The Indian army conducted one of its largest war games ever in December, “Sudarshan Shakti,” in the western Thar Desert. The exercise involved 300 tanks, 250 artillery guns and 50,000 soldiers.
November 2011 was a month to remember in Iran. An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report challenged Tehran's claims that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes; two suspicious explosions killed individuals critical to ballistic missile and nuclear enrichment programs; and Basidji paramilitary “students” stormed the British embassy in Tehran, rupturing relations. Meanwhile, speculation continues as to whether Israel, the U.S., or both would attack Iran's uranium enrichment sites to prevent what many say is a march to nuclear armament.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Economic crises, budget cuts and shifting warfighting needs will have an impact on defense industries this year. Nevertheless, technology development continues. Products will be commercialized and business plans written with an eye toward weathering the storm and building for the future. Following are 10 companies that DTI's editors believe are worth watching for the innovation they will bring to the market this year.
Everyone in the fighter business loves helmet-mounted displays, in principle. And everyone hates integrating them and (even worse) maintaining them, because they are complicated and not affixed to the airframe and have to be in precise alignment with the aircraft and its sensors. Three product families—Elbit's Targo (chosen for the Alenia M-346), BAE Systems' Q-Sight (selected for Gripen and JSF interim solutions) and Gentex's Scorpion (chosen for the U.S. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve F-16s and A-10s, and for AC-130 gunships) are breaking the mold.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A tool developed by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) could soon change the way the military understands—and deals with—the exposure of troops to bomb blasts. Darpa's Blast Gauge, which was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, is a wearable sensor that measures blast exposure. The device could lead to better diagnosis of traumatic brain injury (TBI), dubbed the “signature wound” of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Budget pressure and continuing technological and management problems are likely to lead to further changes in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, with announcements possible before the defense budget rollout in February. The program's high points last year—flight testing and deliveries stayed on schedule, for the first time since 2008, and the F-35B performed its first shipboard landings—won't affect those changes.
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.
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%.
