AIM-120C from F-22A
(click for test missile zoom)

AMRAAM was designed with the lessons of Vietnam in mind, and of local air combat exercises like ACEVAL and Red Flag.

One of the key lessons learned from Vietnam was that a fighter would be likely to encounter multiple enemies, and would need to launch and guide several missiles at once in order to ensure its survival. This had not been possible with the AIM-7 Sparrow, a “semi-active radar homing” missile which required a constant radar lock on one target. In addition, enemy fighters were capable of launching missiles of their own. Pilots who weren’t free to maneuver after launch would often be forced to “break lock” or be killed – sometimes even by a short-range missile fired during the last phases of their enemy’s approach. Since fighters that could carry radar-guided missiles like the AIM-7 tended to be larger and more expensive, and the Soviets were known to have far more fighters overall, this was not a good trade.

Enter AMRAAM – the AIM-120 Advanced, Medium-Range Air to Air Missile. This focus article covers successive generations of AMRAAM missiles, international contracts and key events from 2006 onward, and even some of its emerging competitors. New materials will be highlighted in green type. The most recent additions involve an order for Greece, and changes to the guidance unit…

• Some MRAAM History, and AMRAAM’s Design Approach (ie. Continue reading…)
• AMRAAM: Versions & Derivatives
• AMRAAM’s International Competitors
• AMRAAM: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

Cougar 6×6, IEDed
- the crew lived.
(click to view full)

The Cougar family of medium-sized blast-protected vehicles is produced in both 4-wheel (formerly Cougar H) and 6-wheel (formerly Cougar HE) layouts. Eventually, the wisdom of using survivable vehicles in a theater where land mines were the #1 threat became clearer, and these vehicles have gradually shifted from dedicated engineer and Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) roles to patrol and route-proving/ convoy lead functions as well. The 4×4 vehicles usually carry 4 troops plus the front seats, while the 6×6 variants can carry up to 8+2. They may also carry an assortment of related equipment, such as bomb disposal robots.

These are not small vehicles. The M1114 up-armored Hummers have an empty “curb weight” of around 9,000 pounds, and a top weight of about 12,000 pounds. The smaller Cougar 4×4’s curb weight is 31,000 pounds (max. 38,000), while the 6×6’s curb weight is 38,000 pounds (max. 52,000). As the amusing web page by manufacturer Force Protection puts it: “Drop your purse, it’s not a Hummer.”

Cougar orders predate the USA’s MRAP program to rush mine-resistant vehicles to the front lines; indeed, the performance Force Protection’s vehicles in theater was probably the #1 trigger for the MRAP Program’s existence. This DID FOCUS Article describes Force Protection’s vehicles, and its efforts to ramp up its production; it also covers key events and procurements related to Force Protection’s Cougar (MRAP CAT I & II) and Buffalo (MRAP CAT III) vehicles in the USA and around the world (Britain, Canada, Italy, Iraq, and Yemen to date). The company has faced a great deal of turmoil lately, and US MRAP orders appear to have stopped. Meanwhile, the maintenance contracts continue…

• The Cougar Vehicles
• Cougar-Related Contracts & Events [updated]
• Appendix A: Ramping Up Production
• Appendix B: Additional Readings and Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

Any subs around?
(click to view full)

Nuclear submarines are extremely expensive, but they offer a very important advantage over conventional diesel. They can remain submerged until their shipboard provisions run out, while operating at full capacity. This is very different from diesel-electric submarines, which must come up periodically for air or “snorkel” near the surface to fuel their engines. Even modern air-independent propulsion systems can’t entirely remove this disadvantage, just lengthen undersea operations to a maximum of 2-3 weeks at significantly reduced speeds.

The problem is that surface and near-surface operations are an especially vulnerable time – many of history’s submarine kills have involved boats in this condition. A surfaced, snorkeling or periscoping submarine can be found by observation, but radar is a much better option. If, of course, one can tell the difference between the massive radar clutter generated by waves et. al., and the particular signatures of submarines that have a small air tube or periscope riding just above or very close to the surface. A fact that explains the latest contract related to the US Navy’s new MH-60R anti-submarine helicopter.

Lockheed Martin Systems Integration – Owego in Owego, NY received a $144 million modification, finalizing a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (N00019-08-C-0005) to a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. This modification provides for the system design and development of the MH-60R Advanced Radar Periscope Detection and Discrimination System, to include design, development, integration and test. Work will be performed in Owego, NY (51%) and Farmingdale, NY (49%), and is expected to be complete in September 2013. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, MD manages this contract.

(click to view full)

Adding weapons to naval aircraft isn’t the simple retrieve and attach process many people think it is. For logical safety reasons, many weapons stored on board a ship require several steps to bring them from storage containers to “armed and ready” condition for installation. That process requires 500-1000 square feet of grudgingly-given space on board ship, a design constraint that still leaves some assembly operations with less room than one would like. Meanwhile, weather conditions may not choose to be cooperative.

To address this issue, the Office of Naval Research is holding a competition under the Automated Weapons Assembly Project. The goal is to create an automated robotic system that can unpack weapon components from storage containers, and safely assemble them onboard ships even in high seas.

Continue Reading… »

Up-armored M3A3s in Iraq
(click to view full)

The USA’s M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicles have played a central role in armed operations in Iraq. Many of them are now doing it with special reactive applique armor tiles that significantly improve their protection against anti-tank rockets. General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products Inc. in Burlington, VT is the main supplier, in conjunction with Israel’s RAFAEL who pioneered the design.

The add-on armor kit for the M2/M3 Bradleys, for instance, includes 105 tiles that look like small boxes and attach to the sides, the turret and the front of each vehicle. The armor is some of the most advanced in the world, and includes both passive protection of strong material that diverts the rocket, plus reactive protection. That reactive protection uses a very special, insensitive explosive that is detonated only when hit by a missile or rocket; it will not react to other heat sources, or lesser impacts from small arms or shell fragments. The resulting explosion disrupts the incoming armor-penetrating blast jet produced by an RPG-7’s shaped-charge warhead, for example.

That’s the theory, anyway. What have the results been like? Have improvements been made? What purchases have taken place, and when? DID has answers…

• The Birth and Refinement of Reactive Armor
• Reactive Armor and Future Threats
• US Contract Awards: Bradley Reactive Armor
• Other Contract Awards & Key Events
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

M777: dragon’s breath
(click to view full)

The M777 ultra-lightweight towed 155mm howitzer has an integrated digital fire control system, and can fire all existing 155mm projectiles. Nothing new there. What is new is the fact that this 9,700 pound howitzer saves over 6,000 pounds of weight by making extensive use of titanium and advanced aluminum alloys, allowing it to be carried by Marine Corps MV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft or medium helicopters, and/or airdropped by C-130 aircraft. The new gun is a joint program between the US Army and Marine Corps to replace existing 155mm M198s, and will perform fire support for U.S. Marine Air Ground Task Forces and U.S. Army Stryker Brigade Combat Teams.

Britain is also an M777 LWH development partner, but Canada became the first country to field it in combat via an emergency buy before their 2006 “Operation Archer” deployment to Afghanistan. This is is DID’s new FOCUS article covering the M777 program. The latest news is a follow-on order from Canada…

• M777: Capabilities and Upgrades
• M777: Program
• M777: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

G/ATOR diorama
(click to view full)

The US military’s long run of unquestioned air superiority has led to shortcuts in mobile land-based air defenses, and the US Marines are no exception. A December 2005 release from Sen. Schumer’s office [D-NY] said that: “Current radar performance does not meet operational forces requirements… consequences could potentially allow opposing forces to gain air and ground superiority in future operational areas.”

One of the programs in the works to address this gap is the G/ATOR mobile radar system. It’s actually the result of fusing two programs: the Multi-Role Radar System (MRRS), and Ground Weapons Locator Radar (GWLR) requirements. When G/ATOR Increment IV becomes operational, it will replace and consolidate numerous legacy radars, including the AN/TPS-63 air surveillance, AN/MPQ-62 force control, AN/TPS-73 air traffic control and AN/UPS-3 air defense radar systems.

The USA isn’t the only country with an initiative like this underway. Germany, for instance, is deploying a similar concept with its BUR (Bodenuberwachungsradar), mounted on a blast-resistant Dingo 2 vehicle. At present, the Marines’ G/ATOR is slated for a smaller and less protected vehicle. This choice preserves the ability to carry it into position quickly under a wider range of helicopters, in exchange for less protection on the ground. the FOCUS Article below describes the system, its planned upgrade path, and contracts and events. The latest news involved the radar’s PDR…

• The G/ATOR Program [updated]
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings & Sources, incl. Related Systems
  
  Continue Reading… »

Boomerang System
(click for lg. cutaway)

Sniper attacks are an ongoing problem/ opportunity in any urban conflict, which is tailor made for the practice. The bad news is that most future conflicts and even peacekeeping operations can be expected to spend a lot of time in urban settings.

Western armies tend to field much better snipers than their enemies do, and the results show. Nevertheless, better support for those snipers, and for non-specialist troops under fire, offers those armies a critical new asset that gives them an edge. The question is, how to accomplish that in a way that provides immediate results, and is reliable?

A number of solutions have been developed over the past few years, some of which are also working to reduce crime in American neighborhoods – another urban setting that sometimes features opponents with AK-47s. On the front lines abroad, the most widely deployed system comes from BBN Solutions LLC in Cambridge, MA, who helped invent the Internet. Enter a system called Boomerang…

Continue Reading… »

ScanEagle launch
(click to view full)

ScanEagle was originally developed by Washington State’s Insitu, Inc. to track dolphins and tuna from fishing boats, in order to ensure that the fish you buy in supermarkets is “dolphin-safe”. It turns out that the same characteristics needed by fishing boats (able to handle the salt-water environment, low infrastructure launch and recovery, small size, 20-hour long endurance, automated flight patterns) are equally important for naval operations from larger vessels, and for battlefield surveillance. A partnership with Boeing helped take ScanEagle to market in those fields, and the rest has been making history.

Boeing has had field representatives in theater for a few years now to support and operate the Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle UAV from ships and ashore, receiving high battlefield praise and a fairly regular stream of contracts from the USA and Australia. ScanEagle has been demonstrated or used from 15 different vessels in various classes, including the USNS Fred G. Stockham [T-AK 3017] supply ship, HSV-2 Swift fast catamaran, USS Whidbey Island [LSD 49], Carter Hall [LSD 50] and Oak Hill [LSD 51] amphibious landing ships, and USS Oscar Austin [DDG-79] Flight IIA Arleigh Burke Class AEGIS destroyers. ScanEagle is currently being readied for deployment aboard the Flight II AEGIS destroyer USS Mahan [DDG-72]., and a number of specialty adaptations from sniper locator, to bio-warfgare agent detection are being tested.

This article covers recent developments with the ScanEagle UAV system, which is quickly evolving into a mainstay with the US Navy – and others as well…

Continue Reading… »

CROWS in Iraq
(click to view full)

Most military vehicles can mount some sort of weapon, and even small protected vehicles like up-armored Hummers have top mounts. Manning them can be hazardous, however, as the story behind the Chavis Turret illustrates. Gunners are especially exposed to enemy sniper fire and counter-fire in urban environments, which figure prominently in current and expected war scenarios.

In response, larger armored vehicles have begun using Remote Weapon Systems (RWS), consisting of a gun and sensors that sit on top of the vehicle. These systems are controlled from inside via joystick and screen, and all ammunition, sensors, et. al. are part of the topside assembly. This approach does reduce situational awareness in many instances, thanks to a narrower field of view and fewer audio cues. In exchange, however, RWS systems offer full in-hull protection for the crew, much better fire-on-the-move capability, and the ability to use the RWS’ advanced sensors in night or obscurement scenarios. RWS have become extremely popular in recent years; major competitors in this space now include BAE (LEMUR), Elbit Systems (ORCWS), Kongsberg (Protector), RAFAEL (RCWS and Samson families), and Thales (SWARM).

The USA’s Common Remotely-Operated Weapons Station (CROWS) is a program uses smaller RWS options on vehicles like up-armored Hummers or blast-resistant MRAPs, in order to offer them the same set of trade-offs and benefits. CROWS orders had traditionally been filled by Recon/Optical Inc., but a major framework agreement with Kongsberg has now changed that landscape. BAE is also profiting from the change, as Kongberg books orders in quantity and issues contracts of its own…

• The CROWS System
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »