The U.S. Army deployed armed, unmanned ground vehicles in 2007 after years of experimentation. The first three robotic vehicles, called Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems (Swords), made by Foster-Miller, are used for street patrols and reconnaissance in undisclosed locations and have reportedly performed well.
Mini-UAVs continue to prove their value as tactical surveillance and reconnaissance craft. The design of this class of unmanned aerial vehicle has been fine-tuned to where versions are lightweight, manpack-portable in battle, readily launched by hand, and capable of carrying sophisticated data-transmission payloads. Their video capabilities help direct bombing runs, and their size and low noise make them virtually undetectable, even at low altitudes. They are truly the shadow warriors of 21st-century battlefields.
The anti-air and surface-warfare capability of 16 Canadian and Netherlands frigates will soon be significantly enhanced now that a long-range, dual-band infrared search-and-tracking sensor developed by DRS Technologies and Thales has passed its final test and qualification milestone.
Diehl BGT Defense teamed with Saab Microwave Systems to demonstrate the new Iris-T SLS short-range air-defense missile system during a live firing at the OTB Test Range in South Africa in March. Officials from more than seven nations witnessed the direct-hit of a maneuvering drone after the missile locked onto the target more than 10 km. (6.2 mi.) out. The SLS system vertically launches Iris-T missiles from a lightweight all-terrain truck.
Morocco’s recent order for three Sigma multimission frigates from Schelde Naval Shipbuilding confirms the value of the ships’ modular-hull design, executives say, and opens the door to further export sales of corvettes, frigates and patrol vessels built with it. The Royal Moroccan Navy signed the contract with Schelde on Feb. 6 (DTI March, p. 8). Worth approximately €510 million ($816 million), it calls for the design, build and delivery by 2012 of three surface combatants that the Moroccans are designating multimission frigates.
Research using a common yeast that causes candidiasis, or deep thrush, a systemic infection of the organs, recently sparked a call from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) for further investigation into DNA-based early detection of biological outbreaks or attacks.
For the first time in half a century, the U.S. Army is moving to acquire the ability to launch long-range strikes over a distance of up to 3,250 naut. mi. (6,022 km.). The capability will come from a rocket-boosted, precision-guided glider called the Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW), made practical by new materials from Sandia National Laboratories.
Military and civil communications technologies advance at different rates, since the tasks served usually differ. But even with increasing cross-sector convergence of missions—for example, stability operations and disaster-relief—communications links have been anything but interoperable. This may be changing. A unique, cross-sector solution, says General Dynamics, is its wireless Sectera Edge smartphone. Soldiers equipped with it can link to defense contractors, civilian agencies, police and first-responder units.
Barco Group of Belgium recently merged its defense and security business into the new Security and Monitoring Div. The strategy for the defense business, which has development, engineering and production activities in Europe (Belgium, France and Germany), the U.S. and India, is to be the preferred supplier of visualization systems to C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) integrators worldwide such as Lockheed Martin, Israel Aerospace Industries, Bharat Electronics of India and ST Engineering of Singapore.
The French army will receive the first 200 Panhard General Defense light armored wheeled vehicles by the end of the year. The first units equipped with the 4 X 4 vehicles are six new intelligence-gathering reconnaissance brigades, or BRBs (Batteries de Reconnaissance de Brigade). The army announced the start of deliveries on Apr. 15, at which point approximately 60 of the 5-metric-ton vehicles had been handed over, says Panhard Marketing Director Charles Maisonneuve.
D TI’s Ares blog is promoting the Cleopatra award for programs that seem to be terminally snake-bitten, unable to catch a break whatever happens. It is a rich time for nominees. The U.K. Parliament moots the idea of canceling the long-delayed, much-overrun Nimrod MRA4 program. A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of major programs makes depressing reading. In the middle of a routine press conference, the Marines’ V-22 project director casually mentions that the tiltrotor aircraft might need a new engine.
Russia’s airborne troops may soon get a modernized version of the BMD-4M armored vehicle that is lighter, faster, more spacious and better equipped. First presented by manufacturer Kurganmashzavod (KMZ) in March, the tracked vehicle is a compromise between the military’s need for a modern and powerful weapon and efforts by the manufacturer to reduce production costs by standardizing its product range.
USS Enterprise (CVN 65) has been a mainstay of naval airpower for 47 years and, based on a recent maintenance contract, will remain in fighting trim for at least another decade. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding received a $453.3-million contract to refurbish the ship over 16 months. The Enterprise arrived at the company’s Newport News, Va., facility on Apr. 11. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor, and will oversee work on the ship and its systems.
If stealth technology can make the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as hard to track as its budgets, it will be invulnerable. When the Defense Dept. released the 2007 Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) numbers on the JSF project in April, media outlets variously reported that the program’s costs were up, down or stable.
Walking among the displays, sitting in on panel discussions and briefings with industry and Army luminaries at the Army Aviation Assn. of America meeting in National Harbor, Md., last month, one could begin to piece together what the Pentagon—or at least Pentagon contractors—have in mind when they speak about a fully-networked force. Most systems promoted at the show made some reference to compatibity with Future Combat Systems or Win-T (the FCS operating system).
Saab rolled out the Gripen Demo prototype at its Linkoping headquarters on Apr. 23, marking a milestone in the Gripen team’s efforts to sustain and expand the fighter’s footprint in the global market. Outside Russia, it’s the most extensive redesign of any fighter in decades to be aimed mainly at exports, and it has been accomplished very quickly and, so far, for remarkably little money.
Efforts by the French army to field a fully digital force will reach a milestone in September, with a certification exercise of the first two digital brigades. The army wants all of its forces to have digital capabilities by 2015. The units scheduled for certification are the 2nd armored brigade, equipped with Leclerc main battle tanks built by Nexter Systems (formerly Giat Industries), and the 6th light armored brigade, with AMX 10RC armored reconnaissance vehicles, also from Nexter.
Access to the freshest and most accurate battlefield information has never been more vital than in the fractured battle spaces of Iraq and Afghanistan, where undermanned coalition forces are thinly dispersed over large areas, tasked with fighting an elusive enemy that can melt away almost as soon as he appears.
What sets our work apart from other print and web publications is the relevant information that’s not readily available elsewhere, provided by our global staff of editors and contributors. This month’s DTI includes: A look at developments in mini-UAVs, platforms that are rapidly proving to be indispensable tactical assets; a report on a new French light armored wheeled vehicle that may also become a mainstay of German forces; and coverage of U.S. Army security at the crucial Gunners Gate entrance for outside deliveries at the sprawling Camp Taji in Iraq.
The Russian air force has taken another step in modernizing its fleet of MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors, which entered service in the early 1980s. The first two upgraded MiG-31BMs were delivered to a training center at Savasleika air base in March, where operational tests and evaluations—as well as air- and ground-crew training—take place. The updates focus on the Zaslon weapon-control system, which uses phased-array radar, and is capable of simultaneously tracking 10 targets while engaging four at a range of 110 naut. mi.
Technology plays a crucial role in defeating improvised explosive devices, but training soldiers to identify IEDs, along with those who build and plant them, is the most important way to counter the deadly devices. This was the consensus of speakers at the annual technology outreach conference of the Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (Jieddo). The most important part of counter-IED operations, said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, is “good, old-fashioned training.”
The link between the Army’s Advanced Hypersonic Weapon (AHW) and Sandia National Laboratories is the hypersonic boost-glide vehicle (BGV), the core technology of the Prompt Global Strike program. BGV is an old technology, first tested more than 60 years ago, but one that has yet to find an operational application.
After almost 25 years of R&D and an investment of $70 million, India has thrown in the towel on the Trishul (Trident) tri-service, anti-aircraft missile system. Trishul, based on Russia’s 9M33 Osa missile (SA-N-4 Gecko), had a range of 9.5 km. (5.9 mi.) and altitude of 4.5 km. It was 3.2 meters (10.5 ft.) long, 21 cm. (8.3 in.) in diameter and had a launch weight of 125 kg. (275 lb.). Trishul used a three-beam K-band (20-40 GHz.) radar command-to-line-of-sight guidance system.
