The issue of a 37-point agreement on security and defense on Feb. 17 confirmed that, despite public spats between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, the U.K. and France have been quietly but surely moving to ever-closer defense and industrial ties. The two countries are more serious about cooperation in defense matters than they arguably have ever been before.
The U.S. Army is about to select improved camouflage for soldiers' uniforms. But according to one of the finalists, far more advanced camouflage, offering potential for concealment bordering on invisibility, is just around the corner.
Engineers and physicists at Seattle-based Intellectual Ventures are now putting the screws into a prototype flat-panel beam-steering antenna that could potentially shave hundreds of thousands of dollars off expensive phased-array technologies and open the way to loss-less gigabyte-per-second wireless for everyday handheld mobile devices. It also promises more capability for those in uniform, as the military is always looking for a better, faster, more reliable way to communicate.
Homemade bombs of the future will not just be a problem for military forces in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. The threat from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) is rapidly moving from military battlefields abroad to U.S. soil, according to a new Defense Department report, which also warns of future bombs that could be detonated by everything from Bluetooth to 4G devices. The domestic threat is “a relatively recent development,” but is growing quickly, says the new 2012-16 strategic plan of the Joint IED Defeat Organization (Jieddo).
The U.S. government continues to hold up arms sales to Bahrain amid the kingdom's violent crackdown on political protesters. “More remains to be done on that,” said Victoria Nuland, a State Department official. “Assistance is still on pause.” The Pentagon last September notified Congress of a potential $53 million arms sales package for Bahrain, which included 44 Humvees and several hundred Tube-Launched Optically-Tracked Wire-Guided missiles.
Despite fiery words about Israel and the “Great Satan,” i.e., the U.S., an Iranian nuclear bomb would be equally aimed at disrupting Islamic rivals in the region, as well as the conventional balance of power. At a Western conference on deterrence in 2008, one speaker noted that a Persian Gulf-area wargame involving conventional forces changed completely when nuclear weapons were introduced.
Wire strikes, which can down aircraft, are a constant threat to pilots, especially at night. Sandel Avionics of Vista, Calif., has developed a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) visual depiction and aural alert system called HeliTAWS ST3400H, designed to detect and warn helicopter pilots of impending threats from wires and transmission lines—as well as terrain—within a precalculated hazard proximity.
The budgets for at least three air-launched, directed-energy weapons are being fully protected by the U.S. Air Force in fiscal 2013 budget plans, according to Jennifer Ricklin, chief technologist for the Air Force Research Laboratory. Plans for Army anti-electronics weapons are less developed, but basic research in associated disciplines continues, according to budget request presentations last month. Specifically, the Air Force is developing bombs and missiles to carry high-power microwave (HPM) warheads.
As a very good friend who is internationally acknowledged as a guru in weapon systems testing said many years ago: “Clearing weapons out of and off the JSF is going to be both interesting . . . and exciting!” Those who have never done such work have little, if any appreciation, of what it entails and the risks involved. That goes for all clearance work—including subsonic [aircraft], as well as supersonic. —Horde
Antiship missiles and heavyweight torpedoes have been rarely used in combat against surface vessels in recent decades. But when they are, the result is so dramatic it rattles the nerves of navies everywhere, reminding them that cost-cutting in this area can be dangerous.
In one of 16 forts built in the 19th century to protect Paris sits a discreet intelligence service, whose task is not only to protect and advise the French defense establishment but also to protect the technological know-how of French defense companies. It recently unlatched its doors to let DTI have a look inside.
A ground-breaking deal between Britain's Defense Ministry and BAE Systems has provided the financial foundation for the company's new munitions factory. The £75 million ($120 million) plant is already producing a range of shell casings ahead of the final transfer in June of remaining staff and equipment from the 97-year-old factory at Birtley, 2 mi. away.
Home-grown “hacktivism”—network penetration by politically motivated groups or individuals—has long been recognized as an important element of what is routinely referred to in cybersecurity circles as Advanced Persistent Threat.
The U.S. Navy's AN/ALQ-99 tactical jamming system, mounted on the Boeing EA-18G Growler, will be replaced by a Next-Generation Jammer (NGJ) that is more effective against current and evolving threats. The NGJ will be more powerful than the AN/ALQ-99, and thus require more energy, primarily to accommodate powerful radio-frequency transmitters.
Last August, a magnitude-5.9 earthquake shook Washington, toppling chimneys, cracking masonry and even damaging the National Cathedral and Washington Monument. In less than a minute, that same earthquake could be felt up the East Coast and in New York. But for many there and elsewhere, the first tipoff that something had hit the nation's capital was not the shockwave, but the massive outpouring on Twitter.
The U.S. Air Force talked until recently of just a 100-aircraft fleet of new bombers, but advocates are calling for more. Dave Deptula, the retired three-star general who headed reconnaissance programs for the armed service during recent wars, says that it's easy to get to a 200-aircraft bomber fleet—with one 12-aircraft squadron for each of 10 air expeditionary forces, and other aircraft to support strategic deterrence and cover attrition and depot maintenance.
As the process of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) becomes more sophisticated, work is ongoing to design sensors that can be used with diverse platforms, especially small UAVs. Logos Technologies of Alexandria, Va., developed a system for ISR and accompanying software called Leaps—Lightweight Expeditionary Airborne Persistent Surveillance system—which, at 54 lb, is one-tenth the weight of its previous surveillance payload. Leaps gives a ground commander sole control of a persistent surveillance asset.
Rheinmetall and MBDA Deutschland are developing laser weapons for various applications. Both companies have demonstrated 10-kw lasers but recognize the need to increase power to at least 100 kw. The solution is the coupling of individual laser sources to achieve a level not possible with only one source.
Directional airborne antennas typically use dishes mounted to the underbelly of an aircraft that swing and point to communicate. This requires mechanical systems that cost extra to build, install and maintain; their operation limits communication to one point at a time, reducing the number of personnel who can be contacted; and the size and weight of the antenna and assembly can affect aerodynamics. Rockwell Collins set out to design an antenna that would overcome these drawbacks.
January 2013: “At dawn today, in spite of ongoing intelligence monitoring and repeated denials, Iran conducted an underground nuclear test. The test took place north of Yazd, in the area of Dasht-e Kavir, and was reported as completely successful, official sources in Tehran announced.”
The 30th anniversary of the successful re-taking of the British Overseas Territory, a Falklands Islands, has turned out to have a bit more resonance across the Atlantic than might have been expected. The issue of possible oil and mineral reserves near the islands, as well as valuable fish stocks, already had raised political tension with Argentina, which still claims the islands.
Christina Mackenzie (St. Nazaire, France), Andy Nativi (Genoa), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
While the U.S. Navy wrestles with development and deployment of the fast and consequently expensive Littoral Combat Ship—and confronts the cost of building real missile defense into its next-generation combatants—the rest of the world is focusing on less glamorous craft that are reliable, practical and affordable.
On static display at February's Singapore air show were two U.S. fighters first developed under the Nixon administration. The only newer fighter was an F-35 mockup, which doesn't count. If you wanted anything newer, you looked for the Singapore air force's IAI-Elta Gulfstream airborne early warning aircraft or Elbit's Hermes 900 unmanned air vehicle, surrounded by sensor payloads covering the spectrum from visible light to VHF.
Filled with military deals harvested over the past few years, the Indian defense pie is getting bigger and sweeter, on land and in the air. But the country faces major hurdles in making those plans real. First, the good news: Over the next five years, India plans to renovate or replace its Soviet-era kit with $50 billion in new equipment, making Asia's third largest economy a lucrative market for foreign companies such as Boeing and Dassault.
