DARPA Plans Instant, Unmanned Air Strike System

DARPA (Defense Advance Research Projects Agency) is always looking for the latest and greatest (and most 'Terminator'-like) in military and weapons technology. The creepy, high-tech government branch's latest project, dubbed Persistent Close Air Support (or PCAS), is all about speeding up and simplifying the act of raining death from above. As it stands today, when a soldier on the ground in Afghanistan calls in an air strike, the request passes through so many hands that, by the time the strike is approved and an aircraft arrives on the scene, a target may no longer be viable.

PCAS creates a direct line between the air controller on the ground and a strike vehicle, either a manned or unmanned A-10 "Warthog" (pictured above), which can take out targets in practically a moment's notice. This would solve one of the major inefficiencies facing soldiers in combat, but don't expect to see it in operation any time soon. In addition to the fact that it's only a research-and-development project for now, commanders are cautious about using air strikes -- out of fear that they may accidentally kill or injure civilians. PCAS would only exacerbate the unmanned drone issue, which is at the forefront of the propaganda battle with the Taliban.

Rafael's "Iron Dome"

Talk about some cool technology:

The Iron Dome is an effective and innovative mobile defense solution for countering short range rockets and 155 mm artillery shell threats with ranges of up to 70 km in all weather conditions, including low clouds, rain, dust storms or fog.

 

The system uses a unique interceptor with a special warhead that detonates any target in the air within seconds.  The Iron Dome is a cost effective system that can handle multiple threats simultaneously and efficiently.

 

The Iron Dome system has been selected by the Israeli Defense Ministry as the best system offering the most comprehensive defense solution against a wide range of threats in a relatively short development cycle and at low cost.

ROILA, a New Spoken Language Designed for Robots

By Rebecca Boyle

Soon, when you want your helper robot to wash the dishes or fetch you a cold one, you may have to say it in a different way. Like "butij pimo lupuma." (Get that bottle.)

Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands are working on a spoken language for robots, built with both human brains and robot simplicity in mind. ROILA, or Robot Interaction Language, is intended to be easy for people to learn and easy for robots to understand. 

It has simple, regular grammar and includes nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and four pronouns (I, you, he and she). It includes an algorithm-generated vocabulary of about 850 basic words, which look like a mishmash of African languages, Dutch and English.

The project's leaders say the proliferation of helper robots will require a more efficient means of communication. The easiest thing would be to talk to robots, but current speech recognition technology is not advanced enough for the robots to understand us very well.

With that in mind, computer scientists started from scratch and invented a new language for robots and people to learn together. This is not a new concept -- as the ROILA team points out, Palm Inc. invented Graffiti, a new alphabet for its handheld devices.

It remains to be seen whether humans would embrace learning a new language just to communicate with robots, rather than making robots understand our languages. 

ROILA combines elements of the most successful natural and artificial languages. The words are composed of phonemes that are shared among most human languages, and a word-creation algorithm ensures the words sound as different from each other as possible. 

And they do sound different: "Pito leto fosit webufo buno besati" means "I can go left or right." The ROILA Web site will eventually include audio recordings of each word.

The grammar has no irregularities, so word markers are used to indicate past and present tense. For instance, "I walked to the house" translates to "Pito fosit jifi bubas," which literally means "I walk (marker past tense) house."

Literacy is a key element of freedom, so for those wondering whether a robot language would allow our helpers to revolt, it's worth pointing out that ROILA vocabulary includes bellicose terms like attack (kisate), army (kalutu), destruction (tofomu) and gun (fekopu).

But don't worry -- there's also a word for harmony (wobiju) and yes, even love (loki).

Finding Fire: Canada Looks for Incoming Solutions

Fire location radars are valuable in high-end wars against heavy artillery and rocket salvos, and in counter-insurgency conflicts where incoming mortars and simpler rockets are a frequent hazard. While artillery tracking systems have existed for decades, tracking very small, fast-moving projectiles is no easy task. False positives can be a problem during a high-end war in Germany’s Fulda Gap, but they become a bigger problem during counter-insurgency campaigns.

Canada has some radars of this type already, but their limitations were starting to chafe, and a new contract for counter-battery radars could be the result. A recent DSCA request adds impetus to that search – but will it come in time to make a difference?...

Welcome to the other side. Canada’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams bought Vanguard Mk2 robots from a Canadian firm. American troops were uncompromisingly negative about the Vanguards, however, and the US Army had no national allegiance or past decisions to protect. 

They had already thrown the Vanguards out of theater, in favor of iRobot’s Packbot and QinetiQ’s TALON MTRS systems. Now, Canada appears to be finding itself on the “disgruntled foreign customer” end of that dynamic.

Norway and Sweden developed a surveillance and tracking radar called ARTHUR (ARTillery HUnting Radar), and fielded the system on Bv206 vehicles in 1999. The system is used to track incoming artillery, mortar, and rocket projectiles, has a 40 km/ 25 mile range, and can be mounted on the all-terrain Bv series armored vehicles or placed on trucks. This mobile and very transportable system was been ordered by Sweden and Norway, and exported to the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Spain and the UK Royal Marines, who use the system as the “Mobile Artillery Monitoring Battlefield Radar program (MAMBA)”. Some ARTHUR systems have also been leased to Canada and Italy in support of peacekeeping operations.

Those leasing decisions may be about to create problems for the brand. Canadian forces have not been happy with ARTHUR’s performance in theater, and are actively canvassing alternatives that will help them pinpoint and reply to incoming artillery fire in Afghanistan.

As of January 2009, Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese had identified 3 interested firms.

One is Lockheed Martin, whose EQ-36 Enhanced Firefinder improves on ThalesRaytheon’s currently fielded AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder, improving overall performance and offering 360 degree coverage instead of 90 degrees. An initial contract as awarded in September 2006, a prototype was unveiled in 2007, and July 2008 saw a US Army contract to accelerate delivery and fielding of the first 12 production EQ-36 radars.

Raytheon Canada intends to offer its improved AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel radar, which can detect rockets and mortar rounds at longer ranges than existing systems, and can also serve as an air defense radar. The Sentinel radar was first delivered to the US Army in 2006, is in use with British forces, and is the main air defense radar for the USA’s medium-range SLAMRAAM surface to air missile system used by Finland, Holland, Norway, and Spain. 

Raytheon Canada’s Luc Petit added that Raytheon can also offer a land-based gun system than can be integrated with the radar and used to destroy incoming warheads. That system would be its Centurion/C-RAM, a land-based adaptation of the 20mm Phalanx gatling gun that serves as close-in defense and last-ditch missile protection for Canada’s naval ships.

Saab now owns Ericsson Microwave Systems, which developed ARTHUR. In response to Canada’s need, however, Saab International Canada reportedly intends to offer an advanced version of its Giraffe AMB 3D radar. The Giraffe AMB has been selected as a key component in Estonia’s new air defense system, and will also be part of Britain’s LEAPP comprehensive local air control and defense system. It reportedly provides 360-degree detection and tracking of incoming warheads. 

The Canadian navy already uses an earlier version of the Giraffe radar on its Halifax Class frigates, which are scheduled for a radar upgrade as part of their modernization program. One potential hindrance is that the system must be integrated with ARTHUR software to add artillery-tracking capabilities to its air defense function. If the Canadian Forces decide that this software is part of the problem with their existing leased systems, Saab’s odds will be greatly diminished.

For more information, and histroy on contract awards, click here.

Full-Sized Robo-Copter Flies With No Human Help

By Olivia Koski

In mid-June, a single-turbine helicopter took off from a test field in Mesa, Arizona, avoided obstacles during flight, scoped out a landing site and landed safely. It’s the kind of flight choppers have made tens of thousands of times before. Except this time, the helicopter did it entirely on its own — with no humans involved. It was the first fully autonomous flight of a full-sized chopper, ever.

The trial, overseen by Army-funded research team from Carnegie Mellon and the Piasecki Aircraft Corporation, has sent robo-choppers into the sky before (see the video, after the jump). And this Boeing-modified MD530F helicopter, known as the Unmanned Little Bird has been making flights since 2004. But this was its first test without a pre-programmed flight path.

Unmanned smart choppers could help the military better handle dangerous territory and low-visibility conditions to evacuate wounded soldiers or bring supplies to the front lines. In areas with bad or nonexistent roads (like Afghanistan), helicopters are sometimes the only mode of transport. Finding a place to safely land in a dust storm, on rugged terrain, or with bullets flying at you presents a major challenge for pilots. Artificially intelligent helicopters could help pilots stake out good landing spots, or perhaps even allow them to stay safely behind at base.

While on-the-fly autonomous navigation is a first for a full-sized helicopter, the technology developed by Sanjiv Singh and his team from Carnegie Mellon is not so different from what they used to outfit a Chevy Tahoe to win Darpa’s 2007 Urban Challenge. “It’s not as if we started from scratch,” says Singh. “A lot of the technology was there already.”

To make the helicopter self-flying, the team installed a scanning LIDAR that uses lasers to collect range information from its surroundings. The laser data is processed by a computer that relays commands to the helicopter controllers.

The data also creates a 3-D map that enables the helicopter to “see” the ground or obstacles in the air — and then adjust its trajectory accordingly. The algorithms helped the helicopter miss a tall tower during one of the tests. In another trial, the team deceptively instructed the helicopter to land on top of a car, but the chopper was not fooled, resolving instead to land on flat ground nearby.

With its ability to avoid obstacles while it’s in flight, the system has more in common with autonomous SUVs that maneuver through rough terrain than high-flying remote-controlled flying drones like the Global Hawk. Like many military umanned aerial vehicles, the Global Hawk is fixed-wing, and avoids obstacles by simply flying where there aren’t any – at 65,000 feet.

“There aren’t a lot of autonomous helicopters,” Singh observes. The army recently scrapped its order of Northrop Grumman’s remote-controlled MQ-8 Fire Scout in favor of the fixed-wing RQ-7 Shadow.

With the cancellation of Future Combat Systems — the military’s plan to roboticize the military by 2020 — it’s tough to say what the future of autonomous helos looks like. But a defining moment in robo-choppers appears to have been reached last month in Mesa.

DARPA’s THz Electronics Program

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently awarded contracts for innovative research proposals under its Terahertz (THz) Electronics Program. The program solicited proposals that offer innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in electronic devices and integrated circuits achieving THz frequencies (at least a trillion cycles per second). The program will work to develop technologies such as THz transistor devices and integrated circuits and THz high power amplifier modules for military application.

Commenting on the THz Electronics program, Dr. Mark Rosker, program manager of DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office, said: 

“The THz Electronics Program will develop a technology for integrated circuits operating at far higher frequencies than ever possible before. This will be crucially important for emerging applications like terahertz communications and radars. But of potentially even greater consequence, this program will drive the state of the art in high performance III-V electronics, with vast implication to RF circuits and systems operating at more conventional (microwave and millimeter-wave) frequencies.”

Contracts and Key Events

So far, DARPA has awarded 4 contracts under the THz program. Note that “metrology” is the science of measurement.

May 6/09: Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, CA received an $18.8 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to develop transceiver arrays; specifically, receivers and exciters at carrier frequencies of 670 GHz, 850 GHz, and 1030 GHz (HR0011-09-C-0060).

April 3/09: Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (formerly, Space and Mission Systems) in Los Angeles, CA received a $37 million contract for development of military and space satellites’ active receivers and transmitters operating at 670 gigahertz that ensure transmission of high-resolution images and other applications (HR0011-09-C-0062). 

April 3/09: DARPA awards Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems an $8.9 million contract to develop and demonstrate technologies for high power amplification (HPA) of THz signals in compact HPA modules. These include demonstration of a power amplifier device capable of amplifying radiation at THz frequencies, the development of a compact THz HPA module (including an antenna and the ability to integrate with a solid-state exciter circuit), and THz metrology (HR0011-09-C-0061).

April 1/09: DARPA awards SAIC an $11.6 million contract to develop and demonstrate technologies for high power amplification (HPA) of THz signals in compact HPA modules. These include demonstration of a power amplifier device capable of amplifying radiation at THz frequencies, the development of a compact THz HPA module (including an antenna and the ability to integrate with a solid-state exciter circuit), and THz metrology (HR0011-09-C-0063).

This article can be found in its original format here.  

U.S. Wind-Turbine Power Projects May Face Delay, Military Says

By John Hughes

The U.S. military may seek to delay construction of wind-farm power projects because turbines used to generate electricity might disrupt radar, a Defense Department official said.

Locations used to train soldiers such as California’s Mojave Desert also are prime sites for wind-energy developers, said Dorothy Robyn, a deputy undersecretary of Defense. Potential interference with surveillance radar from turbines has reached a “threshold point” in areas such as the Pacific Northwest, Robyn said today at a congressional hearing.

“These projects should not be pursued at the expense of military readiness,” said Representative Solomon Ortiz, a Texas Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Readiness panel. “Not all areas are appropriate for wind-energy development.”

U.S. lawmakers, energy companies and the Obama administration are seeking ways to help expand wind-energy projects without jeopardizing national defense. Applications for such projects have surged more than eightfold, to 25,618 last year from 3,030 in 2004, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The FAA, which must approve structures that may interfere with air travel, halted a 338-turbine project near Fossil, Oregon, in March after the military raised concerns the development would interrupt surveillance radar, Robyn said.

The Defense Department on April 30 dropped its objection, in part because it found the effect on radar would not be as severe as thought, she said. The project by Caithness Energy LLC, a closely held company, will use General Electric Co. turbines. GE in December won a $1.4 billion contract from the New York-based Caithness.

‘Vast Majority’

A “vast majority” of projects raise no concerns for the Pentagon, though “objections by the department could become more common,” Robyn said. Upgrading radar and improving the process for locating turbines will reduce conflicts, she said.

The 400-foot turbines that spin up to 200 miles per hour can produce a signal picked up by radar that is stronger than a Boeing Co. 747 and can mask actual planes in the air, Nancy Kalinowski, an FAA vice president, told the panel.

Of 214 FAA radars that provide U.S. coverage for homeland defense, 13 are degraded by interference from wind turbines, said Major General Lawrence Stutzriem of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command.

The two commands have supported 87 percent of 2,196 proposed wind turbines evaluated since 2008, Stutzriem said.

Robyn and Representatives Mike Conaway, a Texas Republican, and John Garamendi, a California Democrat, said they would be willing to consider the possibility wind-project developers rather than taxpayers pay for radar upgrades required to avoid disruptions.

--Editors: Steve Geimann, Joe Winski

To contact the reporter on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net

Air Force to convert F-16s to drones, shoot them down

By Ned Smith, TechNewsDaily contributor 

A squadron of aging U.S. Air Force fighter jets will be converted into drones that will be used for friendly fire target practice. 

The Lockheed-Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is the flagship jet of the Thunderbirds, the U.S. Air Force’s precision flying team, and is flown by the Air Force, Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard. But the fighter has been in service since 1979 and early models that are getting long in the tooth are now marching into retirement. They won’t go quietly, though. The Air Force has launched a program to convert many of these F-16s into QF-16 drones that will intentionally be shot down.

The Fighting Falcon is being turned into a clay pigeon that can streak through the sky at a speed in excess of Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound.

Boeing was awarded a $69.7 million contract from the Air Force to convert six F-16s as the first phase of the Q-16 program. Eventually as many as 126 of the sleek fighters will be converted into drones to be used as targets to test newly developed air-to-air weapons and tactics. [Read "7 Unmanned Airborne Warriors."]

The conversion is now underway at the company’s Cecil Field facility in Jacksonville, Fla. The first group of QF-16s will be turned over to the Air Force for testing in June 2012, said Bob Insinna, Boeing’s QF-16 program manager. The QF-16s will replace the current cro of QF-4 drones, which are converted versions of a Vietnam-era warhorse, the F-4 Phantom.

More agile targets

The number of usable F-4s is dwindling and the F-16s are higher performing aircraft that will provide a more realistic testing environment. The QF-16 drones will have the same performance capabilities as the F-16 fighter. The F-16, Insinna told TechNewsDaily, “is smaller, more maneuverable and more difficult to fight against.”

When the F-16s arrive at Boeing’s facility, they are stripped down to remove unneeded parts, including the fighter’s Vulcan six-barrel 20mm cannon. Because the Air Force requires that the QF-16 be able to fly in both manned and unmanned modes, Boeing will modify the flight control system, working in a teaming arrangement with BAE, the original equipment manufacturer for the F-16 flight control system.

Other modifications to the F-16 include installation of a flight termination system that can destroy the drone if it goes out of control, command telemetry systems so the drone can be controlled from the ground and a scoring system to gauge the accuracy of air-to-air missiles fired at the drone.

Transformers

Boeing will convert the six F-16s in a parallel operation that uses a cellular approach much like an assembly line to advance the aircraft through each stage of the conversion process. It will take seven months for each F-16 to be converted into a QF-16.

The final stage in the conversion process is painting parts of the QF-16 a bright orange as a visual aid to signify it is a target drone. Typically, the tail and the tips of the horizontal stabilizers and wing are painted. The orange paint is the only readily apparent visual distinction between the F-16 and its doomed QF-16 derivative.

When the QF-16 is being flown by a pilot aboard it will be used to evaluate tactics and electronic warfare and electronic countermeasures such as radar jamming. Switching over to autonomous operation is “just a flip of a switch,” said Insinna.

The QF-16 may have an active retirement, but it won’t be a long one. A drone on average has an operational lifespan of 50 to 300 hours, he said.

Fokker F-35 LG PMC drag brace agreement with Goodrich

Several months ago, Fokker Landing Gear signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Goodrich Corporation (NYSE: GR) to introduce polymer matrix composite (PMC) landing gear drag braces for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Goodrich is the exclusive landing gear system supplier and integrator for the F-35 aircraft.

Under the three-year agreement, Goodrich and Fokker will work together to design, qualify and produce prototype PMC drag braces to be incorporated into the main landing gear for F-35 conventional take-off/landing (CTOL) and short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) variants. Fokker’s role will encompass detailed component design and qualification; these efforts will be conducted by Fokker Landing Gear, providing work to a minimum of 20 highly qualified specialists in Helmond, the Netherlands, and at the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) in Marknesse, the Netherlands. Goodrich will perform system-level design and integration in its Cleveland, Ohio and Ft. Worth, Texas landing gear facilities.

Compared to the metallic brace equivalent, using PMC materials will result in reduced weight and lower maintenance costs over the life of the F-35. The new design will produce a common PMC brace used on both the CTOL and STOVL variants, as well as increase commonality to hardware used on the carrier variant (CV) F-35.

Fokker Landing Gear has been actively engaged in the development of technologies for the application of thick-walled Polymer Matrix Composites (PMC) in flight critical primary structural components for landing gears for over fifteen years. Several partners, among which the NLR, have joined in a composite knowledge network that contributed to this technology development. Since 2006 Fokker Landing Gear and Goodrich Landing Gear have been actively engaged in a strategic cooperation under which integrated solutions for the application of PMC on landing gear structural components are developed.

Hans Büthker, President of Fokker Aerostructures and Fokker Landing Gear, said, “ It is truly exciting to see the sustained Research and Development efforts into the application of composite technologies on Landing Gears awarded by this agreement. The F35 Lightning II is the perfect launching platform to benefit from Goodrich’s and Fokker’s cutting edge composite Landing Gear technologies.”

Mike Brand, president, Goodrich Landing Gear, said, “Over the past four years, Goodrich and Fokker have created a complete technology package to develop PMC landing gear components at a maturity level ready for low-risk introduction to the F-35 Program. This award emphasizes our continued support to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and the team’s focus on F-35 reducing the overall life-cycle maintenance cost.”

Army exercises display future of battlefield communications

By Amber Corrin 

To illustrate its vision for battlefield communications in 2017, the Army demonstrated its up-and-coming future tactical network technologies July 12-16 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., reports Kate Brannen at Defense News. 

The informal exercise modeled progress for the Army Brigade Combat Team in advanced communications such as the development of an aerial network layer that extends the range in which soldiers can talk and share data via radio, as well as smaller, handheld devices such as the Rifleman Radio, part of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Handheld, Manpack, Small Form Fit program under development.

Also demonstrated were portions and capabilities of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, the One System Remote Video Terminal, the WideBand Networking Waveform and the Land Warrior system. 

The latter three showed how a streaming video feed could come from the Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle to a company command post, then be passed on as a clip to higher network commands and later, as a still image from the video feed, be shared down to the dismounted solider, according to the report.

The White Sands proof-of-concept exercises were the result of three months’ worth of efforts requiring the participation of six program executive offices, Army testing community, Army Training and Doctrine Command and the staffs of White Sands and Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maj. Gen. John Bartley, Army Brigade Combat Team modernization program executive officer, told reporters via telephone on July 16. 

The Army decided to demonstrate the network capabilities after Ashton Carter, the Defense Department's acquisition chief, requested a report of what the service’s network would look like in 2011 and 2017 following a December 2009 Defense Acquisition Board review.

Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, visited the site July 13, and two days later in Washington discussed his impressions. He called the Rifleman Radio “absolutely amazing,” particularly the radio’s Soldier Radio Waveform that extends communication range to between 35 and 50 kilometers. “And that’s not just talking, that’s passing data,” he said.

The efforts are part of the continuing Army Brigade Combat Team modernization program, the follow-on to the canceled Future Combat Systems program.

British-Designed ‘Bulletproof Custard’ Liquid Armor Is Better than a Kevlar Vest

By Rebecca Boyle

Liquid armor has been shown to stop bullets more effectively than plain Kevlar, according to British firm BAE Systems. The material could be used to make thinner, lighter armor for military personnel and police officers, the BBC reports.

Materials scientists combined a shear-thickening liquid with traditional Kevlar to make a bulletproof material that absorbs the force of a bullet strike by becoming thicker and stickier. 

Its molecules lock together more tightly when it is struck, the scientists explained -- they described it as "bulletproof custard," the BBC reports.

Shear-thickening liquids are composed of hard nanoparticles suspended in a liquid, which turns rigid after being struck with a bullet or shrapnel. BAE says their tests provide the first clear evidence that it can actually protect people. 

In the tests, BAE scientists used a gas gun to fire ball-bearing bullets at nearly 1,000 feet per second at two test materials -- 31 layers of regular Kevlar and 10 layers of Kevlar combined with the shear-thickening liquid.

The shear-thickening liquid stopped the bullets more quickly and prevented them from penetrating as deeply, the BBC says. British media got a preview of the materials at a BAE facility in Bristol, England.

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory has studied using liquid armor to replace traditional Kevlar armor, which is heavy and bulky.

Navy aircraft to get digital mapping upgrade

By Nick Wakeman 

Harris Corp. will upgrade a digital mapping system for the U.S. Navy under several contracts totaling nearly $30 million contract.

The award extends Harris’ work on the Tactical Airborne Moving Map Capability Digital Map System. With the new awards, Harris has won more than $140 million in contracts to work on the mapping program, the company said in an announcement today.

Under the new contracts, Harris will deliver 14 preproduction digital map systems with embedded graphic cards that can generate two independent, high-resolution digital map channels for aircrews. The systems deliver moving maps and other information via cockpit displays. The mapping system enhances situational awareness, the company said.

Harris also will deliver 158 digital map computers, 132 digital video map computers, 17 of which will be provided to the Royal Australian Air Force.

The company also will work on a future airborne capabilities environment for a range of tactical aircraft.

The mapping systems Harris is selling give aircrews a graphical presentation of the aircraft’s current position as well as the positions of targets, threats, terrain features and other information.

The systems are used on many U.S. and allied aircraft and helicopters, including the Navy's F/A-18C/D, F/A-18E/F and EA-18G; the Marine Corps' F/A-18A/C/D, AV-8B, AH-1Z, and UH-1Y; the AW101 for Denmark and Italy; the CF-18 A/B for Canada and the F/A-18A/B for Australia. The systems also are in use by the military forces of Switzerland, Finland and Spain, the company said.

Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle Demonstrator Makes 1st Flight

The Boeing Company Silent Eagle flight demonstrator aircraft F-15E1 completed a successful first flight on July 8 from Lambert St. Louis International Airport. During the 80-minute flight, F-15E1 opened and closed its left-side Conformal Weapons Bay, which contained an AIM-120 Instrumented Test Vehicle (ITV) missile. The ITV was not launched. 

"The Silent Eagle demonstration flight validated our initial engineering design approach," said Boeing F-15 Development Programs Director Brad Jones. "Our intent was to verify all systems are operational in a flight environment. This flawless flight allows us to move into the next phase. In the next couple of weeks, we will ferry F-15E1 to the test range and launch an AIM-120."

"Everything about the flight went according to plan," said Boeing F-15 Chief Test Pilot Dan Draeger. "We saw nothing unusual during the flight, and we cleared the desired flight envelope needed to fire the missile at the test range; that is pretty much unheard of on a first flight."

The Silent Eagle is an innovative design solution developed in response to international customer requirements for a cost-effective, high-performance fighter aircraft to defend against future threats. The F-15SE offers unique aerodynamic, avionic and Radar Cross Section reduction features that provide the user with maximum flexibility to dominate the ever-changing advanced threat environment. The aircraft's Conformal Weapons Bays can carry a variety of air-to-air missiles and air-to-ground weapons.

Grant Thorton: US Defense Budget Outlook for 2011 and Beyond

by Lou Crenshaw, Vice Admiral U.S. Navy (ret.)

 

After a sustained period of sizable increases, growth in the DoD budget is expected to slow considerably starting in 2011. Defense discretionary spending is likely to be constrained by built-in budget pressures, both external and internal to the department. Mandatory non-military spending (such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security) as well as new administration initiatives, will limit the total amount of budgetary authority given to DoD by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). 

Within the DoD, 3 principal factors will present continued budgetary challenges. First, the QDR will refocus the department’s spending priorities, adding additional requirements as well as questioning current investment strategies. Second, continued cost growth above inflation, particularly in acquisition, manpower and maintenance accounts, will continue to erode DoD discretionary spending. Finally, overseas contingency operations (OCO) will continue to age equipment, demand new equipment and stress operations accounts. 

Winners and losers will emerge as procurement spending is prioritized toward the most critical areas, including nontraditional warfare; high demand, low-density assets and cyber warfare; and away from large hardware programs associated with traditional operations. Recent legislation and policy changes will also affect the defense contractor community…

Federal budget realities

Increases in mandatory spending such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal retirements and debt service will limit funding available for the discretionary budget (including defense). Mandatory spending is projected to rise 11% from $2.3 trillion to $3.9 trillion between 2011 and 2015, increasing from 62% to 69% of the federal budget. As a result, the discretionary budget is expected to remain fl at at $1.4 trillion, compared with the 30% increase of the previous five years. Various benchmarks have been used as a measure of how much the DoD should receive from the OMB. Traditionally, the DoD has been roughly 50% of total federal discretionary spending. Another useful benchmark has been defense spending as a percentage of GDP. The Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) projections are for defense spending to decrease from 3.2% of GDP in 2015, to 2.6% of GDP in 2028.

Given the current economic climate and security posture, the baseline defense budget is expected to increase just over 1% per year to $743 billion by 2015, placing tremendous pressure on procurement spending. This projection is in stark contrast to the previous five years, in which the defense budget increased over 6% per year. While there is pressure from Congress and others to eliminate OCO (supplemental) funding, operations in Afghanistan will likely necessitate some form of supplemental funding into the foreseeable future, thereby reducing (but not eliminating) some pressure on the baseline budget.

Shift in spending focus

747 ABL

The Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) will have a significant impact on the DoD investment portfolio, including the restructuring of research and development funds by investing more in high-demand, low-density technology; strengthening cyber war capabilities; emphasizing unmanned vehicles and increasing resources focused on “soft power” (e.g., political measures, foreign policy, exportation of cultural values).

The R&D investment strategy plans to shift focus away from large conventional warfare equipment such as large ships, high tech fighter aircraft and heavy motorized vehicles, and funnel resources toward unmanned aircraft and mine-resistant, light armored vehicles as well as smaller, more agile ships. Troubled acquisition programs outside this strategy have already been terminated in the 2010 budget, including VH-71 presidential helicopters, T-SAT broadband satellites, FCS manned ground vehicles, Airborne Laser, Multiple-Kill Vehicle anti-missile defenses, F-22A fighters, and CSAR-X rescue helicopters.

LEMV concept

Additional resources are also expected to be allocated towards complex high-demand, low-density assets used in the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. These include aerial drones, helicopters and special operations transport, as well as other critical enablers that are in high demand and low supply.

Cyber warfare is an area in which the QDR suggests significant investment. The DoD has concerns around the level of preparedness for a serious cyber attack and is expected to invest to strengthen this competency. 

Evidence suggests that Pentagon computers are increasingly being probed and scanned and the frequency and sophistication of attacks are rising. 

The QDR highlights the need to integrate soft-power methods used to influence or persuade another party to cooperate or adopt similar values. Combining soft-power and hard-power strategies is intended to allow for a quicker exit from conflicts.

The overall change in philosophy highlights a shift away from traditional warfare, especially in fighting near simultaneous, large-scale conflicts, to being engaged globally throughout the spectrum of conflict.

On the radar: Continued cost growth

Spending to support operations and maintenance (O&M) programs is also likely to increase as weapons systems continue to age and the strain of continuous use introduces inaccuracies in the costing models traditionally used by DoD to project costs. Additionally, new-generation weapons will be more expensive to operate and maintain due to increased complexity. These factors combine to cause increases in the O&M accounts far above the expected 1% growth in the DoD budget.

In addition, supplemental OCO costs of roughly $130 billion to $150 billion (slightly less than the $155 billion spent in 2009) will be transitioned into the baseline defense budget for the first time since 2002. Despite the drawdown of troops in Iraq, the United States is unlikely to receive the expected peace dividend due to an increased presence in Afghanistan. Although troop levels will be far lower, logistics-related spending is expected to increase due to that country’s lack of infrastructure and abundance of mountainous geography. 

Adding to this pressure are increasing manpower costs. These are driven by both larger personnel bills associated with increased end-strength numbers requested by the armed services, and the fact that troops are expected to experience real increases in pay and benefits above inflation indices. Since 2003, military pay increases have been based on the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment cost index for wages and salaries in private industry, which is expected to exceed the GDP deflator by an average of 1.4% from 2011 to 2015. Out-of-proportion health care cost increases and additional personnel programs to address issues related to long-term conflict will only contribute to the cost of the department’s number-one asset: people.

Impact of recent policy changes and legislation

In addition to the aforementioned spending cuts identified by the QDR, additional savings are envisioned by the newly passed Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009. This legislation was created to reform the way the Pentagon contracts and purchases major weapons systems. The reforms are expected to save millions, perhaps even billions, of dollars over the next decade. However, certain provisions related to conflicts of interest are likely to have a significant impact on defense contractors, particularly large vendors that not only provide hardware, but also provide systems-integration functions. 

Contractors will undoubtedly be considering divestiture of those businesses that cause conflicts as they seek to protect revenue streams from the more lucrative sale of hardware. Additional legislation and administration policy aim to reduce DoD costs by in-sourcing services and functions that were outsourced to the commercial sector over the past decade. As a result of these initiatives, the DoD will be hiring tens of thousands of federal employees to fill new positions and those formerly held by defense contractors. Companies providing these services can expect reduced revenues and loss of personnel to the federal sector as these policies are implemented.

Ultimately, Operations & Maintenance, Research & Development and manpower increases, combined with a flat defense budget, will place significant pressure on procurement spending, forcing the DoD to cut nonessential acquisition programs and focus attention on key areas. Contractors therefore will continue to redirect their attention to areas prioritized in the defense budget.