One of the Royal Air Force’s newest command centers has no aircraft, boasts a staff of just 20 and operates from a windowless bunker in the heart of the U.K. Yet it is a key component in an increasingly vital international effort to survey, map and understand the largest and arguably most complex battle zone of all.
Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi has started flight-testing the fifth-generation T-50 fighter developed in the PAK FA program. The first prototype made a 47-min. maiden flight from the airfield at Sukhoi’s Knaapo facility in Komsomolsk-on-Amur on Jan. 29. The fighter is slated to replace Russian air force Su-27s beginning in 2015.
The Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment is feeling the need for speed to contend with the sprawl of Afghanistan, the unit’s commander, Col. Clay Hutmacher, told an Assn. of the U.S. Army aviation symposium here in January.
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.
Dutch and Canadian forces in Afghanistan have been protecting their camps with the Deployable Integrated Sensors for Compound Security (Discus) system from Thales. The company, which delivered the system to the Dutch army under an urgent operational requirement in 2005, now offers an improved version of Discus called I3 Guard. I3 stands for integrated, interactive and interoperable. The system reportedly integrates any sensor or effector, and can be set up for virtually any mission or task.
“It was not our finest hour,” admits U.K. Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth, of the protracted procurement of eight Royal Air Force Mk3 Chinook helicopters, the first two of which he unveiled at RAF Odiham on Jan. 13. The Mk3s, ordered for special forces in 1995, arrived in 2001, but software issues prevented their being certified as airworthy. They could only be flown above 1,000 ft. and in good weather. After years of delay, the airframes underwent reversion, stripping out the digital cockpits and inserting Mk2 analog equipment.
Bioterror is a big concern to civil and defense institutions and the focus of a muscular, multidisciplinary research effort. The fear spawned by a few bioterror attacks in the U.S.—e.g., the Baghwan botulism spread via salad bars in rural Oregon in the late 1980s, letters containing anthrax powder in the wake of 9/11—show what an outsized effect bioterror has. The prospect of a disease invisibly stalking people and animals is grim, and outbreaks generate considerable attention.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is showing the new Bird-Eye 650 mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at the Singapore Airshow this month. The drone is an enhanced version of the Bird-Eye 400, a mini-UAV that IAI introduced a few years ago. The 650 carries the same payload, but flies faster and higher than the 400 and has greater range and endurance. (IAI has not posted performance figures.) The drone operates for 3 hr. on rechargeable batteries. IAI flight-tested a 650 powered by fuel cells and reports endurance of up to 7 hr.
Lockheed Martin Corp. closed out 2009 with a bang—one that may be heard around the world if the need arises. The Missiles and Fire Control division of Grand Prairie, Tex., received a $968.7-million firm-fixed-price contract on Dec. 30, for Fiscal 2010 production of Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-3 tactical missiles and related equipment. The work, contracted by the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, includes upgrades to PAC-3 systems in Germany, the United Arab Emirates and Taiwan, as well as the U.S.
Over the last few years, northern elephant sea lions and harbor seals have turned the beaches of San Nicolas Island, 60 mi. off the coast of Southern California, into a pinniped playland, where the creatures bask in the Sun and breed in growing numbers. San Nicolas, a 10-mi.-long strip, also happens to be an active weapons test range for the U.S. Navy. The mammals share their love nest with supersonic sea-skimming drone targets flying overhead at Mach 2.5.
Elbit Systems and Sonim Technologies have developed a secure, ruggedized “push-to-talk” (PTT) over cellular radio called SPoC. The system is based on Sonim’s SnapTT secure GSM phone, which is designed to provide military personnel and first responders with reliable and secure communications. GSM (a French acronym for global system for mobile communications), is the leading mobile phone standard in the world, in use by a reported 80% of the market.
While CH-53 helicopters were unloading Marines from Kilo Co., 3rd Btn., 4th Marine Regt. in the Now Zad valley in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province during the early morning of Dec. 4, history was being made a short distance away. Two MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft were disgorging Marines from the reconnaissance unit Task Force Raider in three landing zones at the opposite end of the valley, kicking off an assault on the Now Zad area to eliminate Taliban influence by first driving Taliban insurgents out, then establishing a permanent Marine/Afghan security force there.
Composites could be the material of choice for a new or modified U.S. Army vehicle. A prototype All-Composite Military Vehicle (ACMV) recently completed a round of durability tests that simulated 50,000 mi. of severe off-road driving. Developed by TPI Composites Inc. of Scottsdale, Ariz., the ACMV is based on the platform of the High-Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle, or Humvee. The body structure and frame rails are made of composites—no metal is used.
It is among the U.S. Air Force’s most finite resources, but the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is still growing in capabilities, and it’s an aircraft America is happy to allow an ally to use. A long-standing exchange program that has seen USAF personnel trade places with those from the Royal Air Force was extended to the B-2 in 2004.
The Pentagon is looking at innovative technologies to improve bunker-busting munitions. The objective is to develop bombs that burrow more efficiently than current ordnance to reach deep targets. Design, propulsion and casing materials will determine the penetration capabilities of new ordnance. The biggest bunker-buster bomb in the U.S. Air Force arsenal right now is the 5,000-lb. BLU‑122, which reaches a depth of 20-plus ft.
The U.S. and Israel have started development of an upper-stage component to Israel’s Arrow-3 missile defense architecture. Arieh Herzog, director of Israel’s missile defense program, says the main element will be a highly maneuverable exoatmospheric interceptor that zeros in on an incoming missile. The decision to add the component, which will be jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Boeing, stems from a study conducted in 2006-07 that identified a need for it in Israel’s ballistic missile defense system.
Israel’s defense ministry confirms that the Iron Dome counter-rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) interceptor system passed recent qualification tests. The air force expects to receive the first systems this month, and air defense command’s Iron Dome battalion is scheduled to reach initial operational capability in May. Iron Dome was developed and produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. The Iron Dome battalion will deploy the first unit to protect the area bordering northern Gaza (which includes Sderot in southern Israel).
The reverberations from Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s decision last year to cancel the Pentagon’s ill-starred $160-billion Future Combat Systems (FCS) program have been felt nowhere more deeply than by the team tasked with designing the program’s Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV), which was billed as the Army’s infantry carrier of the future.
After almost five years of combat in Afghanistan’s Kandahar Province, places like the Arghandab Valley, the Panjwayi and Zhari have assumed a meaning for the Canadian military similar to what Fallujah and Najaf conjure in the minds of American forces who served in Iraq—places of loss, bravery and tactical victories with little strategic gain.
Experts forecast that hundreds of millions of video surveillance cameras will be installed worldwide in coming years, as users—whether military, business, industrial or government—seek to provide greater security and thwart terrorist attacks and criminal activity. The main problem with this blanket coverage is that there will be too few trained people available to monitor every camera.
Warfare has driven the design and construction of some of the biggest and most complex machines of their time. No contemporary device matched a sailing warship of the 18th century, a 1900s dreadnought or a B-29 bomber. Despite all this practice, you wonder sometimes if we’re any good at it.
