Easter was a terrible day for Canadian forces in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province. Troops of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, were escorting a convoy into Helmand province when, about 75 km. (47 mi.) west of Kandahar city, a huge blast tore through their LAV III armored wheeled infantry fighting vehicle. In one strike, a massive improvised explosive device killed six soldiers riding in the back of the vehicle and severely wounded a seventh. The crew commander, gunner and driver, riding in the front, escaped.
Defense. Technology. International. That's the title of this relatively new print magazine. We'll focus on that, and get back to the odd notion of a "new print magazine" in a moment.
Latvia took delivery on Mar. 7 of the first of five minehunters purchased from the Royal Netherlands Navy. The remaining Tripartite-class ships will be received over the next two years.
The British Army's £2.4-billion ($4.7-billion) program to replace its aging analog Clansman radios with Bowman digital radios hit a snag last month, when the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee issued a report calling Bowman too heavy, too large and too far behind schedule to meet the Army's needs.
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NATO air forces in Western Europe are frustrated by growing airspace restrictions that impede pilot training in advanced fighter aircraft. Employing high-altitude supercruise tactics combined with long-range sensors and weapons is hard to do in fragmented airspace crowded with airliners, often in inclement weather. Air forces struggle to schedule the live-flying exercises necessary to certify pilots for full combat readiness and keep them there.
The Defense Dept. issued its proposed Fiscal Year '08 budget in February, and it includes some implications for the future of network-centric operations. Perhaps most striking is the proposed termination of the Land Warrior program, a 10-year, $2-billion project that had been touted as connecting the dismounted soldier to the command network.
BAE Systems is using technologies developed for the Army's Future Combat Systems networked vehicles and integrating them into older platforms. At the Assn. of the U.S. Army show in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last month, the company showed a Humvee with an electrical system designed for the FCS Mule cargo drone. The system provides power to support IED defeat equipment and has an FCS-derived antenna that combines UHF, VHF and L-band.
The Joint Tactical Radio System may be on the road to recovery. After a series of glitches, cutbacks and reorganizations, there are signs that the much-maligned JTRS program is on track to deliver the interoperable, wireless networking radios to warfighters that proponents envision. Driving the changes has been the Joint Program Executive Office, an organization created in 2005 after work on JTRS hit a brick wall.
"The goal is to highlight the teamwork, creativity and innovation that went into the design, development, fielding and operation of this unique tactical aircraft," journalist Lon Nordeen writes in the preface to his book about the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II jump jet. By that standard, Harrier II: Validating V/STOL is a success. Nordeen describes the U.S. Marine Corps' initial exposure to the first-generation Harrier jet while it was a British program in 1966.
The changing nature of armor requirements for land forces was highlighted at February's Idex exhibition in Abu Dhabi. Just one new-generation main battle tank--the Spanish-built Leopardo 2E from General Dynamics Santa Barbara Sistemas--was on display, compared to an abundance of armored wheeled patrol and combat vehicles.
Singapore Technologies, the Singapore defense ministry and the country's DSO National Laboratories have started promoting the Advanced Combat Man System modernization concept, exhibiting at February's IDEX defense expo in Abu Dhabi. Though ACMS is still in testing, the baseline kit was on display. It comprises an ergonomic data-entry keypad with embedded GPS position marker, a computer display in a ruggedized eyepiece or handheld terminal, and an integrated assault rifle. The rifle features an advanced sight with an instant aiming aid and sensors.
Researchers at Georgia Tech Research Institute and a U.S. Air Force scientist have patented a discovery that could make enemy ground radar warnings more reliable and less expensive. Michael Willis (see photo) and Michael McGuire of GTRI and Charlie Clark of Robins AFB, Ga., share the patent for the digital crystal video receiver. The patent enables digital circuitry to take over functions now performed by analog circuits, which are more difficult to calibrate and maintain, and often require multiple receivers to detect radar signals over a range of frequencies.
The first high-energy lasers on 21st-century battlefields may not be giant weapons like the 747-mounted Airborne Laser, but much smaller, even portable units. Advanced solid-state weapons use complex laser-plasma interactions to achieve lethal or non-lethal effects at will and do not require the power and bulk of the ABL.
Cornered by policy and circumstance, the U.S. Marine Corps' tactical air force is struggling to transition from a diverse but depleted fighter fleet to an inventory made up of one aircraft--Lockheed Martin's F-35B Lightning II, formerly the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The Marine Corps, which flies three versions of the F/A-18 Hornet plus AV-8B Harrier jump jets, wants to buy around 300 F-35Bs, beginning with six in 2008, even though questions persist about its suitability as a replacement.
Denmark has taken a big step in transforming its maritime capabilities by ordering three 6,000-ton anti-air warfare frigates. The ships were ordered Dec. 20, from Odense (Denmark) Steel Shipyard Ltd. for delivery in 2010-12. They will join two 6,300-ton Absalon-class flexible combat-support ships built by the same yard from 2003-05.
Smuggling and terrorism are among threats Israel's navy confronts in protecting the nation's coastline. Suicide boat attacks, in particular, are an ever-present concern, one that could have devastating consequences for sailors and ships. Is a fishing boat that strays into a restricted area harmless or a deadly explosion waiting to happen? Safely determining the nature and intent of sea-borne confrontations is driving Israel's navy to test the benefits of unmanned surface vehicles (USV).
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency achieved a milestone last month with the launch of two Orbital Express demonstration vehicles on board an Atlas 5 rocket. The Orbital Express is an ambitious program even for Darpa, which envisions a post-2010 future in which orbiting vehicles shuttle through space servicing, resupplying and reconfiguring satellites.
The first live intercept of a ballistic missile in Europe is scheduled to take place in October, on the NATO Missile Firing Installation (Namfi) on Crete. The announcement, by Hellenic Army Maj. Gen. George Tsartsaris, Namfi's commander, comes at a time when Namfi is courting nations outside NATO to use the range. "We are upgrading our facilities, and this includes the option to conduct live intercept firings in the context of theater ballistic missile defense," Tsartsaris says.
An old salt in maritime issues, Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's Seapower and Expeditionary Forces subcommittee, has come to power at a time when the U.S. military, industry and even the nation seem poised for strategic change in addressing fleet assets. Fresh from talks with the Navy secretary and other top government officials, not to mention a slew of congressional hearings, the Democrat from Bay St.
The Netherlands plans to start fielding the first version of its future Dismounted Soldier System by early 2009, initially equipping 7,000 frontline troops. A final choice of subsystems and technologies will be made by the end of this year, followed by a contract award in early 2008, program officials say.
The Tactical Leadership Program's most recent flying course, held in January and February at Florennes, saw the participation of 34 fighter aircraft from nine nations, including for the first time two new Eurofighter Typhoons (from the British Royal Air Force) and two air force-version Dassault Rafales (from the French air force).
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command officials say the Hunter-Viper Strike weapon system, which combines the workhorse Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle and the Viper tiny precision munition, are proving lethal but not too lethal during operational tests and evaluations at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Northrop Grumman's Viper Strike weighs 44 lb. and is 36 in. long--less than a quarter the size of the smallest guided bomb--making it ideal for avoiding civilian deaths during urban combat. The warhead weighs just 2.3 lb.
