The U.S. Army has awarded contracts worth about $5 million each to General Dynamics C4 Systems, Raytheon and Rockwell Collins to develop “system of systems” equipment for dismounted commanders.
During a speech at the U.S. Naval War College in April, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates cited the value of developing a viable force of small warships that are better suited to face current threats in the littorals than vessels designed for blue-water operations.
“When we started in May 2008, we didn’t know how to spell nanosat.” U.S. Army Space & Missile Development Command (SMDC) Program Manager John London sums up the beginnings of a program that has already created a small constellation of ready-to-launch spacecraft, designed to demonstrate the ability to perform an operational communications mission. Dubbed SMDC-One, the first group of satellites was delivered in April, less than a year after the program started. It is the first satellite developed by the Army in decades.
The new Beretta ARX-160 assault rifle, commissioned by Italy’s defense ministry, is being operationally tested in Afghanistan by Italian troops deployed with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. The weapon will replace the AR-70/90 5.56-mm. assault rifle, also made by Beretta.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a meter for calibrating high-power lasers that is smaller and more portable than current units. One benefit of the meter is that it will let the military calibrate the lasers it uses to defuse mines faster and more easily than conventional devices. NIST reports the unit is “about the size of a crock pot” and performs continuous measurements.
Japan plans to proceed with development of the UH-X, successor to the Fuji/Bell UH-1J utility helicopter, in its midterm defense plan for 2010-14. The main contenders are Fuji and Kawasaki, the former offering a twin-engine version of the UH-1J, and the latter a design derived from its OH-1 Ninja Scout. The outcome may seal the fate of Fuji’s helicopter business. This suffered a blow when the defense ministry decided in 2007 to procure only 13 of the AH-64D Apache helicopters it builds under license instead of 60, due to higher-priority programs.
Two years ago at the Paris air show, the Joint Strike Fighter program looked unstoppable despite a major electrical glitch and emergency landing that temporarily stopped testing of the first F-35, aircraft AA-1. The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin program leaders were pushing a plan to get export customers to sign firm, penalty-backed contracts for almost 400 aircraft (DTI July/August 2008, p. 45), extinguishing the hopes of competitors and facing most with extinction by 2015. The plan was to have those deals signed by early 2008.
Not surprisingly, the black or classified budget has continued to grow from 2009 to 2010; not surprisingly because the growth trend since 9/11 has been stronger than it was before, and even in the 1990s, black budgets grew faster than white-world spending.
Researchers in New York may be on the way to neutralizing ricin, the deadly bio-agent made famous by the murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov, after he was jabbed in the leg with a poison dart from an umbrella 30 years ago in London. Ricin is made from castor-oil manufacturing waste. It is poisonous if inhaled, eaten or injected. There is no antidote, and it is lethal in doses as small as a grain of salt. For any treatment to be successful, it must begin with early identification and isolation of the poison.
In areas where GPS is nonexistent or unreliable, the tactical advantages of precision attack and situational awareness suffer. Dead-reckoning sensors are an option, but the best of these have only a 2-5% margin of error. Work is underway on development of a low-power micro-navigation sensor that will fit on a boot and provide positioning accuracy of less than 1% indoors or out. InterSense Inc.
Governments manufacture secrets, and the U.S. is a top producer. In the last five years, Washington has stamped “secret” on 96.6 million items and spent $150 billion on classified programs.
The Fiscal 2010 defense budget had not been released during the annual Army Aviation Assn. of America (Quad A) show here, May 3. But leadership was fairly positive about the state of its branch. “Army aviation will be just fine,” aviation branch chief Maj. Gen. James Barclay told reporters. “We won’t get every dime we want, but we have lots of supporters.”
One conclusion of the 9/11 Commission’s unclassified Final Report in 2004 was that noncooperation between federal, state and local agencies in distributing classified or sensitive information imperils national security.
Thomas Klapoetke, an expert in fluorine chemistry and energetic materials who heads the inorganic chemistry lab at Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, has been on the trail of raw power for the better part of a decade. His team works with extremely volatile compounds, with a recent focus on substituting silicon for the usual carbon atoms in high explosives like PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate), which is used in Semtex and many weapons.
Military and civilian scientists may soon be able to exponentially increase the imaging capabilities of high-speed cameras used in research and development. Work at UCLA, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has produced a camera that’s capable of continuously recording images at the rate of 6 million frames per second—1,000 times faster than current cameras. The technology is called serial time-encoded amplified microscopy (Steam).
There is a whole lot of I-told-you-so in the popular reaction to the troubles of the Airbus A400M military transport, which is some 18 months behind its scheduled flight-test date. A lot of people think of it as a typical government program, flawed in concept and execution and doomed to mediocrity. Not all of those people are American; it was a former U.K. Labor Party defense procurement minister who called it “a marvelous Euro-wanking make-work project.” And that was before its current troubles.
Spanish shipbuilder Navantia is working with DCNS of France to build six AM-2000 Scorpene-class submarines for India in Mumbai. The partnership may not last beyond these boats, however, since Navantia has made clear that it wants to go it alone when India issues a request for proposals (RFP) for a follow-on order of six subs. Navantia will bid its S-80 diesel-electric submarine. Navantia also plans to be in the running for seven frigates above 4,000 dwt. (deadweight tonnage—the transport capacity of a ship in long tons) that the Indian navy wants to acquire.
With an estimated 90% of all illegal drugs that enter the U.S. passing through Mexico, and claims that many of the weapons seized from drug traffickers and at crime scenes in Mexico come from the U.S., it’s obvious that the border between the countries needs more security.
It can be difficult for companies and organizations to put dollars-and-cents figures on the damage hackers do to computer networks. Not so for the Pentagon. Officials there say that in one six-month period they spent more than $100 million to repair damage done by cyberattacks caused by hackers and viruses.
Armed forces need more and more stored electrical power, for everything from vehicle propulsion to portable communication devices. Batteries, capacitors and other energy-storage systems, however, are inefficient—they don’t have the density, high power or recharge speed necessary for optimal use. Scientists at the Maryland NanoCenter may have a solution in electrostatic nanocapacitors, which they claim are up to 10 times more efficient than conventional devices at storing energy, producing high power and achieving fast recharge rates. Prof.
Concern is growing over China’s development of a long-range, precision-strike antiship ballistic missile (ASBM). In a discussion of the weapon in this year’s annual China Military Power report to Congress, the Defense Dept. concludes the capability is significant, “as it provide[s] China with preemptive and coercive options in a regional crisis.”
The U.K. Defense Ministry is looking to improve the efficiency of its battlefield and humanitarian medical services with Bulk Medical Storage Facilities (BMSFs), temperature-controlled containers that are designed to safely transport blood, plasma and other perishable supplies to forward field hospitals. The ministry is investing approximately £3 million ($4.4 million) in the project, which includes 88 man-portable refrigerator systems that will be used to carry blood to wounded soldiers on the battlefield. The BMSFs are being built by General Dynamics UK.
The U.S. Navy is placing a great deal of reliance on a single technology to defeat submarines close to the fleet: improved radar that can automatically detect and identify submarine periscopes, even in high sea states.
The Apr. 6 announcement by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates of program cuts and realignments was merely the start of a long debate over which will prevail, which will be reversed and which traded off for others. Land-based tactical air was one of the big losers. The U.S. Air Force has lost most hope of getting more F-22s—or indeed any new fighters of any kind until the F-35A is operational. Instead, Gates indicated that the F-35A ramp-up would be faster. He also indicated that 250 of the oldest Air Force fighters would be retired during 2010.
David J. Gorsich Chief Scientist, Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, Warren, Mich. Age: 40 Education: B.S., electrical engineering, Lawrence Technological University; M.A., applied mathematics, George Washington University; Ph.D., applied mathematics, MIT.
