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.
Two more services have been added to AviationWeek.com in our continuing quest to maintain the site as a valuable and relevant resource. First, there are forums. In defense there are two topic forums, UAV Agency and Ballistic Missile Defense, and two group forums, Program Management Exchange and Defense Executive Exchange. The group venue provides a place for like-minded professionals to network and exchange ideas. If you have your own ideas for topics, there is another forum where suggestions can be posted.
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.
Israel will spend $60 billion between 2008 and 2012 in a procurement plan that calls for substantially upgraded land, sea and air forces. The plan—Tefen 2012—was presented on Sept. 3, by Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel Defense Forces chief of general staff. Highlights include plans to field hundreds of new Merkava Mk4 tanks, heavy armored personnel fighting vehicles, command-and-control elements and unmanned systems.
Space Tow The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory has successfully tested guidance and control algorithms for the Front-End Robotics-Enabling Near-Term Demonstration, a program that’s developing a space robot to dock with orbiting satellites for servicing and upgrade operations. The NRL is working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to demonstrate the capability. Darpa recently completed its own on-orbit demonstration of satellite-servicing technology with the Orbital Express program.
Industry has been refining the hardware, software and concepts for getting military robots to swarm like insects, but one of the most promising applications for swarming, the U.S. Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator program, has been gutted by budget cuts. As a result, it might be years before swarming becomes a reality.
Turkey’s defense industry is emerging as a world-class player in the development and export of technology and equipment for air, sea and land forces. With a commitment by the government to expand the nation’s defense and aerospace industries through aggressive modernization programs, and a sizable increase in the current defense budget, Turkey soon could rival some European and Asian countries in the quality and quantity of its weapons and equipment.
U.K. Grand Challenge Britain’s Defense Ministry selected six finalists to participate in its Darpa-inspired Grand Challenge race in August 2008 at Copehill Down, England. Like the U.S. version, the British Grand Challenge will require autonomous vehicles to traverse rough urban terrain in a complex battlefield setting. Teams must autonomously identify and report the position of targets including improvised explosive devices, snipers and enemy soldiers or insurgents who may not be in uniform. The teams include defense contractors, smaller businesses and universities.
Investments in defense R&D do more than keep a nation’s armed forces up to date in equipment and capabilities: they create economic benefits far in excess of the money spent, expand a country’s technology base and improve national competitiveness. This was the message delivered by two CEOs of leading European defense contractors at the recent Handelsblatt Conference on Security Policy and the Defense Industry in Berlin.
We’ve become so accustomed to images from airborne video cameras—whether from a war zone or a freeway snarl-up—that we forget these systems look at the world through a soda straw-size lens. That’s what makes a new system jointly developed by ITT Space Systems and intelligence specialists CenTauri, flight-tested in May 2007 at Eloy, Ariz., so different.
India and Israel will jointly develop a long-range, land-based air-defense missile system to replace aging Indian air force Pechora (SA-3 Goa) missiles. The new missile will have a range of 70 km. (43.5 mi.), which could be extended to 150 km., far exceeding the 60-km. range of the Barak-8 shipborne missile now in development for the Indian and Israeli navies under a five-year, U.S.$480-million program (illustration). The new system is expected to streamline the Barak-8 schedule, and add about $300 million to development costs.
Israel’s Rafael demonstrated its Wizard Naval Corner Reflector Decoy during NATO’s recent MCG/8 electronic warfare trials off Norway. The passive-radio-frequency (RF) decoy depicts shiplike characteristics to divert anti-ship missiles with guidance systems that disregard chaff. Single- and twin-corner decoys were launched from a Dutch navy frigate. RF measurements taken at sea, on shore and in the air were positive. Wizard can be used as a medium-range decoy in distraction mode, or a short-range decoy in seduction mode.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is extending the notion of persistent surveillance. Its latest unmanned aerial vehicle program seeks to develop a platform that will stay airborne for five years—no small feat considering that the endurance of operational UAVs is measured in hours. Known as Vulture—or Very-high-altitude, Ultra-endurance, Loitering Theater Unmanned Reconnaissance Element—the heavier-than-air UAV would carry a 1,000-lb. payload.
One of the biggest competitions for a protected armored vehicle is underway in Britain. The Future Rapid Effects System program, or FRES, could result in expenditures of £16 billion ($32.4 billion) for procurement of as many as 3,500 8 X 8-wheeled utility vehicles designed along the lines of the U.S. Stryker, but with better protection against IEDs and kinetic threats.
Israeli forces know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of anti-armor weapons. In a matter of weeks last summer, Hezbollah made anti-tank missiles (ATM) and other anti-armor munitions a lethal feature of the asymmetric battlefield. Few Israelis can forget the images of smoldering tanks, armored personnel carriers and bulldozers of the IDF’s heralded Armored Corps.
Walking the Dog Boston Dynamics Inc. received a $10-million contract to build a pack-hauling, legged robot for the military. The project, called BigDog, is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It will provide a vehicle that travels swiftly over rough terrain (top speed thus far is 3.3 mph.); keeps moving despite 1 X 2-meter obstacles, which it will jump over; and operates for 2 hr. on a tank of gas. An onboard computer controls locomotion. The “legs” mimic those of animals by absorbing shock and recycling energy as they move forward.
Crystal Ball Darpa wants a battlefield computer that lets commanders see how certain tactics will turn out. “Proactive analysis will help predict which futures are more likely before they occur,” Darpa states in a solicitation for the “Deep Green” program. “Sketch-to-Plan” and related “Sketch-to-Decide” are key parts of the “commander’s associate” component of Deep Green, which automatically converts hand-drawn plans into a course of action and then integrates feedback from other brigade elements.
