Well, that’s one white elephant put out of its misery. General opinion within the services and industry seemed to have been that this was a distracting waste of money that could have been better spent elsewhere. – George Zip on a post about Darpa’s Heliplane And of course the elephant in the room, ‘What good is that performance if it’s just a nice juicy target for an advanced AAM or SAM?’ – ‘Sferrin’ on a post about the Eurofighter Typhoon
E-bombs, weapons that destroy electronics with an intense pulse of electromagnetic radiation, have been discussed for decades. But despite years of research and development, there is little sign of their deployment. The prospect of knocking out communications and other electronic systems is attractive, but commanders prefer proven weapons with known effects. Now the U.S. Army is developing technology to provide the best of both worlds, by creating munitions that combine conventional and e-bomb effects in one package.
Three French-made medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are on their way to support NATO troops in Afghanistan following 200 hr. of inflight testing and training. They will be based with France’s International Security Assistance Force and operate out of Bagram air base north of Kabul. Logistics support supplied by lead contractor EADS goes with the UAVs, which will also have an ancillary base on alert.
Multipurpose amphibious ships are in demand, with many navies looking to upgrade their capabilities in this area. Experts say 5-10 navies are likely candidates for the vessels, among them South Africa, Canada, Turkey, Malaysia and Algeria. Three European shipyards are jockeying for their business, and in the process developing versatile designs: DCNS of France, Navantia of Spain and Fincantieri of Italy.
Fighter industry marketers at Aero India mostly agree on one thing: They expect to be back in 2011. The Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition is so wide-ranging—with a 2:1 ratio of thrust and empty weight between the Gripen NG at one end and the Super Hornet at the other—that India is going to have to decide what it wants MMRCA to do before it chooses an aircraft.
In late 2008 and during the first weeks of 2009, Chinese and Russian sources provided new insights into China’s ambitions to build aircraft carriers and air wings to equip them. This data was then assessed in light of China’s momentous December 2008 decision to dispatch a small People’s Liberation Army Navy flotilla to prosecute Somali pirates (see related story on p. 21), resulting in wide commentary about the country’s ambitions to build a much larger conventional navy.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has awarded the Georgia Institute of Technology a contract for Phases 1B and 2 of the Heliplane program, which seeks to build a high-speed vertical-takeoff-and-landing rotorcraft that can transport a 1,000-lb. payload 1,000 mi. The vehicle would be used for combat search and rescue. The six-month Phase 1B will focus on maturing the design of a rotor that meets the 400-mph. cruising requirement.
The U.S. Air Force keeps tabs on its satellites with telescopes and computers. Whenever a satellite stops communicating, USAF technicians look at it through telescopes and run computer data to learn what’s wrong. Atmospheric conditions, though, can distort viewing. This can be overcome with a patented process developed at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s Laser and Optics Research Center. Called holographic adaptic optics, it uses sensors and lenses to compensate for atmospheric disturbances and sharpen images.
One area of weapons development with game-changing potential is transforming unguided rockets into precision-guided munitions. The benefits are obvious: increased mission effectiveness, reduced collateral damage and economy.
If a multinational organization that few have heard of, headed by a Russian-educated citizen of Mali, managed to disable the radar of a major U.S. combat system, you would think someone would make a fuss. Apparently not: When the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, acting in accordance with the International Telecommunication Union, inadvertently sold the operating frequency band of the B-2 bomber’s Raytheon APQ-181 radar to a commercial user, nobody panicked, even though installing new radar arrays on the 20 surviving jets will cost well over $1 billion.
Israel’s defense ministry has awarded Elbit Systems a $40-million contract for 100 Skylark-1LE mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems. The 1LE, an enhanced version of the Skylark manpack drone that Israel has operated since 2005, will be deployed at the battalion level. Deliveries will span several years.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports the development of a self-drilling device for use in rock, concrete and similar materials to facilitate climbing. According to U.S. patent 7,156,189, the Ultrasonic/Sonic (US) Anchor can be inserted and withdrawn with minimal axial force. Potential applications include operations in which soldiers use hand and foot versions to climb mountains or walls. Robots can also be equipped with the device to scale steep surfaces. The US Anchor is a cylindrical device about 15 cm. (6 in.) long.
Graphene is a carbon produced in 1-atom-thick sheets with a honeycomb structure. Discovered five years ago, it has high conductivity and is a substitute for copper and silicone in nanoelectronics. Batches, though, yield material with metallic and semiconductor properties. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found a way to control these properties, which may spur commercial production. The chemistry of the substrate on which graphene is deposited sets the material’s conductivity.
Holography has captured the imagination of the public and scientists for 60 years. But it remains mainly a novelty, its potential as a learning or display tool limited by the resources it takes to produce holograms. So it may come as a surprise to many that thousands of holographic maps are in use now on the battlefields of Iraq. Zebra Imaging of Austin, Tex., a pioneering optics company, has been supplying block-level 3D maps of Baghdad and environs to the U.S. Army since 2007.
The U.S. Navy piggybacks Advanced SEAL Delivery System (ASDS) mini-submarines for its SEAL teams onto nuclear subs for transport. The ASDS rests on pylons aft of the conning tower. Tests show, however, that the aft pair of pylons and their fixtures generate hydrodynamic forces during undersea transit that exert unsteady loads on the rudders, stern planes, propeller and other parts of the ASDS, leading to fatigue and premature failure. As reported last month in NASA Tech Briefs, relieving the stress may be relatively simple.
A treaty banning the production of cluster bombs was signed in Oslo by 111 nations last December. But controversy continues over an exemption for “smart” projectiles that activists claim are cluster bombs in everything but name. Activists decry the indiscriminate lethality of cluster bombs, in which a canister scatters thousands of bomblets, not all of which explode immediately. Germany considers itself a leader in the effort to ban the weapons. Yet Berlin also lobbied to exclude smart projectiles.
The German army aviation school in Buckeburg began official operation of its first NH90 helicopter simulator on Jan. 15. The simulator is the biggest private financing initiative (PFI) undertaken by the German armed forces. It was designed and built by Helicopter Flight Training Services (HFTS), a consortium of private industry which will operate as many as five simulators for the armed forces through 2022, delivering about 217,000 hr. of training. The NH90 tactical transport helicopter is being supplied to Germany by NH Industries, part of Eurocopter.
Since the inconclusive Second Lebanon War of 2006, the Israeli army has been developing tactics and adding equipment and capabilities to fight more effectively in asymmetric conflicts. The recent success of “Operation Cast Lead” in the densely populated Gaza Strip shows that an industrial military that coordinates operations among land, air and sea units, makes effective use of advanced technology, and shares intelligence and leads from the front can decisively defeat an asymmetric enemy.
The Russian military has been sparing in its use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), primarily because the models in service were designed in the Soviet era and are obsolete. Although local manufacturers are years behind the U.S. and Israel in UAV developments, some indigenous systems are being tested.
Robots are a common sight on battlefields and may soon be as ubiquitous in military warehouses and loading docks. Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are working on automating a forklift that can safely load and unload supplies in war zones. Human operators often come under fire in such areas, forcing them to run for cover and delaying work. As conceived, an operator will run the semi-autonomous forklift from a protected area nearby or some distance away in a bunker. Control is maintained with a wireless tablet computer.
Of the 313-ship fleet the U.S. Navy is trying to build, few vessels are more contentious than the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer. Procurement was canceled after two ships, but dissenters kicked up enough of a row that Navy Secretary Donald Winter went back to Capitol Hill for funding for a third destroyer last August. Winter’s appeal came less than a month after he spent a day informing congressional members of the Navy’s intentions to cancel further procurement of this class of ships.
Series production of Germany’s 400 Puma infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) begins later this year with a twist—each will carry a Spike LR antitank/anti-helicopter lightweight guided missile system and two missiles. The upgrade will cost $87 million. The Spikes are part of the “multiple-role lightweight guided-missile system” being bolted onto the Puma by PSM, the joint venture between Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann that is building the IFV. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems developed the Spike.
In this first of three articles, DTI examines China’s progress in implementing strategies that deny increasing areas of the Western Pacific to potential adversaries—a “Great Wall” of deterrence. This article covers China’s efforts to develop a modern C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) capability. Subsequent articles will report on the elements of this wall, as well as China’s aerospace and naval strike capabilities.
The Joint Strike Fighter’s (JSF) short-takeoff-vertical-landing (Stovl) technology involves some of the most highly automated, integrated control of flight and propulsion ever attempted, using 14 effectors (control surfaces, propulsion systems and nozzles) controlled by stick, throttle and rudder pedals. The goal is simple, intuitive control (stick forward, trees get bigger) and far better safety than the Harrier. The plan is for a series of “build-down” tests reaching successively lower speeds, culminating in a vertical landing at the U.S.
