Two new optionally piloted airships are slated to deploy to Afghanistan in 2012. The Blue Devil from MAV6, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force, is a conventional teardrop hulled, lighter-than-air ship that will carry BAE Systems' Argus-IS sensor. The Long Endurance Multi Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) is a hybrid craft—helium-filled but slightly heavier than air, with a multilobe, wing-shaped envelope, developed by Northrop Grumman with technology from the U.K.
As part of its general rearmament effort, Russia continues to enhance nuclear deterrence. Significant attention is being paid to sea- and land-based components of the nuclear triad. The growing defense budget (see p. 43) is enabling industry to make substantial progress in developing and fine-tuning strategic weapons.
Germany's defense budget will rise in 2012 by €200 million ($264 million) to €31.7 billion, but the trend over the next five years is down, to a planned €30.4 billion in 2015. The armed forces will be reduced to 185,000 troops, with the aim of sustaining international deployments totaling 10,000 troops. Some 170,000 troops will be professionals or long-term volunteers, while 15,000 will serve for up to 23 months. Conscription ended last July, and bases are being reduced to 264 from 328.
Wide-area surveillance systems are the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flavor of the month in Afghanistan, and several systems are due to be deployed in 2012 or be integrated on new platforms. The nomenclature for these systems can be confusing and sometimes reflects a complex heritage. Take, for example, BAE Systems' Argus-IS (Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System), which was originally a U.S.
Navies continue to engage in counter-piracy operations, but there is no easy remedy for the problem. The reason for this is that Somalia, from which the pirates launch attacks, is a failed state lacking the means to deal with the situation.
Paul McLeary (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
In many respects, the election-year debate over U.S. defense budgets has yet to start, for two reasons: The defense topline over the next decade is unknown, within a very wide range, and Congress, lobbyists and the rest of the Washington defense machine have yet to grasp that unprecedented changes, compromises and even sacrifices may be needed to balance the books without ending up with a “hollow force.”
Ballistic missile defense (BMD) needs saved the U.S. Navy's DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class production line from mothballs a couple of years ago. Now the service is treading water, trying to keep the destroyers shipshape and their missile-defeating Aegis combat systems up and running.
It was disclosed last year that AeroVironment's Switchblade man-portable, lethal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had received a production contract from the U.S. Army, following an operational utility assessment in 2010. AeroVironment has taken the lead with these systems, after launching development under the Army's Project Anubis. Using components from its Wasp mini-UAV, the 2-lb. Switchblade is tube-launched (so the operator can stay under cover) with tandem flip-out wings and electric propulsion.
Evolution German giant Rheinmetall Defense is known for armored vehicles, guns and ammunition. Since the end of the Cold War, the company has been expanding activities not only by adapting traditional products for evolving battlefield needs, but developing full-capability packages, sometimes in partnership with contractors around the world.
The defining event in China in 2012 will be the change of leadership. Communist Party of China (CPC) leaders will retire and the so-called fifth generation will take the helm for the next decade. They are unlikely to introduce radical change because the CPC's legitimacy has come to rest on its ability to deliver growth and prosperity, and the greatest risk to the regime lies in a sluggish economy and massive unemployment. Market-oriented reform will thus continue.
Unlike 2010, there were no lethal skirmishes between North and South Korea in 2011, nor tense confrontations between China and Japan. But the underlying causes of the conflicts and disputes remain unresolved, with no solution in sight.
Andrew Krepinevich, Jr., is president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, one of Washington's most influential think tanks. He joined CSBA after 21 years in the U.S. Army, from which he retired as a colonel. In the Army, Krepinevich served in the Defense Department's Office of Net Assessment and on the personal staff of three defense secretaries. He was a member of the National Defense Panel and the Defense Science Board Task Force on Joint Experimentation, and serves on the Defense Policy Board. Krepinevich discussed the changes and challenges of U.S.
November's International Atomic Energy Agency report implied that the Stuxnet virus delayed, but didn't derail, Iran's nuclear program. Nevertheless, the worm's precision strike seems to have spawned more advanced cyberattacks. In October, researchers in Budapest announced the discovery of a Stuxnet derivative. Duqu—so named because some files it creates have the prefix “DQ”—may be the work of the same coders, but its mission is different.
BMT Defense Services may be one of the most influential defense companies you have never heard of. Naval architecture—the equivalent of preliminary design in the aerospace world—employs only a few people worldwide, and even fewer in the warship business. Part of the BMT Group, a company held in a trust that is formally dedicated to the interests of its staff, BMT Defense Services has a core of 60 engineers and performs much of the Royal Navy's work in naval architecture.
Growth Dynamics Aselsan, Turkey's biggest defense contractor, started in 1975 as a small company doing licensed production of electronic systems. Aselsan today is a high-tech company with four divisions representing almost every facet of defense electronics. It continues to grow, giving Turkey independence in a key segment of defense technology.
Arab unrest is changing the balance of power in the Middle East, along with the dynamics of the region. With the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria reconfiguring the political landscape, Israel is increasingly isolated and its dependence on the U.S. is growing.
The Indian defense budget for fiscal 2012 (April 2012-March 2013), adjusted for the 12.9% decline in the value of the rupee to the dollar last year, is less than 2011 in real terms. Plans are to allocate $36 billion, or 2.6% of GDP, to defense this year. In 2011, the budget was $35.2 billion, or 2.03% of GDP.
The nickname “Beast of Kandahar” that I bestowed on the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) when initial photos appeared in December 2009 is now being used by Iran's Press TV international news channel. That aside, the circumstances of the Sentinel's unplanned TV debut teach some important lessons.
In theory, the plan for the U.K.'s two new aircraft carriers is now set and can proceed. The 2010 Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) changed the ships, and the aircraft that are to fly off them, from the B-variant, short-takeoff/vertical landing (Stovl) version of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), in favor of the larger, heavier, longer-range F-35C carrier variant. As such, there is now a requirement for catapults and arrester gear.
Train Like You Fight Spun off from a movie studio in 2002, Strategic Operations (Stops) provides “hyper-realistic” (its trademarked phrase) training. The San Diego firm has built training facilities modeled along Afghan/Iraqi lines for clients including the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and National Guard. Hollywood-style pyrotechnics ensure that urban combat scenarios do not lack realism, while actors play civilians and insurgents for troops to engage.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) wants proposals for a factory that builds a combat vehicle in record time by making rapid design changes. Darpa released the final solicitation for iFAB—Instant Foundry Adaptive through Bits—part of a program to build “adaptive vehicles” with drastically shorter development cycles. “Instead of building one factory, wrapping it around one product or even a family of products, the iFAB foundry is a manufacturing capability with no learning curve,” says Army Lt. Col. Nathan Weidenman, deputy program manager.
A $1.7 billion November contract for seven low-rate initial production P-8A Poseidon multimission maritime aircraft, following an earlier batch of six, indicates that Boeing's big maritime patrol aircraft is well underway. Although cancellation of the U.K.'s Nimrod MRA4 leaves it as the last Western program of its kind, aside from the unexportable Kawasaki P-1, Boeing hopes it is the first of a long family.
A satirical comic strip called Doctrine Man has racked up followers on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for its smart, sarcastic commentary on military life. So who is Doctrine Man? He asks the same question: “Caped man of mystery, mild-mannered Army officer gone cynical, or just another ham with mediocre PowerPoint skills?
Bar armor is the usual way to protect transport and patrol vehicles from rocket-propelled grenades (RPG), but it is heavy, cumbersome and loses effectiveness after damage. A U.K. unit of Amsafe—based in Bridport, England, which has a 750-year history of rope and net-making—has teamed with ST Kinetics to develop a net-based protection system, Tarian, initially for the Warthog tracked articulated vehicle. Tarian is a refined version of a system developed for the British Army in 2009. Total weight is 190 lb. versus 1,200 lb.
