In the wake of the U.S. Secretary of Defense’s FY 2006 budget requests for $419 billion after making a number of significant program cuts, the U.S. House of Representatives (Congress) passed H.R.1815, a $441 billion defense budget for FY 2006. The legislation passed on a 390-39 vote, but the budget will not be final until the U.S. Senate passes its own bill after June 6; the two bills must then be reconciled in committee before the U.S. President can sign a final budget.
Highlights of the Congressional Pentagon budget include:
Boeing Helicopter in Ridley Park, PA is being awarded an $8.8 million ceiling-priced order for manufacture of blade assemblies used on the U.S. Navy and Marines’ H-46 Sea Knight helicopters. This venerable aircraft’s primary mission areas in the Navy as the UH-46D include Combat Logistics Support and Vertical Replenishment (VERTREP), Search and Rescue, and Special Operations. As a Marine Corps platform, the CH-46E is used primarily during cargo and troop transport. The pictured aircraft in this post is a CH-46E.
General Micro Systems announced their new Computing Engine initiative at the Military Embedded Electronics Computing Conference 2005. GMS’ Computing Engine design offers a field-upgradeable single-board embedded computing platform that extends the useful life of industrial control, defense and communications systems by five to ten years or more.
The design initiative began as part of a collaboration with General Dynamics Canada on the U.S. Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. The systems General Dynamics Canada shipped now had to be the same systems they would ship in 2012. Computing advancements being what they are, that kind of time scale was a problem that forced the team to come up with a non-traditional solution.
General Dynamics Land Systems has received a $5.9 million agreement modification to upgrade its Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Targeting Vehicle (RST-V). The upgrade supports continued operational evaluation of the vehicle as a utility carrier, prime mover and electrical generator for various U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) applications. System capabilities will be demonstrated in a relevant operational environment in early 2006.
General Dynamics Land Systems Advanced Programs Manager Tom Trzaska said, “The Marine Corps has asked us to make reliability and functional changes to the vehicle, including a 30 kilowatt export power capability, to power battlefield loads such as the Unit Operations Center and radars… We will make improvements based on feedback and lessons learned from the USMC and the U.S. Army Special Operations command operators who used the RST-Vs at Yuma.”
The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) bought 19,000 torso-protecting Interceptor Alpha “outer tactical vests” from Point Blank Body Armor Inc. of Pompano Beach, FL. The vests recently failed tests by military ballistics experts involving 9mm pistol rounds, but subsequent tests by a private firm gave passing grades to samples pulled from the challenged lots. While the Interceptor Alpha OTVs are vastly superior to the flak jacket they replaced, the Marines acknowledged providing the vests to troops after signing waivers acknowledging that the equipment did not meet certain minimum standards.
On May 4, 2005, the USMC issued a Corpswide message recalling 5,277 Interceptor vests from 11 lots that failed government ballistic performance tests – slightly more than half the total vests issued to Marines from questionable lots.
ScanEagle is a relatively low-cost robot aircraft at $100,000 a copy – but then, it was originally designed to find tuna schools not terrorists. The U.S. Marine Corps is currently using an upgraded version of the aircraft in Iraq, where its performance in Fallujah and along the Syrian border has drawn interest from other services and a recent $14.5 contract from the U.S. Navy.
The Marines already use the Pioneer UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and have access to other UAV information via man-portable Dragon Eye systems et. al. The ScanEagle’s combination of range, long loiter time, and small logistical and operational footprints makes it somewhat unique. Unlike the much larger Pioneer, which requires a runway, C-130s to transport the system, and a large logistical “tail” of technicians, operator, and maintenance, the ScanEagle requires just a few people and the aircraft, launch system, skyhook, et. al. can be carried in just four HMMWV jeeps. Unlike the smaller Dragon Eye, this 4-foot aircraft with a 10 foot wingspan can keep its sensors on target for 10-15 hours without requiring an operator to control it.
DefenseTech.org reports that the U.S. Marines are beginning to use aerostats (a.k.a. tethered blimps) as communications relays in Iraq. The Marine Airborne Re-Transmission Systems (MARTS), is a TCOM 32M Aerostat that will receive signals from ground forces and even pilots through a fiber-optic tether, then transmit messages up to 100 miles away via UHF and VHF radio frequencies. Its kevlar/mylar skin allows it to sustain minor small arms fire and remain afloat. One aerostat, first tested in February, is being deployed to Iraq, a second is being readied, and the Marines are scrounging up $14 million to buy four more.
Older versions of Talley Defense Systems’ M-72 light antitank weapon (LAW) were used extensively during the Vietnam War, where their performance showed that only larger, shoulder-fired rockets would stop a Soviet tank. Post war, the bigger and longer-range AT-4 missile and the Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) became the Marine Corps’ rockets of choice. Now a modernized M-72A7 LAW is making a comeback, to positive reviews from Marines headed for urban combat in Iraq.
Four factors account for the LAW’s renewed popularity:
Continue Reading… »
Back in Iraq
Older versions of Talley Defense Systems’ M-72 light antitank weapon (LAW) were used extensively during the Vietnam War, where their performance showed that only larger, shoulder-fired rockets would stop a Soviet tank. Post war, the bigger and longer-range AT-4 missile and the Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) became the Marine Corps’ rockets of choice. Now a modernized M-72A7 LAW is making a comeback, to positive reviews from Marines headed for urban combat in Iraq.
Four factors account for the LAW’s renewed popularity:
Continue Reading… »
Back in Iraq
Older versions of Talley Defense Systems’ M-72 light antitank weapon (LAW) were used extensively during the Vietnam War, where their performance showed that only larger, shoulder-fired rockets would stop a Soviet tank. Post war, the bigger and longer-range AT-4 missile and the Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) became the Marine Corps’ rockets of choice. Now a modernized M-72A7 LAW is making a comeback, to positive reviews from Marines headed for urban combat in Iraq.
Four factors account for the LAW’s renewed popularity:
