U.S. Air Force plans to keep the Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber viable and in service well beyond 2040 include, in the next few years, the biggest and most expensive upgrades yet to the low-observable bomber. Apart from their impact on performance and service life, the upgrades are an essential part of the Air Force’s emerging approach to the challenge of connecting low-observable aircraft to the tactical network without compromising their stealth (DTI December 2007, p. 40).
As I write this column, Editor-in-Chief Bill Sweetman, Senior North American Editor Paul McLeary and yours truly are attending the annual meeting of the Assn. of the U.S. Army (AUSA), in Washington, trolling for stories and posting daily reports on Ares. So far we’ve written about the Excalibur guided artillery round, ruggedized Panasonic computers, Textron’s Joint Light Tactical Vehicle entry, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann’s Fennek II recon vehicle, and free beer. For more news and analysis from the first post-financial-crisis trade show, see p. 13.
Japan may be on track to develop a turbofan engine for a scaled-up fighter variant of the ATD-X Shinshin advanced technology demonstrator, scheduled to fly in 2013.
The U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are deploying maritime patrols on a novel yet critical mission: detection of self-propelled, semi-submersible (SPSS) craft used to smuggle tons of cocaine into the U.S. Nine SPSS craft have been detected in the past two years, with three captured intact by Coast Guard boarding parties. The others sank after crews scuttled the boats.
The Russian navy Typhoon-class submarine Dmitry Donskoy (photo) launched an R-30 Bulava ICBM in the White Sea in northeast Russia on Sept. 18. A navy spokesman quoted by Russian media said the underwater launch was successful. The missile’s warhead reached the Kura test range on the Kamchatka peninsula in the northwest. This was the eighth test firing of the missile since 2005. Five launches, including the last in November 2007, were unsuccessful due to failures in the engine or flight-control system. Officials have said the test program will include 12-14 launches.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is looking to develop “revolutionary” air-delivered weapons that will defeat a multitude of threats, including moving and deeply buried targets, with capabilities like inherent glide and maneuver and networked detonation.
Contaminated water is a major problem for expeditionary troops, peacekeepers and disaster-relief forces. The biggest challenge is rapidly determining if water is contaminated, and by what. Most tests require laboratory equipment and can take several days. The Environmental Biotechnology Cooperative Research Center of Australia has developed a simple and inexpensive field test that detects pathogenic organisms or chemical contaminants in water in a matter of minutes.
Since taking over as head of the Italian general staff last February, Gen. Vincenzo Camporini has battled budget cuts on one side and inertia within Italy’s services over joint operations on the other. The two areas are inextricably linked. Camporini, who had been air force chief of staff, was required by Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti in June to develop a plan for €2 billion ($2.7 billion) of defense spending cuts over the next three years. Odds are that Camporini will look for savings by cutting programs, rather than scaling all operations back.
President Bush signed his final defense budget into law on Oct. 14. The $578-billion package authorizes a base of $512 billion to support military readiness and $66 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. The total is about 17% less than the defense authorization bill for Fiscal 2008, which was $696 billion but wasn’t signed until Jan. 28, after a contentious debate between the White House and Congress over earmarks and language about Iraq.
The intercept and shootdown by the U.S. Navy last February of an inoperative American satellite falling back into the atmosphere demonstrated a potent missile-defense capability. The strike was, of course, planned by the Defense Dept. and carried out by a Raytheon SM-3 missile fired from the USS Lake Erie. Information declassified in October, however, reveals that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was involved in plotting the intercept.
Mapping software that mimics the computational capabilities of a rat’s brain may someday give robotic vehicles a way to self-navigate across terrain. Michael J. Milford and Gordon F. Wyeth, researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia, developed a simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system based on computational models derived from the workings of a rodent’s hippocampus. This part of the brain was found to have cells for storing and organizing visual cues that tell the animal where it is and where it should go so as not to get lost.
In the topsy-turvy world of Future Combat Systems (FCS) planning, the mantra these days seems to be “steady as she goes.” At the Assn. of the U.S. Army (AUSA) convention in Washington last month, Army Secretary Peter Geren somewhat cryptically told reporters “we’re committed to Future Combat Systems. It’s just a question of adjusting as the world changes, and as the need changes . . . we’re 100% behind it, and we’ll make it a priority in all of our budgeting going forward.” Geren added that he sees no significant changes to the program in the near future.
Israel’s land forces command has revamped its tactical and strategic planning to emphasize maneuver warfare and improve joint operations utilizing standoff firepower. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will enter conflicts with the goal of achieving dominance on the ground and leveraging that to a decisive victory.
REVIEWED BY Pat Toensmeier Bananas! How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World BY peter chapman Canongate U.S., 2008 224 pp., $24.00 It’s hard to believe that the ubiquitous banana, a staple of breakfast and healthy snacks, was once such a delicacy that Prime Minister Clement Attlee had a boatload of them delivered to England after World War II as a sign that better days were coming.
Caltech researchers working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed a technique for processing image data in an artificial neural network that achieves real-time recognition of moving objects under changing conditions of light and perspective. As described in NASA Tech Briefs, the process combines two object-recognition methods, which if used alone, wouldn’t yield as good a result. One is a feature-based method called adaptive principal-component analysis (APCA); the other method is called adaptive color segmentation (Acose).
Using chemical signals and genetics to trick protective anthrax spores into germinating could be a permanent part of the arsenal for combating the deadly disease, opening pathways to better treatments and more effective decontamination after a bioterrorism attack.
Even if we weren’t broke, this is no time for on-the-job training at the Pentagon. The defense establishment is a huge and sluggish beast, but some of the new administration’s first decisions will be crucial: the choices of Defense and service secretaries.
The fifth and final SAR-Lupe synthetic aperture radar satellite was launched on July 22 by a Cosmos-3M rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome south of Archangelsk, Russia, completing Germany’s first space-based reconnaissance system. The system’s full operational capability was achieved on Sept. 24, the day after it was accepted by Germany’s federal office for defense technology and procurement.
The use of quantum cryptography to secure data across a network took a major step forward in Vienna on Oct. 8, when a European Union program called Secoqc transmitted encrypted material over a commercial telecommunications network. Secoqc (Secure Communication based on Quantum Cryptography) anticipates that a system for quantum-encrypted data could be commercially available in three years. It would be of value to military as well as commercial users, since quantum cryptography is regarded as unbreakable.
Micromachines may soon be operating with barely visible microball bearings. Researchers at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, using manufacturing processes similar to those of the semiconductor industry, have produced working ball bearings that are only as wide as a few human hairs and nearly invisible to the eye.
Prototypes of wheeled vehicles that combine protection with strategic mobility and economy are undergoing performance trials in Italy and Germany. Jointly developed by Iveco Defense Vehicles of Italy and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) of Germany, the 4 X 4 and 6 X 6 vehicles are initially intended for the Italian and German armies. Series production is slated to begin next year.
Australia’s defense budget is A$400 million ($280 million) richer after fatigue testing on 49 Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18 Hornets showed that only about 20% need a structural refurbishment that includes replacement of the fuselage center barrel.
Israel has officially unveiled the Namer armored infantry fighting vehicle (AIFV). Namer, which means Leopard in Hebrew, uses the same chassis as the Merkava Mk.4, the latest version of Israel’s unique infantry-carrying tank. The 60-ton Namer has a remotely operated weapon station, electro-optical observation and sighting systems and “see-through armor” optics that provide a 360-deg. view. The vehicle mounts a 12.7-mm. heavy machine gun on the weapon station, a manually operated 7.62-mm. machine gun and a 60-mm. mortar.
