Test flights are coninuing for the Airbus Military A400M against a background of angry rumblings from the French government, which is the launch customer for the transport aircraft. Laurent Collet-Billon, director of the DGA procurement agency, says he will not take delivery of the A400M “and I will not pay for them,” unless a satisfactory support and maintenance contract is reached.
Charging Ahead SpringActive, a small company in Tempe, Ariz., may have an answer to a nagging problem: how to reduce the battery load that dismounted soldiers carry to power electronic devices. The company's solution—developed with input from an engineering professor at West Point—calls for a biomechanical energy harvester that attaches to one or both boots and generates electricity as a soldier walks—6-9 watts at 3 mph, which the company says is enough to recharge two AA batteries in 85 min.
On Target Chances are that when a U.S. soldier gets a bad guy in his sights, his combat optic will have a little red dot that guarantees accuracy. This technology defines optics from Aimpoint, a Malmo, Sweden, company with U.S. offices in Chantilly, Va. Aimpoint has produced red dot optics since 1975, and supplied them to the U.S. military since 1997. Well over 1 million units are in use by the Army, Air Force and special forces. Law enforcement and federal security agencies use the optics, as do the forces of Sweden, France, Italy, Denmark and Finland.
Early Warning The public face of 2Excel Aviation, a Northamptonshire, England, company, is exciting: The Blades is the only aerobatic display team in the world licensed as an airline. It carries fare-paying passengers on stunt flights in two-seat Extra EA-300 LPs. But what 2Excel Aviation is doing behind the scenes could have an enormous impact on the future of aviation. While unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are an essential part of military fleets, the development of a civil market is hampered by their inability to be legally flown outside restricted airspace.
Policymakers have fretted over the U.S. Defense Department's science and technology (S&T) budget for decades, but with the Pentagon facing upwards of $1 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years, those concerns take on a new urgency. Because the S&T portfolio is not tied to any constituency or program, it will be in a precarious situation.
The first operational NH90 helicopter from NH Industries, called Caiman by the French armed forces, entered operational service with the French navy on Dec. 8. The French army was due to receive its first Caiman, a tactical transport version, before the end of December. The helicopter's arrival in the navy was also the occasion to revive Flotille 33F, which had been “put to sleep” in 1999. Based at Lanveoc-Poulmic in Britanny, 33F will eventually have nine Caimans, while 31F fleet at Hyeres near the Mediterranean will have 12.
Early December—as this is written—is not the best time to talk about the future of the Eurofighter Typhoon program. India's defense ministry may have announced the winner of its Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest by the time this issue appears.
France's 2012 defense budget has had to cut €267 million ($352.4 million) from its original request of €31.72 billion. Had the axe not fallen, this budget would have remained stable, since the original 1.8% rise on the 2011 figure was just above the 1.7% inflation rate. The increase now is 0.75%.
3DX-RAY of Loughborough, England, has signed a £1.46 million ($2.27 million) contract to supply four of its SVXi small-vehicle X-ray inspection systems to an undisclosed customer in the Middle East. The mobile systems will secure entrances to a city that has been under threat from terrorism. Each will be deployed at key entry points on a random basis. The SVXi system has two important features, says executive representative Vincent Deery: mobility and high resolution.
Widely thought of as the U.K.'s next unmanned aerial system (UAS), Scavenger may be much more. The project is expected to deliver a deep and persistent airborne intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (Istar) capability in the 2018 timeframe. Although the Defense Ministry is not anticipating a decision this year, 2012 will be pivotal in shaping a program important to the future force mix and the aerospace industry.
It's over. Or is it? In March 2003, the U.S. and U.K. spearheaded the invasion of Iraq, and when the last American combat troops pulled out in December, more than 4,400 Americans had died, 32,000 had been wounded, and the nation spent $800 billion on the effort. Tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, soldiers and police also died in a war whose casus belli relied at times on unvetted intelligence made worse by selective readings, stovepiping and a staggering level of incompetence inside and outside Washington.
The U.K.'s Team Complex Weapons initiative, a partnership between government and industry designed to structure and stabilize the development of guided weapon systems, got a lukewarm reception when announced at the Farnborough air show in 2008, but some of the thinking behind it is becoming clearer as one of its first products takes shape. MBDA unveiled the land-based launcher for its new Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM) at the DSEi show in London last September (see photo), after displaying the sea-based version at the 2010 Eurosatory exhibition.
In November, a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to put the Iranian nuclear issue at the top of his agenda. News reports began claiming that Israeli officials supported an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities and reached fever pitch with publicity over the test launch of a long-range, apparently nuclear-capable, delivery vehicle from a secret base in central Israel.
As two Asian giants jostle for regional power and influence, India, traditionally the silent one, is now working to diffuse tensions with its largest trading partner, China.
Franz Gayl, U.S. Marine Corps science adviser, knows the perils—and potential payoffs—of being an advocate for technological change. Gayl, a retired Marine, played a critical role in pushing the service to adopt Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicles, in the process exposing official intransigence. Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates cited media reports prompted by Gayl's concerns for bringing to his attention the urgent need for MRAPs. The vehicles ended up saving thousands of lives.
Cyberspooks In February 2011, hacking collective Anonymous broke into the servers of security company HBGary Federal and published more than 70,000 emails. Among them: confidential correspondence about and by an Atlanta cybersecurity firm called Endgame Systems. Founded in 2008 by former staffers at IBM's X-Force Internet Security Systems division, Endgame set up a subsidiary, ipTrust, in 2010, to analyze computer networks and rank IP addresses by their level of freedom from malware. The activities of the parent follow a similar vein.
Japan's 2012 defense budget of ¥4.7 trillion ($60.8 billion) is essentially unchanged from last year. It is likely to remain flat in coming years or reflect a downward trend that began in 2003—especially as the country absorbs the huge financial burden from the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck last March. Despite the shrinking budget, planners are working to enhance capabilities in surveillance and rapid deployment, and planning to strengthen the defense of its southwestern islands facing China, which has made territorial claims on them.
U.S. Air Force leaders in December signed off on a report called “Energy Horizons,” which looks at ways to reduce the service's dependence on imported oil, improve energy efficiency and increase use of alternative fuels. “The report has been approved,” says Mark Maybury, Air Force chief scientist. The final report will likely be cleared for release in early 2012. The report looks at fuel consumption across air, space, cyber and infrastructure, and recommends ways to increase efficiency.
Building Business AgustaWestland continues to invest more than 10% of revenue in R&D, to maintain helicopter development, upgrade existing models and extend its catalog. The company, owned by Finmeccanica, is entering the unmanned rotorcraft market and will have its first demonstrators this year. Also planned are the maiden flight of the 8-ton AW189 helicopter (see photo), unveiling of a new 4-5-ton helicopter, and initial operational capability of the T129, the Turkish variant of the AW129 Mongoose combat helicopter.
Technology is the lifeblood of the defense industry. The ability of companies large and small to develop ways of meeting urgent needs or to extend capabilities even incrementally guarantees that progress, measured as much by intelligence and deterrence as force of arms, will keep forces alert, ready and when necessary, capable of defeating threats. Of the myriad new technologies that are redefining product development, DTI's editors have selected 12 that we believe will stand out.
There is no tougher radar target than a periscope—small, designed and treated to emit a low radar cross-section and surrounded by sea clutter. Even worse, its electro-optical and infrared sensors mean the scope just has to pop up, sweep the horizon and vanish while the crew studies the view at their leisure. In 2012, the U.S. Navy's long-sought answer to the modern scope undergoes operational evaluation as part of an upgrade to the Sikorsky MH-60R helicopter.
Recent events in the West Bank raise suspicions that ultra-religious Jewish settlers are operating a terror organization, which has committed several dozen “price-tag” attacks against Palestinians over the past year. A price-tag attack is one in which radical settlers exact a price from local Palestinians for actions taken against their settlements.
Will 2012 bring as many unexpected events as 2011? Changing orders in the Islamic world add more unpredictability, because nobody is sure where the new leadership will fall on the scales of idealism and pragmatism or on the role of Islamic law in society. Certainly, nobody a year ago anticipated an all-air NATO campaign against Libya.
The expanding role of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and the electronics revolution have been kind to Flir Systems. Its signature product, the “ball” or sensor turret, is ubiquitous on air, sea and land platforms, and each year the company finds ways to pack more capability, such as high-definition video and laser designators, into smaller and cheaper units. Flir's Government Systems unit is expanding into full security systems and services (DTI June 2011, p. 51).
Want to predict the next Arab Spring, cyberattacks or a political revolution? A sophisticated computer program developed by Recorded Future of Cambridge, Mass., can help do that. Recorded Future analyzes 300,000 news sources per hour, looking for information about the future. Sources might come from social media, news reports or government filings. The idea is to mine this input for references to future events, thus the name Recorded Future.
