Catching terrorists before they commit violent acts has been the driving force behind many national security research initiatives since 9/11, but a recent Yale University-led study may be one of the more unusual government-sponsored science programs: the identification of people who are planning a criminal act based on their mental state. Advances in this area could in theory lead to a technology that detects would-be terrorists as they walk through an airport or other secure area.
Security experts regard Israel’s three ports, Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat, as high-profile targets for “mega-terror” attacks. Ashdod especially is one of the most vulnerable sites in Israel. It is within range of some rockets in the Hamas arsenal and contains bromine tanks and other hazardous-chemical-storage facilities that could release highly toxic clouds over nearby urban areas, if attacked.
A 90-year-old idea to use bubbles as a protective curtain against acoustic waves is being resurrected in France by an engineering school and several small companies with the backing of the French procurement agency DGA, which is interested in the air curtain for mine-clearance operations.
The latest analysis of future long-range strike needs by the Pentagon will be submitted in time for its recommendations to be reflected in the Fiscal 2012 budget. Few people, least of all advocates of an active, nonvintage bomber fleet, expect exciting news. Service-centric politics, a joint-service construct under which ground forces heavily influence the study and pressure on procurement budgets (from overruns in the Joint Strike Fighter program) will result in modest recommendations.
Those wondering how the defense industry will cope in the new age of austerity sweeping many countries found answers at Defense Vehicle Dynamics 2010. The show, presented here in June by Defense Equipment and Support (DE&S), the equipment acquisition and support wing of the U.K. Defense Ministry, is a window on new technologies and platforms. The dominant trend this year, however, was squeezing greater utility out of current equipment.
Deliveries are slated to begin in 2014 for the U.S. Air Force’s newest target drones: F-16A and C models that are being refurbished by Boeing after desert storage at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. The Air Force awarded a contract worth $69.7 million to Boeing for conversion of 126 F-16s into QF-16 drones. Preparation of the initial six aircraft for delivery to a Boeing facility in Florida actually started 18 months ago at Davis-Monthan, when specialists of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group began working on the fighters.
Experts are convinced that unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) will play major roles in naval warfare. They concede, however, that full realization of this vision is in the future. Although robotic vehicles are redefining air and land operations, the revolution in unmanned vehicles for undersea and surface use is still in its early stages.
A clean-energy technology company has developed a high-efficiency JP-8 burner for Stirling engines, which are used in generators to power tactical systems (see photo). Precision Combustion of North Haven, Conn., won a small-business innovation award from the U.S. Army for the burner, which features an innovative catalytic reactor that generates and transfers heat efficiently via an ultra-short-channel-length (25-500-micron, or 0.001-0.020-in.) metal mesh it developed called Microlith.RTM. Compared to conventional meshes with channels of 5 mm.
The latest effort by the Pentagon to enhance surveillance comes in the form of a $9.2-million contract to Duke University for work leading to the development of a multi-gigapixel imaging system. The contract was awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) as part of its Maximally Scalable Optical Sensor Array Imaging with Computation (Mosaic) program. Darpa wants to develop technology that will lead to a 10-50-gigapixel imager with a wide 114-deg. field of view.
War is hell, certainly, but also deafening—so much so that hearing loss is the No. 1 disability for soldiers in Afghanistan, where it accounts for 23% of injuries. Soldiers are not only at risk for partial or full deafness and tinnitus from blasts but from “impulse noise”—spontaneous fire from small arms, mortars and other weapons during combat.
Geopolitical concerns and two wars in recent years have put Israel at the forefront of cyberwar and cyber-defense. As the most computerized country in the Middle East, Israel stands to lose a great deal if its military and civilian networks prove vulnerable to cyber-attack.
Elbit Systems of Israel has added two models to its Viper man-portable robot line—Mini-Viper and Maxi-Viper. They join the original Viper, which is in use by the Israeli military. Elbit unveiled the robots at an exhibition last month of its products for land warfare and C4I systems. The Viper robot is a highly mobile platform that was developed for urban warfare. Designed to be tossed into buildings and other enclosed areas, it relays images to troops of what’s inside prior to their entry.
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The best advice for companies when it comes to protecting civilian infrastructure from cyber-attack may be a simple and obvious analogy: If you find yourself in a deep hole, stop digging. The hole in this case, one expert says, is the lack of effective cyber-security at many companies that operate civilian infrastructure—and it is getting deeper as they fail to make the investments in systems and people to defeat attacks.
Visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) teams are on the front lines of naval blockades and patrols. Their job is to inspect suspicious ships. VBSS teams are fully exposed when going up the sides of vessels during boarding. To reduce the time—and effort—this takes, the U.S. Office of Naval Research and Atlas Devices of Boston adapted the company’s portable powered rope ascender for naval use. The device, now in beta testing, is called the Lightweight Powered Ascender. It weighs 10 lb., less than half as much as the original version.
Vint Cerf is sometimes called “the father of the Internet,” having worked at Stanford University and at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on the techniques and protocols that form the foundation of the World Wide Web.
Italy is not immune to the defense cuts that are spreading across Europe. While the government has yet to present a plan for reducing military spending, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa has revealed highlights of the reductions he will announce by the end of October. The finance minister plans to impose across-the-board cuts of 10% to the budget of every ministry. This will meet the government’s goal of reducing spending by €29 billion ($36.8 billion) from 2011-13.
Laser weapons are reaching a critical level of maturity just as mounting budget pressures make it difficult for new technology to find a way into the Pentagon’s procurement plans. Racking up test successes in lethal demonstrations, high-energy lasers are attracting serious interest from potential users, but programs that could field the technology are looking scarce.
A government report finds that the Indian navy’s aviation capability is seriously eroded, with only 26% of land- and sea-based aircraft available for operation. The report, issued by the comptroller auditor general, blames slow procurement, aging aircraft and a high number of planes under repair for the problem. Air attack, maritime patrol and power projection capabilities are being affected at a time when India’s expanding economy calls for control of shipping lanes and regional seas.
Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, has given the go-ahead for a $2.75-billion purchase of 20 Lockheed Martin F-35I Lightning II fighters, which will be funded by U.S. military aid to Israel. The decision has yet to win approval from the Israeli government.
Rare earth elements such as lanthanum, praseodymium, terbium and neodymium—which are used in laptop computers, night-vision equipment and precision weapons among other applications—are getting a great deal of attention. A rash of government and media reports over the summer warned of a looming supply crunch and price hikes that could affect markets.
Reviewed By Pat Toensmeier Red November: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War BY W. Craig Reed William Morrow, 2010 386 pp., $27.99 One facet of the Cold War that is finally coming to light is the confrontations between U.S. and Soviet submarines. Some had the potential to ignite a nuclear war, and at least two, W. Craig Reed writes in Red November, may have resulted in the loss of a submarine and its crew on each side.
The first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden.” So said Col. Qiao Lang in an interview published on June 28, 1999, by the Chinese communist party youth league’s official daily Zhongguo Qingnian Bao. Qiao and colleague Col. Wang Xiangsui had written a book titled Unrestricted Warfare in which they examined how a country could defeat a technologically superior opponent using other than military means. One suggestion was to attack computer networks.
Origami, the Japanese art of folding paper into sculpture, may seem an unlikely route to programmable matter, but researchers are using it as a jumping-off point for creating reconfigurable robots. Daniela Rus and a team of researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory came up with the idea of assembling robots in the field out of sheets made of shape memory alloy (SMA) and embedded with silicon flexures, thin-foil actuators, magnets and flexible electronics.
