In September 2007, a U.S. Navy officer working with the Marines’ executive safety board issued a simple, stark warning. According to a presentation by Cdr. Stan Jossell, the Marines—and to some extent the services in general—are buying new equipment that is so loud that it’s not a matter of whether but when and how badly operators will suffer permanent hearing damage. Jossell noted, moreover, that the technology to protect users from damage does not yet exist.
The U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System has a spotty development history. UCAS, a carrier-based drone that will be equipped with sensors, monitoring equipment and guided weapons and be capable of mid-air refueling, has been beset by delays, controversy over contracts (DTI October 2007, p. 28) and, many claim, reluctance by Navy brass to fully embrace a concept that would replace piloted aircraft for some missions.
Corrosion is a constant threat to mechanical systems. The Brinker Nanostructures Research Group at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and Sandia National Laboratories have developed a transparent coating that makes water bead up and roll off surfaces. The coating can also inhibit ice formation on aircraft and optical surfaces. The coating was developed by modification of an undisclosed chemical precursor, which created a superhydrophobic nanoporous surface. A special process controls the roughness and surface chemistry of the coating.
Just as the Bell UH-1 Huey helicopter became an iconic symbol of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, the Humvee has become the face of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sure, there are Strykers, Bradleys and an increasing number of MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles in theater, but none matches the ubiquity of American General’s M1114 HMMWV, of which there are about 170,000 in use.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is working on developing miniature—possibly chip-size—gyroscopes that will provide accurate navigation for a range of users and platforms including dismounted soldiers. Devices developed by the Navigation-Grade Integrated Micro Gyroscope program will be used when GPS guidance is unavailable. Each gyroscope will be less than 1 cu. cm. (0.06 cu. in.) excluding power pack, use less than 5 milliwatts of power and have a bandwidth of 1-300 Hz.
A thin-film electronic sensor the size of a penny has been developed at the University of California, San Diego, to detect bombs made with peroxide explosives. The sensor uses cobalt and copper films, which when properly stimulated are extremely sensitive to trace amounts of peroxide in the environment. When an electrical charge is applied, the cobalt film shows a reduction in current and the copper film an increase if peroxide is present.
Quantum physics doesn’t always lend itself to intuitive explanations. Nevertheless, experts can usually develop theoretical calculations to prove some properties exist. One example is a property called “entanglement,” which was predicted some time ago and has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments. Under certain conditions an atom will release two photons of light at the same time. Even though they go off in different directions, they remain entangled, and anything that changes one photon changes the other.
The armed unmanned aerial vehicle has rapidly come of age. Since the first launch of a Hellfire missile from a Predator drone in November 2001, the combination has gone from strength to strength, becoming the preferred tool for strikes in the Afghan border regions.
Italy expects the Cavour, its new aircraft carrier, to achieve initial operational readiness late this year or early in 2009. Delivered by Fincantieri last March, the ship, the largest built in Italy since 1942, is designed for a number of roles in addition to projecting air power, among them amphibious operations, task force command and humanitarian aid. The Cavour displaces 27,520 tons fully loaded, is 244 meters (800 ft.) long and has a beam of 40 meters. It carries a crew of 742, can house a command staff of 140 and accommodate two companies of marines.
Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, seem like they’ve been around for years, even though they’re still a relatively new capability. Having only been on the Pentagon’s radar since late 2003, due to the slow realization of the ongoing threat of improvised explosive devices (IED), the heavily armored vehicles were little more than a curiosity until recently.
Something of a surprise at the Aero-India show in early 2007 was the unveiling of the MiG-35 demonstrator with a Phazotron active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. Even the latest Su-35 from MiG’s blood rivals at Sukhoi has a hybrid array.
A new space race is underway as nations move to acquire or extend space-imaging technologies. The capability is no longer viewed as a luxury or a monopoly to be held by a few powerful countries. Israel, for one, has become a leader in the field, and European activity is growing. The ability to monitor areas of interest from space has implications for defense, science and business. Programs to exploit imaging capabilities are gaining momentum as countries seek a presence in space.
If there is one word that should be banished from the Pentagon’s vocabulary, it is “warfighter.” The function of the armed forces is to fight wars (in case someone had forgotten). In an ideal world this capability preempts war by intimidating those who would do harm to other nations, but nevertheless it is what the armed forces are about. In that sense, everyone involved is a “warfighter.”
Russia’s invasion of Georgia wasn’t anything special from a military standpoint. Air and ground assets poured across the border, attacking in much the same way that mechanized armies have for a century. What was new was a form of warfare widely touted but imperfectly understood—cyber attacks against Georgian and Russian Internet news sites and select Georgian government sites, temporarily disabling them with denial-of-service (DOS) actions that did little damage but effectively removed them from being a factor in the conflict.
A development at Cornell University could lead to devices that extract purified water from above the water table, even pulling it out of thin air, so to speak, by trapping the vapor associated with humidity. Assistant Prof. Abraham Stroock, along with Prof. Hector Abruna and Tobias Wheeler, a graduate student, designed a “microtree” out of a 1-mm.-thick membrane of polyhydroxyethyl methacrylate hydrogel, a soft, biocompatible material used in contact lenses.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency successfully test-fired a high-energy chemical laser on Sept. 7 at Edwards AFB, Calif., during ground testing for the Airborne Laser (ABL) missile-defense program. The ABL is designed to destroy ballistic missiles in the boost phase of flight. The laser was fired for the first time on board the modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft that will be the weapon’s platform. The firing caps a 10-month effort to install and ready the laser for further tests.
The change in leadership at the U.S. Air Force last June may in part be responsible for a decision by the service to postpone plans to make USAF’s new cyber warfare unit a command on Oct. 1. According to an Air Force representative, plans for Cyber Command are in a “pause” until Secretary Michael B. Donley, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz and other senior leaders decide how to proceed. A Corona meeting of generals is scheduled for this month, the representative says, at which a decision is likely to be made about how to structure the unit.
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems has developed a hybrid passive/reactive armor system that defeats a range of threats to armored vehicles. Called Aspro-MT, the material withstands armor-piercing rounds from heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), improvised explosive devices, explosively formed projectiles and high-speed fragmentation from 155-mm. artillery rounds. Rafael, which added the product to its Aspro line, is touting the armor for the Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle program and Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (see story, p. 46).
Boeing has developed a cargo handling and transport trailer that replaces or augments trailers and pallets used to load, unload and transport aircraft cargo. The Joint Recovery and Distribution System (Jrads) uses hydraulic lifts and rollers to raise and lower the deck of the trailer, tilt it forward or back and side-to-side. The Jrads trailer transports loads of up to 35,000 lb. on paved and unpaved roads.
Erecting a more formidable defense of computer networks by analyzing which components are most prone to hacking is the goal of software developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Network Security Planning Architecture (NetSPA) processes information about networks and the individual machines and software running on them, and creates a graph that shows how they can be hacked. System administrators can review the graph and decide what actions to take, or NetSPA will make recommendations about how to fix obvious weaknesses.
Battlefield medicine is one target of a high-resolution microscope no bigger than a dime. Changhuei Yang, assistant professor of electrical engineering and bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology, says the optofluidic microscope he and colleagues developed combines computer-chip technology with microfluidics (small-scale fluid flow). Primary uses would be to analyze blood samples and check water for pathogens. The device has no lens. It uses a layer of metal coated on the grid of a charge-coupled device sensor that can be illuminated by local light.
The next step in precision-guided weaponry is now being demonstrated in Israel: the use of portable and handheld laser designators to guide missiles fired from well behind the front lines. Laser-guided weapons offer high precision, measurable control and, importantly, the ability to be effectively integrated within joint-force environments based on NATO-standard coding to coordinate target designation and weapons. This standard has created an unofficial battlefield language that enables mutual support and coordination between multinational units.
Russia’s arms export agency Rosoboronexport opened its shop window to international customers in August at IDELF 2008 in Moscow, the defense exhibition for land forces. A lot of up-to-the-minute hardware was on display, and Deputy Director General Igor Sevastianov talked about increased international cooperation as an element of Russia’s export plans.
When Selex Sistemi Integrati began developing a line of radars in 2006, it wanted a platform that would be versatile and inexpensive to operate and support. The result is Lyra, a family of small radars with a common base that is configurable for a number of applications. Lyra comes in three models—10, 50 and 80—that can be used as surface-movement radar at airports, for coastal surveillance and naval traffic control, on battlefields and for border security.
A debate about the effects of blast trauma could influence equipment design, diagnoses and treatment. Neurologist Ibola Cernak of Johns Hopkins University has studied blast trauma since the Balkans war. She maintains that traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from blast waves that move through the torso and into the brain via major blood vessels. This creates neurological effects that are not always immediately apparent. Conventional thinking has been that blast waves injure organs like the lungs and bowel. The U.S.
