Rafael Advanced Defense Systems of Israel officially unveiled its fourth-generation Torbuster hard-kill torpedo decoy for submarines at Pacific 2008 earlier this year in Sydney. The device defends against acoustic homing torpedoes. The weapon works after launch by seducing an incoming torpedo through transmission of acoustic signals using a technology based on Rafael’s Scutter reactive acoustic decoy for ships. As the torpedo homes in, the decoy senses when the weapon is at the closest point of approach and explodes, inflicting sufficient damage to neutralize the torpedo.
India’s efforts to modernize its huge armored corps rely on the Russian T-90S main battle tank for now, but plans are underway to launch an indigenous program despite previous failures.
The operational capabilities of India’s air force will be significantly upgraded late this year when the service receives the first of three A-50EI airborne early warning aircraft. The aircraft, based on the Ilyushin Il-76 airframe, are being built by Beriev Aircraft Co. of Russia. The airborne early warning (AEW) systems will be installed by Israel Aircraft Industries’ Elta subsidiary. The AEW system incorporates IAI/Elta’s Phalcon radar, which uses active electronically scanned arrays.
Helmet Sensor Soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan will be soon wearing helmets fitted with blast sensors to record impact data and exposure to blasts. The technology, still in its infancy, will not be used to diagnose soldiers who may suffer mild traumatic brain injuries at this stage of the experiment, according to the Defense Dept.’s Blast Injury research program office. The primary objective is to prove that a sensor reading can be directly matched to a particular event using real impact data from soldiers in combat. Defense Dept.
Despite the setbacks, delays and on-and-off funding issues that have hampered the program—and as it continues to eat up wartime budget dollars—the U.S. Army certainly isn’t shy about incorporating Future Combat Systems technologies into its new platforms, whether the components are ready or not.
Defense procurement is big business in India. The country is buying warships, submarines, missile systems and aircraft. Offsets are a major part of procurement requirements, as much as 50% of the value of some contracts. One company benefiting from India’s booming aerospace sector and its offsets is Quality Engineering & Software Technologies LLC. (Quest), which provides design, engineering and manufacturing services in India and five other countries.
The integrated testbed under construction for NATO’s Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense program is on track for its first major test in September. Risk-reduction tests, in the form of constructive simulation scenarios with national theater missile defense assets, started months ahead of schedule at battle labs in the Netherlands (December), the U.S. (January) and France (March), project officials report. The tests verified technical and system interoperability.
ST Engineering Ltd. of Singapore has developed a concept vehicle that’s designed to maximize the use of network-centric capabilities, unmanned reconnaissance vehicles and soldiers in urban combat. Called “Mothership,” it is based on the Terrex 8 X 8 armored infantry fighting vehicle.
You’ve all seen the parody of a World War II propaganda poster featuring a jocund G.I. holding a brimming tin cup. The legend: “How about a nice big cup of shut the (nonpertinent word) up. Think before you say something stupid.” Good advice that has been disregarded many times in the debate over the U.S. Air Force’s selection of the Northrop Grumman/EADS team to build the KC-45A tanker.
Israel’s political and military leadership are to blame for planning and operational failures that led to a stalemate in the Second Lebanon War. So concludes the Winograd Committee, which released its final report on the 2006 conflict in March. The report identifies factors that plagued decision-making in the government and the military.
Tactical jet jockeys and ground pounders in Iraq and Afghanistan share live video of battlefield targets, collaborating on precision air strikes to an extent not possible even six years ago. But the combat-proven Rover (Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver) and Mini-Rover, a smaller version, are also geared to humanitarian missions, thus establishing a widening military and civil market for the technology.
India has an ambitious naval vision: Two carrier battle groups will be operational at all times. To achieve this, the navy wants three aircraft carriers, several large amphibious craft (landing helicopter docks or LHDs) and a number of destroyers and frigates for anti-air and anti-submarine warfare.
India has confirmed plans for a hypersonic variant of the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship missile, now manufactured in land- and ship-launched versions (DTI December 2007, p. 17). Sivathanu Pillai, CEO and managing director of BrahMos Aerospace, told DTI at the Singapore Airshow in February that the Russian-Indian design team will use a scramjet engine and lighter, more compact airframe to reach Mach 5.
The Royal Danish Air Force has completed initial F-16 flight tests of the Enhanced Smart Triple Ejector Rack (Ester), developed by Terma A/S of Denmark and ITT Corp. as an upgrade for the TER-9 triple ejector rack. The TER-9 carries laser-guided and ballistic weapons, which it can individually release. Ester adds the ability to carry smart weapons that operate on the MIL-STD-1760 interface. These include the Joint Direct Attack Munition and Enhanced Paveway II. Provisions for Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) carriage are also part of Ester.
Autonomous underwater vehicles have a way to go before reaching maturity, but eventually will be vital components of maritime forces due to their versatility and ability to mimic marine life. At the recent annual program review conference of the Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International in Washington, the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) discussed how it is developing AUV technologies in conjunction with marine biologists.
The Royal Australian Navy is developing designs for a new generation of diesel-electric submarines that will replace its six Collins-class boats beginning in 2020. The specifications will be very different from those of conventional submarines now in use around the world. They will include high transit speeds, long endurance in difficult environments and greater acoustics processing—capabilities associated with nuclear attack submarines (SSN).
The U.S. Marines are looking for a few good vehicles—Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, to be exact. The Marines are working with the U.S. Army and U.S. Special Operations Command to develop a replacement for the iconic but aging Humvee. The solution is the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), a family of lightweight, agile vehicles that will offer scalable armor protection, multiple-mission capability and networked mobility, among other benefits.
Breaking news can generally be covered better on the Internet than in print media. That’s one reason those of us in the news business complement our print stories with coverage on the web, where we can bring our considerable editorial resources to bear in a timely way. DTI and its sister publication, Aviation Week & Space Technology, cover stories just as quickly as mainstream media, but we go well beyond their news with award-winning reporters whose work reflects the knowledge and insight gained from decades of experience.
NH Industries announced in March that it delivered the first NH90 TTT (tactical troop transport) helicopter to the Finnish army. Finland is replacing its aging fleet of Russian-made Mi-8 helicopters with 20 NH90s. Nineteen are being assembled by the Patria Group in Finland. The first of the locally-built aircraft will be delivered this month. Patria is also responsible for the final assembly of most of the NH90 helicopters ordered by Sweden, following an industrial cooperation agreement that is part of the Nordic Standard Helicopter Program.
Researchers are making strides in pinning down the physiological causes and neurological storehouses for pain and fear, with an eye to more effectively controlling them through artificial means. So springs a vision of the ultimate soldier: one who feels no pain and has no fear. The seeds for this fearless, pain-free soldier come from the dry savannah of Ethiopia. Living there in deep burrows is the naked mole rat, a creature that is impervious to certain types of pain, in particular, the pain that comes from acid.
A U.S. Defense Science Board report on directed-energy weapons in late 2007 states: “Directed energy suffers from a history of overly optimistic expectations.” This may be the understatement of the century. The report cites canceled or delayed programs, and notes that the biggest U.S. directed-energy (DE) program—the Airborne Laser (ABL), which alone consumes more than half the Pentagon’s DE budget—was little or no closer to its crucial operational test than when the board last reported on DE in 2001.
The Israeli military has adopted “diffused warfare” as a defense concept, calling it the preferred modus operandi against low-tier threats like terrorism and for counterinsurgency operations. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) version of diffused warfare, tried for the first time in limited scope during “Operation Defensive Shield 2002” in the West Bank, proved effective in its use of small, widely distributed forces that controlled large areas of a dense urban environment. The IDF now uses similar tactics for counterinsurgency.
Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrate that medium- and heavy-lift transport helicopters that perform well in hot and high conditions are vital—yet are always in short supply. So despite years spent mulling the prospect of a 20-ton-payload Joint Heavy Lift transport rotorcraft, the U.S. military is going ahead with new and significantly improved versions of the venerable Boeing CH-47 and Sikorsky CH-53 transport helicopters, whose origins date back some 50 years.
German industry is making progress in the development of active defense systems that protect armored vehicles against rocket-propelled grenades, kinetic-energy penetrator rounds and some types of improvised explosive devices, including those firing explosively formed penetrators. IBD Deisenroth and Rheinmetall established the joint venture ADS last year to advance Deisenroth’s AMAP-ADS system from development to production readiness, says Peter Kayser, the company’s CEO.
