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.
A new House Intelligence Committee report recommending U.S. companies and the government steer clear of two Chinese telecommunications companies is sending a shudder through the business community, with a recommendation for Congress to consider expanding federal reviews of international business deals. The bipartisan report starts a conversation about a very real problem facing U.S. companies as well as the nation’s security — how to protect classified and proprietary information in a massive global supply chain.
Additional aerostat-mounted wide-area surveillance systems are being deployed to protect forward bases in Afghanistan, with the prospect that the systems could be redeployed for border surveillance once they are returned to the U.S. Logos Technologies will supply an additional 22 Kestrel day/night optical surveillance systems under a $111.8 million U.S. Navy contract awarded earlier this month. The first batch of 16 Kestrels were delivered by July.
The Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Electromagnetic (EM) Railgun program recently started to evaluate the second of two industry railgun prototype launchers at a facility in Dahlgren, Va., officials announced Oct. 10. General Atomics has delivered its prototype launcher to Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division, where engineers have engaged in a series of tests similar to the evaluations conducted on the prototype demonstrator made by BAE Systems which arrived on Jan. 30.
The Pentagon is on the cusp of finalizing new rules of engagement for activities in the cyberdomain, including how to defend domestic networks and respond in the event of an attack.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Researchers at the University of Southern Mississippi led by Prof. Robert Lochhead have developed a high-performance color cosmetic coating that is designed to protect faces and hands from the intense heat associated with blasts from IEDs. According to InnovationNewsDaily, the waterproof material, which can be colorless or supplied as camouflage paint, resists the 600C (1,112F) temperature of an IED's thermal wave, which immediately follows the high-pressure blast wave. A thermal wave typically lasts for 2 sec.
MBDA Germany reports the successful test of a 40-kw fiber laser (left photo). The company says the demonstration was the first time its patented beam-coupling technology had been used. The laser tracked and destroyed targets—such as mortars—in seconds and penetrated 40-mm (1.57-in.) steel plate. This fall, MBDA will expand laser testing to include detection and destruction of a flying target. Meanwhile, the U.S. Office of Naval Research is calling for development of a shipboard laser by 2016.
Rheinmetall Airborne Systems and Swiss UAV are teaming to offer a hybrid UAV—part helicopter, part fixed-wing aircraft—that they say will perform a wide range of missions. The TU-150, still in concept phase, was unveiled at the ILA Berlin Airshow last month. Rheinmetall says the TU-150 will join the company's existing airborne platforms, creating a “product family.” Hybrid helo/winged UAVs are nothing new—there was the ill-fated Bell Eagle Eye for the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army has eyed a potentially unmanned Quad Tiltrotor idea from Bell Helicopter Textron for years.
As contractors make greater use of composites and high-strength metals in aircraft structures, attention is focusing on ways of improving manufacturing productivity and reducing per-part cost. One technique to emerge for the machining of parts is cryogenic cooling, which can increase machining speed, reduce cutting force, extend cutting tool life, and lower the time and cost required to finish components.
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.
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.
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”).
The U.S. Homeland Security Department (DHS) is taking its cues from tuna. The department's Science and Technology Directorate is funding development of an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) designed to resemble a tuna, called the BIOSwimmer, because tuna have a natural body framework ideal for meeting propulsion and maneuverability problems that plague conventional UUVs. “It's called 'biomimetics.' We're using nature as a basis for design and engineering a system that works exceedingly well,” says David Taylor, DHS program manager for the BIOSwimmer.
