Flexibility counts for more in a fight than rigid adherence to a plan—especially if the plan is shot to pieces after the battle begins. Just ask BAE Systems Hagglunds. The Swedish contractor received confirmation on Feb. 4 that Sweden’s military, faced with dramatic budget cuts, would not pursue the next-generation SEP armored vehicle program that Hagglunds championed. Sweden planned instead to launch a competition for an off-the-shelf vehicle (DTI March, p. 8).
Over the past year or so, senior space experts, including two former directors of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and a former U.S. Air Force chief of staff, looked at the state of “national security space” in the U.S. Working at the behest of Congress and chartered at the highest Pentagon levels, they enjoyed access denied to most mortals, including passes to the black vaults of the NRO.
A development in steel formulation from Japan could yield high-strength, low-cost grades that resist cold-temperature brittleness. The National Institute of Materials Science in Tsukuba has a way to toughen steel without the expense of high additive loadings. As reported by nature.com, the technique, called tempforming, creates a laminated microstructure in steel that retains strength and ductility to -60C. A laminated microstructure reduces brittleness because it deflects cracks moving through steel and dissipates their energy.
The insurgencies of the 21st century are turning conventional military tactics upside down and moving the focus from large, sustained fights to brief, precise but no-less-deadly engagements against multiple enemies in many locations. Like virtually every part of the post-9/11 U.S. military, the artillery branches of the Army and Marine Corps are transforming the way they fight to defeat an often-shadowy enemy on asymmetric battlefields.
One entry in the Grand Challenge design competition sponsored by the U.K. Defense Ministry points to capabilities of future unmanned aerial vehicles. Tiger, a multiplatform UAV developed by Qinetiq’s Cortex group, is a portable aircraft with high autonomy that’s loaded with multispectral sensors to detect threats in urban environments. The UAV can take off vertically to reduce an operator’s exposure to hostile fire, transition to conventional flight, hover over targets and land to function as an unattended ground sensor.
The last thing a U.S. Army sniper needs is more equipment to carry. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to lighten the load with a program that integrates day and night sighting in one compact scope. The Dual-Mode Detector Ensemble (DUDE) program is evaluating proposals for a single chip with a vertically stacked array that contains an uncooled long-wave infrared (LWIR) sensor, along with a sensor that detects light in the visible/near-infrared spectral range (VNS).
Oto Melara has developed a weapon system for armored vehicles that occupies the middle ground between lightweight remote weapon stations and manned turrets. The Hitfist 30 OWS (overhead weapon system) is said to combine the best features of both configurations.
Network-centric warfare is a mainstay of U.S. combat capabilities, making control of cyberspace crucial to planning and operations. Assuring access to the electromagnetic spectrum and guarding it from attack is a component of military readiness and national security. The Pentagon’s newest command is charged with this responsibility. U.S. Air Force Cyber Command (AF Cyber) stands up Oct. 1. Announced two years ago by then-Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, it completes USAF’s triad of air, space and cyberspace defense capabilities.
Elta Systems Ltd., a division of Israel Aerospace Industries, has developed a modular network of autonomous ground sensors that monitor areas for enemy incursions. The EL/I-6001 network includes seismic, acoustic and electro-optical sensors and miniature ground-surveillance radars. Each sensor has a microphone for acoustic detection, a geophone that detects seismic vibration from movement, GPS receiver, communications transceiver and low-power controller and signal processor. The sensors pick up vehicles from a distance of 500 meters (1,640 ft.) and humans from 50 meters.
Reviewed By Pat Toensmeier Soldiers Of Reason: The Rand Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire By Alex Abella Harcourt Inc., 2008 388 pp., $27.00
As the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program develops, some competitors’ designs are coming into focus. U.S. Army and Marine Corps program managers were scheduled to select three entries in June from the seven teams working on prototypes, but pushed the selection back to early fall. Plans call for as many as 200,000 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs) to be produced (DTI June, p. 36).
Japan’s 18,000-ton through-deck destroyer Hyuga is scheduled to enter service in March 2009, in a move that many expect will transform the reach and power projection of the country’s surface fleet.
In October 1948, a group of Boeing engineers gathered in the Van Cleve Hotel in Dayton, Ohio. In a Friday meeting at neighboring Wright-Patterson AFB, they were told the company’s contract for a turboprop bomber was to be canceled—the same goals could be achieved by hanging jet boosters on the Convair B-36. Over the weekend, the Boeing team developed a better, pure-jet proposal based on new engines, the aerodynamics of the XB-55 medium bomber and the use of inflight refueling.
Soldiers who suffer blast-related injuries are at risk for brain trauma that may remain undetected by MRI scans and other procedures. Some studies report that even soldiers who emerge from a blast dazed but otherwise unharmed may be more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. Immediate treatment after a blast is vital. A research team at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a material that could aid doctors in determining the intensity of a blast and prescribing the best treatment for survivors.
The Ares web site featured live reports from the Farnborough International Air Show outside London in July. Aviation Week editors filed at least five weblog posts per day, many of which appeared on Ares. Reading our coverage was the next best thing to being there.
Degaussing coils conduct electric currents to cloak a ship’s magnetic field, making it difficult to detect by magnetic sensors and magnetically activated mines. The copper coils, installed along the circumference of a hull, are effective but heavy, and require an elaborate infrastructure. An innovative technology has the potential to dramatically reduce the weight, cost and space needed for degaussing coils, while increasing their performance. The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Carderock Div.
Along with 1,000 new troops, Bundeswehr forces in Afghanistan will draw on 50 new Dingo 2 armored vehicles from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann by the end of the year. Berlin is spending $214 million on the order, which includes four battle-damage repair variants, options for 44 additional vehicles, plus 230 light (FLW 100) and 190 heavy (FLW 200) remotely operated weapon stations. The modular stations won over procurement officials during trials last year.
The MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies is dissecting what may be a viable design for body armor. A fish with prehistoric bloodlines called Polypterus senegalus has scales in multiple layers that act as an armored suit. Researchers say it protects internal organs during attack. P. senegalus is a freshwater fish from Africa whose family tree goes back 96 million years. Each scale has four different layer materials. In a U.S.
Consumers aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch of higher fuel prices. The U.S. military, the largest user of petroleum products in the world, takes a huge hit when prices rise. Every $1-per-barrel increase in oil costs the Pentagon about $130 million. The Air Force alone spent $12.6 billion on fuel in 2007, and expenditures will be greater this year, which is why USAF wants all its aircraft using synthetic fuel blends by 2011. Recent tests of 50/50 blends of petroleum and synthetic fuels, including biofuels (DTI June, p.
NASA Glenn Research Center has developed helic composite trusses of shape-memory polymer (SMP) that deploy into strong, lightweight structures for space, aerial and ground platforms. The trusses compress after use for storage or transportation. In a NASA Tech Briefs report, the trusses are described as “simple, light and affordable alternatives to articulated mechanisms and inflatable structures.” Fabricated of glass-reinforced thermoset polymers, they yield high torsion, bending and compression stiffness.
As micro air vehicles become smaller, individual soldiers may use them as their own tactical reconnaissance assets. Researchers say that micro air vehicles (MAV) will look like insects, which is no coincidence. “It’s in recognition of the capabilities we hope to utilize,” says Aaron Penkacik, vice president of advanced systems and technology at BAE Systems, the industrial lead in a program to develop technology for collaborative swarms of miniature robots for complex terrain.
Vision Systems International of San Jose, Calif., has begun delivering its Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS) display sight for use in 145 U.S. Air Force F-15E fighters. The system provides pilots with a “first look, first shot” weapons-engagement capability, and is in use by U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F pilots. JHMCS puts targeting, weapons and aircraft performance data on a helmet visor that’s less than 3 in. from a pilot’s eye. A pilot directs weapons with the system by pointing his head at a target.
It happens all the time. Despite years of research and development and millions in expenditures, U.S. Army procurement programs are unceremoniously dumped. A recent turnaround by the Army, however, shows that “no” doesn’t always mean “no,” and that a lot of good can come out of rethinking a program that’s been thrown aside.
Defense contractor Indra Sistemas of Madrid doesn’t always get the attention that larger rivals in Europe and North America receive. But that may change. The company wants to expand sales of its radars for air, land and sea deployment, and move ahead with ventures in satellite technology, border surveillance and flight-data processing.
One of the first active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radars based on the latest generation of X-band transmit/receive (T/R) modules from EADS Defense Electronics is about to begin trials with the German military. The radar, known as TRGS (Tactical Radar for Ground Surveillance), has been ordered for the military’s ground-surveillance radar program. It will be fielded in two versions: on a tripod and integrated in an extendable mast on Dingo 2 lightly-armored wheeled reconnaissance vehicles from Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.
