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.
Come hell or high water, the U.S. Navy is going to field all 55 ships in its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program. The Navy has announced dramatic changes to procurement. Instead of continuing with two hulls—one built by General Dynamics-Bath Iron Works and the other by Lockheed Martin—the Navy will choose a single structure. The original solicitation was canceled and a new one issued.
The U.S. has changed course rapidly on missile defense in recent months. First was the shift in emphasis from mid-course defeat to “early intercept” and from heavy ground-based interceptors (GBIs) to sea-based and land-based versions of the U.S. Navy/Raytheon SM-3. Nobody was surprised when this was followed in September by the scrapping of plans to install Boeing’s GBIs in Poland and announcement of a phased adaptive approach (PAA) based on SM-3.
Governments have recognized for some time that major events are targets of opportunity for terrorists, political groups and others seeking media attention. The attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics ushered in the modern era of overwhelming event security and prompted the establishment of dedicated antiterrorist military and police units around the world.
There has been a significant increase in the number of cyber-attacks in recent years that threaten U.S. government, military and civilian computers. Nevertheless, the development of coordinated countermeasures by authorities in these areas remains in flux.
Satellite circuitry is exposed to two types of space radiation: ionizing, to which circuits are inherently resistant; and heavy ions that call for bulky shielding, triple-redundant design and hardening, each of which adds to fabrication cost. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are working on shielding commercial electronics from heavy ions by combining a conventional fabrication material, silicon-germanium (Si-Ge), with new transistor designs. Prof.
U.S. lawmakers appear to have put the last nail in the coffin on the $10-billion, 30-year-old Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project, passing a bill forbidding radioactive waste disposal at the Nevada site. The Energy Dept. is left with a very expensive hollow mountain. And from a security perspective, decades of nuclear fuel is still scattered across the country. At least 25 reactors have “temporary” storage on-site. Two decades ago officials had decided to store those fuel rods at Yucca Mountain. That option is now closed.
Maryland health officials say the state will be the first in the U.S. to have full front-line participation in an early-warning data network that alerts authorities to bioterror attacks and disease outbreaks.
One of the most important innovations in the FBI’s post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts consists of a portable workstation and a miniaturesatellite dish. Called the Quick Capture Platform (QCP), it electronically scans fingerprints and beams them to a database here.
The largest and most advanced deployment of antiballistic-missile assets in the region was the central feature of Operation Juniper Cobra, the biennial military exercise conducted by Israel and the U.S. Experts say this year’s operation, which ran from Oct. 12-16, was designed to test the countries’ joint ballistic missile defense (BMD) capabilities and send a message of deterrence to Iran, Syria and Hezbollah. Iran, in fact, held war games of its own shortly before Juniper Cobra, which included firing missiles that could reportedly hit Israel.
