The U.S. Navy’s EA-18G Growler has been declared operational, marking a new era in the Pentagon’s ability to conduct electronic attack missions. The aircraft’s introduction will bring relief to an overtasked and aging EA-6B fleet, which has been conducting escort jamming missions since the Air Force retired the EF-111 in 1998. The Navy declared initial operational capability for the Growler in September.
Defense companies are filling urgent needs emerging from—or anticipated by—the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many bear watching this year for their innovation and ingenuity in developing products that improve combat effectiveness, reduce battlefield casualties or speed healing of the wounded. Some of these will set a development standard in the areas they serve; a few may become iconic. DTI has assembled a list of eight innovators whose products and technologies are poised to make qualitative differences in the markets they serve.
There’s no shortage of issues to interpret and analyze when it comes to evolutionary and, occasionally, revolutionary technology applications, and no lack of knowledgeable people who understand their meaning and the influence they exert on operations. DTI asked six of the best to present their opinions on a range of topics. Their views are thoughtful and insightful.
The November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai exposed shortfalls in India’s homeland security spending (DTI February, p. 44). While the $26.5-billion defense budget for fiscal 2008-09 (ended Mar. 31) represented a 10% hike over the previous year, it was only 1.9% of GDP—not enough, experts assert, for a country whose economic and regional responsibilities have grown in recent years, and which faces threatening neighbors and insurgents. The government, as a result, increased security spending 25% in the current fiscal year.
Rheinmetall Defense is working with the German military to define requirements for urban operations over the next decade, and developing weapons that meet different needs in this type of combat.
The threat of attack by rockets, artillery and mortar bombs (RAM) is a constant for ground troops. Technology has been used to defend against attacks, with some militaries deploying counter-RAM systems that detect, track and destroy incoming ordnance. An effort underway by the U.S. Army called the Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) program could improve the effectiveness of C-RAM systems. EAPS is developing missile- and gun-based systems. If both components are tagged for development, they could provide a layered defense.
Combat swimmer units of the Russian navy are rearming with a new underwater weapon. The 5.45-mm. assault rifle, dubbed ADS (Avtomat Dvykhsredniy Spetzialniy), an acronym for special amphibious rifle, fires underwater ammunition and the Russian army’s standard 5.54 X 39-mm. rounds. The rifle was publicly demonstrated for the first time during Zapad 2009, the joint Russian-Belarusian military exercise in September. ADS was among the new military equipment shown to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited the exercises, which took place in Kaliningrad.
As the seasons changed here in the U.S., other predictable events occurred on the Ares blog, including the ongoing Afghanistan debate, F-35 arguments and KC-X speculation. But lots of new topics were covered last month, as well. Here are some interesting comments we received on naval weapons, edited for clarity.
Russia has not imported defense equipment from the West since World War II. So it will be a major turn of events if it buys a Mistral-class landing-helicopter dock (LHD), the biggest vessel currently made by French shipyard DCNS.
The heretical question raised by Craig Penrice of Eurofighter at a conference in Athens in October was whether “5th generation,” trademarked by Lockheed Martin and applied to the F-22 and F-35, means anything more than “hypo-allergenic” or “new and improved” or indeed “ba-ba-ba-ba-baaaa, I’m lovin’ it.”
– Mark Hiznay, Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch
The online article “Treaties Prompt Redesign of Cluster Bombs” (also entitled “Bombs Away—Maybe,” DTI October, p. 14) perpetuates the fallacy that there is such a thing as “safer” unexploded ordnance (UXO). Remnants of cluster munitions with modern fail-safe features created horrors for civilians in recent years in Iraq and Lebanon. Photographs taken by deminers in Iraq in 2003 show UXO from Textron’s much-heralded Sensor-Fuzed Weapon, demonstrating that even submunitions tested to a 99.6% reliability rate can end up as UXO on the battlefield.
Operational experience is driving operators to rethink the way they use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). As the U.S. Army forges ahead with plans to field a large force of Warrior UAVs—the current program encompasses 31 systems and no fewer than 372 vehicles—and the British Army prepares for introduction of the Thales/Elbit Watchkeeper, industry and military insiders note that operational and manning realities could inhibit the more ambitious plans.
An old saying has it that no battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. The U.S. experience with its tactical ground vehicle fleet since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 bears this out. When Washington was debating the war in 2002, threat scenarios that were played out—chemical weapon attacks, large-scale conventional combat in cities, big tank battles in the desert—were, with few exceptions, the opposite of the roadside bombs and asymmetric warfare that coalition troops spent the next several years fighting.
Tank: Center for Strategic and Budgetary Affairs Location: Washington Profile: Defense technology wonk’s think tank—one which has provided a number of appointees in the Obama administration.
Rheinmetall plans to place its 27-mm. MLG 27 naval gun on a trailer for harbor defense. The gun provides warships with a self-defense capability against asymmetric threats such as terrorists, pirates and smugglers. The trailer version of the weapon can be deployed to a specific location and ready for use in 15 min. The German navy is equipping its new F125 frigates with the gun. Rheinmetall announced in October that it had received an €11.6-million ($17.3-million) order for 12 guns. Each F125, which will be delivered starting in 2014, will have two MLG 27 guns.
One idea for protecting light armored vehicles from roadside bombs comes from the Georgia Tech Research Institute, which designed a vehicle with a welded space frame and detachable V-shaped wedge underbody. The Ultra II was engineered from the crew compartment out. “We built a bubble of force protection first and then addressed mobility,” says Vince Camp, senior research engineer. Fellow researcher Kevin Massey notes the space frame, similar in concept to those used by Nascar, provides a high degree of structural protection. “It’s like a roll cage,” he says.
Germany is the latest country to lease unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for forces in Afghanistan. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), working with contractor Rheinmetall, will provide an unspecified number of IAI’s Heron TP medium-altitude, long-endurance drones. German forces have been using Rheinmetall’s KZO tactical UAV for reconnaissance. The larger (4-ton) Heron carries a variety of sensors and information systems that collect data in all weather conditions for real-time intelligence.
The latest idea from one of the most commercially successful robot design firms appears to be little more than a deflated volleyball with a tail of wires. But, like all of the company’s machines, iRobot’s ChemBot is engineered to meet a specific task-oriented goal. It is this design concept that propels the company forward, Chief Executive Colin Angle told a small group at Berlin’s IFA electronics show recently.
A development announced by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) could lead to the commercial uses for a portable, accurate and cost-effective system for detecting early-stage failure in General Electric F110 engines, by analyzing bearing debris in the lubricant. The engine is used in F-15 and F-16 fighters. Inspections for debris are usually performed with a scanning electron microscope on samples of engine lubricant taken from the F110’s magnetic chip detectors. AFRL, along with the University of Dayton Research Institute and industry partner GasTOPS Inc.
Israel’s newest infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), the tracked Namer, is among the world’s most advanced. With a fully loaded combat weight of 60 tons—almost as much as a Merkava Mk4 main battle tank—as well as a remotely controlled weapon system (RCWS), panoramic optronics and, importantly, a high level of protection, it is a formidable platform that carries troops into combat and conducts battlefield operations to support them.
Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula First Deputy Chief of Staff for ISR, U.S. Air Force EDUCATION B.S., astronomy (1974), M.S., systems engineering (1976), University of Virginia; M.S., national security strategy (1994), National War College. BACKGROUND
Researchers are gearing for field tests on vehicle armor fitted with ultrasonic sensors to see if they can produce real-time viability and integrity readings for battle damage and wear. Coin-sized piezoelectric transducers are built into the armor plate. The sensors transmit ultrasonic waves through the armor and, by sending feedback through a graphic interface in the cabin, create updates on hull integrity. The transducers measure small voltage fluctuations produced by stress or vibration.
REVIEWED BY Paul McLeary The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army BY David Cloud and Greg Jaffe Crown Books, 2009 336 pp., $28.00 The generals who run the war in Iraq have received lots of ink during the past several years, with David Petraeus leading the pack in column inches.
The next generation of French unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could be mini-UAVs that incorporate award-winning technologies and designs developed by students at some of the country’s leading technical universities.
The U.S. is moving rapidly in the development of next-generation weapons for cyber-combat, electronic attack, network invasion, information operations and other non-kinetic warfare. But so are others. Potential enemies and non-state foes are employing digital weapons, while allied defenses against them lag. Organized crime, cyber-thieves, industrial spies and specially trained military operators are creating network breaches faster than they can be repaired.
