Christina Mackenzie (Paris), Pat Toensmeier (Paris), Robert Wall (Paris)
The future of naval warfare continues to tack toward smaller vessels, littoral operations and security missions. Add to this the budget constraints most navies are working with and the need for multimission capabilities, and it’s clear that much of the emerging naval technology is being directed at these needs.
Three firms are working to improve acoustics on carrier decks by studying how jet noise can be collected and trapped. ATA Engineering of San Diego is building electronic source models to simulate engine noise and study its propagation near a source and far from it. ATA proposes that its models be integrated into a vibro-acoustic code that predicts the effect of sound coming from reflective surfaces, for use in optimizing hearing protection.
In a matter of weeks, the U.S. Navy will finish a deep review of the Marine Corps’ force structure. It should be, and needs to be a document that redefines the Marines’ job within the military. The Marines present a study in contrasts. In the field, the Corps is one of the best-trained infantry and joint forces in the world. At home, they are tough and crafty players in Washington, inveterate marketers (those are real Marine helicopters in a trailer for a new alien-invasion movie) and ultra-sensitive to criticism.
The border that separates the U.S. and Mexico is teeming with security fences, surveillance towers bristling with cameras and sensors, mobile surveillance trucks, unmanned ground sensors, Border Patrol agents on foot, horseback, in trucks and helicopters, and National Guard troops. Above it all flies a growing fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operated by agents on the ground. Major roadways in the border states also have checkpoints manned by armed Border Patrol agents looking for contraband or illegal immigrants.
Network-centric operations are a fine ideal, but there is a lot of painstaking work to be done to make them function globally and through barriers created by different national security policies and export controls. This will require common standards that define what’s being communicated, and how. U.S. and European industry groups saw this problem looming a few years ago, and formed the Network-Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) to deal with it.
Israel is not the only country in the Middle East with a space program, but it is unrivaled in the scope of its capabilities. In June, Israel launched its latest military satellite, Ofeq 9, into a constellation of military and civilian spacecraft. Ofeq 9 is part of a growing network of satellites that is raising intelligence capabilities with duties that include monitoring Iran and hostile Arab nations, and arms-transfer routes in Africa and elsewhere used by terrorists.
South Africa’s defense budget is as cash-strapped as that of many countries these days and the government is spending little on modernization of its National Defense Forces (NDF). Nevertheless, some programs are moving ahead, and exhibitors at the recent Africa Aerospace and Defense (AAD) exposition here displayed weapons and equipment that were developed with the NDF in mind, as well as the export market.
The nuclear forensics lab at the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) in Karlsruhe, Germany, will be able to speed up its work with a new secondary ion mass spectrometer—technically, a 3MEUR Cameca 1280, says Magnus Hedberg, one of the researchers. The instrument will come online in the middle of 2011 and work with special particle search software.
As robots operate with greater autonomy, it may only be a matter of time before they acquire cognitive capabilities, however rudimentary. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated that a robot can be programmed to make judgments—in this case deceptive judgments. Prof. Ronald Arkin (shown standing) and research engineer Alan Wagner developed algorithms that permit a robot to determine if deceiving a human or another robot will assure its survival.
Relics of medieval warfare dominate Prague, which hosted a NATO Future Soldier conference last month. Many of the new technologies on display recalled that era as much as the modern age. Today’s infantryman goes into action as comprehensively armored and accoutred as any Bohemian combatant of the 1400s, from face mask to full-torso coverage. The materials are exotic and closely guarded blends of ceramics, aramids and polyurethanes rather than steel, but the challenge is the same: protect without losing mobility.
Navigation via Global Positioning System is ubiquitous. Soldiers, vehicles and even artillery rounds are guided by satellite navigation, as long as the service is accessible. But what happens when it isn’t? GPS jamming has always been a concern and much effort has been expended in making the system jam-proof. GPS, however, may be unavailable for other reasons: Obstructions can block signals; satellites may be attacked; and a software glitch such as the one that brought down several thousand U.S. Air Force GPS units earlier this year is a possibility.
Preliminary testing of an automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (GCAS) for F-16 fighters recently concluded, with data demonstrating that the software can be transitioned to production testing. The U.S. Air Force and NASA Dryden flight test centers tested the GCAS technology, which is designed to virtually eliminate collisions and other mishaps when fighters fly too close to the ground. GCAS combines GPS data with onboard Digital Terrain Elevation Data maps to monitor low-altitude flight.
As debate continues over the origin of the Stuxnet computer virus, many analysts point to a new Israeli cyberweapon as the culprit, mostly because the malware attacked industrial computers in Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. But an Israeli expert asked by DTI to analyze Stuxnet says he considers it to be malicious, dangerous and disturbing, but far from a new weapon in Israel’s cyberarsenal.
Tracked and wheeled infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) were for years little more than protected battle taxis, transporting troops to and from combat zones with basic protection. IFVs were typically armed with light or heavy machine guns—the Browning 12.7 mm. being the Western standard, and the Russian KPV 14.5 mm. its counterpart during the Cold War.
The U.S. Air Force’s new Gorgon Stare Wide Area Airborne Surveillance System, described as a revolutionary intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) technology, will make its combat debut in December, flying over undisclosed locations in Afghanistan on board MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The era of fully deployed unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) fleets appears to be getting closer. At press time, Oshkosh Defense announced plans to display a U.S. Army vehicle equipped with its TerraMax UGV technology at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting and exposition in Washington, Oct. 25-27. TerraMax is an autonomous navigation system that can be installed in new vehicles or retrofitted. The system operates with supervision from an escort vehicle at a safe standoff distance, or in a leader-follower mode where it follows the route of a lead vehicle.
If everything goes as planned, the transition of Britain’s northern Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) mission from the Tornado F3 to the Eurofighter Typhoon next March will be as simple as turning on a light. “There’s a [communication] switch in each HAS (hardened aircraft shelter) that says ‘Tornado/Typhoon’,” notes Sqdn. Leader Toria McPhaden, commanding officer of the Station Services Squadron (S3) at RAF Leuchars. “You switch it across and everything will be fine.”
Could a real-life version of Watto, the unpalatable space junk dealer from the Star Wars movies, one day be the space warrior’s best friend? The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) says the removal of spent vehicles and dead satellites, by de-orbiting or up-orbiting and possible salvaging, could be the only long-term solution to the growing threat of space debris. Until recently, such solutions were the realm of science fiction, but the urgency of the problem is changing that picture.
Medics at Keesler AFB, Miss., save time in locating equipment with the use of radio tags and tracking networks that detect electronic markers on medical equipment and keep an electronic bead on hardware ranging from intravenous pumps to ventilators and dialysis machines. The system is part of a medical modernization effort being tested by the U.S. Air Force surgeon general. It relies on sensors known as ZigBees, says retired USAF clinical laboratory officer and project contractor Larry George.
No one will ever confuse the Boxer, Germany’s 8 X 8 wheeled armored personnel carrier (APC), with a Lamborghini, the exotic Italian sports car, but the two now have one thing in common: Schroth airbag restraints manufactured by BAE Systems. Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW), which builds the Boxer, awarded BAE a $3.6-million contract to produce and deliver four-point harness safety restraints with belt-integrated airbags for 125 new APCs. The airbags are located in the shoulder belts of each harness.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has developed two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that represent a breakthrough in vertical takeoff and landing design. The drones, Panther and Mini-Panther, employ tiltrotor propulsion and are expected to be operational next year. Panther (see photo) combines the flight capabilities of fixed-wing aircraft with helicopter-like hovering, takeoff and landing, by employing two tiltrotor propellers and a vertical propeller that increases lift. This enables Panther to take off and land on unprepared ground. Weighing 65 kg.
One problem the U.S. military faces in Afghanistan is communicating effectively with civilians at roadblocks and other encounters. Translators are the first choice for this, but they are not always available and can be unreliable. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are testing a portable translation device that permits communication between soldiers and Afghans.
Improvised explosive devices—IEDs—the roadside bombs that have become commonplace in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and increasingly in places like Thailand and Mexico, have for years claimed the lives of U.S. and coalition personnel. But some variants of IEDs are less discriminate than others, and while intended to hit military targets in Iraq and Afghanistan, have instead killed civilians. Statistics on these civilian deaths have been scant in Iraq, but in Afghanistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (Unama) has been keeping a grim tally.
A researcher at Tel Aviv University, working with the Israeli defense ministry, has developed a nano-sized optical gyroscope (also known as a rotation sensor) that can be used in cell phones and other portable devices to keep soldiers from getting lost when GPS signals are unavailable. Prof. Jacob Scheuer begins assembling the gyroscope with rotating semiconductor lasers that are tens of micrometers in diameter. These fit on a 1-mm.-square substrate (0.4-in.).
In October, we continued to learn more about the Stuxnet industrial computer virus, allegedly used to slow down Iran’s nuclear program, but which also attacked computer systems in India and Indonesia (see p. 13 for a report on what it is, and isn’t). In other developments, the Pentagon decertified Lockheed Martin’s facility in Fort Worth, prompting concern about the world’s largest acquisition program, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). We posted video of Israel’s Panther VTOL-capable UAV (see p. 8), and the U.S.
