TURKISH INTERCEPTION: Given the international impasse over the conflict in Syria, “practical measures,” such as the interception of civilian aircraft, will become increasingly important for neighboring countries seeking to restrict Syrian forces’ access to military goods from external sources, say analysts at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). “Turkey is well-placed to stop illicit arms shipments,” Sipri says.
UAVs have largely been used for passive tasks in controlled skies such as surveillance and reconnaissance. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a three-year, $649,999 grant to researchers at Drexel University of Philadelphia to examine the feasibility of attaching dexterous limbs to hovering UAVs, with the idea of using them in situations ranging from search-and-rescue to emergency response and infrastructure repair. Engineering Prof.
Iran on Sept. 21 revealed four copies of its Ra'd (Thunder) surface-to-air-missile system, with each transporter carrying three Taer (Bird) missiles. Iranian military officials told the Fars News Agency that the Taer has a range of up to 50 km (31 mi.) and can reach an altitude of 75,000 ft. They said it was in production for the Iranian armed forces. However, Iran likely did not develop this missile indigenously, and while its configuration defies clear determination of its parentage, Western missile experts believe it is likely either Russian or Chinese.
Poland recently announced plans to replace some of its Soviet-built fighter aircraft with armed UAVs. “By 2018, we should have three squadrons [of armed UAVs],” says Waldemar Skrzypczak, Poland's vice minister of defense. He adds that the country's armed forces might purchase up to 30 combat UAVs. Since joining NATO, Poland has already upgraded its air force with 48 U.S.-built F-16C/D Block 52 aircraft, but the country still has more than several dozen aging Su-22 fighters.
The U.S. Army has gained a tool in its efforts to combat improvised explosive devices (IEDs): software that uses algorithms based on geospatial abduction to predict where IED caches in Afghanistan are hidden. The information is based on attacks and other intelligence. The software is called C-Scare/A – as in Combat-Scare/Afghanistan, with Scare an acronym for Spatio-Cultural Abductive Reasoning Engine. The software was fine-tuned by students and faculty at the U.S.
NEW DELHI — Indian state-run defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) gave the go-ahead Oct. 12 to their long-delayed project to develop a Multirole Transport Aircraft (MTA). “With this HAL and UAC-TA will start the preliminary design work immediately at Moscow,” HAL Chairman R.K. Tyagi says.
Combat medicine has traditionally focused on stabilization and transport, to get casualties back to a treatment center. However, a group of European researchers, universities and technology companies are developing systems and imaging equipment to move the way forward in robotic and remote surgeries—complex automated and machine-assisted operations that could deliver the surgeon's skills closer to the battlefield.
NEW DELHI — Russia has further delayed the delivery of the refurbished aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov to India. “We have detected a malfunction in the boiler and power plant of the ship. We have given the revised schedule of the delivery of the aircraft carrier to the Indian side,” visiting Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov says. “We believe it will happen in the fourth quarter of 2013. We need to test everything so that we are sure we are transferring an aircraft carrier of perfect quality,” Serdyukov says.
Several European defense and security contractors showed their wares together last month at the Integrated Mobile Security Kit (IMSK), a European Union project that enables security teams at high-profile events such as economic summits to deliver improved security through better situational awareness. Finmeccanica's Selex Galileo led a team of 26 partner organizations during the demonstration at Hylands House in Chelmsford, England, on Sept. 20.
As he predicted earlier to Aviation Week, Barrett Brown, an activist who occasionally has acted as a spokesman for hackers aligned with the Antisec and Lulzsec groups, was arrested last month and charged with threatening a U.S. federal officer. Brown was later remanded into custody without bail. Interestingly, the federal website that posted details of his detention had a cross-site scripting vulnerability, enabling outsiders to amend records of Brown's arrest (in the screen grab above, details altered include the Race field, which reads “Twilight Vampirelulz”).
Japan plans to begin development of its next homegrown fighter within five years, with the aim of beginning production under the designation F-3 around 2027. While the schedule suggests Japan may want to merge the F-3 into the U.S. Next Generation Tacair effort, Japan is laying the groundwork for going its own way by investing in stealth technology and building its own powerful fighter engine. IHI Corp. is to develop a technology-demonstrator engine of 15 metric tons (33,000 lb.) thrust, according to an official document.
NAGOYA, Japan — Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) forecasts sales of about 100 civil derivatives of its XC-2 aircraft in the next 30 years, should the manufacturer decide to proceed with such a program after completing the development of its military transport. The Japanese manufacturer has started building the first four series-production units of the XC-2, says a program official, and the country’s defense ministry is test flying two prototypes.
The DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer passed a major milestone this month with the delivery of the ship’s composite deckhouse to the U.S. Navy. Weighing in at 900 tons and bigger than half a football field, the deckhouse packs the ship’s bridge, radars, antennas and intake/exhaust systems into a structure designed to provide a significantly smaller radar cross section than any other ship in the service’s current fleet.
NEW DELHI — India is likely to buy an additional 42 Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft and 71 medium-lift helicopters from Russia. The Su-30 MKI order will be in addition to the 230 aircraft of the type already contracted for, as the Indian air force (IAF) plans to raise 13 to 14 squadrons in the near future, according to a defense ministry official. The Sukhoi Su-30 MKI, a variant of the Sukhoi Su-30, is jointly developed by Russia’s Sukhoi and India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) for the IAF.
A Mitt Romney administration would take an “incremental” approach to U.S. defense weaponry development while fighting cost growth and schedule delays with “strong civilian leadership” that heads off so-called “requirements creep” by program proponents in the military and industry.
