory could be the big story in the Fiscal 2012 U.S. defense budget, after a year that has seen isolated good news dwarfed by continuing problems.
Israel’s next war could be fought on several fronts and result in far more destruction and casualties on all sides than recent conflicts. So said outgoing Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin in an address to the Knesset in November. Yadlin believes that despite an unprecedented period of calm for Israel right now—primarily due to its deterrence, alliances with Egypt and Jordan, and peace in the West Bank—there is a strong possibility of a major escalation of hostilities with two neighbors, Lebanon and Syria.
