The German army officially received its expanded future soldier system on March 7. The IdZ-ES, short for Infanterist der Zukunft-Erweitertes Systeme, goes to the 10th Panzer Div.'s Mountain Infantry Btn. 232, which deploys to Afghanistan in June. Rheinmetall Defense received an order for 30 systems in 2012 and another in January for 60 more. The 60-system order is being delivered in two batches: the first by midyear and the second at year-end. Each system has enough equipment to outfit a 10-man squad.
The U.S. Army is moving forward with development of a 120-mm tank round that will, in one unit of ammunition, combine the capabilities of four different rounds now in use and loaded aboard tanks, and provide two new capabilities. According to the Army News Service, the Advanced Multi-Purpose (AMP) round has an ammunition data link and programmable multimode fuze. The data link is used to select the capability necessary to defeat a target, while the fuze can be set to one of three modes—impact-detonate, detonate-delay, or airburst.
Moving equipment efficiently and economically during NATO's drawdown in Afghanistan poses serious challenges to the major players deployed there. “Everyone fixated on rushing kit into theater. Getting it back is left to chance,” says one British logistics planner.
Mortars, short-range rockets, improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) are insurgents' weapons that military forces deal with by employing superior protection, operational procedures and tactics, and real-time intelligence. When insurgents obtain guided weapons, however, there is a major escalation in the threat level.
Laser beams that measure an object's distance are part of navigation systems in autonomous vehicles. This time-of-flight (TOF) technology has limitations, however, in distance and in imaging objects that do not reflect beams well. Researchers at Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh, Scotland, developed a TOF system that yields high-resolution 3-D data about objects 1 km (0.6 mi.). The work raises the possibility that the system could not only guide autonomous vehicles but be a portable targeting device.
Most garments protect against contamination from chemical and biological agents by erecting fabric barriers between the body and toxins. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is experimenting with specially spun fibers that incorporate such additives as quaternary ammonium salt biocides, polyoxometalates, fullerenes and phthalocyanines, which spontaneously decontaminate fabrics by neutralizing the chemical and biological agents they contact.
If South Korea builds its proposed KF-X stealth fighter, it will need to export it. So one key question hanging over the much-delayed project is whether the country can build the aircraft cheaply enough and attract adequate demand. Another is whether South Korea can build it at all.
For most of the Cold War, Britain built or tried to build large fighters and strike aircraft that it believed were needed to face the Soviet threat. France consistently built smaller, cheaper fighters that it could export. So whereas English Electric and its successor company made 338 powerful Lightning fighters, which had an empty weight of about 13 metric tons (29,000 lb.), Dassault made 1,401 contemporary Mirage IIIs, which were half as large.
In his recent Viewpoint, “Not Even Close: The Better Choice for LAS” (AW&ST April 15, p. 58), Fred George identifies “significant differences” between Beechcraft's AT-6 and Embraer's Super Tucano aircraft, both competing for the hotly contested U.S. Air Force (USAF) Light Air Support (LAS) bid. However, his opinion of those differences ignores significant facts and badly misuses others in an attempt to substantiate his view.
Brazil's armed forces are learning to adjust to the country's rapidly changing economic climate. While the country has experienced a slowdown in the last three years, its mining and huge oil and gas reserves have transformed the economy. But with a significant proportion of the wealth located offshore, Brazil is having to learn quickly about how to protect it, and has decided to take lessons from those experienced in the business.
MRO 50/50: Despite a potentially historic opportunity to refashion how the U.S. military seeks and acquires maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of its equipment and systems, most executives voicing opinions at Aviation Week’s recent MRO Military conference in Atlanta said they expect the so-called 50-50 “core” mandate to remain in effect. Longstanding U.S. law requires the Defense Department to maintain a core logistics capability of its own, rather than outsourcing it all to the private sector, and that at least half of military MRO workload be provided in-house.
Beyond the immediate cuts of sequestration, the possibility of a fundamental, long-term reduction in public investment in national security will shape thinking on what defense capabilities should be developed, says Arati Prabhakar, director of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). While not forecasting a long-term decline in defense budgets, the agency “must consider what will be required to meet the nation’s security needs even in these circumstances,” she says.
A controversial debt-fighting law in the U.S. may be eating into the Pentagon’s ability to do many things, but backing up Israel is not one of them, according to officials in both countries who recently unveiled an unprecedented arms sales proposal designed to maintain the Jewish state’s “qualitative military edge” (QME), above all.
LONDON — Eurocopter has begun proving trials of its EC145 twin-engined helicopter with an optionally piloted flight control system. The self-funded demonstration program, revealed April 25, made its first flights in early April and has already carried underslung loads and performed what the company calls a “representative observation mission.”
POSTPONED FURTHER: The restart of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-4) Coronado’s pre-delivery builder’s trials has been pushed back to the week of May 6, U.S. Navy officials say. LCS-4 was being put through full-power trial tests on April 13 when problems developed with its port and starboard diesel engines, creating smoke and a small fire first on the starboard engine and then the port one, Navy sources said. Those sources initially expected to resume the trials April 15, and later the week of April 22.
SEOUL — South Korea’s proposed KF-X could emerge as the only alternative to the F-35 for prospective buyers looking for a fighter than can easily accommodate Western weapons and sensors.
