India has become a major consumer, producer and developer of advanced technology. With indigenous defense programs coming to fruition, partnerships with key global contractors, a clever use of offsets (DTI October 2007, p. 22) and billions of dollars slated for procurement, India and its leading scientific agency, the Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO), are becoming world-class players in the development and application of advanced technology.
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BAE Systems is developing an acoustic hostile-fire indicator (HFI) to alert low-flying airplanes and helicopters of small-arms fire. In a telephone press conference Jan. 19, Program Manager Bill Ashe said the device uses noise-reduction and data-location algorithms as well as sensors within an aircraft to detect small-arms fire and give a pilot time to take evasive action. The device will be low-cost, easily installed and of little impact to the warfighter, Ashe said.
Biofuels get a lot of attention for their potential as sustainable replacements for fossil fuels in many applications, including aviation. Now comes word that it may be possible to launch some rockets with pure—or B100—biodiesel. Flometrics Inc. of Carlsbad, Calif., tested a RocketDyne LR-101 engine with a vegetable-based B100 fuel and compared the results to RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel from the U.S. Air Force. The tests showed that after a 6-sec. engine burn, the B100 fuel’s performance was near that of the RP-1.
Israel Aerospace Industries-Elta unveiled a new variant of its Conformal Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) aircraft late in 2008. It reflects the fact that AEW aircraft are now platforms that serve as hubs on a networked battlefield.
The U.S. Navy announced on Jan. 14 plans to move the homeport of one of four nuclear aircraft carriers (CVNs) in Norfolk, Va., to Mayport, Fla. The move will not happen before 2014, and the carrier won’t be selected until 2013. Norfolk is homeport to the Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Truman and Bush. The move would disperse Atlantic Fleet CVNs and reduce their vulnerability to attack or natural disaster without compromising transit time for training and deployment. Mayport has no CVNs but was homeport to the Kennedy (see photo) prior to its decommissioning.
The history of Pentagon procurement initiatives is littered with bad ideas that got worse, good ideas gone bad and great ideas that muscled their way through the system to justify their cost and prove their worth. Overall, the takeaway from decades of procurement ups and downs is that if a project seems too good to be true—the Coast Guard’s Deepwater program comes to mind (DTI November 2007, p. 16)—it probably is.
Ask people about how the M4 carbine—the weapon of choice for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps—stacks up against other weapons and you’ll get different answers. U.S. Army program managers will say that the M4, despite problems identified by critics, is a great weapon. Those outside the service speak more freely and are more critical.
A total production rate several times higher than that of recent fighters and a modern design and manufacturing line mean the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) will offer more capability for less money than competitors, program officials maintain. Decisions to be taken by the Obama administration, in light of numbers to be released in the next few weeks, will influence to what extent that plan becomes reality.
South Korea will start building the first of six 3,100-ton FFX-I frigates this year, a project that will move its defense industry up the value chain from shipbuilding to system integration. The FFX-I, also called the Ulsan-I class, will be the first major South Korean warship with locally developed sensors and combat system. Together with the 570-ton PKX fast-attack craft, the first of which entered service in December, the FFX-I and follow-on FFX-II/III frigates will form the backbone of South Korea’s three regional fleets.
The fighting in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s rocket attacks on southern Israel, has as its main goal destruction of the infrastructure and leadership of the terror group and its ability to threaten Israel. Behind the campaign, however, is another objective that is vital to the security of Israel, and to countries such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia: preventing Iran from extending its influence throughout the Middle East.
Golf pro Greg Norman is nicknamed the “Great White Shark,” a moniker that’s not incongruous to researchers at the University of Alabama. A team led by Amy Lang, assistant professor of engineering, found that some sharks have enamel scales 200 microns (0.007 in.) long across parts of their skin. When bristled they reduce drag and increase swimming speed to upward of 60 mph. for some sharks. Lang and her team developed similar scales 2 cm. (0.78 in.) long (see photo) and set them at 90-deg. angles on artificial skin.
India’s Defense Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) is upgrading the avionics of Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-27s. The upgrade transforms the aircraft into potent weapon-delivery platforms with user-friendly cockpits. The project, initiated in 2002 between DARE, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (which modified the prototype) and the IAF, is entirely indigenous. The avionics are built around the modular Core Avionics Computer developed by DARE and used in the IAF’s Jaguar and Su-30MKI aircraft.
Everyone with a stake in the 2010 U.S. Defense Dept. budget will be paying close attention as President Barack Obama fine-tunes the details before sending his budget to Congress in April. DTI’s commitment to provide insight into existing and emerging requirements has never been more important to help the industry look forward to the investments and actions needed to be competitive in a fast-changing environment.
Two months after the terror attacks in Mumbai, Indian authorities are beefing up laws and adding resources to prevent similar assaults. The government wants to respond faster and more effectively to threats from terrorists and criminal organizations that might work with them, while assuring the public that strong measures are being taken to protect them.
Late last year, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, director of the Joint Strike Fighter program office, addressed a conference in New York. One key point: “The entire media discussion of JSF has totally missed the story on true F-35 capabilities,” Davis fumed. This is complete nonsense. The critics of JSF comprise a handful of bloggers and approximately two journalists. Davis has never seen the kind of hatchet jobs that the Baltimore Sun or 60 Minutes performed on the B-2 and F-22.
In September, the Sea-Based X-band Radar, a twin-hulled, self-propelled, $900-million platform, successfully tracked a target missile launched from Alaska while operating in the northern Pacific with the destroyer USS Russell. Cued by the radar to the missile’s approach, a ground-based interceptor was fired from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., 17 min. after the target missile was launched.
Israel has seen more armored combat in the last 60 years than any nation, and paid a heavy price for developing effective tactics. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank crews, not technology, won the day in most engagements against larger foes and, sometimes, more advanced armored technology. They did so with superior tactics and a mobile-minded leadership using rapid engagement, accurate long-range firing, fire-and-movement formations and superb communications.
In late November, NetFires LLC, a joint venture between contractors Raytheon Missile Systems and Lockheed Martin, successfully completed the first two guided test flights of the Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System’s Precision Attack Missile (PAM), part of the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is the world’s biggest fighter program, increasing production to as many as 60 aircraft per year (versus just over 40 for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet). The Royal Air Force declared the fighter combat-ready in 2008 for air-to-air and air-to-ground missions. Germany and Austria also declared the aircraft operational, the latter within nine months of receiving its first jets.
