Three articles by then-freelancer Glenn Goodman, "Infrared on the Head," "Hover and Stare," (DTI, July/August, 2006), and "Machine-to-Machine," (DTI, September/ October 2006) included passages and a headline from previously published articles that appeared respectively, in the October 2003 edition of Armed Forces Journal, the July 2005 edition of C4ISR Journal, and the March 2006 edition of C4ISR Journal (and Defense News, March 9, 2006), where Mr. Goodman was then employed. DTI did not have permission to use this copyrighted material. We apologize for this error.
International defense contractors and U.S. Navy officials attending the December Undersea Defense Technology-Pacific conference in San Diego warned of emerging threats to commercial and military ships in ports: combat swimmers and divers. Apparently, terrorist swimmers can easily paddle right up to a ship and strap a bomb to it, or carry out some other nefarious plan. At least three papers on the threat were presented at the conference while exhibitors trumpeted how one sensor or another is the answer.
Just a year after being stood up, the U.S. Navy's new command for coastal and inland combat is outlining grand plans for a single self-sufficient battlegroup that will include construction battalions ("Seabees"), logistics troops, harbor patrol units, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams and the service's three new riverine boat squadrons.
As new-generation anti-tank weapons proliferate globally, a number of countries are pressing forward with new defensive technologies designed to counter these threats. Italy is no exception. A new Italian-built active-protective system for armored vehicles could be fielded as early as next year, according to industry officials working on the technology.
In November, just days before the first U.S. military software-defined radio (SDR) production contract was awarded, the European Defense Agency (EDA) in Brussels launched a multinational research effort aimed at spurring industrial capabilities on its side of the Atlantic in the SDR arena. Called European Secure Software Radio (Essor), the European Union agency's initiative also is intended to maintain future military communications interoperability between U.S. forces and those of European NATO member nations.
San Diego-based Cubic Defense Applications has unveiled its transportable, "range-less" air combat training system at Naval Air Station Key West, Fla., and Luke AFB, Ariz., where the system is now operational. The P5 Combat Training System/Tactical Combat Training System allows joint and coalition forces to conduct air combat training without a fixed infrastructure. That means the system could be used in-theater as well as for pre-deployment training.
by Larry Kahaner, Wiley, 2006. $25.95. In reading Larry Kahaner's book on the AK-47 assault rifle, it's tempting to contrast the weapon's unassuming inventor with the father of the atomic bomb. In 1945, when the first atomic device was exploded at Alamogordo, N.M., Robert Oppenheimer famously stated: "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds."
Using the U.S. Air Force Milstar II satellite, a high-resolution radar image captured by the service's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle can be transmitted in 12 min. The new Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites currently being built as a precursor to TSAT will be able to send that same image in 23 sec. Using TSAT, the estimated time to transmit the image will be less than a second.
I was disappointed in your editorial "Time To Clean House" (DTI November/December 2006). It begs the question, time to clean whose house? Comparing today's environment to Operation Ill Wind in the mid-1980s is irresponsible and just plain wrong. Ill Wind found widespread abuse and resulted in convictions of 12 government officials and 60 civilians. The recent incidents mentioned in your editorial involved a handful of people acting in bad faith in a few isolated situations.
The mind is a terrible thing. Or at least that's the idea behind the Pentagon's efforts to use neuroscience research and advanced technology to tap into the human brain. One U.S. Army office even has a trademarked term for the science of detecting ill intent: "BadGuyology." Detecting bombs is hard enough, but the military now wants to detect bad intent in the minds of the people who plan to set off bombs.
While today's military mission makes the headlines, defense leaders must constantly assess future military requirements: how to defend and secure, where the operational needs will be and the technologies needed to win.
It's not widely known that the U.S. Army has a special organization dedicated to the identification and acquisition of foreign technology solutions for its soldiers. Despite Washington's encouragements to "Buy American," the Army runs a European office tasked to provide its troops with the best technologies available, wherever they might come from and off-the-shelf if possible, to help cope with the kind of unforeseen requirements U.S. soldiers are facing in current conflicts.
Military researchers believe sharks may one day be our best friends in the water, prowling the oceans for evidence of explosives or even combat swimmers. The effort has been getting some attention since a Boston University scientist presented a paper on using sharks to track plumes last year. Under work for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., Prof.
Other reading: The Small Arms Trade, by Rachel Stohl, Matt Schroeder and Dan Smith, Oneworld. To gain a perspective on the lower end of weapons technology, The Small Arms Trade makes for elucidating reading. The book's account of small-arms proliferation underscores that no single weapon, even the cheap AK-47, can be blamed for spreading global conflict. Rather, the authors rightfully point to the availability of a multitude of such weapons, and the seeming unwillingness of producing countries to prevent their spread, as the real culprits.
The U.S. Navy's small boat units responsible for overseas port security have begun testing a slew of new technologies meant to improve their ability to track rogue ships and spot infiltrating terrorists. In recent events, including the Del Mar and Seahawk exercises last fall, these so-called Coastal Warfare Squadrons experimented with aerial and undersea drones as well as a shipboard version of the Army's Blue Force Tracker, according to Lt. Cdr. Charles Perry. The underwater drones boast cameras for spotting mines attached to ships' hulls.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are being closely watched by military laboratories trying to solve the problem of coordinating the movement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in urban areas. While military laboratories currently focus on how to better coordinate aircraft above the buildings, they are very interested in what academics are learning about how to keep aircraft from crashing when they fly in and around buildings--a far more complex battle space teeming with obstacles such as traffic lights, signs and the buildings themselves.
FEATURES wet leatherneck: The U.S. Marine Corps' decades-long wait for a combination high-speed amphibious assault and infantry fighting vehicle is in the homestretch. infantry mainstay: The 60-year-old AK-47 remains a world favorite despite long-standing accuracy problems that two new Russian rifle designs aim to fix. water rescue: Slowed by funding cuts, the U.S. Coast Guard's Deepwater modernization is making progress. But will the service's aging fleet last?
The Pentagon is still hoping to convert submarine-launched ballistic missiles into a conventional global strike system designed to reach any target on Earth within two hours. But it may just take a little longer than originally planned to develop the capability, according to the head of U.S. Strategic Command.
Defense Technology International: When you joined EADS last year, you initiated a review of the company's research and technology [R&T] infrastructure. What have you found?
