Support vessels may not be at the top of an admiral’s wish list, but these workhorses are becoming more important as many navies try to build blue-water fleets, and those with the capability seek to better manage extended missions far from home waters. France and the U.K., for example, are planning new replenishment vessels, Italy wants two refueling ships, Turkey wants one, and Greece and Spain have just added support ships to their fleets.
Speakers at a lawfare conference were unanimous in their opinion that the tactic, defined as the wrongful manipulation of a legal system for strategic, political or military ends, inhibits debate, undermines international organizations and delegitimizes national efforts to fight terrorism. This is because lawfare, a term that dates to the 1970s, is increasingly used by activists and non-state entities against the West and Israel to influence opinion, obscure precedent and build support for positions through rulings by courts and international bodies.
The bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 caused a catastrophic failure of bulkhead shaft seals, designed to prevent flooding between compartments along the main propulsion shaft. The failure was evidence of an ongoing problem for the Navy—conventional rotating diaphragm shaft seals were subject to wear. A design developed by Mide Technology Corp. of Medford, Mass., has been qualified on several DDG-51 destroyers, and is commercial and available for new and retrofit installation on Navy ships and other vessels.
The 2.75-in. (70-mm.) folding-fin aerial rocket is widely used for ground attack by helicopters. As militaries look to upgrade the weapons, many of which are unguided, manufacturers are putting the final touches on new laser-guided versions that they say are less expensive and more accurate. After years of development, first sales are expected this year.
Surgical screws attached to bone are usually made of titanium or medical stainless steel. When an injury heals, a second operation is necessary to extract them. An improved screw has been developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research of Bremen, Germany: a biodegradable version molded of materials that promote bone growth. The screw not only degrades, which eliminates the need to surgically remove it, but creates bone in the process so no hole remains where it was attached.
EADS and seven customers reached an agreement on March 5 that maintains the A400M aircraft program despite delays and cost overruns. French Defense Minister Herve Morin said in a Paris news conference on March 8 that months of talks convinced buyers that the A400M was the best solution for their needs. “We looked into the cost of a fleet of C-17s and C-130Js, but to have the same capacity as the A400M would cost 40% more,” he said. The launch nations—Germany (60 aircraft), France (50), Spain (27), U.K.
General Dynamics’ Sectera Viper Phone has been certified by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for secure communications. It is claimed to be the only such device approved to protect top-secret (and below) voice communications over commercial telephone lines and wired voice over Internet protocol networks, and to have connectivity with Public Switched Telephone Networks. All Defense Department enterprises will benefit, says Mike Guzelian, vice president of Voice and Data Products for C4 Systems.
It was another day on the job two years ago for soldiers of the U.S. Army’s 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Div. The troops uncovered a cache of homemade explosives, 155-mm. and 120-mm. projectiles, blasting caps and detonation-command wire that had been wrapped in plastic before being hidden along the irrigation canal in farmland north of Baghdad.
India successfully tested its Agni-3 ballistic missile in February, the fourth test of the long-range weapon. The missile, which is designed to use both conventional and nuclear warheads, was launched from Wheeler Island in the Bay of Bengal, flew its range of 3,500 km. (2,175 mi.) and hit its target. The weapon was developed for the army as part of India’s nuclear deterrence capability. The Agni-3 is compact enough for deployment on a variety of land and sea platforms. It is 17 meters (55 ft.) long and 2 meters in diameter, and powered by a two-stage solid-fuel engine.
There’s no sound but the wind while walking up a hill to the new Cooperative Cyber-Defense Center of Excellence, frozen under mounds of snow and ice after a long Baltic winter in the Estonian port capital of Tallinn. One-way mirrors and hands beckoning for papers through a slot, returning with a clip-on pass, make for an analog-style security check. It’s warmer inside the czarist-era main building—once a barracks—but still quiet and subdued. Whatever work is going on is silent and behind closed doors.
The U.S. Army is working on technologies that will enable it to field a fleet of tactical vehicles that churn out enough wattage to produce their own fuel and water, perhaps from biomass. But that is just one of the long-term plans outlined by the general leading these efforts during an interview with DTI at the recent Association of the United States Army (AUSA) meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (For a report on AUSA, see p. 16.)
Sikorsky Aerospace Services will supply four S-61 helicopters to transport U.S. State Department personnel in Afghanistan. The helicopters are the first deliveries in an agreement the company says could include up to 110 aircraft. The purchase is part of the broader Kabul 40 program, which provides an aircraft fleet to transport State Department personnel and cargo throughout Afghanistan. The department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, which operates aircraft in the U.S.
The U.S. Army’s newest iteration of its modernization plan cleared a major hurdle on Dec. 22, when it was approved to begin Low-Rate Initial Production of the first increment. The Increment 1 package—formerly part of the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program axed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates last April (DTI July/August 2009, p. 19)—includes a network integration kit, small unmanned ground vehicle, Class I unmanned aerial vehicle, unattended ground sensor and the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System (NLOS-LS).
Only 7-10% of the cargo that enters U.S. ports is scanned for illegal drugs or chemical, nuclear or biological agents, Homeland Security Department officials say. But they are quick to add that all cargo is “screened,” using a variety of cooperative programs and technologies, prior to reaching port.
A little more than four years after it was proposed, the Low-Cost, Low-Altitude (LCLA) airdrop system is resupplying troops in Afghanistan. The initial combat drop came in March, when a C-130 Hercules transport from Bagram AB resupplied troops at a forward operating base. The LCLA, proposed by the U.S.
Paul McLeary (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), Bettina H. Chavanne (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.)
The Association of the United States Army (AUSA) expo is a good gauge of what’s happening in the defense industry. Last year, there was a palpable air of hesitation, as Army officials and industry waited for the new administration to take the reigns and assert its policy goals, and for the Quadrennial Defense Review to outline priorities.
Kockums AB has signed a contract with the Swedish defense procurement agency FMV to develop its A26 vessel as the country’s next-generation submarine. The sub will replace Sweden’s Gotland-class boats, which will be obsolete by the end of the decade. Sweden operates three Gotland subs, which were commissioned in 1996. Like the Gotland boats, the A26 subs will have diesel-electric hybrid engines and Stirling air-independent propulsion systems. Each will be 63 meters (207 ft.) long, with a 6.4-meter beam, and displace 1,900 metric tons. Crew size will be 17-31.
U.S. Marines handed over command of Iraq’s Anbar Province to the Iraqi army in January—freeing up what was once a peak force of 25,000 deployed there for the fight in Afghanistan.
Hydrogels are biocompatible materials with numerous medical uses: as surgical wound dressings (see photo), a matrix for growing tissue, replacement for cartilage or for targeted drug delivery. A drawback, though, is weakness—being 95% water, scientists have been unable to combine the strength and flexibility necessary to advance applications. Researchers at Tokyo University, the University of California and other schools have developed a compound that may overcome this. An article in the Jan. 21 issue of Nature reports that the compound is called G binder.
The attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day pushed airport security to the forefront of public attention. Abdulmutallab’s ability to book a flight from Lagos to Detroit via Amsterdam with his “underwear bomb,” despite behavior that should have red-flagged him for questioning and inclusion on a U.S. international terrorist database, raises questions about the effectiveness of airport security.
Israel is always on high alert when it comes to the potential for war with its neighbors, particularly the two groups viewed as proxies of Iran and Syria: Hamas and Hezbollah. Though neither seems particularly eager for a full-blown conflict with Israel at present, defense analysts see a number of developments that could lead to another war with one or both, perhaps as soon as this year.
The U.S. Defense Dept. is aggressively pursuing alternative energy programs that can provide stable and cost-effective power for numerous operations. One source under study by the Navy is ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), which converts the solar radiation collected in the surface of tropical water into electricity.
Regional battles and asymmetric warfare are pushing naval conflicts to the littorals, where a range of tactics that rely as much on numbers for success as firepower are evolving to threaten capital ships. Key to these tactics are small boats, which have a history of successful deployment in hit-and-run attacks against materially superior adversaries.
Elbit Systems has begun shipping its new software-defined radio (SDR) as part of a large order for an undisclosed military customer. The latest configuration of the radio, designated SDR-7200, was unveiled last month at the Singapore Airshow and at Defexpo India. The encrypted, frequency-hopping, multichannel radio is designed for operation on tactical land, air and naval platforms.
