Helicopters have proved to be an early success story for Russia as the country strives to restore its aerospace prowess. Russian Helicopters, the holding company behind the country's rotorcraft industry, is involved with several equipment upgrades aimed at both the domestic and international market.
Delta Air Lines' order for new single-aisle aircraft to renew its aging domestic fleet is almost as significant for what it omits as for what it includes. The U.S. carrier announced an order on Aug. 25 for 100 Boeing 737-900ER (extended-range) airplanes to replace its older narrowbody aircraft from the second half of 2013 through 2018—an order with an $8.5 billion list price that will make Delta the second-largest 737-900ER operator in the world, behind only Indonesia's Lion Air.
Europe's fifth-largest airline, Air Berlin, can still be saved if its leaders take rapid and decisive measures, but many doubt the carrier's currently proposed initiatives will be enough.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
Just as railroads shaped 19th century ground warfare and aviation refocused combat during the last 100 years, the technology of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), the rapid introduction of cyberoperations and the proliferation of unmanned aircraft are defining combat in the 21st century. Waning is the longtime specialization of expensive platforms.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
Several surprises are sure to emerge from the U.S. Air Force's next-generation, long-range bomber program, including the technological sinews attaching it to the Navy's unmanned carrier-based strike aircraft.
Classified programs now under way may lead to one of the most capable and expensive airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and airborne electronic attack (AEA) systems available to the U.S. Air Force in the 2020s. Reports from defense and industry sources, and careful analysis of USAF presentations and other documents, indicate that there is a major “black” ISR and AEA initiative going forward under special access program security rules.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
Through the smokescreen surrounding development and rapid prototyping for the next generation of combat and surveillance aircraft, there have been a number of Elvis-like sightings of renowned stars from the black world of special programs. Over the last couple of decades, groups of aerospace specialists—particularly those involved with stealth, radars and unmanned aircraft—have disappeared and reappeared.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
The Phantom Ray and Phantom Eye represent Boeing's two approaches to unmanned flight and are designed to impact the development of future combat aircraft. In particular, they are expected to funnel new technology into both the U.S. Air Force's next-generation, long-range-strike project and the U.S. Navy's unmanned, carrier-based surveillance and strike (Uclass) programs.
Alongside the explosive growth in unmanned air vehicle systems, a smaller segment of the ISR market has been expanding with less publicity: That is, using commercial aircraft—from personal airplanes to regional airliners and light military transports—for ISR missions. Some of these conversions are complex, involving multiple sensors, several operator stations and defensive countermeasures.
The electromagnetic battlefield is becoming a mix of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), electronic- and directed-energy attack, and cyberoperations.
The F-15C Eagle—with an advanced combination of inexpensively integrated, multispectral sensors—is carving out a new niche for itself, defending U.S. borders via a long-range, nighttime, visual-identification capability. A team comprising members of the aerospace industry, U.S. Air Force and Florida Air National Guard (ANG) has added a Sniper infrared advanced-targeting pod (ATP) to one of its combat-coded fighters. The F-15C has already been upgraded with Raytheon's APG-63(V)3 active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.
As intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance expands deep into new sections of the electromagnetic spectrum, new weapons, warheads and tactics are emerging—often within existing programs—to take on missions in cyber, electronic and information warfare. Two weapons illustrate the point—the high-speed, anti-radiation missile (HARM) designed to kinetically kill surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, and the miniature air-launched decoy (MALD), fielded to entice SAMs into revealing their positions electronically.
At a time of massive demand on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, the U.K. Defense Ministry has embarked on a major restructuring of its ISR inventory that leaves it, at least temporarily, bereft of key capabilities. In addition, in critical areas such as all-weather, wide-area ground surveillance and maritime patrol, the ministry still lacks a clear pathway. The U.K. also has to rely heavily on allies to help maintain technical know-how that will be vital when new equipment is introduced.
With its long experience in operating a wide variety of platforms and sensors in combat, Israel now considers the need to fuse information into a coherent, real-time intelligence picture as one of its biggest tasks. In the cyber-realm—which now has an extensive overlap with intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)—Israeli researchers realize that most information is already available, but the challenge is to detect it in real time and immediately translate it into action.
India has spent upward of $80 billion in the last 10 years on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets and infrastructure, according to a defense ministry estimate, and is now harnessing their full potential with key backbone networks that will effectively dwarf legacy systems. Keeping with an expansive documented vision for round-the-clock ISR in a fully networked environment, the Indian military, intelligence agencies and national security departments have been forced to pool resources and work together.
China's DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile system presents one of the world's most decisive challenges in the field of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), with potentially far-reaching consequences for international affairs. If China can make the missile system work, it could shift the balance of power in East Asia, causing the many countries looking warily at China's growing military clout to wonder how far they can rely on the U.S. to counterbalance the regional giant.
On the western side of the Pacific Ocean, the military putting perhaps the most emphasis on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) is Australia's. And although the Australian Defense Force's efforts in ISR and command and communication have been criticized as vigorous but uncoordinated, there are signs that it is pulling together more integrated information-gathering and distribution systems.
With the Pentagon facing surefire funding cuts and a growing list of electronic and cyberoperational challenges, officials will be pressed to overcome a technology quandary at the heart of their airborne electronic attack (AEA) efforts. Potential foes are making rapid advances with non-kinetic weapons, networked command and control, and cyberintrusions using cheap, commercially available electronics that are proving difficult for the U.S. to counter.
The Pentagon has offensive cyber- and electronic attack weapons—and even more sophisticated capabilities are being designed—but it does not have the analytical structure to anticipate their effects and the command structure to quickly approve their use. For the moment, even if the U.S. knows a cyberattack has been planned and will be launched, it cannot do anything militarily to stop it.
Unmanned aircraft bought used for a few thousand dollars and packed with off-the-shelf electronics can use wireless technologies to invade smartphones and exploit them as conduits to capture email or telephone conversations on laptop computers.
Asia-Pacific Staff (New Delhi), Robert Wall (Moscow)
Few programs underscore the strategic industrial relationship between Russia and India as strongly as their work on the BrahMos missile, and that partnership will be further cemented now by the two countries' decision to develop a hypersonic version of the weapon under the BrahMos II program.
India's defense helicopter modernization plans are huge, looming large in the eyes of potential bidders and providing a test of the staying power of Russia's supply advantage in the sector. Selections will soon be made in three major military helicopter acquisition programs. The Indian defense ministry is in the final steps of analyzing trial and evaluation reports from the Indian air force and army. The three competitions, worth approximately $2.5 billion in total, should lead to the purchase of 22 attack, 12 heavy-lift and 197 light utility helicopters.
Moscow may object to U.S. plans to expand its missile defense shield across Europe, but that is not stopping the Russian military from a widespread expansion of its own air and missile defense capabilities. Russia has sketched out some intentions to not just upgrade its S-300 air defense system—long the backbone of its air defense activities—but also to modernize shorter-range air defenses, along with the high-end S-400 system. Fielding the top-end S-500 missile defense system is also a priority.
ANASA-backed team of scientists and engineers is set to map the Moon's gravity—and internal structure—with a pair of spacecraft working on the same principle as the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission orbiting Earth.
