Opportunities to engage high-priority targets in urban areas occur unexpectedly and last only minutes or seconds. The ability to process information rapidly as a target situation develops, make on-the-spot decisions and respond with split-second timing means the difference between success and failure in killing or capturing terrorists, destroying illicit arms and preventing deadly incursions.
The development of regulations that permit flights of military and civilian unmanned aerial vehicles in the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) is proceeding at a snail’s pace, holding back the potential of the technology and the number of non-military missions envisioned by proponents. Unlike agencies in some other countries, the FAA appears to be in no rush to establish rules for UAV operations in U.S. civil airspace (see story, p. 39).
The U.S. Air Force plans to put a Next Generation Bomber (NGB) into service by 2018. But according to the just-released Fiscal 2009 budget, the service will, over the next three years, invest nothing in the project.
Israel launched its new TecSar satellite on Jan. 21, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in India. TecSar is a high-resolution imaging satellite with synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Developed with defense ministry funding, its first images came in Jan. 31, and were reportedly of high quality. The 100-kg. (220-lb.) EL/M-2070 SAR payload has multi-beam electronic steering developed by IAI/Elta Systems. Resolution is classified, but claimed capabilities include high-resolution spot, strip, mosaic and wide-area coverage. Image enhancement is supported by multi-polarization.
Malaysia is accelerating the modernization of its maritime forces with a combination of new shipbuilding programs and upgrades for in-service platforms. Along with a fleet expansion and thousands of extra personnel, the investment in ships is part of an effort to complete the navy’s Future Fleet plan by 2020.
The Russian army will receive a new weapon this year, the tank- support combat vehicle, known by its acronym BMPT (Boevaya Mashina Podderzhki Tankov). The vehicle is primarily designed to protect tank formations from anti-armor weapons, a mission that has been carried out by motorized infantry units. It also will be tasked with suppressing artillery positions, light armored vehicles and infantry.
After changing weblog platforms, it took us awhile to ramp up our comment participation. But now we’re starting to get really good interaction at Ares. There are many great things that can happen in comments: opinion, clarification, questions and more information. Special thanks to our regular users who sign themselves Solomon, ELP, Demophilus, Sunho, Marcase, Airpower, gvg, AJBlank and ghemago for all of their contributions.
The British Army has used a geotextile cell wall developed by British companies J&S Franklin and Terram to build joint ammunition supply points (ASP) at Camp Bastion, a forward operating base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The design is the basis of what the army calls a “new generation in force protection systems”—the DefenCell blast wall, ground stabilization and vehicle barrier system. DefenCell is a honeycomb structure made of polymer fabric that’s filled with sand and rocks. It solves three problems faced by British engineers in building an ammo storage site.
The U.S. Navy has designed a speedboat for special operations that may mark a turning point in the materials it specifies for surface craft. The vessel is called the Mark V.1. It is almost an exact reproduction, in composite material, of the Mark V Special Operations Craft, an 82-ft. aluminum boat in service since the 1990s that is typically used to insert and retrieve the Navy’s SEAL commando teams.
Procurement problems, technical and management challenges, and forthright criticism were on the agenda at DTI’s Defense Technology & Requirements (DTAR) conference in Washington. On one side were military and civilian professionals; on the other, members of the Democratic majority in Congress.
The conflict in Iraq is mostly perceived as a land war. Images of troops on patrol, wheeled and tracked vehicles moving through cities, roadside bombings and soldiers battling insurgents have come to define military activity visually.
At the end of 2007, Eurofighter pulled out of competitions to supply combat aircraft to Norway and Denmark, leaving the Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighter and the Future Gripen to fight it out, despite the fact that both nations plan to order as many as 48 jets each, late this year or early in 2009.
Lockheed Martin is conducting a nine-month combat system configuration study under a $2.3-million Foreign Military Sales contract to refine the design of the Littoral Combat Ship-International (LCS-I), tailored to meet a requirement from Israel. The Israeli navy wants two multimission vessels based on the U.S. Navy’s LCS 1 Freedom-class hull design (under construction in photo), but fitted with a customized combat management system (CMS), weapons and electronics package.
Although the Russian air force has only recently taken delivery of the first Mil Mi-28N (Havoc) attack helicopters, Mil designers have already developed a modernization package for the rotorcraft and announced plans for future combat helicopters. The Mi-28N, for which the air force has been waiting more than a decade, has all-weather, day and night capabilities. It will likely replace Russia’s aging Mi-24 Hind fleet.
REVIEWED BY SEAN MEADE HALSEY’S TYPHOON: The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue BY BOB DRURY AND TOM CLAVIN Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007 322 pp., $25.00 When Jack Ryan and Captain Marko Ramius first meet in The Hunt for Red October, they stumble into a discussion about Ryan’s books. Ramius says, “You were wrong, Ryan. Halsey acted stupidly.”
India’s vibrant economy, growing wealth and reliance on the sea for trade is forcing the country’s navy to reassess operational needs and invest in technology and capital equipment. With 95% of the value of India’s trade moving by sea, the navy and coast guard must increasingly conduct low-intensity maritime operations and project adequate force over a considerable range of territory: 7,516 km. (4,670 mi.) of coastline, 1,197 islands and more than 2 million sq. km. of an economic exclusion zone.
The need to destroy hardened targets deep beneath rock or concrete is launching an arms race of sorts in bomb design. The U.S. Air Force’s current deep penetrator is the 4,600-lb. BLU-113, which can break through 8 meters (26 ft.) of rock or concrete. Larger weapons, such as the 30,000-lb. Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) from Boeing, will reportedly go through 40 meters of moderately hard rock and up to 61 meters of earth or soft rock.
One of the best parts of online journalism is the ability to link to pertinent material, including multimedia. This is a good format for news stories, often better than print, with its space and presentation limitations. We can tell our stories more richly online, and update them in minutes with all types of content—from Government Accountability Office reports to South Park video clips.
The littoral waters of the Adriatic witnessed a major naval confrontation in October. For several days, two forces maneuvered at close quarters in the narrow sea, assessing each other’s intentions, ready to open fire on command. The conflict ended peacefully; neither side, in fact, was ever in danger. The confrontation, called Noble Midas 07, was not between enemies, but a test of NATO’s efforts to transform its armed forces into a combined/joint crisis-response team that can deploy anywhere in the world.
The Royal Danish Navy successfully test fired its new Rheinmetall-supplied Oerlikon Millennium 35-mm. naval gun systems, installed on the flexible combat support ship HDMS Absalon, the supplier reports. Surface and air targets were engaged during the firings, which occurred in November. The firings were part of acceptance tests off the Danish coast. Both practice and war stock Ahead ammunition, each made by subsidiary Oerlikon Contraves in Switzerland, were used. Absalon is equipped with two Millennium guns, one forward and one aft.
The Royal Air Force is buying 10 more MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., adding to the three aircraft ordered in late 2006. The first of the initial batch became operational in Afghanistan last October, and the RAF expects to have all three aircraft, 10 crews and a ground-control system in use by April. Total value of the new contract—including nine APY-8 Lynx radars and nine DAS-1 Multi-Spectral Targeting Systems and spares—is $1.07 billion.
Developments in sea-based missile defense and coastal surveillance were among features at the Maritime Systems and Technology (MAST) exhibition in Genoa last November. Missile manufacturer MBDA discussed its strategy to upgrade Paams, the principal anti-air missile system, on the latest British, French and Italian destroyers, with a theater ballistic missile defense capability.
Singapore’s position at the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula, astride some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, means that extended-range air and sea surveillance and control are required to ensure the unimpeded flow of trade and capital that make it the economic hub of Southeast Asia. Its military readiness is reflected in major procurement programs that are expanding the tiny nation’s capabilities for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and long-range precision strike.
In October and November, 35 teams comprising hundreds of engineers, computer programmers and roboticists gathered in Victorville, Calif., for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s $3.5-million Urban Challenge robot race, whose goal was advancing the technology that might one day remove human drivers from military convoys in war zones. The event, which saw robotic trucks and SUVs dodge human-driven cars and each other on a 60-mi. course, drew thousands of spectators and hundreds of reporters (DTI December 2007, p. 32).
