Military

Joint U.S. Pacific Command operations in the Pacific

By Mike Hanlon

This remarkable image must constitute one of the greatest collections of leading edge technology ever assembled in one place and part of an amazing photographic gallery for this story. And the sizeable chunk of war machine is just a fraction of what’s being put through its paces on and around Guam this week in Operation Valiant Shield, a U.S. Pacific Command exercise which focuses on integrated joint training and interoperability among U.S. military forces while responding to a range of mission scenarios. The exercise is designed to make sure U.S. forces have a seamlessly integrated environment where they can conduct deterrence-type missions and, if deterrence fails, high-intensity combat operations. The image shows the awesome B-2 Spirit and 16 other aircraft from the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps flying over the USS Kitty Hawk, USS Ronald Reagan and USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike groups. The joint exercise consists of 28 naval vessels, more than 300 aircraft and approximately 20,000 service members. For the record, the B-2 Spirit is powered by four F-118-GE-100 engines each with 17,300 pounds of thrust which can propel it to high subsonic speeds carrying 40,000 pounds of bombs with an unrefueled intercontinental range and an effectively indefinite range given air-to-air refueling. The B-2 Stealth bomber can reach across the globe to attack more than a dozen different aimpoints with surgical accuracy in a single pass! There are 21 active B-2 Spirits in the US military inventory, each costing US$1.157 billion. Who needs a foreign policy? Read More

US Military FCT contract for High Speed Amphibians

By Mike Hanlon

June 19, 2006 It was only a matter of time really – Gibbs Technologies’ High Speed Amphibian (HSA) technology has wowed the world with the Aquada sports car, Humdinga AWD and QuadSki amphibians so sooner or later it was bound to come under the scrutiny of the most technologically adventurous fighting force on the planet. Today it was announced that Gibbs has won a US Department of Defence (DOD) Foreign Comparative Test contract to evaluate its existing HSA technology for military purposes. Founder Alan Gibbs said of winning the contract, “it’s a major milestone for the company because we have solved a problem which has beset every major General since Alexander the Great.” Read More

U.S. Combat Vehicles get enhanced vision

By Mike Hanlon

June 3, 2006 “What you can’t see can’t hurt you,” might have been excellent advice from dad when you were fretful in your cot as a child, but it’s not true on the battlefield. Indeed, what you can’t see is the thing most likely to kill you and when it comes to keeping soldiers alive, enhanced situational awareness is the key. That’s why the U.S. Army has commissioned BAE Systems to develop vastly enhanced situational awareness capability for U combat vehicles. The resultant Distributed Aperture System (DAS) will enable the vehicle driver, crew members, and soldiers riding inside to “see” through the armour of the vehicle, providing enhanced situational awareness for driving and before dismounting. The DAS provides independent, simultaneous, closed-hatched hemispherical views of the area surrounding the vehicle. It can function day or night, and when the vehicle is moving or stationary. Read More

State-of-the-art Explosives Ordinance Response Truck

By Mike Hanlon

May 12, 2006 The threats to homeland security that became evident on September 11 a few years back have precipitated a vastly different approach to Explosives Ordinance Response and the sophistication of the latest purpose-built vehicle from Mattman Specialty Vehicles is illustrative of the above. In the past, most bomb squads had to use an old delivery truck or if a new unit was purchased, its primary function was to carry bomb suits and other equipment. This unit is a complete operations base with a mast mounted camera, robot operator's area, exterior monitor and workstation, exterior decontamination shower, robot ramp, and awning for inclement weather. The hamburger-with-the-lot isn’t cheap, but than again, neither is human life. As photographed, the unit costs US$297,667. Read More

The Hit Avoidance Program for FCS Manned Ground Vehicles

By Mike Hanlon

April 25, 2006 It makes sense on the battlefield to avoid getting hit, but the degree of science being employed to enable this for the U.S. Army’s Future Combat System (FCS) Manned Ground Vehicles (MGVs) is extraordinary. BAE Systems leads the hit avoidance integrated product team for FCS MGVs, and with support from MGV teammate General Dynamics, is responsible for integrating the Raytheon-developed hard-kill Active Protection Subsystem (APS) with soft-kill countermeasures, obscurants (jammers and decoys), and decision aid software into the overall protection system. An APS comprises a sensor subsystem (threat warner and tracking sensor), countermeasure subsystem and rapid data processing capability. The threat warner identifies a threat then the tracking sensor determines the threat’s size, shape and direction. The software then decides an appropriate countermeasure and deploys the countermeasure which physically intercepts it, all, obviously, in a big hurry. The layered hit avoidance suite will enable full-spectrum survivability against rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds, top attack munitions and tank-fired kinetic energy (KE) rounds. Read More

B-1 Bomber Radar upgrade

By Mike Hanlon

April 21, 2006 In terms of sheer firepower, there’s nothing that can match the U.S. Air Force's fleet of 67 B-1B long-range bomber aircraft. Carrying the largest payload of both guided and unguided weapons of any aircraft, the multi-mission B-1 can rapidly deliver massive quantities of precision and non-precision weapons, anywhere in the world at Mach 1.2. Each aircraft originally cost US$283 million, but the attention, fettling and long term improvement program costs would dwarf that figure. Each aircraft weighs is capable of carrying around 1.5 times its own weight in bombs for a total take-off weight of 216,634 kilograms.

An aircraft commander, copilot, and two weapon systems officers are responsible for delivering a lethal cocktail mixed from the contents of its massive reconfigurable weapons bays. It can pack 24 GBU-31 GPS-aided JDAM (both Mk-84 general purpose bombs and BLU-109 penetrating bombs) or 24 Mk-84 2,000-pound general purpose bombs; 8 Mk-85 naval mines; 84 Mk-82 500-pound general purpose bombs; 84 Mk-62 500-pound naval mines; 30 CBU-87, -89, -97 cluster munitions; 30 CBU-103/104/105 WCMD, 24 AGM-158 JASSMs or 12 AGM-154 JSOWs. The latest US$180 million Reliability and Maintainability Improvement Program (RMIP) upgrade will make the fire control of this arsenal more accurate Read More

Super Hornet demonstrates network capability in multiple JDAM drop

By Mike Hanlon

April 19, 2006 As networks connect business and social communities by efficiently sharing information, so too do military networks and the drive towards a networked battlefield is now relentless. An example of the efficiencies available in the battlespace was recently successfully demonstrated when an F/A-18E/F Super Hornet provided targeting coordinates to other aircraft using the Raytheon APG-79 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system. During the test at the Naval Air Weapons Center at China Lake, Calif., an AESA-equipped F/A-18F created a long-range, high resolution synthetic aperture radar map and designated four closely-spaced stationary targets. The aircraft then data-linked two target designations to non-AESA equipped Super Hornets, which successfully delivered four 2,000-lb. Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). All four weapons impacted the targets within lethal distance. The targeting Super Hornet then used the AESA to provide highly detailed bomb damage assessments to confirm the hits. Read More

Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) competition

By Mike Hanlon

April 14, 2006 BAE Systems' entry in the Army's Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) competition has successfully completed environmental tests that validate the weapon's ability to withstand battlefield conditions. Coupled with successful flight tests last year, these results demonstrate the maturity of BAE Systems' APKWS II offering. APKWS II will provide a low-cost, lightweight guided weapon that is effective against soft and lightly armored targets to fill the gap between the 70mm rocket and the Hellfire missile. The system will be used on all Army aircraft currently using the 70mm rocket. The BAE Systems/General Dynamics team is competing with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to provide a new 2.75-inch guided rocket that will enable U.S. Army Apache and U.S. Marine Corps Cobra attack helicopters and other platforms to precisely engage non-armored targets with minimal collateral damage. The government is expected to announce the winner later this month. Read More

ULTRA AP (Armored Patrol) Military Combat Vehicle Concept

By Mike Hanlon

April 9, 2006 The ULTRA AP (Armored Patrol) Concept vehicle was created to investigate options for improving survivability and mobility in future military combat vehicles. On the mobility side of things, the designers naturally looked to high-output diesel power (the military has a one fuel policy) but also looked to high-performance automotive engineering practices by adding NASCAR race expertise to the team, along with the use of on-board computers to integrate steering, suspension and brakes. The protective aspects were enhanced by an innovative crew capsule created by a combination of lightweight composite armour materials, a commercial truck chassis, and faceted crew capsule geometries that provide better deflection of pressure waves from blasts compared to current configurations. Read More

Meet the SLAM-ER

By Mike Hanlon

April 2, 2006 Meet the appropriately named SLAM-ER the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response weapon. The most accurate weapon in the U.S. Navy inventory, the SLAM-ER, is an air-launched, day/night, adverse weather, over-the-horizon missile, which can be used in fire-and-forget mode, in which case it will use GPS to deliver its 500-pound warhead, with frightening precisionanywhere within 275 kilometres from its launch point. The clever aspect of the SLAM-ER though, is that it can use the warfighter-in-the-loop meaning it can fly a pre-planned or target-of-opportunity route to the target area and be retargeted in flight by using global positioning system data and an infrared seeker with an advanced data link. The SLAM-ER is also deadly accurate at hitting moving targets travelling at highway speeds. Read More

The Fox Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle

By Mike Hanlon

March 31, 2006 As much as it might sound like it comes from a satellite television company, the Fox (aka Fuchs in German) NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) reconnaissance vehicle is a very serious machine with an increasingly important role. A decade after the end of the Cold War, nuclear, biological and chemical warfare agents remain a serious, perhaps even growing threat in particular reference to biological and chemical agents due to their relatively easy production compared to nuclear agents. Terrorism is another growing threat to populations, forces and territory, as well as to international security. Therefore the ability to reliably and quickly detect the covert release of NBC warfare agents and other toxic substances even under difficult conditions is becoming increasingly important. As such, the announcement that the United Arab Emirates is purchasing 32 Fox NBC vehicles (only 260 exist today) gives us an opportunity to outline the capabilities of these remarkable systems. Read More

Combat Survivor Evader Locator authorized for use in Middle East Theatre

By Mike Hanlon

March 29, 2006 It’s the stuff of movies and nightmares – being shot down and on your own in enemy territory with no way of being found by an extraction team. Well for United States pilots, that’s no longer on the cards as Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in the Persian Gulf region, has announced the Boeing Combat Survivor Evader Locator (CSEL) communications system has been authorized for use by the joint services now operating in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The announcement comes after CENTCOM completed final testing of the CSEL communications system, which allows rescue teams to quickly and securely locate and recover isolated personnel within minutes or hours. Read More

The world's most lethal six-shot revolver

By Mike Hanlon

March 18, 2006 The firepower that can be carried by one person rose to new levels this week when the United States Marines began testing an experimental weapon known as the M-32 Multiple shot Grenade Launcher. The M-32 weighs just six kilograms and is the latest in a long line of multi-shot, revolver-type, hand-held, grenade launchers from Milkor - a much earlier version was used against the aliens in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Predator - and it can deliver six 40mm grenades within three seconds with the benefits of an advanced sighting scope that allows a Marine to “follow” the grenade to the target and immediately adjust and follow up with a lethal volley of indirect fire over a 400 metre range. The kicker is that amongst the wide range of ammunition available to the M-32 is the MIE Direct Range Air-Consuming Ordnance (DRACO) Grenade. MIE’s brochure on the thermobaric DRACO says it all – “When you absolutely, positively need to eliminate the enemy!” One MIE DRACO will turn a building into rubble. With six DRACOs, the M-32 MGL might realign the way Marines operate at the small-team level. Fire teams could become more lethal, more mobile and more independent. The idea of a dedicated grenadier might just be reborn. Read More

Declassified covert military surveillance system to protect international borders

By Mike Hanlon

February 25, 2006 Picture an intruder stepping stealthily across an international borderline. Now shift to a U.S. Command and Control center several miles away where a computer system is alerting a security officer to the intruder's movement, having detected the slight sound of a footstep and zeroed in on the intruder's exact location. The security officer dispatches a UAV to monitor from the air, ground forces to intercept on the ground, and the intruder is stopped. The detection, classification, location, and tracking system is a recently de-classified covert surveillance and intelligence gathering system, which is now in full-scale development as a result of a licensing agreement between the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), Newport, R.I., which invented the sensor technology, and GCS Research of Missoula, Mont., which is further developing and commercializing it. Read More

Volvo builds a 4x4 "peace bus"

By Mike Hanlon

January 28, 2006 We love to write about intelligently-designed, purpose-built machinery and we’ve noticed that there’s a bit of a trend in recent times towards building transport ruggedised to withstand the rigours of armed-attack. In recent times, we’ve written about the world’s toughest bus (the Rhino Runner), the fastest armoured 4WD in the world (the Kombat T-98), the world’s first widely-available armoured luxury saloon car and the US Army’s Smartruck and now this interesting and unique bus from Volvo. Built on a Volvo 4x4 truck chassis for use by the Swedish UN peace-keeping armed forces currently based in Liberia, West Africa, it is designed to carry 40 passengers and will be used primarily by UN soldiers in Liberia. However, given the current state of unrest there, it will also be possible to use the bus to evacuate local inhabitants, should the need arise. Read More

New low-cost system updates guided weapons with target info after firing

By Mike Hanlon

January 22, 2006 A significant milestone in guided weapons technology has just been achieved by QinetiQ with the successful demonstration of the first UK air-to-ground weapons to receive updated target coordinates information post-release. Late last month the RAF's Fast Jet and Weapons Operational Evaluation Unit, participating in the trial, released two separate Enhanced Paveway 2 (EPW2) weapons from a Tornado GR4 aircraft. Released at an altitude and angle calculated to provide a time of flight of between 30 and 60 seconds, each weapon was twice updated in-flight with new target coordinates, which the weapons received and to which they successfully steered. Weapon terminal guidance was within that expected of GPS accuracy on the day. Though the U.S military was the first with a sophisticated in-flight missile re-targeting technology, the QinetiQ system is expected to have a much lower cost. Read More

Solid-State Laser to be developed by the military

By Mike Hanlon

January 22, 2006 The United States Army Space and Missile Defense Command has set in motion the third phase of the Joint High Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) program – a 36-month, US$56.68 million program to develop "military-grade," solid-state laser technology that is expected to pave the way for the U.S. military to incorporate high-energy laser systems across all services, including ships, manned and unmanned aircraft, and ground vehicles. This image shows Northrop Grumman Corporation's concept of an Future Combat Systems-class Army ground-combat armoured vehicle with a solid-state laser that would be used to defeat incoming threats like mortars and rockets. Read More

ASTOR Radar tests deliver quality target imagery

By Mike Hanlon

January 13, 2006 The flight test programme for the U.K. Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) programme is progressing well in the U.S. and the U.K. As of December, 2005, a/c #1 (based in Greenville, Texas) was well into its series of check flights while, in the U.K., a/c #2 had completed its first phase of flight testing. According to the test team, the DMR in a/c #1 was producing good quality imagery on only its second operational check flight. ASTOR is a ground surveillance system designed to provide information regarding the deployment and movement of enemy forces. It uses state-of-the-art radar technology to obtain high resolution imagery of static features and can also identify and track moving vehicles. Imagery gathered is transmitted in near-real-time to a network of distributed Ground Stations deployed with front-line forces. Images can be displayed and analysed within the Ground Stations, ensuring that tactical commanders are aware of the latest developments on the ground. ASTOR will be a brand new capability for the UK Armed Forces and the most advanced system of its kind, anywhere in the world, when it enters service. It will be a vital force multiplier in the modern conflict where speed of battle is such that up-to-date information is crucial if troops are to be deployed effectively. Read More

Sea Based X-Band Radar

By Mike Hanlon

January 12, 2006 We just had to run this US Department of Defence image because it rates as remarkable on several counts. That’s the Norwegian heavy lift vessel MV Blue Marlin with a deck cargo of a Sea Based X-Band Radar entering Pearl Harbor a few days ago after completing a 15,000-mile journey from Corpus Christi, Texas. The Sea Based X-Band Radar is a combination of the world's largest phased array X-band radar carried aboard a mobile, ocean-going semi-submersible oil platform. The radar is capable of highly advanced, ballistic missile detection while discriminating a hostile warhead from decoys and countermeasures. The platform, which is much larger than it looks, will undergo minor modifications, maintenance and routine inspections in Pearl Harbor before completing its voyage to the Aleutian Islands. See inside for more pics, including one which will suddenly jolt your senses into just how gargantuan the subjects of this image are. Read More

New Radar Scope offers X-ray vision

By Mike Hanlon

January 15, 2006 There was once a time when a concrete wall on the battlefield meant that a soldier was both safe from bullets and invisible to the enemy. Thanks to the coming XM25 Advanced Airburst Weapon System and DARPA’s latest invention, the “Radar Scope”, the concrete wall has now been rendered useless on both counts. The new "Radar Scope" offers warfighters the very same x-ray vision with which SuperMan captivated a generation of youngsters – it can see through walls. The Radar Scope is a light-weight, low-cost, through-wall personnel detector that uses stepped-frequency radar to detect subtle changes in Doppler signature of the returned signal. Put simply, it is a motion detector that can see through walls. Read More

The cannon of the 21st century - the Howitzer M777

By Mike Hanlon

December 5, 2005 The Chinese were the first to experiment with explosive powders around 300 AD but it was not until 1252, when the secret ingredients of those powders were documented in an essay by Roger Bacon that the age of the cannon and “gun powder” began. The cannon of the modern era was first used sometime between 1300 and 1350 and was widely used throughout Europe by 1400, redefining warfare and reaching the heights of its powers in the 17th century before further technological developments matched its key military role. These days it would be easy to underestimate the role of the cannon in warfare where brute force has been replaced with surgical precision but ponder for a minute the capabilities of the new Howitzer M777. The M777 is the first ground combat system to make extensive use of titanium and aluminium and is approximately half the weight of comparable systems, making it easily transportable, easily towed across country at high speed and easily fitted to faster, lighter, purpose built vehicles. It is capable of firing a 155mm shell at up to five rounds per minute while achieving high levels of accuracy with targets up to 30 kilometres away. Firing Raytheon’s new Excalibur satellite-guided artillery shell, the M777 has proven pinpoint accurate, and although specifications call for them being capable of striking within ten metres at a range of 40 kilometres, tests have shown much greater accuracy. Read More

Guncam offers accountability and understanding

By Mike Hanlon

December 4, 2005 At some point in the future, it’s quite feasible that we’ll record everything we do, given that storage space continues to get cheaper and digital imaging devices are fast becoming ubiquitous. The important things will be first, so we can learn better ways, and one of the most important areas we know so very little about is what actually happens in a firefight – no other situation on earth has as much potential to distort reality as being in mortal danger. So the guncam is important - this weapon mounted camera records video in firefights, grants accountability, helps training and avoids risky body exposure of the user. One of the main problems in the use of firearms, in firefight incidents, is not knowing how they were used and how the missions were executed, which generates a problem in terms of accountability of actions. That is why it is fundamental for officers in command to easily retrieve as much accurate information as is available in order to analyze the events. The Guncam can also be used in conjunction with a GPS, enabling the locations at which images were taken to be pinpointed. Read More

Thermobaric weapons under fire again

By Mike Hanlon

War is ugly and inhumane but seemingly inevitable - so it makes sense to have some rules around what is acceptable and what isn’t. One of the most interesting stories of the week surfaced when David Hambling wrote in Defensetech about a new weapon in use by the US in Iraq - the SMAW-NE. Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapons (SMAW) have been in use for two decades, using High Explosive Anti-Armor (HEAA) rockets against tanks and High Explosive, Dual Purpose (HEDP) rockets against bunkers and light armour. But now there’s a new rocket with a thermobaric charge so destructive it can be used to demolish buildings. Thermobaric weapons disperse a flammable mist of underoxidised fuel which ignites to create a multipurpose explosion of immense destructiveness. Firstly, it is accompanied by a massive fireball which incinerates all in its path. Secondly, it creates a massive pressure wave capable of rupturing the internal organs of all those nearby and so powerful that it can reduce load-bearing walls to rubble and bring down buildings. Finally, the explosion also sucks all the oxygen out of the air, asphyxiating anyone in the immediate vicinity . Basically, if you’re in the building when it hits, it’ll kill you. Human Rights Organisations believe the weapons are inhumane, and that the potential for non-combatant deaths is far too great for the weapons to be used in urban areas. Read More

PhaSR – the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon

By Mike Hanlon

November 5, 2005 No this is not a movie prop nor will it be marketed by Mattel for the bigger boys this Christmas– it is one of two working prototypes of a non-lethal laser gun built by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate. The non-lethal illumination technology weapon was developed by the laboratory's ScorpWorks team. Dubbed the PhaSR (who needs a Madison Avenue creative team when you can come up with names like this – an acronym for Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response), it is the first man-portable, non-lethal deterrent weapon and is intended for protecting troops and controlling hostile crowds. The weapon employs a two-wavelength laser system and is a hand-held, single-operator system for troop and perimeter defense. The weapon’s laser light temporarily blinds its targets. Read More

Low-Cost Autonomous Attack System (LOCASS) successfully flight tested

By Mike Hanlon

November 4, 2005 The cost of armed, autonomous vehicles which can loiter over the battlefield and destroy enemy targets seems to be coming down fairly quickly, if recent flight tests are any indication. The Low-Cost Autonomous Attack System (LOCASS), is an autonomous, wide-area search, miniature munition equipped with a LADAR seeker and was successfully flight-tested at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, USA on October 21. Each LOCAAS carries a multi-mode explosively formed warhead which can be detonated as a long rod penetrator, an aerostable slug, or as fragments, based upon the hardness of the target. The Lockheed Martin-developed LADAR seeker can identify the target and determine the aim point and warhead mode. Read More