Lockheed Martin isn’t planning to reinvent the wheel when it comes to modernizing weapon systems. The company is betting that the U.S. and other militaries will want to squeeze as much capability as possible from existing platforms, by adding technologies that make them compatible with the information-intensive nature and network-centric connections of modern warfare.
Around 1,000 U.S. troops have died in bomb attacks on Humvees in Iraq since 2003. This was a new problem for the Pentagon, but one that African militaries faced more than 30 years ago during a period of intense unrest. The South African and Namibian armies developed blast-resistant vehicles to protect soldiers from roadside bombs. But the Pentagon, banking on a short war in Iraq, resisted buying more than a handful of the trucks despite pleas from troops.
The procurement effort surrounding the multibillion-dollar purchase of blast-resistant vehicles for the U.S. military is new, but the vehicles are anything but. “They hail back to southern African designs,” says Doug Coffey, an executive representing BAE Systems, which builds the RG-33 vehicle (see p. 46). The roughly dozen Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) models have their roots in vehicles designed in the 1970s to counter mines laid by guerillas during the Rhodesian war. That 20-year conflict in what is now Zimbabwe claimed 30,000 lives.
MRAP is an unusual program that involves rolling purchases of a wide range of vehicle types, all meeting the same basic mobility and protection requirements.
Researchers worldwide are developing an arsenal of non-lethal weapons that will incapacitate but not seriously injure human targets. The goal is to devise weapons that permit control of a situation without the use of deadly force. This is important as conflicts shift from warfare between clearly defined forces to asymmetric battles where the distinction between combatants and civilians blurs.
ITT Corp. announced on Sept. 17 that it is buying EDO Corp. in a deal valued at $1.7 billion. The purchase is scheduled to close early next year. White Plains, N.Y.-based ITT will gain access to EDO’s technologies in electronic and undersea warfare, intelligence, integrated systems and structures, and professional and engineering services. EDO, which is based in New York, has been racking up impressive growth. Second-quarter revenues were up 61% over the same period last year, and first-half revenues increased 84%.
The Israel Defense Forces will fund pilot production of 15 Namer tracked infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) next year, and buy several hundred eventually for elite infantry brigades. The goal of the program, first announced in July, is to provide troops with protection and mobility matching that of the Merkava Mk4 tank. Several versions of the Namer (“leopard”) are planned: an IFV that carries 11 including two crew; a repair and medevac vehicle to replace the M-113, and a weapons carrier with 30-mm. automatic cannon and missiles.
Roid Rover The U.K. Defense Ministry announced in September that it will procure a 4-ton, weapon-carrying patrol vehicle with high mobility and top speed of 80 mph. for use in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Mobility Weapons Mounted Installation Kit is a 4 X 4 that one officer compares to a “Land Rover on steroids.” The ministry is purchasing 130 vehicles; deliveries are slated to run through 2008.
“In theater, spectrum is king.” So said Robert Carey, chief information officer of the U.S. Navy, at a recent industry gathering in Washington. Carey’s remarks hint at both the opportunities and the pitfalls that military organizations face with their increased reliance on radios, radar systems and wireless computers, all of them using the radio-frequency (RF) bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Soldier Protector One way to protect soldiers in combat is by keeping gunners inside armored vehicles rather than exposed in turrets. But that requires a remote weapon system. Enter the U.S. Army’s Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station (Crows), which keeps soldiers safely tucked away and “armed” with a joystick and screen. Norway’s Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace just signed a $1-billion contract to supply the Army with a variation of its Protector M151 Remote Weapon Station to meet the Crows requirement. Kongsberg will deliver up to 6,500 modified Protectors by 2012.
Thales Air Systems has been gathering operational experience with its new Homeland Alerter 100 passive surveillance radar—including use at a recent NATO live-flying exercise. The HA 100 discreetly receives and processes signals transmitted by commercial FM radio stations and reflected by aircraft, to compile an air picture to a range of more than 100 km. (62 mi.).
The first MRAP II contracts are to be awarded in January. Round two will field vehicles with superior protection against explosively formed penetrators (EFP). Current manufacturers are expected to offer refined versions of MRAP I trucks. There are new contenders, too. Thales and partner Oshkosh are proposing the Bushmaster 4 X 4 (photo), used by Australian and Dutch forces in Afghanistan. Oshkosh, Ideal Innovations and Ceradyne are pitching the 6 X 6 Bull, to cost around $500,000. They are mum on design details.
The MRAP program has seen around a dozen different types of vehicles inducted into military service, leading some to speculate that the Pentagon is creating a maintenance and logistics nightmare. But Marine Brig. Gen. Mike Brogan, the program manager, isn’t worried. “We’re going to be able to maintain these vehicles.”
Next year will be critical for a German industry initiative that seeks to deliver the ultimate in mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles. Rheinmetall Landsysteme is leading the Gefas (Geschutztes Fahrzeugsystem) program to develop a high-tech, diesel-electric, modular armored vehicle for use outside Germany. Gefas vehicles will be assembled in various configurations to counter asymmetrical threats. The survivability of the vehicles and their crews is crucial to the success of these missions, and to their acceptance by public opinion at home.
Palm Readers Fujitsu’s new PalmSecure vein identification system got a boost last summer when the company teamed with Siemens to integrate the device with Siemens ID Center, software that will administer the data. So far, they don’t have orders from the military, which has focused on fingerprints and iris-scanning to authenticate identities in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they do have PalmSecure maps of distinct vein patterns beneath the skin.
Militaries will increasingly be charged with protecting the global flow of people, capital, energy and trade. The safety and reliability of these flows are becoming more vital to an interconnected world’s well-being, say executives at Saab, Sweden’s aerospace and defense powerhouse. “The biggest threat is the catastrophic disruption of these flow systems due to terrorism, organized crime or natural disasters,” says President and CEO Ake Svensson. “It’s no longer national borders that must be defended, but the flows that are crucial to our way of life.”
French and British naval contractors are debating the shipbuilding strategy for three aircraft carriers planned for both countries, according to senior executives interviewed at the DSEi (Defense Systems & Equipment International) exhibition in London last month.
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Power Rangers The Pentagon’s office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering (DDRE) wants soldiers to carry their power sources around, but only if it isn’t a burden. DDRE will award $1 million to a team that develops a wearable electric power system prototype. The winning technology must operate continuously for 96 hr., provide 20 watts of average power and up to 200 watts peak power, weigh no more than 8.8 lb. and attach to garments.
Thales Air Systems specializes in surface-based radar and control equipment. In air traffic management and control, the company, a division of the Thales Group, supplies a range of technology including management and control centers, primary and secondary radars and navigation aids.
“How do you know when your conversation with an A-10 pilot is half over?” asked a Raytheon former Hornet-driver. “It’s when he says, ‘Enough about me—do you want to look at my gun?’” It was a tension-busting moment in an intense and occasionally contentious conference on close air support (CAS) in London late last month, organized by IQPC Defense. “There are no new lessons,” said one speaker. “The same old lessons keep coming back.”
Electro-optical imaging systems are gaining greater use on armored vehicles in Europe and the U.S., in part due to the success the Israeli military is having with the technology. At the DSEi exhibition in London last month, examples of visualization systems were on display by various companies. Barco N.V. of Belgium, for one, showed a variety of capabilities that it claimed address the need for local situational awareness (LSA) on urban and other asymmetric battlefields.
