Probably no other naval officer attracted more attention during the U.S.-hosted Rimpac 2014 (June 26-Aug. 1) than People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Sr. Capt. Zhao Xiaogang, commander of the four-ship task force China sent to the biennial maritime exercise. This was China’s first Rimpac (Rim of Pacific) exercise, and its vessels conducted multilateral operations with other navies off Hawaii.
A s the U.S. Navy struggles to define a new variant of its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a smaller, better-armed, multi-role warship is in production. Analysts expect 50-60 of these to be built, while the LCS fleet has been cut to 32 from 52 pending approval of the modified version. Unfortunately for the U.S. Navy, the new and smaller vessel is Chinese.
An effort by the U.S. military to develop a guided round for snipers that will hit a target with every shot is coming to fruition. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) announced this month successful tests earlier this year of its .50-caliber Exacto (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance) round. A video of the test firings shows a shot being aimed wide of a target and the round correcting in flight to hit it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX8Z2MDYX3g).
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that track land forces are of concern to the U.S. Marine Corps, which wants a laser weapon that will enable light ground vehicles to kill the aircraft. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) launched the GBAD (Ground-Based Air Defense Directed Energy On-the-Move) program as part of its Future Naval Capabilities initiative, to develop an “affordable alternative to traditional firepower” that would track and destroy enemy UAVs.
Work on enhancing synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) by Georgia Tech Research Institute and Pennsylvania State University could provide the U.S. Navy with a more accurate and timely method of detecting mines deep undersea. SAS is side-scan sonar with greater range and resolution than real aperture sonar (RAS), which is widely used in underwater imaging. Researchers upgraded the resolution and processing speed of SAS, thereby improving the identification of images it produces. The SAS has been tested on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that descends almost 20,000 ft.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is investing $40 million in its Restoring Active Memory program, whose goals include development of implantable wireless neuroprosthetics that will overcome memory loss caused by traumatic brain injury or disease. Darpa announced grants this month to the University of California, Los Angeles ($15 million), and the University of Pennsylvania ($22.5 million) for developing computational models (UCLA), studying neural activity (Penn), and other research.
Nothing projects power better than an aircraft carrier. In the U.S. Navy, the officer responsible for maintaining that power is Rear Adm. Michael C. Manazir, air warfare director. Manazir recently toured the first-in-class carrier USS Gerald R. Ford at Newport News Shipbuilding Yard in Tidewater, Virginia. Naval Editor Michael Fabey caught up with him there and discussed the ship and the impact it will have on operations. Defense Technology: What makes the USS Ford vital to the Navy?
Adm. Harry Harris, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander, can’t wait for the USS Zumwalt, the Navy’s largest destroyer, to join the fleet and embark on its first deployment, to the Asia-Pacific region. “If Batman had a ship,” Harris is fond of saying, “it would be the Zumwalt.” After years of being a Power Point presentation, the Zumwalt has come together at Bath Iron Works in Maine, where the Navy and contractors are testing systems onboard the ship, christened April 12.
Project Kant has nothing to do with philosophy, but everything with business. “Kant” in this case is an acronym of sorts for “Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Nexter Together,” one way of describing the proposed merger of the German and French contractors that would form the world’s third-largest land-defense group by sales behind General -Dynamics and BAE Systems. The new entity will initially generate around €1.6 billion ($2.17 billion) of business annually and have 6,000 employees.
G erman defense contractor Rheinmetall is working on concepts to keep Cold War-era land systems relevant. As the German military introduces its Puma armored infantry fighting vehicle (AIFV) into service, Rheinmetall said at a press briefing here last month that it is thinking about ways to modernize tanks and other armored vehicles that have been in operation for decades.
T here is a raft of companies in the unmanned vehicles sector, but one in particular is becoming a major player almost by stealth: Internet services giant Google. Google’s programs in unmanned systems go far beyond its high-profile work to develop a self-driving car. That initiative passed a milestone last month with the unveiling of a prototype, a 25-mph vehicle with only two interfaces, “start” and “stop.”
Israel Military Industries (IMI) is displaying its new Combat Guard armored vehicle at Eurosatory in Paris this week (June 16-20). The modular vehicle combines the mobility of a light 4 X 4 platform with the off-road performance of a tracked vehicle. Combat Guard adapts to changing terrain and threats and enables forces to rapidly deploy protected mobility into and across theaters of operations. The vehicle was designed from the baseline for off-road use and to support different levels of protection. IMI is responsible for the design and force-protection elements.
W aking up to the realities of anti-access warfare and acknowledging that it will be many years before a high-speed, armored, tracked amphibious vehicle is a reality, the U.S. Marine Corps is looking at nearly-off-the-shelf equipment. At least two major new systems that might help fill that gap could stem from non-U.S. designs.
Radar operations have been part of Saab’s business since 2006, when Saab acquired Ericsson’s defense division. In 2010, it was combined with Saab’s electronic warfare and avionics business to establish today’s Electronic Defense Systems (EDS) unit. EDS produces the Giraffe multipurpose radar family and the Arthur weapon-locating radar, as well as electronic warfare systems for the JAS 39 Gripen. In May, Saab revealed a new range of radars based on gallium nitride (GaN) technology (AW&ST May 26/June 2, p. 65).
Firefighting on U.S. Navy ships could become a fully autonomous robotic activity. The Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) Laboratory at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is building a bipedal robot that will be capable of locating and extinguishing fires. Called Saffir (Shipboard Autonomous Fire-Fighting Robot), the project is funded by the Office of Naval Research. Saffir is being equipped with such components as custom linear serial actuators and titanium springs, motors, pulleys, wire harnesses and controllers.
The ability to detect people in buildings during military or law-enforcement operations or in emergency response has advanced in recent years with development of through-wall radar. Camero Tech Ltd., an Israeli company that specializes in this technology, has adapted it to a mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a wireless communication system and optional optical payload. The UAV is called Xaver AID (airborne imaging drone) 400.
More civilian and paramilitary helicopters operating in conflict areas will be protected from ground-launched and airborne missile threats with a countermeasures system from Ruag Aviation of Switzerland. Ruag signed an agreement with Rotorcraft Services Group (RSG) of Texas to install and qualify the Swiss company’s Integrated Self-Protection System (Issys) on helicopters for which RSG supplies equipment. Issys, developed by Ruag and Saab, warns of imminent threats.
