Dear Colleague: Defense Technology International was launched five years ago as an integrated media platform. We promised then to deliver an unprecedented level of integrated intelligence that would connect defense professionals worldwide. Five years later, the execution of this vision has exceeded expectations, by combining timely insight and expert analysis with critical linkages between policies, programs, operations and procurement, all within the defining framework of technology development.
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.
As the Farnborough air show wound down in July, and with the 70th anniversary of Adlertag, the opening assault of the Battle of Britain, three weeks away, Editor-in-Chief Bill Sweetman found an appropriate time and place to raise a pint to the memory of “The Few.”
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.
In July, the U.S. Navy established a program office to manage its unmanned maritime vehicle (UMV) projects, combining advanced development and acquisition in a single shop. The UMV office operates from the Program Executive Office for Littoral and Mine Warfare. Putting acquisition and development under one roof and one command permits the UMV office to work as a team with industry, academia and research labs to advance systems development and direct acquisition.
After several delays, U.S. Cyber Command was established in May at Ft. Meade, Md., under the umbrella of the U.S. Strategic Command. At the helm is Air Force Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who is also director of the National Security Agency and head of the Central Security Service. Congress made him responsible for “directing the operations and defense of the Defense Department’s information networks, the systemic and adaptive planning, integration and synchronization of cyber-activities and . . . for conducting full-spectrum military cyberspace operations to ensure U.S.
Two years ago, Taylor W. Lawrence took over as leader of Raytheon’s Missile Systems business. He manages a vast, diverse and changing portfolio of projects, from infantry weapons to cruise missiles, and with a wide field of new opportunities in areas such as non-lethal weapons, directed energy and missile defense. Raytheon’s missile enterprise is one of the most global operations in the U.S.
The U.S. Army has long relied on a complex Unix-based computer program to simulate cargo drops and develop data for missions. Called the NASA Decelerator System Simulation (DSS), the legacy software is difficult to learn and the analysis process that accompanies it is complex, with some functions having to be manipulated and plotted with external software. Moreover, because the Unix operating system is not widely used, availability of the software is limited, making it difficult for those involved with cargo drops to practice and learn.
There is no way that a nation with a population on the same scale as New York, and not on a war footing, can support a full range of nationally developed weapons. Since this is impossible, it is worth looking at how Sweden does it.
Demand for vehicle power increases as protection requirements go up. Two recent technology demonstrator programs, funded by the U.K. Defense Ministry and overseen by contractor Qinetiq, point the way to a quickly adaptable set of protective systems based on “plug-and-play” software architecture that will allow a rapid response to changing threats while enabling troop-carrying vehicles to generate significantly more energy to power them.
Situational awareness dictates that airborne surveillance data should be received in real time—but this isn’t always possible. One problem is that the multi-gigabyte size of image files means they must be stored on board an aircraft until it lands or transmitted by radiofrequency links in highly compressed formats that could lose data. MIT Lincoln Laboratory has developed an air-to-ground laser communication system that achieved initial error-free transfers of 100-gigabyte image files in seconds at ranges of 15-60 km. (9-37 mi.).
Surveillance systems that cover wide areas and store images usually require expensive cameras and costly processing software (see photo). Research by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center and SemQuest Inc. of Colorado Springs points to an effective low-power, low-cost alternative. As reported in the June 10 issue of NASA Tech Briefs, researchers developed a “string-of-lights” system in which more than 100 cameras similar to those in cell phones connect to a common power and data wire.
It’s never a good day when air strikes fail to hit their targets. U.S. services have been working through Joint Forces Command to close the loop in battlefield communication and keep air strikes accurate. In January, they reached a standardization milestone that outlined specifications for Digitally Aided Close Air Support (Dacas), such as for a baseline messaging network and how to digitally exchange tactical still imagery.
Rheinmetall recently took the wraps off its new anti-mine/anti-IED (improvised explosive device) tool: A mission module and sensor package paired with a robot arm that extends 14 meters (45 ft.). Dubbed KARS (the German acronym for ordnance detection and clearing system), the device will be mounted on the chassis of a GTK Boxer, the 8 X 8 Dutch-German armored fighting vehicle. Rheinmetall says KARS can detect suspicious objects at 300 meters; while stationary, it searches for explosives within a radius of 10 meters. Sensors scan for objects buried up to 1.5 ft.
The development of Malaysia’s new multiple-version 8 X 8 wheeled armored fighting vehicle (AFV), the AV-8, within the schedule specified by the defense ministry will be daunting for DRB-Hicom Deftech. The local company signed a letter of intent during the Defense Services Asia 2010 expo here in April launching the $2.4-billion program that calls for an initial 257 vehicles in different configurations and a total requirement of at least 500 (DTI June, p. 27).
The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) has developed a crane for offloading cargo from ships at sea that is as productive as cranes operated from land or ships in port. Key to the operation of the Large Vessel Interface Lift-On/Lift-Off (LVI Lo/Lo) Crane, are sensors that detect crane, payload and ship positions, and an automated motion-compensation system for rapid, at-sea transfer of containers and other cargo.
