The Netherlands defense ministry is expected to sign the long-awaited order for four Ocean Patrol Vessels (OPVs) for the Royal Netherlands Navy at the NIID defense manufacturers association exhibition Nov. 8. The 3,750-ton vessels will be equipped with an innovative integrated sensor and communications suite (ISCS), installed in a mast module from Thales. ISCS incorporates five new naval sensor systems, developed by Thales-NL alone or in partnership with other contractors. They include:
Microwave Safety When the Iraq war began, there was speculation that the U.S. would deploy high-power microwave (HPM) weapons, which generate pulses that fry electronics. But one problem with HPM weapons is that no one knows how they will affect people and buildings. So it’s not surprising that the U.S. Air Force recently issued a request for information about HPM technology that would not physically damage buildings or people.
EADS confirmed on Oct. 17 that the delivery schedule of the Airbus Military A400M has delays of up to one year. The company, parent of Airbus Military, says deliveries are expected to start six months later than planned, with a risk of further slippage of up to a half year.
Developing a military aircraft has not always taken decades and cost billions more than expected. Every so often something comes in under budget and on or ahead of schedule.
India’s military is calling more loudly for the establishment of an aerospace command to develop satellite capabilities for the armed forces. The government may believe the time is right, as it confronts existing and emerging regional threats. These include long-standing tensions with Pakistan, which, like India, has nuclear weapons; terrorist groups operating in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and northwest Pakistan; and China, which is emerging as a regional military power and developing space capabilities.
With the next generation of fighter aircraft waiting in the wings, two defense research labs in the Netherlands, TNO Defense, Security and Safety and National Aerospace Laboratory, are scrambling to establish networked mission-simulation centers. They are competitors rather than collaborators. For the relatively small user community here, collaboration would provide greater value for the military’s investment, sources in both labs concede. Nevertheless, each maintains its independent operation—at least for now.
The M16 rifle has been the basic weapon of the U.S. Marine Corps since 1963. Powerful and deadly, the Marines now want to make the 5.56-mm. M16 and other rifles quieter, to confuse and disrupt enemy forces. “The idea is to reduce the ability of the enemy to know the source of incoming fire, so return fire is less effective,” a Marine official says.
Nexter Munitions will deliver the first batch of 5,000 rounds of its new 155-mm. insensitive artillery munitions to the French army by February. Series production of the LU 211 IM weapon in La Chapelle Saint Ursin, France, is 100 rounds per day.
. . . and another live show report on Ares from the DTI crew. This time, Bill Sweetman, David Axe and I, along with fellow Aviation Week Editors Michael Bruno and Bettina Chavanne, posted from the Assn. of the U.S. Army show in Washington, Oct. 8-10. We reported the latest news on Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles and the Army, and posted observations from the floor about protesters and a couple of celebrities. Be sure to check out these dispatches, if you haven’t already. Meanwhile, some of the best posts from the past month include:
Though it flies nearly as high, stays in the air longer, carries most of the same sensors and is cheaper to operate, Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk drone is still years away from replacing its five-decades-old predecessor, Lockheed Martin’s U-2. Global Hawk’s lack of a signals intelligence sensor is one reason—sigint isn’t slated for installation until 2012—but there’s another, more subtle consideration.
The U.S. Marine Corps is installing a large-scale surveillance network in western Iraq to track insurgents and infiltrators from Syria. The system combines video from aerial drones and ground towers with instant playback similar to commercial digital video recorders. The Marines are spending $55 million to install Angel Fire architecture on UAVs. The complementary Ground-Based Observation and Surveillance System (G-BOSS) adds 360-deg.
Undersea Helo The winner of the American Helicopter Society’s student design competition is a helicopter that can be released through an Ohio-class submarine missile tube, surface, fly to land with a two-person crew and return to the sub. Called Waterspout, it was designed by a team from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Pennsylvania State University. The helo stays connected to the sub via a cable until it surfaces. Buoys keep it afloat while the intake and exhaust are unsealed. Rotor blades unfold, the engine starts and the helicopter takes off.
MRAP II, the second round of blast-resistant truck buys for the U.S. military in Iraq, is focusing on defeating perhaps the most dangerous weapon there: explosively formed penetrators (EFPs), shaped-charge projectiles that can kill a tank. EFPs account for 5% of explosive devices used against U.S. and coalition troops, but, in July, caused a third of all fatalities and more than 10% of injuries.
Plastic Steel University of Michigan researchers have developed a composite plastic that is as strong as steel, but lighter and transparent. The composite comprises 300 layers of clay nanosheets and a water-soluble polymer that is chemically similar to white glue. The material proves nano blocks can be pieced together into larger structures without sacrificing the strength of individual blocks. Engineering Prof. Nicholas Kotov says the development could lead to testing of lighter, stronger armor for soldiers and vehicles in five years.
Last June in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan, Dutch howitzers blasted away at more than 1,000 Taliban planning to seize the town of Chura and murder its citizens in retaliation for their support of the government. Firing Rheinmetall Rh 40 shells 30 km. (18.6 mi.) downrange, the Dutch, part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), beat back the insurgents (DTI July/August, p. 26).
The U.S. Coast Guard is standing up a new “Deployable Operations Group” (DOG) to gather under one command its 3,000-strong specialized forces, including 12 Maritime Safety and Security Teams; the Maritime Security Response Team; eight Port Security Units; two Tactical Law-enforcement Teams; and the National Strike Force Coordination Center with its three strike teams. DOG will facilitate the rapid deployment, domestically or overseas, of teams for harbor security, law enforcement or disaster relief.
Sloppy welds, a too-thin superstructure skin, overweight brackets and fasteners and improper engine mountings are some of the flaws in the U.S. Coast Guard’s first-in-class National Security Cutter Bertholf, says a former Northrop Grumman contract shipwright. Martin Shearington, who has worked on scores of vessels in his 40 years at various yards across the country, says Bertholf, launched in September 2006, and her planned seven sisters will not meet Coast Guard performance goals.
Novator Design Bureau has expanded the Club missile system’s deployment options with a land-based Club-M and air-launched Club-A. NDB, part of Russia’s Almaz-Antey defense consortium, showed the new versions at the MAKS 2007 aerospace and defense exhibition in Moscow. This is a new development for Club, originally a naval weapon. The first test firings of the sub-launched system (Club-S) in 2000 were from Russian submarines. The ship-based version (Club-N) followed almost immediately.
TNO Defense, Security and Safety of the Netherlands starts training sessions early next year with a complex flight simulator it helped to develop. Called Desdemona, the unit is in TNO’s new simulation center in Soesterburg. Bernd de Graaf, who runs the center, says Desdemona is “capable of sustained G-loads, something that is impossible with standard hexapod moving-base flight simulators.” Desdemona utilizes a six-degree-of-freedom centrifuge design.
U.S. Army and Marine Corps and Canadian artillery units are firing the new multinational M982 Excalibur 155-mm. guided artillery shell in combat. Developed by Raytheon, Bofors and General Dynamics, Excalibur is in service with the M777A2 version of BAE Systems’ new lightweight howitzer, used by the Marines and Canada, and the U.S. Army’s M109A6 Paladin self-propelled gun. Australia has also requested 250 rounds, to be fired from an upgraded M198 towed gun for precision fire support to combat units in Afghanistan.
About 90 minutes’ drive from the medieval spires of Prague, doctors and 20 macaque rhesus monkeys are hard at work at seemingly the most exhaustive study into the weaponization of the rave drug ketamine. While Russian, Chinese and American scientists may have similar lines of study, the Czechs are brazen enough to go on scientific record.
Chess Dynamics of Horsham, England, has prototyped an integrated low-cost electro-optical surveillance system, designated Spyder, for buildings, vehicles or ships. The sensor is a stationary unit with up to 16 video cameras for continuous 360-deg. monitoring. On top is a direct-drive electro-optical director with zoom function for long-range target identification. Chess Dynamics technical director Gregory Poole says the electro-optical director can be cued to a target from data provided by the surveillance subsystem.
One firm claims a solution to the robot-trust question: a soothing voice. Urban Aeronautics Ltd. of Israel is building a prototype flying medical evacuation drone, called “Mule,” powered by ducted fans fore and aft. Mule is for urgent and dangerous missions. “For regular evacuation, it’s certainly not the preferred means,” says spokesman Janina Frankel-Yoeli. The biggest problem, she notes, is psychological: “Overcoming the natural fear of entering a vehicle without a pilot.”
