Corps Enabler Maj. Gen. Mastin M. Robeson

World’s Largest Distributed Special Ops Magazine
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Corps
Enabler
Maj. Gen.
Mastin
M. Robeson
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
Commander
Marine Corps Forces Special
Operations Command
August 2009
Volume 7, Issue 6
View From
the Hill
Wanted:
Lean, Effective Gunships
Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.)
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SPECIAL OPERATIONS TECHNOLOGY
AUGUST 2009
VOLUME 7 • ISSUE 6
FEATURES
COVER / Q&A
Special Supplement
Annual SOF Tactical Vehicle Review
SOTECH takes its annual look at various tactical
mobility options available to the SOF warrior.
By Tom Marlowe
9
18
View From the Hill
Wanted: Lean, Effective Gunships
Congress and the Pentagon must work together to find a
solution that will provide a leaner, more effective gunship.
More AC-130-sized platforms or smaller—but perhaps
more numerous options are out there as well.
By Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.)
On the Mark
Air delivery of supplies has long been a staple of
expeditionary forces. Only recently has the word precision
been a part of the air delivery nomenclature. On the
mark now means on the mark.
By Peter Buxbaum
29
Major General Mastin M. Robeson
Commander
Marine Corps Forces
Special Operations Command
DEPARTMENTS
2 Editor’s Perspective
4 Whispers
20
8 People
32
Unattended Ground Sensors
Surveillance of large areas either requires a large
amount of soldiers or sensors that can be the eyes and
ears. These systems can cover large areas of ground,
without compromising the warfighter or giving away the
element of unknown surveillance.
By Peter Buxbaum
38
Fighting With Fire
Lieutenant General John Mulholland, commanding
general, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, recently
highlighted the expanding role and critical contributions
of fire and fire support in recent and ongoing command
missions.
By Scott R. Gourley
Combat Computing
The computers that go into battle alongside warfighters
must withstand the extreme forces that come with
combat. Rugged is as rugged does!
By Steve Goodman
44
26 Black Watch
50 Tech Intell
51 Calendar, Directory
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
52
Ellen Lord
Senior Vice President
AAI Corp.
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
TECHNOLOGY
VOLUME 7, ISSUE 6
AUGUST 2009
World’s Largest Distributed
Special Ops Magazine
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Five years after accepting delivery and slightly more than a year
after being declared operational, the Advanced SEAL Delivery System
program went up in flames. While recharging its batteries at its homeport of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a fire broke out that damaged the ASDS
operations compartment, which affected all of the boat’s operating
systems. The battery system, sonar, motors and controllers, anchor
assembly, and hull were also damaged. According to USSOCOM, “Naval
Sea Systems Command and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard estimates
it will cost $237 million, $180 million more than USSOCOM’s ASDS
budget, and 32 months to repair the submersible.” With that number
in the air, USSOCOM announced that “competing funding priorities
for the current and projected USSOCOM budgets prevent the command
from repairing the Advanced SEAL Delivery System.”
The program proved technologically challenging even as some elements validated the requirement
sought by Naval Special Warfare.
A separate project under way to continue to provide a current operational capability is for a submarinelaunched, free-flooding, shallow water combat submersible (SWCS) vehicle. This capability is currently
maintained by the MK 8 MOD 1 SEAL Delivery Vehicle.
Although cost is certainly a factor in the ASDS, and even if there had not been a fire, the program was
not necessarily going to move beyond its current status, and the need for a
dry submersible can be made. Despite engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan
with limited amounts of exposed coastline, the future will certainly play out
in the littorals. Expensive tactical systems need only prove their premise once
to be considered a success, but are they worth it? Drop me an e-mail on your
thoughts on the value of an ASDS-like platform (jeffm@kmimediagroup.
com).
As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.
Jeffrey D. McKaughan
All the best.
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Special Operations Technology
ISSN 1552-7891
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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
JTAC
Keep Those SINCGARS Talking
The 720th Special Tactics Group (STG) is in the process of selecting
contractors for award of a joint terminal attack control (JTAC)/small
unmanned aerial systems (SUAS) program management contract for
the period of one basic year plus four one-year options.
The mission of the 720th STG is to train, organize and equip
special tactics forces for rapid worldwide employment in support of
the full range of special operations missions. The force is required to
rapidly deploy in support of joint operations in all physical environments, night and day, to provide the combatant commanders the
ability to project air and ground forces to any region of the world in
support of our national objectives.
Traditionally, special tactics squadrons have organically supported
their joint terminal attack controller and small unmanned aerial
system program managers. In order to meet growing demand, the
number of special tactics (ST) JTACs has doubled, and the program
requirements for JTAC and SUAS have exponentially increased. In
order to meet current worldwide requirements and, in an attempt
to maintain at least the current dwell rate, ST must deploy all of its
JTACs, including JTAC and SUAS program managers. This means that
while units are deployed, JTAC and SUAS training greatly decreases
impacting training of future operators.
The use of contractors will provide necessary assistance in
managing programs and producing combat mission-ready JTAC and
SUAS operators, instructors and evaluators. Overall, the 720th Special
Tactics Group requires contracted JTAC and SUAS program managers
to support AFSOC program management, training and production of
JTACs and SUAS operators.
Current required unmanned baseline systems are the Raven B and
the BATMAV. Required baseline systems will change as procurement
cycles mature and old systems are retired.
ITT Corp. recently announced that its Communications Systems has been
awarded the next major Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System
(SINCGARS) contract by the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Command
(CECOM).
The SINCGARS Baseline Systems, System Enhancement and Logistics Support
procurement is for approximately 58,000 additional radio systems for other service
requirements and to outfit the Army’s growing number of brigade combat teams and
tactical vehicles over the next several years. The Army’s solicitation not only required
full compliance with current SINCGARS requirements but also a modernization path
to enhanced technical capabilities such as improved security and networking in a best
value approach. ITT’s solution was fully compliant to all requirements and offered
the best value choice with a modernized SINCGARS in a competitive selection.
“ITT is proud of the trust placed in us by the Army to continue delivering the
world’s most successful and reliable tactical radio and capability enhancements to
meet modernization and evolving mission needs,” said Ken Peterman, president,
ITT Communications Systems. To best meet Army needs, ITT teamed with Thales
Communications Inc. of Clarksburg, Md., to offer an enhanced version of the
SINCGARS radio system, the 1523G system. This teaming joins ITT’s long and
successful record of SINCGARS capability improvements and lean production with
Thales’ software-defined radio design and manufacturing expertise gained through
multiple Joint Tactical Radio
System and USSOCOM
programs. Together,
the team offered bestin-class radio design,
performance and manuACTUALLY, MARINES
facturing in the Army’s
best value competition.
Global Battlestaff and Program Support
USSOCOM has issued a draft request for proposals for its Global Battlestaff
and Program Support requirement that seeks to find a contractor to support
a wide range of efforts under USSOCOM and all of its component commands,
as well as the theater special operations commands supporting each of the
geographic combatant commanders.
The objective of the contract action is to acquire global SOF-unique nonpersonal services and expertise to provide intellectual capital to assist with
day-to-day business operations. In addition, the contractor is expected to provide
subject matter expertise in areas of, but not limited to: time-sensitive planning;
interagency support; intelligence operations; military planning, intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance program analysis; biometrics, socio-cultural
analysis, geospatial analysis, signals intelligence and human terrain initiatives
with ISR support; administrative support; public affairs; training; accounting;
budgeting; joint support, budget and resource management activities; readiness
planning and reporting; personnel and manpower accountability and reporting;
acquisition and life cycle program management; procurement support; engi-
4 | SOTECH 7.6
neering support including research, development, science, technology and
systems engineering; graphics support and other business for USSOCOM.
Possible specific task areas could include: readiness planning and reporting;
lessons learned; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and high yield explosive; strategic planning process; requirements generation and documentation
support; studies and analyses; position and concept papers; reports; strategic
communications; intelligence and information operations; television/broadband network support; general media support; human intelligence and collection management support; civil affairs and psychological operations; mission
planning; training and mission rehearsal support; exercise planning support;
USSOCOM mentor program support; cultural and language training support;
intelligence and operational planning support; deployed special operations forces
support; signature reduction and other theater operational support; acquisition
and logistics management support; business operations/financial management
support; administrative support; facilities management; and accounting system,
budget formulation and resource management/manpower support.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
DRIVING INNOVATION
FOR THE MARINE CORPS
NEW TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFORM THE HUMVEE®
As the battlefield has changed, AM General has transformed the HUMVEE to support
the U.S. Marine Corps. From a logistics workhorse to a combat support warhorse,
the HUMVEE is equipped with new technologies to support more than 75 mission
variants and with all of the mobility, reliability and flexibility that have earned the
HUMVEE its stripes. A proven platform from a company that stands behind its
vehicles and the Marines who use them.
www.amgeneral.com
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Precision Sniper Rifle
After-action reports from SOF in overseas contingency operations indicate snipers are
frequently required to accurately engage personnel
at ranges beyond the capability of present systems.
SOF operators face enemies that exploit manmade
construction to mask their offensive movement, and
are often dug-in and barricaded among buildings,
basements, tunnels, masonry, timber and rubble,
reducing the effectiveness of present ammunition.
As a result, USSOCOM has issued draft information that establishes the performance specification
requirements of USSOCOM’s precision sniper rifle
(PSR).
The current system mission of the PSR
Increment 1 is to enable USSOCOM snipers to use
one or more shots to interdict enemy personnel,
positions and non-technical vehicles mounted with
crew served weapons out to 1,500 meters (1,640
yards) or further, and to defeat Level 3 body armor
out to 750 meters (820 yards) or further. The PSR
program is an evolutionary acquisition program
that plans for incremental developments (formerly
called spiral developments). The PSR program is
a USSOCOM-sponsored program, which supports
Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps special operations forces, and seeks coordination and participation with potential PSR users of the other joint
services, U.S. agencies, and coalition partners.
The PSR system will replace the legacy sniper
weapons to include the M24, MK13 and M40A3
in the SOF inventory for precision engagements
against personnel and material targets. The current
family of sniper weapon systems includes a medium
weapon capable of precision anti-personnel fire out
to 1,200 meters. These systems provide SOF with
the 70 percent solution to the HSR requirement.
The PSR first increment extends the anti-personnel
precision fire capability out to 1,500 meters. The
final increment of PSR will meet the anti-material
capability either through enhanced munitions, an
additional weapon, or a variant of the Increment
1 weapon.
The projected performance parameters of the
PSR provide additional stand-off distance to increase
survivability during counter-sniper engagements.
The PSR addresses the operational shortcomings of
currently fielded sniper weapons while enhancing
operational effectiveness and sniper survivability.
The PSR provides the SOF sniper greater capabilities
and stand-off distances, ensuring over match against
enemy counter-sniper capability. The PSR with
sound suppressor and day/night optics allows SOF
snipers to effectively engage enemy snipers, as well
as crew served and indirect fire weapons, virtually
undetected in any light condition. The PSR involves
developing and exploring additional ammunition
in order to fulfill the suite of anti-personnel rounds
required by SOF (individual protection, armor
piercing, subsonic and dim tracer). The PSR will
also explore technology to incrementally develop
alternative ammunition and weapon systems to
achieve its objective requirements.
The PSR is one subsystem of the entire SOF
operator-in-the-loop sniper system. The PSR
subsystem is composed of the basic rifle, a day
optical scope, and various accessories. In its Type
1 form, it fires objective ammunition but can also
be adapted as a platform for earlier, established
varieties of ammunition.
•
•
•
•
•
•
Some criteria of the PSR include:
•
•
The PSR, prior to production and
fielding, must be compatible with the
Integrated Night Observation Device
(INOD III) and with the Miniature Day
Night Sight-Sniper (MDNS-S);
The PSR must be available in either
modular calibers or traditionally
assembled rifle caliber variants;
•
The PSR should exhibit system integration with other sniper subsystems, such
as spotter system ensembles;
The PSR shall accommodate the needs
of (1) cost-effective training of future
snipers, and (2) sniper units that
cannot afford or train to the level of
the objective ammunition by use of
caliber modularity, caliber variants or
other means;
The PSR modular architecture shall
allow follow-on improvements, incremental developments, and adaptations
to broader-based U.S. and allied sniper
communities, providing a common
platform for various high-performance
calibers;
There should be no proprietary interfaces that would inhibit open architecture, or there shall, at minimum, be
contractual terms for the government,
through consideration, to acquire any
proprietary interface control documents
and achieve open architecture;
The PSR and ammunition shall not
exhibit any performance characteristics
that are unsafe to operators;
The PSR shall enhance operator survivability and force protection using emergency sights or other means for close-in
self-defense, signature reduction,
subdued or camouflage coloring, antireflective devices and other operator
survivability features; and
The PSR shall share ergonomic
commonality and the highest degree of
parts commonality possible.
Gyros for Remote Weapon Stations
KVH Industries Inc. announced that it has received a new $2.5 million order
for its precision fiber-optic gyros (FOGs) for use in remote stabilized weapon
stations (RWS) from a major defense contractor. Shipment of KVH FOGs for this
order is expected to be completed by the end of 2009.
“Remote weapon stations are playing a critical role in substantially
improving crew safety and weapon accuracy in combat operations overseas.
We are very proud that KVH’s fiber-optic gyros remain the sensors of choice for
the leading RWS manufacturers supporting U.S. and allied military forces,”
said Jay Napoli, KVH’s vice president of FOG and OEM sales. “Our affordable
6 | SOTECH 7.6
DSP-3100 FOG offers the high reliability, superior accuracy, and exceptional
vibration, shock and acceleration survivability necessary to ensure optimal RWS
performance.”
Remote weapon stations allow gunners to operate, aim and fire the weapon
from inside the safety of their vehicles, taking the gunners out of turret positions
where they are exposed to hostile fire. KVH’s DSP-3100 FOGs provide precise
optical stabilization and weapon recoil control for RWS units while ensuring
that the weapon stays on target whether the vehicle is stationary or on the move.
jnapoli@kvh.com
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
Remington ACR
THE REVOLUTIONARY, FULLY-MODULAR REMINGTON® ACR (ADAPTIVE COMBAT RIFLE).
The ACR was initially conceived to provide today’s soldier an American-made,
reliable, accurate, and mission-configurable rifle. Three American companies –
MagPul Industries, Corp., Bushmaster®, and Remington® – shared this common
vision and after multiple iterations of torturous testing only the strongest materials,
components, and concepts survived. The ACR can change calibers from 5.56mm
to 6.8mm to 6.5mm in minutes at the user level by changing the bolt head, barrel,
and magazine. The ACR can also change barrels, stocks, and accessories to go
from a close-quarters battle platform to a designated marksman platform. Add
a superbly reliable gas piston operating system, controllable full-auto fire a
non-reciprocating bolt handle, a monolithic free-floating rail system, and intuitive,
ambidextrous controls and you have a platform that is a natural fit for any operator
and provides all the options. Made in the USA for government sales by the oldest
name in firearms and ammunition – Remington® delivers again.
The Remington ACR easily transforms into any of four
different configurations within a matter of minutes.
18 ”DMR
14.5 ”Carbine
10.5 ”Folded
10.5 ”Extended
User-configurable components
Remington. A Proud Part of the Freedom Group Family of Companies Freedom Group is the world’s leading
innovator, designer, manufacturer and marketer of firearms, ammunition, and related products for hunting, shooting sports,
law enforcement, and military. As one of the largest manufacturers in the world of firearms and ammunition, we have
some of the most globally recognized brands including Remington, Bushmaster, DPMS/Panther Arms, Marlin and others.
www.remingtonmilitary.com
©The Freedom Group, 2009
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Smooth Ride
Fire Scout
Data Link
Seaspension Technologies Inc. delivered
custom shock-mitigating seating for use in
35 specialized emergency rescue airboats
used by the U.S. Coast Guard. The custom
tri-pod bolster seat is designed to protect the
crew from jolts experienced when the boat
changes its surface from land, ice and water
and during operation in rugged conditions.
The custom design features a 5-point harness
and a seat supplied by Premier Performance
Interiors of Sarasota, Fla. The iceboats are
built by Midwest Rescue Airboats of Lawrence,
Kan., as part of a five-year contract with the
U.S. Coast Guard.
greg@seaspension.com
Defense Applications Inc., the defense
systems business unit of Cubic Corp., has
received more than $4 million in new orders
for its Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL)
following the system’s superior performance
during sea trials for the MQ-8B Fire Scout
vertical takeoff and landing unmanned air
vehicle (VTUAV).
Cubic’s data link system provided excellent streaming video during testing aboard the
frigate USS McInerney in May. Shipboard testing
is now continuing and is rapidly approaching
operational evaluation. The TCDL could be
ready for missions by the end of the year.
jan.stevens@cubic.com
More MK19s
General Dynamics Armament and Technical
Products, a business unit of General Dynamics, has
been awarded a $10 million contract extension by
U.S. Army TACOM-ARDEC for the production of MK19
grenade machine guns. Deliveries are expected to begin
in April 2010 and will be completed in July 2012. This
award brings the total contract value to date to over
$67 million.
According to General Dynamics Armament and
Technical Products gun systems Program Manager
Jeffrey Gramse, “The MK19 has been in service for over
20 years, providing lethal fire against a variety of targets.
The weapon’s high lethality and broad versatility gives
the U.S. armed forces an essential weapon for use in both
offensive and defensive operations.”
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
pe op le
Col. David A. Mullins
Air Force Colonel
David A. Mullins
recently assumed
command of Special
Operations Command,
Joint Forces Command
from Army Colonel
Wesley L. Rehorn
(SOTECH January/
February 2008).
Army Lieutenant
General Lloyd
J. Austin III has
been nominated
for reappointment
to the rank of
lieutenant general
8 | SOTECH 7.6
and assignment
as director, Joint
Staff, Washington,
D.C. Austin is
currently serving as
commanding general,
XVIII Airborne Corps
and Fort Bragg, Fort
Bragg, N.C.
Dr. Bruce J. Kiessling
Aluminum Chambered
Boats has announced
the addition of Dr.
Bruce J. Kiessling to
its board of directors.
Regina E. Dugan
has been selected as
the 19th director of
the Defense Advanced
Research Projects
Agency (DARPA).
Secretary of Defense
Robert M. Gates
has announced the
following new members
to the Defense Policy
Board: General
Larry Welch (Ret.),
former Air Force chief
of staff; Stephen
Biddle, Council on
Foreign Relations;
Richard Danzig,
former secretary of
the Navy; Robert
Gallucci, former
assistant secretary of
state; Chuck Hagel,
former senator from
Nebraska; Robert D.
Kaplan, Center for a
New American Security;
Andrew Krepinevich,
Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments;
Rudy deLeon, former
deputy secretary of
defense; John Nagl,
Center for a New
American Security;
Sarah Sewall, Harvard
University; Wendy
Sherman, former
special adviser to the
president.
These members join
the following returning
members: John Hamre,
chairman; Harold
Brown; Admiral
Vern Clark (Ret.);
J.D. Crouch; Fred
Ikle; General Jack
Keane (Ret.); Henry
Kissinger; Dave
McCurdy; Frank
Miller; William Perry;
James Schlesinger;
Marin Strmecki; Vin
Weber; General Pete
Pace (Ret.).
The Defense Policy
Board provides the
secretary, deputy
secretary and under
secretary for policy with
independent, informed
advice and opinion
concerning matters of
defense policy.
Tim McNamara
Tactical Command
Industries has announced
that Tim McNamara has
joined the TCI team as
vice president of sales and
marketing.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
BY TOM MARLOWE
SOTECH CORRESPONDENT
MARLOWET@KMIMEDIAGROUP.COM
BY TOM MARLOWE
SOTECH CORRESPONDENT
MARLOWET@KMIMEDIAGROUP.COM
Fiscal year 2010 is already looking like it is going to be a
significant year for tactical vehicles, with decisive changes in the
works for some major programs.
The U.S. Army surprised most observers in July by awarding its contract for an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) variant of the
mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle to a single
company—Oshkosh Corp. of Oshkosh, Wis.
The initial order of MRAP ATVs (M-ATVs) consists of 2,244
vehicles, Andy Hove, president of Oshkosh Defense, told Special Operations Technology. The Joint Requirements Oversight
Council approved an order for a total of 5,244 M-ATVs, which
means the Army could order 3,000 more at any time for use in
Afghanistan.
of subcontracting production of the vehicles to them to assist
with meeting demand. Oshkosh won the M-ATV contract in competition with BAE Systems, Navistar and Force Dynamics, any of
which also could become a subcontractor to Oshkosh.
“Once these vehicles are fielded in Afghanistan, Oshkosh
Defense will be ready with its aftermarket services to fully support the M-ATV, including replacement parts, repair or refurbishment services, and technical support,” Hove added. “We
considered the urgent need for this vehicle during the design
process and designed it to have parts and component commonalities with existing fleets. This will help expedite training,
reduce maintenance and ease the M-ATV’s integration into the
Afghanistan theater.”
RG-33L
Oshkosh M-ATV
“The Oshkosh M-ATV has MRAP-level protection while
delivering the off-road mobility that is needed to negotiate the
mountainous terrain and unimproved roads in Afghanistan,”
Hove detailed. “Incorporation of the Oshkosh TAK-4 independent
suspension system, which also is being retrofitted on more than
1,500 legacy MRAPs, gives the M-ATV its superior off-road mobility and provides a 70 percent off-road capability.”
Oshkosh ramped up production of the M-ATVs quickly to
meet demand for them when the order arrived. Still, the company may hold discussions with its competitors on the possibility
10 | SOTECH 7.6
Meanwhile, the MRAPs already deployed to Afghanistan and
Iraq continue to serve the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps well.
BAE Systems is a top producer of 4x4 and 6x6 MRAP variants
with its RG-33 series for the Army and Marines and also for U.S.
Special Operations Command (SOCOM).
“Overall, BAE Systems is leading the MRAP upgrade efforts
for a world-class fleet of combat-proven vehicles,” John Swift,
director of MRAP vehicles for BAE Systems, told SOTECH. “We
are making the best better.”
Recently, BAE Systems successfully integrated a remote
weapon station onto an RG-33L at the Ground Vehicle Integration Center at the Tank Automotive Research Development and
Engineering Center. That test resulted in plans to upgrade MRAP
weaponry in the next reset of the vehicles, Swift noted.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
BAE Systems also plans to integrate an improved independent
suspension onto its fleet of vehicles in service with SOCOM to
improve their durability, reliability and performance, Swift said.
Other suppliers of MRAP vehicles include Navistar International Corp., based in Warrenville, Ill., and Force Protection Inc.
of Ladson, S.C. Navistar Defense is the largest single manufacturer
of MRAP vehicles with its MaxxPro series of vehicles. Navistar
delivered 6,444 of roughly 15,000 MRAP vehicles in use by the U.S.
military before wrapping up production in May.
Force Protection has been modifying its popular MRAP offering, the Cougar, with TAK-4 suspension from Oshkosh, receiving
orders from the Marine Corps to modify 1,317 Cougars in June
and July contracts. Representatives from Force Protection and
Oshkosh will work together to upgrade the Cougars by February
2010.
“We are pleased to have received these awards to install this
much-needed, high-performance mobility upgrade package for
approximately a third of our deployed fleet of Cougar MRAPs,”
Force Protection CEO Michael Moody said in a statement. “This
award demonstrates our ability to capture a range of opportunities
to provide service, support, spares and training. We are excited
to leverage our recent investment in our Kuwait-based logistics
and service depot, which we believe has significantly increased
our ability to serve our customer and the warfighter with faster
response and more comprehensive service.”
The Cougar also has been popular with foreign militaries—
with the United Kingdom, Italy and Hungary all recently placing
orders for the vehicles.
EVOLVING OPTIONS
The MRAP isn’t the only new line of vehicles changing the
way the U.S. military is doing business. The Army, Marine Corps
and SOCOM have joined forces to develop the joint light tactical
vehicle (JLTV), a program intended to replace the familiar high
mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle (HMMWV) with a more
versatile armored vehicle.
Initial contracts for JLTV technology demonstrations were
awarded in October 2008 to General Tactical Vehicles, an alliance
of General Dynamics and AM General; Lockheed Martin Corp.; and
a team of BAE Systems and Navistar.
“We are working closely with General Dynamics Land Systems
in the General Tactical Vehicles joint venture to apply our many
decades of tactical and combat vehicle experience in the technology development phase of the joint light tactical vehicle for U.S.
and allied military forces,” said Army General Paul Kern (Ret.),
president of AM General.
But AM General, which manufactures the dependable HMMWV,
has no plans to abandon that vehicle in the near future.
“AM General is driven by a commitment to give servicememwww.SOTECH-kmi.com
bers the high-performance, safe, versatile and reliable vehicles
they need to accomplish their missions,” Kern commented.
“To meet these needs, AM General has maximized its assembly
plant’s single-shift design capacity for production for more than
two years, and this continues today. We are also working closely
with U.S. military and international customers on reset and recap
programs to extend the service life of existing HMMWVs. Consequently, these remarkably flexible vehicles will continue to serve
in key roles worldwide for decades to come.”
Continuous improvements and modifications to HMMWVs to
meet military demands have expanded its payload capacity up to
5,100 pounds and added additional armor to the vehicle. AM General has produced more than 240,000 HMMWVs to date, and they
perform a vast array of missions from cargo and troop carriers to
armament, missile launching, and special operations vehicles.
AM General continues to make a HMMWV variant known as
the ground mobility vehicle for U.S. Special Forces as its M1165
model, complete with “A” and “B” kit armor for mine and ballistic
protection. AM General also works with international customers
for special operations variants.
Lockheed Martin, the largest contractor to the Department of
Defense for the past decade, introduced a fourth JLTV prototype
in February. This prototype was a second variant of its Infantry
Carrier Category B. Three previous prototypes include the first
Infantry Carrier JLTV Category B, designed for troop transportation; the Utility Vehicle Light Category C, designed to carry heavy
cargo; and the General Purpose Mobility Category A, designed for
logistical support.
“We have designed, developed and extensively tested mature
JLTV vehicles,” said Lou DeSantis, vice president of JLTV Systems
at Lockheed Martin. “We’ve received feedback from the customer
and used it to improve our solution in areas such as ergonomics
and survivability. Introducing the fourth operational prototype
demonstrates our team’s commitment to provide the warfighter
with the lowest-risk, most technically innovative and affordable
vehicle possible.”
The Army and Marine Corps have been testing all of the JLTV
prototypes. Lockheed Martin’s offerings have run more than
30,000 test miles—more than half of those as off-road miles to
simulate conditions in the field.
Lockheed’s JLTV contract team includes BAE Systems Mobility
and Protection Systems, which produces advanced armor solutions and production facilities for high volume assembly; Alcoa
Defense, which supplies materials experience, design services and
aluminum components for structural strength at reduced weight;
and JWF Defense Systems, which contributes precision machining
and fabrication facilities.
The BAE Systems-Navistar team has offered the Valanx as its
JLTV vehicle. Actually, the team plans to submit seven prototype
vehicles and four trailers for testing by the Army under JLTV.
SOTECH 7.6 | 11
The Valanx has a v-shaped hull and blast protection in variants designed to fulfill missions such as scouting, mobility, troop
transport, ambulance services and others. BAE Systems and
Navistar will design and build the variants in 2009 for testing in
2010. After testing in 2010, the Army and the Marine Corps will
eliminate one of the three JLTV teams and award the other two
contracts for system development and demonstration in 2011.
BAE Systems predicts the Valanx vehicles will outperform
existing tactical systems as they supply more power than
required by JLTV specifications and prove to be more versatile
than MRAP vehicles. The team drew upon its experiences in the
MRAP program to outfit Valanx vehicles with a high degree of
crew protection. The modular design of the Valanx “maximizes
commonality across JLTV variants and enables the seamless integration of future technologies,” according to BAE Systems.
Prowler
Some established favorites also have undergone changes
lately to make them faster and more powerful. ATV Corp. of
Orange, Calif., upgraded the power plant on its Prowler ATV from
a Yamaha single to a Kawasaki. “Nobody can touch it anymore,”
ATV Corp. CEO Amos Deacon told SOTECH.
The increase in power (better than 30 percent) coupled with
an even more stable platform configuration has resulted in a
wider stance, longer wheel base and lower center of gravity, Deacon elaborated. This has all been accomplished while maintaining the signature Prowler high-ground clearance and CV-22 clear
drive-in and -out overall dimensional envelope.
The Prowler now provides a more comfortable ride as well
12 | SOTECH 7.6
with the introduction of the Skydex impact-absorbing Ischia
bucket seat suspension systems and the incorporation of retractable medevac side litter mounts, he added.
ATV Corp. also recently produced a high-speed, long-range
reconnaissance and patrol platform.
“We made a special single-seater that goes 75 miles per hour
and has a 300-mile range. Our guys haven’t seen it yet; it’s for a
customer we have in the Middle East,” Deacon revealed.
ALLIED OPTIONS
Many international military forces turn to companies familiar with their needs when ordering tactical vehicles. U.K.-based
Jankel Armoring Ltd. has teamed up with King Abdullah Design
and Development Bureau of Jordan to produce vehicles specially
designed to meet the needs of desert environments.
Al Thalab Jankel Fox
“Our partners in Jordan secured an order for the MK II AlThalab from the Royal Armed Forces of Brunei for an undisclosed
number of vehicles to a high level of specification,” said Lorne
Stoddart, Jankel Armoring commercial manager.
In addition, Jankel has supplied vehicles to a NATO special
forces unit for evaluation. The unit will complete its evaluation
in September, Stoddart projected, which could result in an order
of about 80 vehicles for various users. Another Gulf country,
which could not be identified for security reasons, also has been
running extensive trials and evaluations on the MK-II Thalab and
may place orders for up to 40 units as of press time.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
www.atvcorp.com
ww
In a Class of Its Own!
Prowler is the only Light Tactical All Terrain Vehicle built from the ground up to provide the military with an agile,
powerful and stable multi-application platform. Prowler’s purpose-driven design, uncompromising quality materials
and rugged construction have made it the deployment choice of field operators worldwide. Prowler is the only LTATV
that is not simply a modified recreational vehicle. Prowler’s unmatched performance has been proven in any terrain,
any climate and at any altitude.
The Only Purpose-Built LTATV
Prowler is built by the ATV Corp. division of Phoenix International Systems, Inc., a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business
that is an ISO AS9100 / ISO 9001:2000 Certified Manufacturer. Prowler is available under GSA Contract No. GS-03F-0056T.
“The design of the vehicle is constantly evolving in response
to the evolving requirements of our customers, with increasing
flexibility and modularity being built into the vehicle to enable
users to prepare the vehicle for each mission,” Stoddart noted.
armored 4x4 vehicle. The PVP can carry troops and cargo, protecting both with a steel hull and a floor protected against mines.
Due to its speed, it also performs reconnaissance and scouting
missions. Its modular design allows extra seats to be added for
more troops.
The French Ministry of Defense first ordered the vehicles in
2004, commissioning them as the successor to the Peugeot P4
in 2007.
In June 2008, Panhard introduced the PVP Heavy Duty (HD)
and the PVP XL to carry more cargo, said Charles Maisonneuve,
Panhard’s director of marketing and communications. The
original PVP can carry smaller teams of three men while the PVP
XL can carry a full infantry.
The interior volume of the original PVP is 4.5 meters cubed;
the PVP HD, 6.4 meters cubed; and the PVP XL, 8 to 11 meters
cubed, depending on its configuration. The PVP carries 800
kilograms; the PVP HD, 2 metric tons; and the PVP XL, 3 metric
tons. The variants also offer increasing levels of armor protection, ranging from Level 2 (STANAG 4569) for the base PVP,
Level 3 for the PVP HD, and up to Level 4 for the PVP XL.
The vehicles hold up very well to IED blasts, and their
armor-plated floors keep the crewmembers inside safe from antipersonnel mines.
Pinzgauer Vector
Sadly, making room for new vehicles sometimes means the
retirement of old standbys. The Pinzgauer, originally manufactured by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria, was eventually
purchased by BAE Land Systems, which sold the vehicles to the
U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) and other militaries worldwide—
expanding the Pinzgauer to 29 countries.
The Pinzgauer has demonstrated a great deal of capability
due to its ability to carry payloads of up to 2.5 tons, high mobility
and high performance. As such the vehicle has been able to fulfill
a large number of specialized missions ranging from fire tender,
troop carrier or heavy lifter.
The British Army began using an armored version of the Pinzgauer called the Vector in 2007 for patrols in Afghanistan. These
6x6 vector-protected patrol vehicles recently received upgrades
to their front axles, said Mike Sweeney, external communications
manager for Global Combat Systems at BAE Systems. In August,
BAE Systems delivered the final orders for the vehicle under the
U.K. MoD contract.
After that, production of all Pinzgauers will cease, and the
proud line will be discontinued, Sweeney added. BAE Systems, of
course, will continue to support existing vehicles in the field.
In France, Panhard teamed up with Daimler Chrysler to offer
the French government the Petit Vehicule Protégé (PVP), an
14 | SOTECH 7.6
Panhard VPS
Panhard also continues to offer the Le Véhicule Patrouille
SAS (VPS), a 4x4 based on a Mercedes G chassis for special forces.
The French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) originally procured them in 2005 for French special forces. The vehicle is
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
configured for rapid deployment and is designed to be highly
survivable in tough conditions. It can carry cargo of 1,200 kilograms and a crew of four men, who are protected from mines by
an armored floor.
Panhard also produces its popular A3F general purpose
vehicle, which fulfills a wide range of roles for military forces
globally.
NEW VENTURES
Wide Open Industries (WOI), based in Tampa, Fla., introduced a light military vehicle (LMV) at the Special Forces
Industry Conference in June 2009. WOI has designed the LMV
to be highly maneuverable in rugged terrain, while keeping
maintenance requirements minimal and simple. Warfighters
can change out the vehicle’s engine and transmission in less
than one hour with basic tools. Its design incorporates many
commercial off-the-shelf components to make repairs quick and
easy.
The LMV can travel great distances over rough ground, at
speeds of up to 90 mph, and continue to operate independently
under duress due to the ease of maintenance. The LMV’s turbo
diesel fuel option permits it to withstand high altitudes for
prolonged periods of time. That combination of characteristics
makes it ideal for operations in Afghanistan, according to WOI.
“The new WOI vehicle is designed to give special forces a
capability they presently need in independent operations and forward reconnaissance,” WOI Managing Director Brent Fenimore
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
Wide Open Industries BJ500 MPR
said. “Not only is the vehicle designed to offer extreme reliability
under harsh conditions, it is designed to ensure maximum protection for the occupants through its maneuverability and speed,
and to ensure that crew fatigue is minimized through the design
of the chassis, suspension and seating/restraint systems.”
SOTECH 7.6 | 15
On June 20, WOI entered its fast attack LMV in the 2009
TECATE Score Baja 500 off-road endurance race in Baja, Mexico,
and it came in second place. The race demonstrated the great
endurance of the vehicle, which handles travel over rugged terrain very well. WOI named its special ops vehicle variant Baja
Challenge.
“We placed a great deal of stress not only on the survivability
and extreme maneuverability of the vehicle in the worst possible
terrain environments, such as Afghanistan, but on its ability to
actually remove the stress of such taxing operations on the occupants,” Fenimore said. “We understand that the vehicle is there
to enable a mission to be undertaken, and that the crew must be
able to return to base in good shape. The Baja 500 race certainly
demonstrated that we could do that, and do it at a modest budget
with a vehicle of low signature.”
Gibbs Technologies of Auburn Hill, Mich., continues to work
with Lockheed Martin on an amphibian craft for military purposes. The vehicle could measure up to 30 feet in length with
the capability of traveling up to 40 mph on water and 80 mph
on land.
Humdinga HSA
Gibbs Technologies has been building prototypes of its
high speed amphibian (HSA) vehicles for commercial use at
its headquarters, a suburb of Detroit and at a design center in
Nuneaton in England. The original concepts for the amphibian
vehicles include the buggy-like Qadski, the ATV Humdinga, and
the coupe-like Aquada. The vehicles can drive on land and then
convert for water travel upon entering a body of water.
16 | SOTECH 7.6
The HSAs from Gibbs Technologies are able to transition
from water to land and land to water in approximately five seconds and have sparked widespread military interest worldwide.
Gibbs Chairman Neil Jenkins revealed the company is developing
a special HSA for non-military, first-responder applications.
“Over the past year, we’ve identified a wide international
market for vehicles of this size with amphibian capability among
law enforcement and fire departments, civil defense units, rescue
organizations, border patrol operations and NGO groups such as
the International Red Cross,” said Jenkins.
The company hopes to have a prototype version of its “first
responder” HSA available for customer evaluation and testing in
2010/11.
USADarcorp, based in Carson City, Nev., introduced its Vyper
line of vehicles at June’s Special Operations Forces Industry
Conference in Florida.
“We kept it rather quiet for three years while it was being
developed. The V1 is a very lightweight, very fast vehicle. The V2
is a specialized fast attack vehicle that is lightweight and highly
reliable but has modules built into it,” Nick Chapman, president
of USADarcorp, told SOTECH.
The V1 and V2 both have a power plant consisting of a modified Viper V-10 (10-cylinder) engine highly modified by racing
experts. The vehicles were designed with the input of various
Navy SEALs and other special forces. It’s a lightweight, aggressive line of vehicles that can achieve top speeds of 150 mph.
In the future, automation will enable the vehicles to conduct
operations without a human driver, Chapman added.
The V2 offers versatility with adaptable modules that warfighters can switch out for various tasks, he explained. Twentyeight different modules offer equipment for military uses and
civilian uses—including firefighting, riot control, border patrol
and others.
“These modules can be developed into almost anything.
You can put anything into that cube and seal it up,” Chapman
remarked. “The flexibility with the module is that you can have
knockouts so that it expands upwards or sideways to actually
increase the size of the module by threefold. You could have living quarters in there if you needed to.”
“You can load a module and take the old one off and be running again. You can be an ambulance one time for medical or
you can be carrying 700 gallons of diesel or gasoline or water.
You could be carrying troops. The changeover takes less than
10 minutes. You don’t need a forklift to do it. It’s very simple,”
he said. ✯
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or
search our online archives for related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
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Wanted: Lean, Effective Gunships
CONGRESS AND THE PENTAGON MUST WORK TOGETHER TO FIND A
SOLUTION THAT WILL PROVIDE A LEANER, MORE EFFECTIVE GUNSHIP.
REP. JEFF MILLER (R-FLA.)
Time and again our U.S. military leaders have extolled the
virtues and importance of AC-130 gunships in supporting our
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. As Lieutenant General Donald Wurster, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, puts it, “Everybody wants a gunship overhead.” The fact is
that the AC-130s are one of the most lethal weapons we have on
the battlefield and have been vital to our missions during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Stationed out of Hurlburt Field in the panhandle of Florida,
the U.S. Air Force uses the AC-130 for close air support, air interdiction and force protection. Esteemed for its ability to linger
over targets while unleashing a massive amount of weaponry,
the real effectiveness of the gunship comes from its precision
firepower during the low-light, moderate-altitude missions in
which it typically operates. Over the past 40 years, the gunship
has been directly involved in missions from Operation Urgent
Fury in Grenada to Operation Just Cause in Panama and Desert
Storm in Iraq. They’ve supported U.N. missions in Somalia and
NATO missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Across the world the
AC-130 has long been revered for its ability to decimate a target
accurately while protecting our troops on the ground.
Yet, despite the tremendous value to our troops overseas,
our fleet of AC-130s is growing old, wearing thin and breaking
down.
AFSOC currently maintains a fleet of eight AC-130H Pave
Spectre IIs and 17 AC-130U Spookys. The first AC-130s arrived
in Vietnam in 1967, and the average age of the current gunships
is approaching 30 years old. By itself, this age would not necessitate a critical need to replace the fleet of gunships. However,
the relatively small number of AC-130s available for use and the
reliance on their protection and firepower over the past seven
years in Iraq and Afghanistan has rapidly accelerated their rate
of deterioration. AC-130 pilot Lieutenant Colonel Mark Clawson
reported to the CBS Evening News early last year that the AC130s in the Middle East have “been flying at a rate four times
what they ever anticipated,” a fact reiterated by AFSOC command. Recent inspections have shown cracks appearing in the
gunships’ center wing box structures, causing planes to sit on
the ground even longer. Wings have to be replaced sooner, guns
have to be fixed more often, and additional maintenance has to
be performed between missions.
With the cost of maintenance rising and the threat to our
troops increasing as these planes grow older, there is a rec18 | SOTECH 7.6
ognized need to either replace or modernize AFSOC’s AC-130
gunships within the next decade. The Pentagon and Congress
are considering three options to achieve this goal: building new
C-130 gunships and retiring the older versions, phasing in a
smaller gunship commonly called the “gunship lite,” or continuing to maintain, rebuild and retrofit the current fleet of aircraft.
The first option, building new AC-130s, is both costly and
difficult to realize in the short term. The cost of a new AC-130
Spooky is $190 million in 2001 dollars, and it would be quite
some time before any new planes would be fully operational.
Based on the fiscally constrained environment facing the U.S.
and recent comments from the Obama administration regarding
defense budget cuts, we do not expect funding for new AC-130s
to replace the current fleet.
The alternative to new AC-130s would be the development
of a smaller, less expensive gunship better adapted for the
conditions our soldiers face in areas like Afghanistan. The current C-130s are slow, must fly mostly at night to better avoid
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
shoulder-launched missiles, and are usually required to attack at a set altitude.
During the early years of the Afghanistan
and Iraq wars, these limitations did not
significantly impede the efficiency of the
gunships, but as our battles turn from
invasion to counterinsurgency and irregular warfare, the need for an aircraft that
can operate from small, isolated airstrips
has emerged.
AFSOC’s original plan included the
purchase of C-27s from the Army, which
would be converted into light gunships.
In 2008, General Wurster expressed
his support of the proposed AC-27—a
heavily armed version of the new Joint
Cargo Aircraft—stating that it would
gunships are stationed out of Hurlburt Field, Fla., in the congressional district represented by Rep. Jeff Miller.
provide AFSOC an airplane with “a lower AC-130
[Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force]
footprint, a smaller footprint that we
can rapidly deploy.” Admiral Eric Olson,
commander of U.S. Special Operations
Command, concurs, noting that SOCOM
is hoping to move forward on a plan to
develop a lighter gunship by “mounting
guns on a C-27, flying it in an orbital pattern to provide quick response—primarily to troops in contact or where troops
may be expected to be in contact—with
the surgical precision that we’ve come to
expect from the AC-130.”
However, cuts to the FY10 defense
budget have forced the Air Force to delay
development of the AC-27 project, and
instead focus on a third option: overhauling and modernizing existing planes
to meet current needs. During a House
Armed Services Terrorism and Uncon- The Air Force currently maintains a fleet of 17 AC-130U Spookys. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force]
ventional Threats Subcommittee hearing
The AC-130 has been a vital part of our military operations
in June of this year, Admiral Olson outlined to members of Confor more than 40 years and has been instrumental in countless
gress a plan to install a “platform-neutral Precision Strike PackAmerican victories, but most current planes are nearing the age
age on our existing MC-130W aircraft, and to field them as soon
of retirement. I am confident Congress and the Pentagon can
as possible.” By using the already-developed MC-130W refueling
work together to find a solution that will provide a leaner, more
plane as a platform to create a gunship, AFSOC can replenish
effective gunship that meets the needs of our armed forces withthe aging AC-130s in Afghanistan and Iraq at a lower cost and at
out impeding our current military operations or sacrificing our
a quicker rate. In addition, the retrofitted MC-130s will feature
future defense capabilities. ✯
lighter guns, making it more maneuverable and better suited for
combat operations in the Middle East.
In the immediate future, retrofitting MC-130s with gunship
U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., is the ranking member of the
capabilities will provide AFSOC with enough planes to preserve
House Armed Services Terrorism and Unconventional Threats
a viable fleet of gunships for present operations in Afghanistan
Subcommittee, overseeing U.S. Special Operations Command.
and Iraq. But this is simply a stop-gap measure. Longer-term,
Representing the panhandle of Florida, Miller’s district includes
our military leaders at SOCOM and the Pentagon must decide
both Hurlburt Field and Eglin Air Force Base. He also serves on
on a force structure for gunship capability. We must determine
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the
if a smaller gunship is indeed required or if our troops are better
Veterans Affairs Committee.
served by redeveloping and modernizing a future generation of
AC-130 gunships. I concur with Admiral Olson’s opinion that we
can accept some short-term risk in order to provide gunships
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or
quickly, but that “a future program will be required to address
search our online archives for related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
the resultant shortfall.”
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
SOTECH 7.6 | 19
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES HAVE BROUGHT PRECISION TO
THE DELIVERY OF AIRDROPPED SUPPLIES.
BY PETER BUXBAUM
SOTECH CORRESPONDENT
BUXBAUMP@KMIMEDIAGROUP.COM
20 | SOTECH 7.6
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
The fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan has
challenged the U.S. military to sustain combat
power in dynamic, dispersed and unsecured
battlespaces. In Iraq, especially, the resupply
of troops by truck convoy has exposed them
to roadside ambushes by insurgents. In
Afghanistan, airdropped resupply bundles
must often target narrow mountain ridges
or valleys—less than optimal venues. In both
locations, low altitude airdrops have exposed
air crews and equipment to ground fire.
Low-altitude airdrops can also give away the
positions of small forward units.
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SOTECH 7.6 | 21
It is no coincidence, then, that the
armed services, under the Army’s leadership, have accelerated the development of
high altitude precision airdrop systems in
recent years.
“Six aircraft were hit during a ninemonth period in Afghanistan in 2006,”
said Richard Benney, an aerospace engineer in the Warfighter Protection and
Airdrop/Aerial Delivery Directorate at the
U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Center. “There
has been a big push to go high.”
“With standard airdrops, you need to
fly aircraft fairly low to get cargo into
tight areas,” said Gary McHugh, business
development manager at Airborne Systems North America. “You need to use a
round parachute, and a round parachute
is at the mercy of wind conditions. When
you bring the aircraft down low, it also
One of the first guided systems to be deployed to Southwest Asia, Mist Mobility Integrated Systems Technology’s Sherpa can land
within 100 meters of a target 50 to 80 percent of the time. [Photo courtesy of Mist Mobility Integrated Systems Technology]
pays to have a fairly large drop zone.”
Over the past four to five
years, investments in aerial
small payloads from helitarget. A typical glide ratio of three to one
delivery have proceeded “in
copters to experiments
in low-wind conditions means that the
leaps and bounds,” McHugh
with systems that could
payload will be gliding three feet in the
added. “Precision drops
accommodate extremely
horizontal for every one foot it is dropat higher altitudes are out
weighty payloads such as
ping vertically. If dropped at a 25,000of reach of ground fire and
vehicles or fuel tanks.
foot altitude, this means that the roll-out
reduce the size of the drop
One way to accomplish
point must be 75,000 feet, or around 25
zone required to get payloads
the goal of a precision airkilometers, from the intended target.
to the troops on the ground.”
drop is to have ground
“The Ram air parachute has forward
The key program that
units equipped with a radio
speed and the ability to penetrate wind
came to answer warfighter
frequency signaler for
conditions,” explained McHugh. “It can
Richard Benney
requirements for aerial delivwhich payloads aim. The
maneuver better than a round paraery was the Joint Precision
U.K. Ministry of Defence
chute.”
Airdrop System (JPADS). All
has acquired such a beaAfter exit from the aircraft, in the case
JPADS payloads are required
coned controlled system.
of guided systems, an airborne guidance
to be airdroppable from
The U.S. military rejected
unit (AGU), which includes a GPS signal25,000 feet.
this approach, said Bening system, flies the airfoil on automatic
“Twenty-five thousand
ney, because many prepilot, controlling its course by means
feet is not the limit, but it is
cision airdrop scenarios
of two pulleys on either side. The AGU
a relatively safe altitude for
involve providing supplies
continues to monitor conditions during
C-130s and C-17s,” said Benin advance of the arrival
flight and makes adjustments as needed.
ney. “The eventual objective
of forward troops to the
Non-guided JPADS systems use high-altiis 35,000 feet. The idea is to
drop area.
tude low-opening parachutes to hit their
Gary McHugh
drop and forget.”
Instead, the U.S.
marks.
JPADS was first deployed gary.mchugh@airborne-sys.com approach opted for the
“One of biggest challenges is in hanto Southwest Asia by U.S.
control of the payload
dling different wind environments,” said
forces in 2004. Air delivery of supplies
through mission planning and aerodyAlexandre Cote, Sherpa product manager
in Afghanistan has since grown from 2
namics. The mission planner gathers
at Mist Mobility Integrated Systems Techmillion pounds in 2005 to 16.6 million
information on atmospheric conditions;
nology Inc. “That is where you move from
pounds in 2008, according to Benney.
aircraft altitude, airspeed, heading and
unguided to guided systems. Guided sysJPADS includes several payload weight
pitch; payload weight; and parachute type,
tems once deployed can overcome wind
classes of self-guided and non-steerable
and calculates a roll-out point.
changes and find targets successfully.”
systems, navigation aids, and a common
Aerodynamics are provided by highHow successfully? Mist Mobility’s
JPADS mission planner. JPADS has also
altitude high-opening (HAHO) rectanguSherpa, which was one of the first guided
spawned a number of ancillary developlar airfoil, or ram air, parachutes, best
systems to be deployed to Southwest Asia,
mental programs, including a Marine
thought of as a wing or a glider. The airfoil
can land within 100 meters of an intended
Corps program that seeks to drop extraactually flies, rather than drops, to the
target 50 to 80 percent of the time,
22 | SOTECH 7.6
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
according to Cote. “The results resemble
map overlay, and a predicted delivery
a bell curve,” he said.
footprint.
The Sherpa’s guidance system, which
QinetiQ’s system starts with pre-misis common to the three weight-category
sion route planning. Weather forecasts for
systems—below 1,000 pounds; between
the flight and drop zones are updated by
1,000 and 2,200 pounds; and up to 12,000
data from a meteorological device called
pounds—Mist Mobility supplies the U.S.
a sonde, which is dropped 50 kilometers
military, allows users to choose, not only
from the intended drop point.
a target point, but also an
“We take the data from
approach heading. That
the sonde and assimilate it
way, for example, if a paywith forecast data to look
load is to be dropped on
ahead in space and time to
a beach, the airfoil will be
model the wind field in the
guided to glide parallel to
mission area,” explained
the water before landing
Andrew Rogers, director of
so that, in case of an oversurvivability programs at
shoot or undershoot, the
QinetiQ North America’s
cargo does not end up in
technology solutions group.
the drink.
“This provides the air crew
Aaron Johnson
The Sherpa may also
with a computerized release
be used in unguided mode
point, a flying vector, and the
with its HALO capability.
optimum standoff distance
“The system allows the
from the drop zone to ensure
payload to free-fall to a
accuracy.”
preprogrammed altitude
Airborne Systems was
and then have the paraawarded two major prochute open,” said Cote.
grams of record by the U.S.
All of the JPADS proArmy to provide two weight
grams, whether using
classes of JPADS systems,
guided or unguided systhe 2,000-pound Firefly and
tems, use a common
the 10,000-pound Dragonfly
mission planner that is
system, which is expected to
Vincent Juchniewicz
provided by QinetiQ. The
be fielded by the end of 2010.
JPADS mission planner juchniewicz@capewell.com Airborne Systems also proprovides atmospheric modvides the 500-pound Microfly
eling, airdrop planning and modeling,
system to selected U.S. Army units.
aircraft tracking using a Windows-based
Also in the works are the Megafly and
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the Gigafly, which are being funded by a
Department of Defense science and technology program, which will take JPADS
into the 30,000- and 40,000-pound ranges
respectively.
“We successfully produced a system
that carried a 42,000-pound payload,”
said McHugh. “We dropped this several
times as a proof of concept. This holds
the record for a ram air parachute drop.
The airfoil was over 10,000 square feet in
size, and it had a bigger wing span than
a C-17.”
These heavier-payload systems could
be used for specialized missions, such
as standing up a desert aircraft refueling position, delivering a specialized—for
example, a mine clearing—vehicle, or
delivering large quantities of ammunition, McHugh said.
A new system called Universal Precision Air Drop, or UPADS, is also in the
works and is designed to deliver payloads
of between 700 pounds and 10,000 pounds
using either a ram air or a round parachute.
“This is actually a modular system,”
said Vincent Juchniewicz, director of
program management at Capewell, the
developer of the system. “It has a guidance unit and a control unit that snap
together. Depending on the mission, you
can change the control unit for a tighter
configuration.”
Capewell’s system is able to steer round
parachutes, which Juchniewicz said could
be advantageous for use in mountainous
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SOTECH 7.6 | 23
regions. “We have been steering round
chutes for a number of years,” he said.
“It has a low glide ratio and horizontal offset. Especially in mountainous
regions, an airfoil can catch the wind
off the mountain and stay aloft for quite
some time.”
Using round chutes also allows the
military to make use of its current large
inventory of G-12 and other standard
parachutes right off the shelf. UPADS
also uses the JPADS mission planning
system and includes a single guidance
system for all payload weight classes.
UPADS is in development under a
Capewell contract with the Natick Soldier Center. The system could be fielded
as early as 2010, depending on budgeting
decisions, according to Juchniewicz.
EADS North America, a division of the
aeronautics and space company based in
the Netherlands, is working on an ultra-
light precision airdrop system on behalf
of the U.S. Marine Corps. At demonstrations that took place in 2007 and 2008,
the EADS system proved to be more
accurate than those of its competitors.
The Marine Corps is interested in
such a system for the resupply of small
forward units, according to Aaron Johnson, EADS North America’s director of
business development. “The Marine Corps
saw what was going on with JPADS,” he
said. “Natick was starting with systems
for 2,000-pound and bigger payloads.”
The Marine Crops was interested in
lighter weight systems and was designated by the Army to take the lead on an
ultralight airdrop system. “We’re talking about sustainment of groups on the
move and especially for the resupply of
ammunition,” he said.
Johnson believes that EADS’ greater
precision in the ultralight system dem-
Airdropped resupply bundles must often target narrow mountain ridges or valleys. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force]
24 | SOTECH 7.6
onstrations is connected with the company’s aerospace experience. He also said
that EADS has been improving the system based on feedback from the Marine
Corps.
“It probably has something to do with
the variables you encounter in flight,”
he said. “Each company has a different
methodology. Some units take measured
values and insert those into the autopilot. Others like ours take measurements
as the parachute comes down and compensate for conditions.
“Some systems may have different
flight profiles and may dissipate energy
at different points in the flight,” Johnson
added. “Each company, based on its own
experience, will make different autopilot
decisions.”
When UPADS will transition to a program of record is at this point unclear.
The Marine Corps has been postponing
issuing a request for proposal for the
ultralight system for the last two years,
said Johnson. The latest word, he said, is
that the Marine Corps will proceed later
this summer.
The next big push for precision airdrop systems, from the perspective of
the Natick Soldier Center, is going to
be improving guidance, navigation and
controls for the JPADS. “There is a significant effort in the Army to improve
navigation and control,” said Benney.
“We want to establish communications
among the airdrop units so that they
know where each other is in air and
space. We’re looking at systems that will
supply terrain data so that the airfoil will
know where mountains are and won’t fly
into them. We are also looking at developing a controlled flare approach that
airplanes have that would allow the parachute to make a dynamic maneuver just
before landing to bleed off some velocity
and decrease the impact of touchdown.”
The program Natick is working on
will seek to develop, integrate and test
advanced sensors, guidance approaches,
and control system technologies relevant
to all weight classes of JPADS. “The result
of this research,” said Benney, “will be
greatly improved delivery accuracy of
airdropped payloads.” ✯
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan
at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for
related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
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Vehicle Armor
DSM Dyneema recently launched Dyneema BT10, its first commercially available product
made from a novel, proprietary ballistic tape (BT) technology. The announcement was made
jointly with Ten Cate Advanced Armour, who had selected Dyneema BT10 for armor upgrading on
the Patria XA-188 APC commissioned by the Dutch Defensie Materieel Organisatie.
Ten Cate’s armor solution
is based on a ceramic strike
face backed with a combination
of BT10 and Dyneema HB26
for optimal cost and performance balance. “Dyneema
BT10 performed extremely well
as a backing material behind
the strike face armor and
helped deliver a cost-effective,
lightweight ballistic protection
solution with excellent overall
performance,” commented
Soren Gert Larsen, general
marketing manager at Ten
Cate Advanced Armour.
Ten Cate also stated that BT10 has been tested and certified according to NATO standards
STANAG 4569 and AEP55. According to the company, in-house tests have shown that the armor
is lighter and stronger than the next best aramid-based armor solution and offers many of the
performance attributes of HB26 at a slightly higher weight. They also state that it is ideally suited
as backing behind a strike face and as spall liner in overmatch situations.
Ballistic Sunglasses
Revision Eyewear recently marked its debut in lightchanging lens technology with the Photochromic Hellfly
ballistic sunglass. Featuring the company’s rapid lightchanging technology, the sunglasses automatically darken to
a sunglass tint when exposed to sunlight and return to their
clear state in the absence of UV rays, giving operators a tactical
edge in rapidly changing environments.
“Revision’s photochromic lens technology eliminates the
need to switch lenses when transitioning between the indoors
and outside, allowing the end user to focus on his mission, not
his eyewear,” commented Jonathan Blanshay, CEO of Revision
Eyewear. In tests, Revision’s Photochromic Hellfly lenses took
only 45 seconds to change from their darkest state to 60
percent clear, while competitors’ lenses took over two minutes
to do the same. “For tactical operators, faster photochromic
lenses mean enhanced visual performance when it’s most
needed, in dynamic environments.”
The new photochromic lenses meet military specifications for ballistic protection (MIL-PRF-31013 clause 3.5.1.1).
Jennifer Zimmerman:
jzimmerman@revisioneyewear.com
26 | SOTECH 7.6
High-Speed
Multi-mission Craft
SBI utilizes its latest innovation in forced air stepped technology (FAST) that allowed them to push in terms of hydrodynamic speed and performance. FAST is a vented stepped
hull design that uses forced air for aeration and positive lift
in order to reduce surface tension and drag while under way.
With FAST technology the air is captured, funneled and forced
into the hull’s chine vents via the leading edge intakes of the
port and starboard performance fins. This results in reduced
fuel consumption and higher speeds when compared to
conventional hulls.
The technology represents offshore racing-inspired
performance with unmatched safety, stability and durability.
This maximizes the already ideal mission potential for drug
interdiction, anti-piracy, offshore patrolling and boarding
team delivery in a virtually unsinkable platform. “We are
excited about the superior performance of this boat and are
extremely proud of the SAFE boats team,” said Scott Peterson,
president of SAFE Boats International. “The Apostle went from
concept to operational in approximately 12 weeks, and we
couldn’t be happier with the outcome.”
Jason Solomon:
jason@safeboats.com
Tough Gloves
Sally McCoy, CEO of CamelBak, recently
announced that two of the company’s
Maximum Gear FR gloves received the U.S.
Air Force’s approval for all aviation. In addition to being now approved for all USAF
crews and all USAF air frames, the Friction
Fighter NT and Max Grip NT gloves have both
received approval from the U.S. Army for all
aviation as well as combat vehicle crewmen.
The Max Grip NT is NAVAIR-approved for
use in all USN and USMC Aviation. McCoy
remarked, “Receiving aviation approval is
truly an honor. We are excited about all of our
products, and when a branch of the U.S. military gives their stamp of approval to one of
our products, we know we’ve hit the mark.”
Made of mil-spec Nomex top and sleeve,
with Kevlar stitching throughout, both gloves
provide the high protection, dexterity and
durability. The digitally textured leather palm,
fingers and knuckles provide added durability
and extra grip in all conditions of use.
According to Hunter Shoop, GMI product
manager for CamelBak, “What sets these
gloves apart from others is the maximum
dexterity, overall flame-resistance, durability
and quality of construction.
These key characterisacteristics allow this glove
to be used by aviators
ators
for both in-flight and
ground missions.. In
addition to both off these
gloves being Aviation
viation
Approved, the Maxx Grip
NT is a proven combat
glove currently being
ng used
by the U.S. Marine
ne Corps
and U.S. Army ground
troops.”
Seth Beiden:
sbeiden@camelbak.com
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
CSAR SATCOM
The General Dynamics Hook2 GPS combat
search and rescue (CSAR) System is a powerful,
global, cost-effective solution for military, paramilitary, law enforcement and government agency
search and rescue operations.
Composed
of
the software-defined,
upgradeable
AN/
PRC-112G transceiver
or the AN/PRC-112B1
transceiver, plus a handheld GPS Quickdraw2
Interrogator, the system
delivers field-proven
capability, and adds
encrypted two-way
messaging and GPS
positioning for precise,
accurate location. The
Quickdraw Interrogator
turns virtually any aircraft into a CSAR platform
simply by plugging the device into the aircraft’s
intercom system.
The new SATCOM base station enables secure,
two-way, worldwide communications with isolated
personnel or rescue forces who are using a satelliteenabled Hook2 AN/PRC-112G. Lightweight, rugged
and portable, the base station is just right for
mobile, rapid deployment
or fixed site operations.
According to the
company, mission-critical features include: the
kit, which includes base
station radio, ruggedized
computer and satellite antenna; cabling
and power supply as
options; embedded security, which prevents
information from being
compromised; interrogation feature, which rapidly
locates and identifies isolated personnel; and e-maillike format that makes messaging easy. Messages
can be sent immediately or held in queue.
UAV Landing Aids
2d3 Inc., a provider of vision science solutions for industrial, defense and entertainment
applications, has announced the development of a
solution to visually assist a UAV during the critical,
final phase of landing. The visually assisted landing
system (VALS) consists of proprietary software and
commercial off-the-shelf hardware integrated with
existing on-board aviation, navigation and visual
systems. The system provides high-rate altitude and
attitude information to the existing autopilot by
using the onboard camera systems. No additional
ground-based systems or specialized navigation
equipment aboard the aircraft are required.
“Since the late 1990s, 2d3 has been working
with and developing systems that allow for the
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
determination of position and orientation of a
camera in real-time, simply by tracking features
in an image sequence or scene,” said Jon Damush,
2d3’s president. “VALS is a natural extension of that
work, and we are very pleased to be in a position
to provide a critical piece of the puzzle to help
safely and reliably guide a UAV from 100 feet to
touchdown.”
Early trials have proved that existing cameras
and sensor data can be processed using advanced
vision science techniques, allowing the aircraft to
land without human intervention. Current UAV
operations call for a remote pilot to land the aircraft
manually through the use of stick and throttle
control inputs transmitted wirelessly. Operators
are reliant on the ability to view the runway via
RF broadcast video. Any loss of communication,
link or video quality can have a dire effect on the
successful outcome of the landing. By providing
what is essentially a vision-based sensor, 2d3 has
provided a way to enable repeatable and safe
landings when no remote pilot is available due
to loss of control signal or no available RF link
at an unplanned airport.
Cover and
Concealment
Mirage Camo has created a camouflage that
can be worn in any environment. Browns, greens,
grays and clays have been combined in various
amounts, shades and shapes. The complexity of
the Mirage Camo pattern and the selection of
colors protect the location of the soldier without
compromising the position, guaranteeing concealment.
Mirage Camo uniforms have been designed
with the help of direct soldier feedback. Ventilation
areas have been implemented, due to reports that
the current issued uniforms are too hot. Pockets
have been designed regarding dimension, position
and ease of use. Top-of-the-line thread has been
implemented with a new stitch pattern to reinforce
inherently weak areas. Abrasion-resistant fabric
has been added to increase wear, making the
uniform more durable.
“We have had our users get within 10 meters
of the enemy without compromising their position,” stated designer and president of Mirage
Camo, Jason Simione. “This guarantees that
Mirage Camo will save lives, as well as give U.S.
soldiers the tactical edge that they currently do
not have.”
Dana Heinsen:
dana@bulldogequipment.us
SOTECH 7.6 | 27
Corps Enabler
Q& A
Defining Marine Corps Special Operations Capabilities
Major General Mastin M. Robeson
Commander
Marine Corps Forces,
Special Operations Command
A native of the Carolinas, Major General Robeson graduated from
Chester High School in Chester, S.C., and Bryan College in Dayton,
Tenn., was commissioned in December 1975, and hails from Rosman,
N.C.
His company grade assignments included rifle and weapons platoons in the 1st Marine Division, command of a Marine Detachment
afloat (USS John F. Kennedy), Marine Barracks 8th and I, and command of rifle and weapons companies in 1st Battalion, 6th Marines.
As a field grade officer, he instructed at the Marine Corps Amphibious Warfare School, commanded the Fleet Anti-terrorism Security
Team (FAST) Company, commanded 1st Battalion, 6th Marines (BLT
with 22nd MEU), and instructed at the U.S. Army School of Advanced
Military Studies (SAMS). He also served a tour in the Pentagon as
military assistant to the executive secretary for DoD and as military
assistant to Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen. He then returned
to the 2nd Marine Division, where he commanded the 8th Marine
Regiment.
Robeson was selected for brigadier general in 2001 and advanced
to the rank in October 2002. As a general officer he has served as the
assistant division commander and commanding general of the 2nd
Marine Division; commanding general of the Combined Joint Task
Force-Horn of Africa; commanding general of the 3rd and 4th Marine
Expeditionary Brigades; commanding general of the 3rd Marine Division; deputy commanding general of III MEF; and director of CJ5 for
Multi-National Force–Iraq.
Robeson graduated with honors from The Basic School, Amphibious Warfare School, and Command and Staff College. His war college
experience was the U.S. Army Advanced Operational Art Studies
Fellowship, and his civilian education includes a degree in business
administration and a master’s in military arts and science.
His combat experience includes service in Liberia, Desert Storm,
Somalia, Bosnia, Horn of Africa, Southern Philippines and Iraq.
Robeson was interviewed by SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan.
Q: What is the organizational structure of MARSOC today, and how
does that compare to a year ago?
A: We are in the process of reorganizing our structure. This past April
we re-designated the Marine Special Operations Advisor Group as a
Marine Special Operations Regiment. Presently, we have one regiment with three special operations battalions and are in the process of
growing to 12 special operations companies and 48 special operations
teams.
In addition, we are growing our signal intelligence, human intelligence, communications, and intelligence analysts capabilities to supwww.SOTECH-kmi.com
port the above structure plus requisite maintainers.
The number-one priority for 2009 was getting our reorganization
right. This means sufficient enablers to support a one-MSOR, threeMSOB, 12-MSOC, 48-MSOT structure.
Q: How are you doing on filling out the organization from a manning
and staffing perspective? Are you meeting your personnel goals?
A: For our authorized structure we are at 82 percent of our current
build plan for Marines, 90 percent of the build for the Navy and 69
percent of the build for civilians. We project we’ll achieve our manning
goals during FY12 with continued support from Headquarters Marine
Corps to sustain our manning levels of critical skill operators.
One of the advantages of building and operating the force at the
same time is that you can significantly accelerate getting it right by
incorporating lessons learned. Of course the downside of an openloop manpower system is the need to reconstitute the force every five
years.
Q: Several years into the command, how would you characterize the
definition of MARSOC’s role and mission and the assimilation of the
force into the strategic special operations planning, implementation
and execution of overseas contingency operations?
A: With 40 deployments in FY09 and more than 40 missions and our
SOTECH 7.6 | 29
first Special Operations Task Force deployment in FY10, the primary
focus has been supporting OEF, building partnerships with partner
nation forces and emphasizing relationships with those partners. Our
focus has been and will continue to be Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brazil
and the littorals of both Africa and Southeast Asia.
Our tasking by SOCOM to provide an SOF C2 capability in
Afghanistan reflects MARSOC’s growth and maturation. SOCOM has
confidence in our ability to do the mission, and the Marine Corps has
a greater understanding of what they’re providing in terms of value to
our nation. The increased deployment tempo means that MARSOC has
to carefully plan out our training so we maximize our training days.
Q: Regarding your foreign internal defense mission, what are some
of the challenges in working with a range of different militaries with
varying degrees of skills and capabilities? Do you assist in identifying
a country’s specific needs both in equipment and skill sets or is that
already determined before you go in?
A: Our biggest challenge is mastering the language and cultural
understanding necessary to be a true partner. We have chosen to put
one member of every team into immersion language training. The
goal is for every team to have one member who is 2/2 or better while
the remainder of the team has survival skills or better.
Our second challenge is ensuring the U.S. country team understands and embraces what we are there to do. It is very important that
we be an extension of what the country team is trying to accomplish.
The third challenge is to ensure a persistent presence by the same
team so that we can better facilitate long-term relationships and trust.
Only then can we hope to help the host nation develop the capability,
capacity and vision necessary to achieve our common goals.
Q: Is it fair to say that to date MARSOC forces have been relatively
light on heavier types of equipment? What are your more immediate
acquisition needs?
A: Yes, by design, MARSOC is a lighter and leaner force.
We are in need of lighter yet durable equipment across the board.
This includes weapons, communications, power sources, vehicles,
body armor, etc.
Q: How important are unmanned systems—air, ground and naval—
to your operations?
A: Very important. The Marine Corps has been using unmanned
ground systems for at least 15 years, and MARSOC has included those
capabilities from our inception. The EOD robots remote the operator
from the hazards of an explosive device, provide a day/night reconnaissance capability, and also a neutralization capability so the operator
remains separated from the hazard as much as possible. These systems
work in the tethered [fiber-optic] or RF mode. Current initiatives are
under way to deliver an EOD robot of approximately 50 pounds. The
use of unmanned ground platforms with the appropriate capabilities
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30 | SOTECH 7.6
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
attached are crucial to EOD mission success and force protection. The
use of robots saves lives.
Our current unmanned aerial system, the Raven, is the first step
in a very important transition to incorporating UAS into our combat
operations. It is a relatively inexpensive and easy-to-maintain way to
have near instant and near real-time ISR capabilities at the company
and team levels. Employing the Raven provided insight into the
strengths and weaknesses of this platform. New cameras systems for
the Raven are in production and will allow for improved targeting. In
the event we can obtain this technology, the Raven will prove to be an
extremely valuable, near real-time targeting tool.
MARSOC’s next step will be the acquisition of the Wasp UAS. As we
field this system in the coming months, we will refine our TTPs to take
advantage of the mobility afforded by using the smaller system.
As MARSOC continues to develop its UAS program, the Raven
and the Wasp will be fielded as integral pieces of equipment at both
the company and team level. UAS will enable MARSOC personnel to
enhance situational awareness, perform time critical targeting, gather
intelligence, surveillance, and provide real-time battlefield reconnaissance at the lowest command echelon, while minimizing the exposure
of SOF personnel to dangerous situations.
Q: Do you have your own schoolhouse that focuses on the specific
needs of the MARSOC warrior? What other resources do you take
advantage of to hone their skills?
A: We have the Marine Special Operations School. We recently graduated our first Individual Training Course and have started the second
one. The ITC is designed to produce a common Marine special operator capable of conducting direct action, special reconnaissance, FID,
JCET and CNT type engagement missions. We’ve learned a lot from
our first graduating class and from our current operations; as such
we have added more amphibious reconnaissance and increased the
emphasis on counterinsurgency operations, irregular warfare and the
indirect approach.
Our schoolhouse also conducts our SERE program and 11
advanced courses of instruction that support maturing or operational
capabilities.
Most of our courses are conducted in house, although we fully
exploit training at other venues like the Mountain Warfare Training
Center in Pickle Meadows, Calif., or the Direct Action Resource Center
in Little Rock, Ark.
Q: Any closing thoughts?
A: We know that MARSOC is the newest member of an incredibly
capable special operations community. We have learned much in these
first three years and are amazed at how embracing SOCOM has been
toward us. We are proud to serve alongside our fellow SF, SEALs and
AFSOC operators and look forward to more opportunities to work
together to create a world less conducive to radicals. ✯
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Tactical Systems Integration Division
PO Box 8024, Charlottesville, VA 22906-8024
Tel 434.296.8600, Fax 434.296.9260
info@AshburyIntlGroup.com
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SOTECH 7.6 | 31
32 | SOTECH 7.6
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
THE CHOICE OF A SENSOR
PACKAGE DEPENDS ON SPECIFIC
UNIT MISSIONS.
BY PETER BUXBAUM
SOTECH CORRESPONDENT
BUXBAUMP@KMIMEDIAGROUP.COM
As far back as 1966, during the war in Vietnam, the
United States military deployed remote, ground-based
electronic sensors to collect intelligence on enemy
movements and to aid in surveillance and reconnaissance. Back then, acoustic and seismic sensors,
which pick up sound and vibration respectively, were
dropped from aircraft in the vicinity of the Ho Chin
Minh Trail and other Viet Cong supply routes.
Navy aircraft would then fly over the areas seeded
with the sensors to pick up their output. All of the
processing, analysis and interpretation of the sensors’
work was done on the back end, by highly trained
personnel working with the computer systems of that
day.
Sensor technology has progressed markedly since
then. The sensors themselves are loaded with sophisticated software that allows them to identify, and
in many cases, classify, an approaching threat and
transmit that information directly to those who need
it. Wireless and satellite communications make the
transmission of that intelligence easier and more
efficient.
Besides acoustic and seismic capabilities, sensors
these days are also capable of electro-optical, infrared,
and magnetic detection. Ground sensors come in a
variety of flavors and are sold as integrated packages,
each with its own mix of capabilities. The choice of a
sensor package depends on specific unit missions.
The earlier generations of ground sensors were
designed primarily to pick up the signatures of Sovietstyle military vehicles. After 9/11, and the beginning
of the U.S. operation in Afghanistan, the military was
confronted with the challenge of detecting weapons
such as mobile launchers that were mounted on
vehicles like pickup trucks and SUVs.
“By the time we got
involved in Afghanistan
and Iraq, the threat of
Soviet-style
military
vehicles had greatly
diminished. They were
easy to eliminate at the
first stages of a conflict
by conventional means,”
said Gervasio Prado,
president, Sentech Inc.,
Gervasio Prado
a developer of acousg.prado@sentech-acoustic.com tic and seismic sensors
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
SOTECH 7.6 | 33
based in Stoneham, Mass. “Once we were confronting the Taliban
Many, but not all, of the most modern sensors being marketed
and Iraqi insurgents, we were no longer going after tanks or
today include onboard signal processing capabilities. “Processing
armored personnel carriers. The old type of targets was easy to
onboard and not on the back end means that the sensor itself
pick up because they had very loud distinctive signatures, but
makes the decision about what the sensitivity is that it just felt,”
the new targets were indistinguishable from everyday civilian
said Patricia Driscoll, CEO of Frontline Defense Systems, a develtraffic.”
oper and manufacturer of sensors headquartered in Washington,
One of the implications of the type of warfare being pursued
D.C. “Instead of getting data, bringing it back to a computer,
in Afghanistan and Iraq is that imaging of the potential target
and the computer telling you what was detected, you get a faster
became more important. “You now needed an image of the tarresponse with the processing onboard the sensor.”
get before you can reach any conclusions,” said Prado. “The new
A somewhat different approach is being taken by developers
generation of sensors has now become a collection of different
at the QinetiQ North America’s Technology Solutions Group in
types of sensors all linked together to a device called
Pittsburgh. QinetiQ’s SUSS sensor provides target
a gateway. One of the important functions of the
detection but not target classification, meangateway is the ability to control imaging devices. A
ing that it is not loaded with software that can
signal from a sensor may notify the gateway turn
distinguish between different kinds of potential
on the imager and take a picture of the target.” The
targets.
same function is performed by a human operator in
“This is for very rapid, visual feedback for
some systems.
immediate use,” said Hagen Schempf, the group
Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, in which
director. “It is not meant to be dozens of miles
U.S. forces are operating in close proximity to local
away but within wireless range.”
populations, present other challenges as well. “The
Schempf’s point is that a sophisticated sensor
indigenous people know the areas they are operatmay successfully detect a specific type of truck,
Jay Johnson
ing in very well,” said Mike Barthlow, director of
for example, but cannot discern who is in that
sales for Special Operations Command at Harris
truck. “Warfighters want eyes on target,” he said.
Corp. “It is difficult to position most equipment or a road or a
“There is no replacement for visual confirmation and feedback.
trail in a target area without being discovered. That makes the
That is how our brains work. That is how we make decisions.”
use of long-range imaging capabilities important.”
QinetiQ’s SUSS sensor is currently in beta testing and has
The various modalities on board a modern ground sensor are
been put through its paces in theater. Three Marine Corps units
controlled by sophisticated software that allows it to define what
in Southwest Asia have provided feedback, according to Schempf.
it is hearing and feeling. “These sensors can make determination
Among other things, SUSS has been put to use in counter-IED
whether it is a tank, a heavy wheeled vehicle or a person walkoperations.
ing,” said Jay Johnson, senior director, business development,
SUSS combines sound and motion detectors with two camfor ground systems at Textron Defense Systems in Wilmington,
eras, one electro-optical and one heat-sensing infrared. The
Mass. “Each of the sensors is looking for some characteristic of
cameras can pan, tilt, zoom and are connected to a controller
the target. The algorithms that have been loaded into a fairly
through a wireless connection with a range of 30 yards. SUSS
capable computer processor on board the sensor are well-defined
is also compatible with QinetiQ’s Dragon Runner unmanned
and have been built over the last 25 years.”
ground vehicle platform.
Unattended ground sensors
have been one of the major
components in the ill-fated
Future Combat System (FCS),
an Army program. Although
FCS’ vehicle program is being
terminated, other FCS technologies presumably will persist,
either through a reorganized
FCS or by being reassigned to
other programs.
Textron is supplying two
kinds of ground sensors as a Tier
One supplier to Boeing, the FCS
lead systems integrator. The first
is for urban operations—to help
troops verify that areas under
their control are still clear of
enemy combatants.
“Imagine that a soldier goes
into a building somewhere in
The Battlefield Anti-Intrusion System (BAIS) is the Army’s type standard unattended physical security and force protection system.
[Photo courtesy of L-3 Communication Systems]
theater and clears a particular
34 | SOTECH 7.6
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
room or hallway or building,” said Johnson. “He wants to make
sure no one comes in behind him to reoccupy the area, so he carries a sensor system, which he puts up on his way out.”
This particular sensor combines a motion detector and a
small camera with a night illuminator. Once the sensor detects
motion, the electro-optical sensor comes into play to take a picture of the intruder.
The other FCS sensor that Textron supplies detects vehicles.
This tactical sensor can identify everything from tanks to pickup
trucks as well as boats approaching a shoreline or a helicopter
hovering close to the ground. The tactical sensor combines
acoustic, seismic and electro-optical capabilities.
“Once a threat is picked up, the sensor starts sharing information with other like sensors in the field,” said Johnson. “They
triangulate the sounds and vibrations to be able to track the
threat vehicle. This is conveyed to a soldier operating a laptop at
a command and control station. The soldier can then activate the
electro-optical sensor to take a picture of it.”
The camera can also be activated through an infrared sensor,
which acts as a tripwire should a suspect vehicle pass its way.
Milestone 3 decisions are approaching for these sensors, and a
decision to produce them is expected before the end of the year.
Already fielded by the Army is a Battlefield Anti-intrusion
Sensor produced by L-3 Communication Systems. “These products are meant to serve small dismounted units with extremely
lightweight and low-power usage devices,” said Robert Lisowski,
director of RF Systems for L-3 Communication Systems–East.
This UGS is also used to augment the systems protecting
forward operating bases with aerostats, tower-mounted cameras
and ground-based radars, according to Lisowski. “Those are still
not able to see into gullies, into areas with dense forestation, or
through hills and mountains,” he said. “This sensor provides an
additional level of security.”
The sensor, which is equipped with seismic, acoustic and
magnetic components, can classify personnel, wheeled and
tracked vehicles, and helicopters, and is being enhanced to identify wheeled vehicles by weight. “The magnetic sensor detects
metallic objects and vehicles,” said Lisowski, “and is also capable
of supporting reporting on the direction of travel. Through a
software enhancement, we are also able to provide some estimation of the speed of the target.”
The L-3 sensor provides 450 linear meters of detection
against personnel targets. Its wireless communications range
is 15 kilometers. An entire system of three sensors, a handheld
monitor, batteries, and manuals weigh less than 11 1/2 pounds.
“The guys are already carrying over 100 pounds into battle,”
said Lisowski. “Especially in rigorous environments like Afghanistan, they can become exhausted before they have to fight if they
are carrying too much.” L-3 provides a similar sensor to the
Marine Corps.
Frontline Defense Systems’ Dragon Sense mini sensor combines an acoustic sensor sourced from a Norwegian company
with U.S.-made seismic, infrared and electro-optical capabilities.
The company currently supplies the sensor to the U.S. Border
Patrol and the U.S. Army.
The sensor communicates wirelessly with a controller logged
on to a Windows-based system to choose, through a check-off
menu, the capabilities to be deployed on the sensor. The system
easily integrates with mapping applications such as FalconView,
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SOTECH 7.6 | 35
ArcView and Google Earth. The sensors organize themselves
into a mesh network that finds the shortest path back to the
base station.
“If there is a failure point, the sensor sends a signal to next
unit,” said Driscoll. “It is a self-healing network so you can just
set it down, turn it on and walk away, and it will report back
to you.”
The networking of ground sensors is important for missions
such as force protection, perimeter control, and intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance, according to Mike Casey,
director of business development at Trident Systems Inc., a
San Diego-based company. Trident manufacturers a small,
lightweight sensor node called the Sentry, which is essentially
an integration platform for a variety of different sensors such
as motion, magnetic, infrared and electro-optical. The nodes
communicate with each other over a 2.4 GHz ultrawideband
network.
Trident has configured its nodes so that “the network itself
is a sensor,” said Casey. “If someone walks between two nodes
and the signal is disrupted, that activity can trigger an alert for
sensors such as the infrared or electro-optical to activate.”
Much as unattended ground sensors have progressed in
their capabilities in recent years, so are they expected to provide enhanced capabilities in the future. L-3’s Lisowski predicts
that the Army will want to take sensor messages to smaller
warfighter units. “The concept of the soldier as sensor is important to the Army,” he said. “Anything to enhance situational
awareness is a high priority for the services.”
Driscoll sees more and different cameras, including ones
that can zoom directly on a target, being incorporated into
ground sensors in the future. Frontline Defense Systems is
now finishing up work on a small disposable sensor that can
be airdropped to its target and that will use robotics to secure
itself to the ground.
Harris Corp. is working on developing advanced video capabilities. One is to provide video surveillance over fairly long
distances given sufficient bandwidth. Another is the ability to
transmit low data rate video over very narrow channels.
“It will provide enough information so an operator or analyst can see what is going on in an area,” said Barthlow. “It
can’t identify an SUV by make and model, but it can tell the
difference between a pickup truck and a military vehicle. It will
be able to discriminate between a human being and an animal.
You won’t be able to see facial features, but you will be able to
discern the outline of a weapon.”
Future unattended ground sensors will be further miniaturized and embedded with electronics, according to Casey.
“Especially in special operations, they want sensors that are
small and easy to use. They want to be able to place the sensor
and just switch on the device.”
Prado and Johnson both foresee sensors becoming weaponized in the not too distant future. One such sensor currently
under development would detonate a mine after a particular
kind of vehicular target is identified, according to Prado.
Johnson said that Textron is working on a weaponized
anti-personnel sensor called Spider and an anti-vehicular sensor called Scorpion. “With this mix of sensors and munitions,
the sensor would send a signal to soldier on a laptop that a
particular threat has been identified,” he said, “and the controller would then decide whether the target is friend or foe and
whether to engage.”
The array of available unattended ground sensors and their
combination of capabilities may appear like a Chinese menu to
the uninitiated. But it need not be confusing to the decisionmaker, according to QinetiQ’s Schempf.
“Some sensors can do things others can’t,” he said. “There is
room to use a lot of different devices. You should think of them
as different tools in your tool box.” ✯
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or
search our online archives for related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
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ARSOF HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPORTANCE OF “FIRES.”
BY SCOTT R. GOURLEY
SOTECH CORRESPONDENT
GOURLEYS@KMIMEDIAGROUP.COM
Speaking at the recent joint service
Fire Support Symposium, hosted by the
U.S. Fires Center of Excellence at Fort
Sill, Okla., Lieutenant General John Mulholland, commanding general, U.S. Army
Special Operations Command, highlighted
the expanding role and critical contributions of “fires” and “fire support” in recent
and ongoing command missions.
While conventional forces have a significant amount of organic fire support,
including mortars, cannon artillery and
rocket systems, organic fires are more limited within special operations. For example, other than 60 mm and 81 mm mortars
utilized within the Army’s 75th Ranger
Regiment, the bulk of special operations
comes from the air, in the form of AC-130
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
series gunships or AH-6/MH-60 minigun
and rocket assets. The organic shortfall is
most serious in Special Forces groups.
Noting that Special Forces were among
the first units “to answer the call in the
unfortunate aftermath of September 11
[2001],” Mulholland explained that when
the units redeployed to conduct unconventional warfare operations in Afghanistan,
they moved forward “without any kind of
fires capability.”
“Special Forces does not have an
organic fires capability in the system,” he
said. “So we went to war without one.”
Initial combat operations in Afghanistan
focused on air “fires” delivered in coordination with joint terminal attack controllers
(JTACs). The larger coordination of such
fires tended to be conducted on a fairly ad
hoc basis.
“Overwhelmingly that worked extremely
well,” Mulholland observed. “But it was
not without cost. The first soldiers that we
lost in Task Force Dagger in the early days
were two different fratricide incidents. On
December 9 [2001], I lost the best part of
an A-team to a JDAM. It worked exactly as
designed. But that’s a neutral device. It will
go where you tell it to go, regardless of who
is at the other end of that thing. And the
last one I lost in March, in Operation Anaconda, down in the Shahi-Kot Valley, when
an AC-130 suffered a malfunction and had
drifted off where he geographically thought
he was on Earth and, as a result, engaged
one of my elements.”
SOTECH 7.6 | 39
With the legacy of Afghanistan freshly
in mind, early 2003 saw new Special Forces
taskings for western Iraq, including Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force
(CJSOTF)—West’s counter tactical ballistic missile mission.
According to Mulholland, those taskings led to the creation of a truly jointcombined fires element, developing new
tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs),
in coordination with the combined force
air component commander, for integrated
operations in the western Iraq desert.
“We learned from our lessons in
Afghanistan and insisted on not just a
‘joint fires’ capability but a ‘joint-combined
fires’ capability,” he said. “And I was fortunate to have extraordinarily capable men
who were able to create an extraordinary
cell of U.S., British, Australian officers and
NCOs—world-class—and for the first time
strategically on the battlefield allowed us
to merge special operations task forces
with our friends in the U.K., Australia and
other special forces in the Scud/counterScud mission.”
Crediting the CJSOTF with “truly strategic ramifications,” Mulholland described
how the organization allowed a relatively
limited number of ground SOF operators
to be hugely successful, adding that it
provides a future template now commonly
used.
In terms of quantified specifics, he
offered that the initial 27 days of OIF saw
execution of 393 joint-fire deconfliction with
zero fratricide or near-fratricide events.
Moreover, on D+1 alone, three separate Special Forces A-teams were in direct
contact with superior forces, one in danger
of being overrun, all within a 30-minute
period. According to Mulholland, literally
within minutes, the Joint Fires Element
cell was able to put a two-ship close air
support (CAS) element over each team and
resolve the contacts.
FIRE SUPPORTERS
In terms of organizational evolution, the forward deployed CJSOTFs were
resourced with Army fire supporters as
augmentees starting in OIF I. Reinforced
by those early successes, Special Forces
groups (SFGs) began to be resourced with
Army fire supporters as a proof of concept
in 2004, beginning with the 7th SFG.
Mulholland noted that over the course
of the last five years, the proof of concept
40 | SOTECH 7.6
was validated and approved. In 2007, every
active SFG was authorized a joint fire support element (JFE) based on the Enhanced
Special Forces Group BAND III MTOE. At
the SFG level, the JFE includes: 1 x 13A
major fire support officer; 1 x 131A CW3
targeting officer; and 1 x 13F SFC fire support NCO. Special Forces battalions are
authorized: 1 x 13A CPT fire support officer; and 1 x 13F SFC fire support NCO.
He added that Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) has integrated the
fire supporters into a joint effects cell that
through a joint planning group integrates,
fuses and synchronizes lethal and nonlethal fires to achieve the commanders’
desired effects ranging from direct action,
close air support, and artillery strikes to
information operations, electronic warfare,
and civil military operations.
In terms of target development, Mulholland’s overview emphasized that due
to the network structure of the insurgent
groups usually being targeted by ARSOF,
coupled with their often seamless integration into the local population and the preponderance of ARSOF, targets “are derived
and pushed from the bottom up.”
A-teams develop and exploit targets
that originate primarily from actionable
HUMINT garnered from a variety of sources.
That intelligence is then cross-cued with
tactical, theater and national SIGINT in
order to validate and refine the target,
with SOF then employing both systemic
and dynamic targeting to disrupt insurgent
networks by delivering both kinetic and
non-kinetic effects on key nodes.
He added that the task of this type of
targeting in a counterinsurgency environment requires the precision targeting
against key nodes within the insurgent
cellular network structure, including:
commanders, sub-commanders, facilitators, financiers, and command and control nodes. Working together with host
nations, the net effect of successful targeting is to systematically dismantle the
insurgent cellular structures, physically
and ideologically separating them from the
population.
Mulholland then offered sanitized
examples of how this process works in the
real world.
The first example demonstrated the
development of HUMINT through synchronized kinetic and non-kinetic activities to
develop intelligence on a target. The scenario is a Special Forces A-team conduct-
ing operations from a firebase in a remote
valley in Afghanistan.
During a “key leader engagement” by
the team leader and local Afghan National
Security Force (ANSF) commander in a
nearby village, they learn of a nearby village where a man comes from with large
sums of money.
During a subsequent medical visit to
the village a local female tells a U.S. female
health care provider that a Taliban subcommander in the area is actively trying
to recruit her son. The A-team interviews
the son, and he tells them that he can
show them the location of a large number
of Taliban fighters. Over the next couple of
weeks he also provides the team with the
name and location of an individual who
carries large sums of money and associates
with the fighters. Additionally, he provides
a telephone number he saw at the financier’s house, adding that the number may
belong to a Taliban leader in the district.
MOVING IN
The team and ANSF then plan and
conduct a medical visit to the area where it
suspects the sub-commander operates, and
employs tactical SIGINT to collect in that
area. The SIBINT identifies a conversation
between a local Taliban commander and
IED facilitator. Additionally, it identifies a
Thurya cell phone number.
The CJSOTF then focuses national- and
theater-level SIGINT to find and fix the
location of the Taliban commander. Once
the HUMINT and SIGINT pictures are
cross-cued, the A-team conducts a detailed
network nodal analysis.
The team then requests the CJSOTF
employ joint operational fires against the
Taliban area commander, while simultaneously working with ANSF to plan and
execute a raid against the Taliban subcommander and C2 node.
After the successful operations, the
ANSF establishes a security outpost in the
vicinity of the former Taliban C2 node to
deny further sanctuary and increase governmental influence and control.
“In reality the conduct of our operations is much more complicated than this
illustration, but it does provide a picture
of the methodology we use,” Mulholland
noted.
A second vignette depicted a dynamic
targeting/joint operational fire strike
against a senior operational commander
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
JTAC
Joint Publication 3-09.3, “Joint Tactics,
Techniques and Procedures for Close Air Support
(CAS),” notes that “JTACs use Type 1 control when
the risk assessment requires them to visually acquire
the attacking aircraft and the target under attack.”
Conversely, “Type 2 control will be used when the
JTAC desires control of individual attacks but assesses
that either visual acquisition of the attacking aircraft
or target at weapons release is not possible or when
attacking aircraft are not in a position to acquire the
mark/target prior to weapons release/launch. ...
“Type 3 control may be used when the tactical
risk assessment indicates that CAS attack imposes
low risk of fratricide.”
Along with SOTACC, other success stories
included embedding the JFEs at Special Forces
group and battalion levels; linkages of targeting and
intelligence sections to produce timely targeting
information; SOF employment of the full spectrum
of joint fires capabilities; and the use of both new
technologies and TTPs for the employment of fires,
including target location equipment and procedures,
integration with ISR (sensor to shooter links), and
integration and deconfliction of surface-to-surface
and air-to-surface systems.
Emphasizing the criticality of continuing joint
service fire support for SOF operations, Mulholland
noted, “Special Forces, by and large, routinely
operate outside ‘normal support.’ Our help comes
from afar—whether it’s from field artillery or from
the air.”
Based on that criticality, Mulholland identified
the need to collectively capture, refine and codify
SOF fire support doctrine and TTPs that have been
developed over the past eight years, increasing
fire support training opportunities and habitual
relationships at home station to increase the entire
force’s capabilities when deployed, and providing fire
support training of host nation forces as part of a
foreign internal defense strategy.
Mulholland’s vision of “the way ahead” concluded
with calls to capture the TTPs and codify into
doctrine, develop habitual training and support
relationships between Army fire supporters and
ARSOF.
“ARSOF will likely remain in the theaters of war
long after the conventional force draws down, and
need and requirement for Army fire support will
remain as well,” he said.
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SOTECH 7.6 | 41
for southern Afghanistan. The area of
operations was Kajaki, Baghran District,
Helmand Province. Tribal and sub-tribal
identifications were given as: Ghurgehusht/Kakar.
In the scenario the CJSOTF-A (Afghanistan) began targeting the Taliban senior
commander and his deputy. HUMINT and
SIGINT reports indicated that both commanders were planning on conducting a
“Taliban Court,” followed by executions
of three suspected Taliban traitors who
were believed to be providing information
to ANSF/coalition forces and the Afghan
government. Reports also indicated that
the commanders were gathering 200–250
Taliban fighters from Now Zad, Baghran
and Musa Qaleh districts to convene the
court.
CJSOTF-A developed a target package
and requested intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance support to find and fix
the targets at the suspected meeting site.
After obtaining positive identification
of the targets through multiple sources
of SIGINT coupled with visual indicators,
42 | SOTECH 7.6
CJSOTF-A requested and received strike
approval.
Under the designation of Operation
Jang Baz, the CJSOTF-A then directed
the employment of 6 x GBU-31 JDAMs,
delivered by a B-1B, to destroy the meeting site containing the two high-value
individuals.
ASSESSING THE DAMAGE
Initial battle damage assessment
(BDA), conducted through Predator observation, revealed the complete destruction
of the three targeted structures at the
meeting site. Final BDA confirmed that
6 x operational and 29 x tactical Taliban
commanders were killed by the strike,
along with over 150 Taliban fighters.
In addition to severely disrupting the
Taliban’s ability to synchronize operations
to defend Musa Qaleh and project violence
into Central Helmand, Western Oruzgon
and Western Kandahar Provinces, the
strike served as a “shaping operation”
for coalition forces preparing for future
operations in the vicinity of Musa Qaleh.
Shifting focus, Mulholland shared a
series of recent success stories, remaining challenges and future goals with the
assembled audience from across the joint
service fire support community.
“Having enough [USAF joint tactical
air] controllers on the ground is an issue,”
he acknowledged. “We all know it’s an
issue, and it’s tough.”
“As a result, we stood up our own
SOTACC [Special Operations Terminal
Attack Controller Course] at Yuma Proving Grounds, where we run our own
program six times a year to train Air
Force controllers, but primarily Army
Special Forces and Ranger controllers—
and Marine MARSOC. And six times a
year we train about 16 students ... as
‘Type 1’ controllers on the battlefield,”
he said. ✯
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan
at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for
related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
THE COMPUTERS THAT GO INTO BATTLE ALONGSIDE WARFIGHTERS MUST
WITHSTAND THE EXTREME FORCES THAT COME WITH COMBAT.
BY STEVE GOODMAN
SOTECH CORRESPONDENT
GOODMANS@KMIMEDIAGROUP.COM
They have to perform in the most
hostile of environments. They are
found in the air, on and below the
seas, and with ground forces from
the most arid deserts to the frozen
Arctic, facing extremes of wind, cold,
dust and heat. Our special forces?
Indeed—but we are talking about
their computers.
44 | SOTECH 7.6
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
Information acquisition and dissemination are almost as critical to today’s
warfighter in the field as guns and ammo.
Increasingly, portable computers need
to serve as the “human-machine” interface between ground troops and their
robotic partners, such as UAVs and other
unmanned vehicles. Mobile computers are
used not only to control these systems,
but also to receive and exploit the data
received by their sensors and surveillance
equipment.
Military IT personnel and the manufacturers of military computer hardware
agree that battlefield-ready computing systems are essential to mission success. And
that means that portable computers—it’s
really a misnomer to call these ruggedized
computers “laptops” —have to be built
to take a beating. “In the DoD space we
really are dealing with a much harsher
environment than we find in any other
user,” explained Timothy Hill, group manager, product marketing, General Dynamics C4 Systems. “In addition their access
to replacement parts to get damaged units
repaired is much more difficult, so the goal
is to keep these computers working as long
as possible in the field.”
Like any system or electronic device
put onto the battlefield, a computer must
meet the 810F standards, which stipulate
that any such piece of gear must be subject
to the extremes of the environment in
which it will be used. That includes high
and low temperatures, shock, rain, dust,
sand, wind, gunfire and more—all of which
are conditions that are nothing new to the
testing labs of the suppliers of ruggedized
computers.
“At Panasonic we test for shock, water
penetration and dust penetration,” said
Peter Romness, national sales manager,
Panasonic Computer Solutions Co., U.S.
Army Division. “We meet or exceed 810F
standards in most cases when we design
a product. The U1, our handheld device,
recently passed a 6-foot drop test. That’s
unheard of in mil-spec testing. Typically
they go up to 4 feet. We take a single
Toughbook and take it through the entire
suite of 810F tests, and that single unit will
withstand all of those tests.”
U.S. Special Operations Command Tactical Local Area Network (TACLAN), which
is tasked with interconnecting deployed
elements of the Special Operations Forces
(SOF) through mobile IT infrastructure
and applications, use only two notebooks
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
within the program, and they are both
Panasonic Toughbooks, the T52 and the
T19.
THE CHALLENGES
Mobile computing is essential to today’s
warfighter. All armed forces in the field
rely on mobility, but size, weight, power
consumption and security are particularly
important for special ops. Mobile computers need to withstand extreme environs
and offer extended battery life, yet still be
small and lightweight enough to easily fit
in a field pack.
Besides the extremes of weather and
potential shock and ballistic trauma, our
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have faced
another real computer killer: dust. According to Romness there is a fine dust that is
all encompassing in these theaters of operation. It is so pervasive that he knows of
even ruggedized computers other than the
Toughbooks that fail within 30 days of use
in this environment, basically choked by
the dust. “Our product is fanless,” he said.
“Along with our seals, that is what gets us
very high IP ratings, ingress ratings, on
both dust and liquid penetration.”
On the other hand, General Dynamics
does use a fan system, and the company
believes it does great things for the product. “Here’s what a fan does for you,” said
Hill. “You put a fan in that unit that is
completely sealed, you can then use heat
pipes to draw heat from all the major components to that fan and out of the unit. If
dust does get in, since the system is completely sealed, it cannot do any damage,
and it can be washed out without any water
ingress. The big difference in Itronix products versus other companies that do dust
protection is that we protect everything,
even behind our connectors. Our seals
are protected inside, so you have a much
greater chance of the seal maintaining its
performance over time.”
There have long been commercially
available rugged computers, but few if any
of these computers that may have been
built to survive business travel, or the
occasional coffee spill, can take the rigors
of warfare. Rugged military computers are
subject to brutal conditions and literal
poundings during testing to emulate battlefield conditions. Manufacturers destroy
hundreds of units a year, pushing them to
their limits and beyond. According to suppliers, if there was one word that summed
up the military’s needs when it comes to
mobile computing, it’s dependability.
As per Hill, “It’s really all about keeping a notebook in the field working at all
times. What does that really translate to
in terms of the product itself? It goes into
three areas for these guys: drop protection,
liquid ingress and dust ingress. We learned
a lot from the Air Force environment. Our
computers are used extensively [by maintenance crews] on the flight line to receive
technical orders. So wherever their wrench
goes, their notebook goes. We had one
guy ask us, ‘How cold does your notebook
work in?’ And I said, ‘Well we go down to
-4 degrees.’ He says, ‘-4? I gotta work in
-22.’ So we said, ‘Well if you have to work
in -22, then we’d better build a notebook
that works at -22.’”
“Panasonic destroys over 1,000
machines a year taking them to failure to
push the envelope,” said Fed de Gastyne,
business development manager, federal
government sales team, Panasonic Computer Solutions Co. “We have developed
our products with the military in mind.
We have over 100,000 machines deployed,
and of those units for our fully rugged
machines, we have a sub 1.5 percent failure
rate per year.”
KEY PLAYERS
There are those who believe that
Toughbooks have set the standard for rugged computing. If that is true there are
quite a few offerings nipping at their heels.
Some of those are from familiar consumer
brands such as Dell, and others from
companies such as DRS Tactical Systems,
a name probably not so recognizable to
those outside of the military.
DRS, based in Melbourne, Fla., specializes in providing tactical computers
for integration with military vehicles.
Their JV-5 rugged vehicle system has been
installed on many U.S. Army and U.S.
Marine Corps vehicles as part of the Force
XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below
(FBCB2) and Blue Force Tracking Digitization programs.
The goal of FBCB2 and BFT is to provide reliable up-to-the-minute tactical and
command and control information in real
time from brigade level on down. With that
in mind, the JV-5s have been designed to
provide troops with the ability to use GPS
information to identify and track friendly
and enemy combatants, and interface with
SOTECH 7.6 | 45
ground-based radio and satellite communications. According to the company, the
ruggedized computer system “provides
computers mounted in users’ vehicles that
are probably more capable than the ones
that sit on their desks back in garrison.”
General Dynamics Corp. has a long history of providing technology and weapon
systems to the military. Its Itronix Corp.
builds sophisticated and ruggedized computing solutions for all branches of the
military.
Formerly known as the “Go Books”
product line, General Dynamics provides
three commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
ruggedized computer systems to the military. The GD8000, The GD6000 and the
Go Book MR1 mini-ruggedized portable—
soon to be renamed the GD2000. While the
units are commercially available hardware,
Itronix will customize them to the needs
of the user, as Hill explains. “We provide
COTS-based products for the military, but
we will in some instances make modifications that will adapt a product better for a
specific user. This is especially true of the
GD2000 handheld, which is easily customizable with specific ports that can be used
to optimize the mission of a given user,
which has proved to be very valuable for
special ops.”
Panasonic also has recently introduced
an ultra portable ruggedized computer
small enough to fit in a cargo pocket. The
U1 is being utilized by forward troops for
everything from HMMWV maintenance to
navigating UAVs. According to de Gastyne,
46 | SOTECH 7.6
“It is the toughest Toughbook we have ever
made.”
According to company figures, more
than 30,000 ruggedized computers and
peripherals have been supplied under contract to the U.S. Army over the years by VT
Miltope. Based in Alabama, VT Miltope is a
subsidiary of Vision Technology Systems.
VT’s line of ruggedized computers includes
the TSC-750M. Meeting or exceeding all
MIL standards for drop, shock and water/
dust ingress, it also delivers some of the
most powerful 3-D graphics found in any
ruggedized laptop, crucial in fulfilling the
enhanced visual needs of today’s warfighter.
VT also has an ultra-portable laptop—the
Pony PCU. It weighs less than 8 pounds,
can survive a 3-foot drop, and has proved
itself in many tactical applications.
Dell offers the Dell Latitude E6400
XFR, a fully ruggedized and armored
notebook. According to the company, the
E6400 was designed and engineered to
be the highest-performing fully rugged
laptop in its class. Dell clams that its exclusive Ballistic Armor Protection System
“meets or exceeds real-world and military
standards,” and its PrimoSeal technology
has the highest combined level of ingress
protection rating (shielding from dust and
moisture) of any notebook in its class.
According to Brett McAnally, director, Dell
Product Group, “We incorporated innovations on behalf of our customers to create
a one-of-a-kind system that offers advanced
security, more durability, and exceptional
ease-of-use for an overall user experience
that’s simply unmatched in the industry
today.” The E6400 XFR was recently showcased at the Federal Office Systems Exposition (FOSE), held in Washington, D.C.
In 1989 Mitac and the General Electric
Aerospace Group formed a joint venture
creating Getac. Ever since, Getac Inc. has
been supplying DoD with electronics ruggedized for military applications. The A790
is the flagship of its line. According to
company specs, the A790 is an extremely
rugged notebook that not only meets MILSTD 810F and IP54 ratings, but also satisfies critical EMI shielding requirements.
Getac claims that its propriety Sunlight
Readable Technology enables daylight display viewability that is more than six times
better than conventional mobile computer
displays, without compromising battery
life. Recently Getac introduced a series of
upgrades to its V100 fully rugged convertible computer. In a company press release
announcing the new features, Jim Rimay,
president, Getac Inc., said, “The V100 fully
rugged convertible has been very popular
because of its advanced feature set and
super bright 1200 NITs screen. With better
performance, memory, storage and wireless capabilities, the new Getac V100 is
more advanced, flexible as ever, and even
better suited for mobile field workers and
any users of rugged notebook PCs.”
Concentrating on PDAs and other
small-ruggedized devices rather than fullblown notebooks is Handheld USA. Products include PDAs and tablets that have
all been designed to face a variety of
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
SECURE COMMUNICATIONS WHEREVER YOU GO
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environmental conditions. Specific units
for military application meet or exceed all
MIL-STD 810F specs, such as the Recon,
which is dustproof, waterproof and operates
in extreme temperatures from -22 to 140
degrees Fahrenheit.
HOW TOUGH IS TOUGH?
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48 | SOTECH 7.6
All of these rugged computers go though
hours and hours of grueling tests. But just
how tough is tough? Dell says the E6400
survived a 4-foot drop with the system
powered down and closed, and a 3-foot drop
operating with the LCD open. Panasonic
has successfully dropped the U-1 Toughbook from 6 feet, which is unprecedented.
Obviously making a rugged computer
for the military isn’t only about meeting the
standards. For example, to make mil-spec
for a 36-inch drop test, you have to drop a
notebook 26 times, to be sure it hits every
surface at every angle. But you can drop five
computers, and only one of them needs to
survive to pass.
“But that is just not acceptable in the
military space,” said General Dynamics’
Hill. “If it takes you five notebooks to pass
a test, you are really talking about six drops
maximum that this thing is going to take.
That is just not acceptable in the military
world. In addition, in the industry we arbitrarily created this 36-inch high desktop
height to drop from. Well have you ever
been on top of a HMMWV? It’s considerably
higher than 36 inches. So the first thing we
did was say we have to get through all the
drops with one unit. That is very realistic
and a lot more appropriate for a unit that is
going to be out in the field for five years.”
Hill went on to say that General Dynamics now tests from 42 inches, which is more
reflective of real-world use, and that it tests
all of its notebooks with the power on.
Tests are one thing, but just how tough
is tough, especially outside of the testing
labs and in the real world? There have
been General Dynamics computers that
have slid off the back of pick-up trucks and
bounced off of concrete, and Hill relates a
story of a state trooper, who in pursuit of a
fleeing suspect, rolled his cruiser over several times, totaling the vehicle. Suspended
upside down strapped into his seat belt,
he was able to report the accident via his
undamaged notebook.
There are many reports from Iraq of
ruggedized computers that have literally
saved lives.
“I can’t tell you the name of the soldier,” relates Panasonic’s Romness, “but I
was working a trade show, and a soldier
came up to me and said, ‘I need to tell
you something: We were on patrol in Iraq,
and my notebook was in my backpack. An
IED went off, and several of our guys went
down. I am here talking to you because
that Toughbook was on my back.’ All of the
fragments were taken by the Toughbook
and saved his life.”
WHAT’S NEXT
No doubt in the years ahead the need
to acquire and use tactical data—and the
increased use of robotic combat vehicles
such as UAVs and other unmanned systems—will lead to a dramatic increase
in the need for mobile computing on the
battlefield.
We will see an increased use of ruggedized computers in all shapes and sizes.
However, we may also see increased use
of “slave computers”—that is, computers
that are small, lightweight and effectively
“disposable” because they have no hard
drive. Such computers, such as General
Dynamics’ thin client, could be of particular interest to special forces. David Miles
with General Dynamics explains, “In special operations specifically you are dealing
with forces that are going somewhere, and
if they have to leave in a hurry, they often
cannot take their equipment with them.
This thin client architecture allows for a
small, lightweight portable device that is
networked securely to a data center, and
leaves no footprint if the unit itself needs
to be left behind.”
Panasonic’s de Gastyne agrees that
tomorrow’s warfighter will be increasingly
dependent on mission-critical computing, and believes ruggedization along with
wireless security will become more and
more important. “I think we will see the
military working with manufacturers to
better protect data in transit, so that we
will be better able to leverage the powerful wireless capabilities of our ruggedized
computers.”
Wherever the solutions come from, and
whatever shape they take, the fully automated battlefield is no longer light-years
away. ✯
For more information, contact SOTECH Editor Jeff McKaughan
at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for
related stories at www.SOTECH-kmi.com.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
GIS—Supporting Capability, Enabling Interoperability
The fusion of data in defense systems demands an enterprise
definition of interoperability.
Spatial capabilities need to be embedded into defense systems in
every domain and at every level of command, demanding a robust
definition of openness. The ESRI® ArcGIS® platform is engineered
to participate in an enterprise information system environment.
Interoperability is built into the heart of the ArcGIS scalable family
of software products. This ensures the sharing of spatial data and
applications throughout defense enterprises.
ESRI supports a wide range of standards:
4 Operating systems including Windows®, UNIX®, and Linux®
4 DBMSs such as IBM® DB2® Universal Database and Informix®
Dynamic Server™, Microsoft® SQL Server™, and Oracle®
4Spatial data formats including direct read and data access via
SQL, XML, and GML; support for DIGEST, NITF, and other
defense standards; published APIs; and other GIS formats
4 Developer environments including VB, C++, Visual Studio .NET,
and Java (J2ME, J2SE, J2EE, and ASP/JSP)
4 Enterprise applications such as SAS, Oracle, SAP, IBI, and FileNET
The ArcGIS 9 Data Interoperability extension provides direct
support for 70 formats.
4 Defense enterprise standards such as NCES, SDSFIE,
MIL-STD-2525B, and GEOSYM
4 Enterprise security protocols such as LDAP, SSO, HTTPS, WSS,
and managed logins
4Web services such as XML, SOAP, UDDI, and WSDL; OGC
specifications such as WFS, WMS, and GML; and application
servers such as Oracle and WebSphere
To learn more about ESRI’s commitment to developing standardsbased GIS products, visit www.esri.com/interoperability.
ESRI—The GIS Company™
ArcGIS software’s open architecture enables defense developers,
such as Concurrent Technologies Corporation, to embed powerful
GIS capabilities into C4ISR applications.
Email: info@esri.com
In the United States:1-888-620-2477
Outside the United States: 1-909-793-2853, ext. 1-1235
or visit www.esri.com/international for your local distributor
Copyright © 2009 ESRI. All rights reserved. The ESRI globe logo, ESRI, ArcMap, ArcInfo, ArcGlobe, ESRI–The GIS Company, ArcGIS, and www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States,
the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective trademark owners.
Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
Bullet for Smoothbore Rifle
Sakharov Vjacheslav Sergeevich of Russia has
released information on a proposed projectile for a
smoothbore rifle.
The proposed bullet comprises the casing with
head, caliber and lightweight base parts. The casing has
caliber-centering ribs that make aerodynamic guiding
elements arranged on the casing head and caliber parts
at an angle to its axis and axis of symmetry and represent triangular plates. The plate’s widest part is located
at the transition from the casing head part into its
caliber part. The plates gradually get narrowed toward
the casing base. The casing base center features a tapered
cavity, while the base outer surface is furnished with the
rectangular grooves.
Sniper Camo
A new sniper suit poncho has been developed by Aero Sekur as part of the company’s
work for the Italian Future Soldier program.
Providing effective camouflage in the multispectral range, a new fabric used for the suit
alters detection capabilities of optoelectronic devices to protect the wearer.
Aero Sekur, an Anglo-Italian company
that specializes in the innovative use of flexible materials, reports that the new addition
50 | SOTECH 7.6
to its portfolio complements its range of
safety and camouflage solutions for defense
applications.
Designed to prevent detection from
night vision glasses during general use,
the sniper suit’s application extends to
providing shelter during extended night
missions. A water-repellent feature integral
to the fabric ensures that the suit can be
worn in any climatic condition.
VHS Assault Rifle
Vukovic Marko of Hungary has released information on a VHS assault rifle that has integrated
devices that allow the fast mounting of various
sights and optics. According to information available to SOTECH, the weapon can also be modified to
fire various small arms ammunition and can attach
fitting for a grenade launcher and even a bayonet
slide.
The cocking lever is placed on the upper side
of the rifle and automatically closes in the forward
position and remains still while the bolt moves
forward or backward. According to the designer, the
problem of self-cleaning of the bolt chamber has
been solved in such a way that, when the bolt gets
into the chamber, it turns and, while turning, it
pushes all the impurities out through the elongated
opening for the cartridge case ejection.
The fire selector is placed within the reach of the
index finger used for firing, and without releasing the
grip, it is possible to put the rifle on safety with the
index finger, switch it to the automatic or single fire
position and lower the bolt after changing a frame or
a drum. The rifle is equipped with various adapters
that can be mounted very quickly with a lock system
enabling the use of any type of a magazine.
The cooling of the recoil spring, protected from
external influences in the guide, is achieved in such
a way that the recoil spring retroactively seals air,
which, with the moving of the bolt acts like an air
pump, thus cooling the spring, the guide tube and
other parts of the rifle. The rifle has been designed
with the grip placed in front of the magazine
producing a length approximately 300 mm shorter
with the same barrel length than other rifles of the
same class. Such a design makes the rifle 0.8 to 1
kilogram lighter.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
The advertisers index is provided as a service to our readers. KMI cannot be held responsible for discrepancies due to last-minute changes or alterations.
ADVERTISERS INDEX
AAI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C3
www.aaicorp.com
Abaxis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
www.abaxis.com/military
AM General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
www.amgeneral.com
AR Modular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
www.ar-worldwide.com
Ashbury International. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
www.ashburyintlgroup.com
AV Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
www.avinc.com/wasp
Brunswick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
www.builtforthemission.com
Cases2Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
www.cases2go.com
Ceradyne Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
www.ceradyne.com
Combat Medical Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C4
www.combatmedicalsystems.com/sot
ESRI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
www.esri.com/international
FLIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
www.flir.com/gs
General Dynamics C4 Systems-Scottsdale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C2
www.gdc4s.com/highassurance
Hardigg Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
www.hardigg.com
International Training Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
www.itiwsi.com
L-3 Communications East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
www.l-3com.com/talon
L-3 Communications West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
www.l-3com.com/csw
Lind Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
www.lindelectronics.com
Military Systems Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
www.milsysgroup.com
Phoenix International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
www.atvcorp.com
Remington Arms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
www.remingtonmilitary.com
Rockwell Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
www.rockwellcollins.com/milsatcom
Skedco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
www.skedco.com
Smartronix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
www.smartronix.com
Surefire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
www.surefire.com
CALENDAR
September 1, 2009
SO/LIC Executive Breakfast
Washington, D.C.
www.ndia.org
September 14-16, 2009
Air & Space Conference
National Harbor, Md.
www.afa.org
Simple & accurate
on-site blood
chemistry analysis
in minutes.
Call nää‡nÓӇә{Ç
www.abaxis.com/military
Piccolo xpress and Abaxis are registered
trademarks of Abaxis, Inc.
KMI Media Group is seeking a full-time
MAGAZINE EDITOR
RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:
•
•
•
•
•
Developing and producing multiple
magazine titles
Planning the editorial calendars
Writing and assigning articles
Working with public affairs officers,
writers & others in defense industry
Representing company at trade shows
and conferences
QUALIFICATIONS:
•
•
Background in or strong knowledge
of military affairs & technology
Journalism/English degree preferred
but not required
SALARY AND BENEFITS:
•
•
Salary commensurate with experience
Health insurance and vacation
CONTACT: jeffm@kmimediagroup.com
NEXTISSUE
SEPTEMBER 2009
VOLUME 7, ISSUE 7
Cover and In-Depth Interview with:
Col. Gregory J. Lengyel
yel
Commander
1st Special Operations Wing
mmand
Air Force Special Operations Command
Special Supplement
SOTECH’S Annual Night Vision Buyer’s Guide
Features
Giving the Helicopter a Bite
Headsets
The right weapon can turn an airborne Clear communications starts with
bus into a lethal pointer.
hearing a good headset that stays put.
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
Expeditionary Airfield Prep
Special Tactics Squadron
Matting systems and soil preparation AFSOC’s STS polishes contingency
can turn a mud pit into a landing zone. skills while on exercise.
SOTECH 7.6 | 51
INDUSTRY INTERVIEW
SPECIAL OPERATIONS TECHNOLOGY
Ellen Lord
Senior Vice President
AAI Corp.
Ellen Lord is the senior vice president
and general manager of AAI Corp.
Q: Can you describe AAI’s history and
evolution?
A: AAI was founded in 1950. Today’s company shares the same mission as originally
envisioned by AAI’s founders: creating innovative solutions for warfighters on land, in
the air and at sea. That means leveraging our
cutting-edge technologies and resources to
rapidly develop and deliver integrated products and services that support U.S. Army,
Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force warfighters in an ever-changing battlespace.
Since joining Textron Systems in 2007,
AAI has become a part of a larger group of
organizations similarly dedicated to creating
capabilities for warfighters facing the dangers of irregular warfare. For example, our
sister Textron Systems organization, Overwatch Tactical Operations, develops intelligence software solutions to deliver more
comprehensive situational awareness. Textron Defense Systems provides intelligent
battlefield systems including unattended
ground sensors and the Scorpion networked
sensor and munitions platform. Our product
and service capabilities are complementary,
enabling us to provide warfighters a greater
breadth of tools for precision engagement.
For example, AAI and Overwatch Tactical
Operations have combined their technologies to create the Tactical Remote Exploitation, or T-REx, Terminal, which provides
intelligence analysts a unified interface for
collecting and analyzing intelligence data
from multiple remote sensing systems.
Q: What are AAI’s primary product areas?
A: Our watchword is innovation—we are
focused on creating cutting-edge technologies that support our troops at every stage.
Our Unmanned Aircraft Systems [UAS]
group delivers a diverse fleet of unmanned
aircraft and interoperable ground control
technologies. These include Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems, which are
in service with the Army and Marine Corps
and have accumulated more than 415,000
operational hours. Shadow systems provide valuable mission capabilities including
52 | SOTECH 7.6
intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance
and target acquisition. Our Aerosonde
small UAS, including the new, expeditionary
Mark 4.7 system, are designed for fast, easy
deployment, mission flexibility and long
endurance. These systems are supported by
our ground control technologies including
the One System Ground Control Station
[GCS], the next-generation universal GCS
for joint services interoperability, and One
System Remote Video Terminal.
AAI also has decades of experience
designing and manufacturing robust test
systems that ensure full mission capability.
Our test systems include the Joint Service
Electronic Combat Systems Tester, utilized
by the Navy and Air Force on flight lines to
ensure mission readiness and reliability, as
well as advanced boresight equipment, or
ABE, a measurement platform that aligns
systems on land, sea or air vehicles.
We also provide a full spectrum of
training products and services including
unmanned aircraft system and electronic
warfare trainers, embedded training systems, and other full-scale and part-task
immersive trainers, as well as instruction
and life cycle support services. Among these
platforms is the Shadow crew trainer, which
enables individual and crew-level skill development as well as full mission rehearsal in
a classroom environment. Our Simulator
for Electronic Combat Systems Training,
or SECT, incorporates photo-realistic interfaces, a fully reactive synthetic environment,
and robust evaluation capabilities for Air
Force combat systems officer trainees. We
also deliver high-fidelity aircraft maintenance trainers for platforms including the
C-17 and F-35.
For training ranges, AAI’s TDCue automatic target scoring system accurately
detects and immediately records the precise
location of hits using acoustic technology.
This technology also powers our highly
effective PDCue gunshot detection system,
which instantaneously locates and updates
the source of single-shot, burst fire and
multiple-shot events in urban and rural
environments.
We also work with the Army and Marine
Corps on the Lightweight Small Arms Technologies, or LSAT, program, under which AAI
is developing its high-performance 5.56-millimeter light machine gun and a carbine rifle
variant, along with two innovative ammunition technologies, including plastic cased
telescoped and caseless designs.
Q: How do post-delivery services and life
cycle support fit into AAI’s offerings?
A: AAI delivers comprehensive logistical,
engineering and supply chain services
through its strategic business AAI Services
Corp. We partner with our customers to
understand their system requirements, and
provide great value beyond the point of delivery. Our capabilities include comprehensive
logistics support planning and execution,
including: analysis; documentation; contractor logistics and depot support; training
and instruction services; and supply chain
management services such as performancebased logistics [PBL], system obsolescence
planning and concurrency management.
These services provide customers continuous mission readiness. For example,
AAI’s experienced field service representatives work alongside fielded Shadow units
to ensure system availability, and our Navy
EA-6B aircraft hydraulics system PBL program provides transportation management,
reliability and maintainability optimization,
upgrades and obsolescence solutions.
Q: How do customers benefit from AAI’s
varied resources and expertise?
A: Our broad capabilities and proven successes make AAI a one-stop resource. Not
only do we provide trusted, solution-based
platforms and systems integration expertise;
we support these with robust test and training devices as well as tailored instructional
and total life cycle support services—developing innovative solutions for our customers’ most complex requirements. ✯
www.SOTECH-kmi.com
GUNSHOT DETECTION
YOU CAN COUNT ON.
PDCue FOR WARFIGHTERS
®
AAI’s family of PDCue
gunshot detection systems
is the fastest, most
complete and accurate
solution on the market.
AAI Corporation’s highly versatile Projectile Detection and Cueing (PDCue)
gunshot detection system (GDS) instantaneously locates and updates the
source of single-shot, burst fire, and multiple-shot events in both urban and
rural environments.
It operates effectively from fixed sites, as well as static and moving
platforms. The result is a rugged, all-purpose, all-weather, day/night gunfire
detection system that is theater proven and cost effective.
To learn more, e-mail us at pdcue@aaicorp.com or call 1-800-655-2616.
PDCue and Innovation That Works are registered trademarks of AAI Corporation.
aaicorp.com