Mil-Tech

Lockheed Martin still pursues hybrid airship future

Losing a half-billion dollar contract award will not discourage Lockheed Martin from continuing to pursue hybrid airships as a future business.

The company’s advanced development programmes (ADP) division instead has released a new marketing campaign, with a promotional video posted on YouTube on 24 August revealing new details about the company’s technology.

Lockheed systems engineer Bob Ruszkowski confirms the company “absolutely” sees opportunities for new business, despite losing a competition for a $517 million contract from the US Army in June.

A Northrop Grumman/Hybrid Air Vehicles team instead won the deal to build the long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle (LEMV), for deployment to Afghanistan in early 2012.

“We are exploring opportunities for hybrid airships beyond LEMV,” Ruszkowski says.

Lockheed lost the contract despite investing significantly in hybrid airship technology. The ADP, or Skunk Works, division manufactured a demonstrator aircraft called the P791, which first flew in January 2006.

“The P791 demonstration aircraft still exists. It’s still in our hangar. It’s available to use again for other demonstrations,” Ruszkowski says. “We learned quite a bit from it, and we’re exploring other opportunities for hybrid airships.”

In the new video, P791 programme manager Bob Boyd and other programme officials describe details of the hybrid airship technology.

The P791 is described as guided by a two-axis thrust vectoring system that is steered by fly-by-wire flight controls. The tri-hull airship is built using a “high-strength, lightweight woven material that’s heat-sealed together”, Lockheed says.

Lockheed’s hybrid airship also incorporates an air cushion landing system with four pads, which both soften landings and “grab” the ground so no mooring equipment is required.

The company plans to offer a hybrid airship as both a surveillance and cargo aircraft. In the latter configuration, new versions of the technology scaled up to seven times its current size could haul as many as 300 freight containers at a time, Lockheed says.

The video also offers hints that Lockheed sees an opportunity with hybrid airships to break into the commercial aircraft market for the first time since the early 1990s. Its future airships will be designed to offer availability rates on a par with commercial aircraft, of between 95 and 99%, the company says.

Thermal weapon sight contract for Army rifles, machine guns, and mounted weapons goes to BAE Systems

U.S. Army officials needed thermal weapon sight technology for rifles, machine guns, and mounted weapon systems for infantry soldiers in combat. They found their solution from the BAE Systems Electronic Solutions segment in Lexington, Mass.

BAE Systems won a $123 million Army contract to continue production of thermal sights that improve situational awareness and survivability for infantry soldiers, company officials announced today. The order increases the BAE Systems total thermal weapon sight contract value to more than $1 billion since 2004, company officials say.

BAE Systems Electronic Solutions produces light, medium, and heavy thermal weapon sights using the company’s MicroIR uncooled infrared sensor technology to generate superior IR imagery without the need for bulky, power-consuming cryogenic cooling equipment.

In April BAE Systems also received a $14 million contract to provide thermal weapon sights to the Canadian army. These weapon sights enable operators to see deep into the battlefield in darkness and through smoke, fog, and other obscurants, to help them detect and identify targets at long ranges.

The company tests its thermal sites for their ability to withstand harsh battlefield environments, and to date has delivered more than 80,000 sights to meet Army fielding requirements in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BAE wins £407m Caiman armoured vehicle contract

BAE Systems has won a $629m (£407m) contract to upgrade an armoured vehicle designed to protect US troops from roadside bombs.

The British defence company will upgrade 1,700 Caiman mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles with a stronger armoured pod for the crew to sit in, and a new chassis and power train.

BAE first sold the Caiman to the US military earlier this year. The upgrade contract fits in with BAE’s strategy of offering more servicing and maintenance work in the US, now that the level of equipment spending seen at the height of the Iraq war has come to an end.

BAE’s US vehicles business has had a chequered recent history, with the company losing out on a contract to build armoured trucks and another to supply MRAP vehicles for Afghanistan.

Estonia to Buy 80 XA-188 APCs in its Largest Military Vehicle Procurement

Despite the relatively small amount of approximately €20 million, when compared to other major international defence deals, this one has a particular significance for Estonia. It is the country’s largest-ever procurement programme for military vehicles that will double the number of armoured vehicles in the Estonian Defence Forces. The deal for the purchase of 80 XA-188 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) from the Dutch Armed Forces was announced last week by the Estonian Ministry of Defence. However, it has not been signed, yet, as preliminary negotiations for the unit price, delivery terms and payment schedule are still in process. As the spokesman of the Defence Ministry, Peeter Kuimet, told defpro.com, a contract is expected to be signed within the next weeks.

According to national media, Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo said: “Compared with the current armoured carriers, these ones offer better protection, and the first carriers should reach Afghanistan this year for the use by the Estonian troops stationed there.” Estonia is contributing with currently 155 soldiers to the ISAF operation (the mandate allows for the deployment of up to 170 soldiers), mainly deployed to the southern province of Helmand. The county has lost eight soldiers in the course of the war – seven of which have died in combat – and reports 43 wounded soldiers.

Kuimet confirmed upon enquiry of defpro.com that an Estonian soldier died yesterday from his wounds after having stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED) during a patrol in the Helmand province. Although he was quickly medevaced his wounds were too severe and he died shortly after the incident.

In light of the increasing intensity of combat operations in Afghanistan, the Defence Ministry is seeking to improve the troops’ safety by sending more and better protected vehicles. In particular, road-side bombs and ambushes of insurgents, using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), have claimed nearly 2,000 coalition deaths in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001.

Estonia already purchased 60 XA-180EST armoured carriers, an older version of the vehicle, from Finland in 2004 for a total amount of €4 million. The country and joined NATO in 2004 and has since been in a process of modernising its Defence Forces in order to meet standards of the Alliance.

Some of the vehicles purchased in 2004 have been deployed to Afghanistan. According Kuimet, two of these older vehicles have been severely damaged in combat operations and had to be decommissioned. A further seven or eight vehicles were repaired in Estonia after having been damaged and send back to the troops in Afghanistan.

Before the new vehicles will be delivered by the Dutch Defence Materiel Organisation (Defensie Materieel Organisatie, DMO) to Estonia, the vehicles will be fully overhauled in the Netherlands. Whether this will be carried out by the Finnish manufacturer of the vehicles, Patria (the vehicles were originally built by SISU Auto), could not yet be confirmed by the Estonian Ministry of Defence. However, Kuimet stated that the vehicles will be delivered combat ready. The country has signed a maintenance agreement with Patria in 2004 in support of the then acquired XA-180EST armoured vehicles.

As soon as the vehicles have been accepted by the Estonian MoD, some of them will be deployed to Afghanistan. Deliveries are expected to start this year and to continue through 2015. The vehicles are intended to continue “mechanising the 1st Infantry Brigade and to offer their units in Afghanistan a better level of armoured protection,” Estonia Public Broadcasting reported last week.

By Nicolas von Kospoth
www.defpro.com

Lubbock contractor keeps USAF drones on course in Middle East

Parallel Solutions local computing company is having an effect on the way the U.S. military is pursuing the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Parallel Solutions, an 18-month-old company, landed a contract in January to redesign servers that guide Air Force drone aircraft in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan to better handle the desert heat and dust.

“We have probably shipped about 100 so far,” said Benjamin Nelson, the company’s co-founder and chief executive officer.

And the small company has an order in process for 200 more, Nelson said.

“An acquaintance came to us about the project,” he said, explaining that at the time, the servers — which are used to guide and observe the Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft on their missions — were experiencing a failure rate of about 40 percent.

“Dust was getting inside the cases, and they weren’t evacuating heat very well,” Nelson said, adding his company’s products were deployed overseas in mid-May. “We’ve had a zero failure rate.”

And that’s a big deal, because sending a drone on a mission requires deploying multiple servers along the path because of a relatively short communications range, Nelson said.

“I’m kind of a nerd,” he said. “Given the issues, I was really excited to jump on board and see if we could fix them.”

According to a statement posted on the Parallel Solutions website, the company has developed a server using 40 percent less power than the previous model, while increasing the calculation rate tenfold and selling the hardware at a lower per-unit cost.

It wasn’t your run-of-the-mill military contract, either.

Before Parallel Solutions received the contract, the design changes had to be approved by committees in both the U.S. House and Senate, he said.

“This probably is our blockbuster deal,” Nelson said.

Like many computing companies, there are plenty of things going on at Parallel Solutions, ranging from value-added hardware and software sales, to IT hosting and managed cloud computing.

Nelson and his mother, Louise, started the company 18 months ago, drawing in part on his interest in computing and his mother’s experience in management information systems.

Benjamin Nelson, whose degree from Texas Tech University is in biological chemistry, made the leap to computing while teaching chemistry at Odessa College.

“I became interested in Einstein’s Field Equations. They’re so big, you can’t fit them on a blackboard,” he said. “I tried to write software for working with them, but the computer was too slow. So I tried to build a computer.”

The field equations are a set of mathematical equations Albert Einstein developed to support his theory of relativity.

As a start-up, he said, one of the more difficult elements of operating Parallel Solutions is financing.

They can’t get it, and as a result, the much of the company’s cash flow is turned back to covering the costs of the next order coming through the door.

lubbockonline.com

Harris antennas helping soldiers

Satellite antennas made by Harris Corp. in Palm Bay are a crucial part of a data transfer system that allows soldiers on the battlefield in Afghanistan and other locations to transmit and gather video information.

In December, United Launch Alliance orbited the last of three satellites from Cape Canaveral, completing the Wideband Global SATCOM constellation, helping soldiers transmit video to and from the battlefield and allowing video to be transmitted from unmanned drones. Three additional satellites are scheduled for launch beginning no earlier than December 2011.

www.floridatoday.com
Each $300 million, 7,600-pound, Boeing-built satellite carries 10 Harris phased array antennas that can be pointed at specific parts of the battlefield.

“The system is performing extremely well. The data rates achieved by the satellite during on-orbit test were two times the requirement,” said Bill Gattle, vice president of Space Communications Systems, Harris Government Communications Systems. “The performance of the Harris antennas plays a large role in those results.”

Boeing compared going from the previous Defense Satellite Communications spacecraft to the WGS satellites to going from a dial-up to a broadband Internet connection.

“Wherever our troops go, they can now depend on this vital capability,” Air Force Col. Don Robbins, Wideband SATCOM Group commander, said in an interview with Boeing. “When you’re out in the middle of nowhere, that’s a pretty critical lifeline to have.”

As the fighting in Afghanistan depends more on surveillance and attacks from unmanned drones, fast satellite communications will remain crucial. Communications links in the field have gone from truck-mounted systems to terminals in suitcases.

The high-speed Internet connection provided by WGS allows troops to share full-motion video and sensor data gathered by the military’s growing arsenal of unmanned surveillance aircraft. Harris also has developed tactical radios that allow connection to satellite signals and lets those video signals be shared within a radio network.

Boeing awarded the WGS antenna contract to Harris in 2001 and the Melbourne-based defense company has already shipped the steerable, solid graphite offset antennas for Block II.

Army wants soldiers to have improved carbine

Soldiers, get ready for a better carbine. The Army has launched a dual strategy designed to give you a more accurate, durable and lethal weapon that will be the mainstay for the next 40 years.

The first part of that strategy is to radically overhaul the M4 starting now and give grunts an improved version of the special operations M4A1. Simultaneously, the second part challenges industry to come up with a new carbine that can outperform the M4. The competition opened in early August.

“This is an historic event. We have not done a carbine competition in our lifetimes,” Col. Douglas Tamilio, project manager for soldier weapons, told Army Times. His office is spearheading the M4 Carbine Improvement Program. “We don’t switch rifles and carbines too quickly, and it is not an easy thing.”

The M4 has faced some criticism from soldiers and others who have cited problems with its lethality and reliability, including a 2007 “dust” test in which the M4 performed the worst among four weapons tested, with the greatest number of stoppages.

Tamilio, a career infantry officer, said the weapon has “served the Army extremely well” and touted the 62 improvements made to the M4 in the past 19 years. But, he said, “We can’t sit on our laurels and say M4 is good enough.”

Deadlier weapon

The improvements have begun on thousands of M4s being built now, and thousands more will get conversion kits.

The upgrades will be done in phases. The improvement plan’s first phase essentially distributes an improved M4A1, which is notable for its heavier barrel and automatic fire. The heavier barrel reduces warping and erosion, resulting in better performance and longer life. It also allows for a higher sustained rate of fire.

The Army also is adding ambidextrous controls.

The Army has 12,000 M4s on the production line, and has told manufacturer Colt to turn them into A1s, said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Office Soldier.

In addition, 25,000 M4A1s would be purchased beyond existing contracts, as well as roughly 65,000 conversion kits, Tamilio said.

“The Army would like to convert about 150,000 in the near term for infantry brigade combat teams,” he said. The optimal plan would be to convert all the M4s, he added, but funding will be a large factor in that decision.

More changes external to the weapon are also improving its reliability and lethality, Fuller said.

Soldiers will experience fewer jams, thanks to a new magazine that doesn’t allow rounds to move, he said.

And the new M855 A1 ammo provides more stopping power at shorter distances. The older round had to get into a yaw dependency for maximum effect. If it hit the enemy straight, it would punch right through them. The new ammo is not yaw dependent. If it hits the enemy, he is going down.

Many combat vets surveyed in 2006 described how enemy soldiers were shot multiple times but were still able to continue fighting. The survey included 2,600 soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

One in five U.S. soldiers polled recommended a more lethal round. The new round is designed to address that.

“It’s not enhanced performance, it’s consistent performance,” Fuller said. “It really performs the way you want a round to perform, and it’s optimized to the M4.”

Better accuracy

The second phase of the M4 improvement program begins this fall and will focus on increasing the M4’s effectiveness and accuracy, with emphasis on the bolt, bolt carrier assembly and the forward rail assembly.

Over time, reliability will degrade with the bolt, as that component provides the weapon’s action. Officials will host an open competition for a new bolt assembly to determine whether different materials and coatings can enhance the bolt. The Army also is interested in “unique design changes” that have arisen within the industry, Tamilio said.

The service also looks to strengthen the forward rail assembly on top of the receiver. This lends stability to the weapon and serves as the mount for weapon attachments, but restricts the barrel movement that is required for accuracy when re-engaging the target. The Army wants to determine whether a free-floating rail is the answer.

Officials also will look to provide a more consistent trigger pull for better control, according to a June Congressional Research Service report.

New operating system

The third phase, focusing on the operating system, will begin in about 18 months, Tamilio said. The goal is to improve the gas system by allowing less gas and dirt in, or replacing it with a conversion kit similar to the HNK16 that would put a piston in the M4.

Both have their benefits and detractors, the colonel said. The piston reduces the number of moving parts and provides better stability, but there is “a little more metal on metal,” which can diminish durability and accelerate fatigue.

A gas-impingement system is far smoother in operation, and supporters say its reduced heat and carbon deposits will decrease malfunctions. But the gas system requires a lot more elbow grease to get it clean.

The 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, or “Delta Force,” replaced its M4s with the HK416 in 2004, according to the congressional report. That weapon combines the operating characteristics of the M4 with the piston system.

“There’s a lot of dynamics involved,” Fuller said. “When you go to a piston charger, you’re actually driving that bolt down at an angle versus back, so you have to make sure you understand it might not be the same weapon.”

The next carbine

The competition for the Army’s next-generation carbine opened in early August, and the service is looking for the “future Army weapon for any environment,” Fuller said.

The Army’s open, industrywide Individual Carbine Competition was approved Aug. 4 by the Joint Requirements Oversight Council.

No caliber restriction has been placed on a new design. The requirements, instead, are for the most reliable, accurate, durable, easy-to-use and easy-to-maintain weapon out there, Tamilio said.

It will be at least a 500-meter weapon and have a higher incapacitation percentage, meaning if a shot doesn’t kill the enemy, it will put a serious dent in his medical record.

This weapon will be modular and able to carry all the existing attachments soldiers use.

It can have a gas or piston system.

Interchangeable barrel sizes, such as those seen in the SCAR, are not a “must have,” but “certainly won’t be a negative thing,” Tamilio said.

But above all, Fuller wants a weapon that has the soldiers’ approval.

“We really need to figure out lethality from a ‘soldier in the loop’ perspective,” he said. “If you can’t shoot the weapon accurately, it doesn’t matter how lethal it is.”

To meet that goal, Tamilio will release a draft request for proposal late this year. It is a warning order of sorts that will give industry a preliminary idea of what is expected. An industry day will follow in which officials will answer questions and provide clarity.

The official RfP will go out early next year, in the second quarter of fiscal 2011, which begins in January. Manufacturers will have a set time, typically a few months, to respond with their proposed weapons.

Next comes the “extreme, extensive testing” and selection of the weapons, Tamilio said.

During testing, hundreds of thousand of rounds will be fired over 12 to 18 months as weapons are tested to their destruction point. The primary goal is to determine if they meet Army specifications. But evaluators also will know whether a weapon can live up to its manufacturer’s claims.

“If they say it has a barrel life up to 20,000 rounds, we’ll test to that,” Tamilio said.

Weapons will also be tested to see if they maintain accuracy throughout their life cycle — something the military has not tested before, Tamilio said. A weapon typically loses accuracy as it ages.

“This is a huge importance for us,” he said.

Soldiers will be involved in virtually all aspects of this testing, Tamilio said. From the individual to unit, he said the tests will focus on what soldiers really care about: “When he pulls the trigger, it fires in a reliable fashion, and what he aims at, he hits.”

Mixed reviews

Investing in an improved M4 has met some opposition.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in April 2007 asked Army leadership why the service planned to spend $375 million on the carbine through fiscal 2009 “without considering newer and possibly better weapons available on the commercial market.” The senator’s letter questioned the M4’s reliability and lethality and called for a “free and open competition” to evaluate alternatives.

Nevertheless, improvements have been recommended from within the service. The Army Infantry Center in a Small Arms Capabilities-Based Assessment in 2008 identified 42 separate ideas for material solutions to address capability gaps. Thirteen solutions called for new or improved munitions, and 10 involved aiming devices, optics or laser designators. Only seven suggested modifying or developing new small arms.

After-action reports from soldiers both praise and criticize the M4’s reliability and lethality. The mixed reviews are reflected in the congressional report:

• A February 2001 U.S. Special Operations Command study said the M4A1 was “fundamentally flawed” and suffered “alarming failures … in operations under the harsh conditions and heavy firing schedules common in [special operations forces] training and operations.”

• An Army report from July 2003 on small arms performance during Operation Iraqi Freedom found the M4 was “by far the preferred individual weapon across the theater of operations.”

• A December 2006 survey requested by Army’s Project Manager for Soldier Weapons and conducted by the Center for Naval Analyses polled 2,600 soldiers who had engaged in combat action in Iraq or Afghanistan. More than half said they never experienced a stoppage in the M4 or M16.

The study found that the frequency of disassembled cleaning did not affect the number of stoppages. The type and amount of lubrication used had little effect on stoppages, though dry lubricant decreased reports for M4 stoppages. Nearly nine in 10 soldiers said they were satisfied with the M4.
• A December 2007 test — resulting from Coburn’s letter — evaluated the M4 against the HK416, the HK XM8 and the FNH SCAR. Each system had 10 weapons on the line, and each fired 6,000 rounds under sandstorm conditions. The XM8 had 127 stoppages, the SCAR had 226 stoppages, the HK416 had 233 stoppages and the M4 had 882 stoppages. The Army later modified that number to 296 stoppages, attributing the difference to discrepancies in the test and scoring.
When you’ll get it

A new weapon could be selected by the end of 2011. How long it would take to field a new weapon would depend on funding. Fielding could start fairly quickly, but will take up to 10 years, Tamilio said.

No cost estimate of producing a new weapon is available from the Army, as the dozens of potential manufacturers have yet to receive specifications and generate the subsequent design.

By Aug. 19, the Army had 41 respondents to its market survey, Tamilio said.

“Industry is waiting for this,” he said. “They are excited about this … and that’s exactly what we want.”

How the dual-path strategy unfolds remains to be seen, but it means every soldier should be getting a better carbine.

That’s because there are 1.1 million soldiers, but only 500,000 M4s in the system. If the Army selects a new carbine, it may purchase 1.1 million. But a more likely scenario would see 500,000 purchased for infantry brigade combat teams, and the existing and improved M4s given to support troops to replace their M16s.

If the M4 turns out to be the weapon of choice, then the ICBTs will likely be fitted with the improved M4s, and the existing M4s would again be given to support troops to replace their M16s.

For soldiers “consistently using that M4 and satisfied with that M4, to know the Army is going out there to get you something better … that’s pretty damn exciting,” Tamilio said. “And that’s only going to make you more effective on the battlefield.”

www.armytimes.com

New unmanned helicopter can cut US troop losses in war zones

An unmanned helicopter that is expected to reduce US troop losses in war zones is being developed.

The Kaman K-MAX helicopter has been adapted by defence company Lockheed Martin to fly without a pilot and can carry up to 6,000lbs of cargo – more than the aircraft’s empty weight, reports the BBC.

Transporting equipment to troops at Forward Operating Bases on the frontline would be the K-MAX’s primary use.

It would help reduce the need for large vehicle convoys lowering the risk of soldiers being ambushed or injured by IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

And it can be flown into under-fire areas without risk to aircrew.

A ground-based operator using a laptop is able to control the aircraft. They can input a flight plan detailing the destination and route.

It can also be flown hands-on from the cockpit if necessary and uses counter-rotating intermeshing rotor blades to generate its lifting power.

The adapted K-MAX can winch four different loads on its cargo hook and each can be programmed to release at different times. Its maximum airspeed with an external load is 80 knots (92mph).

It can also fly in weather conditions that would ground other helicopters and could also be used to lighten the workload of aircrew ensuring they get enough rest.

The helicopter is being developed for the US Army’s ‘Autonomous Technologies for Unmanned Air Systems’ (ATUAS) programme.

However the US Marine Corps could make use of the aircraft.

In Lockheed Martin’s contract to develop the helicopter the US military describes the project as having an “indefinite delivery” of an “indefinite quantity”, so a precise deployment date is currently unknown.

But if testing goes to plan it’s thought it could be sent to Afghanistan for assessment sometime towards the end of 2011. (ANI)

Iran develops primitive flying bombs for Israeli cities, nearby US targets

After watching the performance of Iran’s new, locally-produced Karrar bomber drone, debkafile’s military sources summed it up as a primitive copy of an obsolete unmanned US cruise missile from the 1950s that was derived from the V1 “buzz bomb” which the Germans fired against London at the end of World War II. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a big production of unveiling the Karrar (Ambassador of Death) Aug. 22 in a showy ceremony.

Even so, Western intelligence sources believe that mass-produced with extended range, large swarms of these flying bombs could cause death and destruction if released over densely populated Israeli areas and US military facilities and warships in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.

They would be fired from automatic anti-air artillery or dropped from Iran’s outdated F-4 Phantom warplanes. Neither the Israeli Arrow nor the US Patriot missile interceptors are designed for unsophisticated flying bombs. And, if the Iranian claims of its 1,000-kilometer range is exaggerated and it can only reach 400-600 kilometers – short of Israel – the experts believe the Ambassador of Death could be transferred to the Hizballah in Lebanon or fired from an Iranian vessel opposite the Israeli coast.

In any case, American targets around Iran’s borders and coasts could be threatened.

Iran’s development of this UAV and the possibility of it reaching terrorist hands in Lebanon have sent Israel Air force missile and air defense experts to the drawing board for solutions.
it is possible the may look at reviving the development of the US-Israeli Nautilus Tactical High Energy Laser, a project US and Israel armed forces abandoned in 2006 because of the prohibitive cost of development and inconclusive evidence of its effectiveness. However, its purpose as a weapon and radar guidance system capable of firing highly concentrated laser beams that can destroy low-flying missiles and artillery and mortar rounds, could work against the Iranian Karrar.

While no more than a primitive flying bomb, the Iranian UAV’s effectiveness against urban and large targets is undeniable in the same way as small speedboats can menace a large aircraft carrier. The Iranians have fitted it without strong, new jet engines as well as advanced flight control and GBS navigating systems. Ahmadinejad boasted that the Ambassador of Death carries four cruise missiles. As far as is known to Western intelligence, Iran has never fully mastered cruise missile technology.
The UAV he exhibited with such pride lags far behind the products turned out by the US and Israel, which are capable of hovering over a target for 50 hours at a stretch and following orders either to collect intelligence or attack relayed from ground stations thousands of miles away.

The Iranian Karrar cannot return to base or undertake a second mission after its first which is to do the work of a small airborne bomb. The only big difference is that its approach on target is silent and therefore an unwelcome surprise to its victims.

Neither Israeli nor American strategists take its menace lightly.
Six months ago, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates commented: “Those Iranian drones are a concern because it is one of these areas where, if they chose to – in Iraq, in Afghanistan – they could create difficulties for us.”

www.debka.com

Oshkosh wins a contract to Terrain Vehicles by U.S.

Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, announced today it has received an award to provide continued aftermarket support for MRAP All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATV) in the U.S and Afghanistan.

More than 55 fully-trained Oshkosh field service representatives (FSR) will provide in-theater and U.S.-based M-ATV support for the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force for another year. The FSRs will support the Armed Forces, as directed, with vehicle maintenance, operation, diagnostics and training.

“As warfighters continue to receive Oshkosh-built M-ATVs in Afghanistan, our service representatives are needed on the ground to support the program in multiple capacities,” said Ken Juergens, Oshkosh Defense vice president and general manager, Joint Programs. “As a result of this award, Oshkosh M-ATV experts and aftermarket-support FSRs are available to the Armed Forces for another year – most having worked with this platform since the first M-ATVs rolled off our lines last July. Our service team’s mission is ensuring that the M-ATV vehicles and those operating them are ready for any mission.” Embedded directly in support of military units, Oshkosh FSRs provide onsite technical assistance, ensure proper maintenance procedures, correctly identify parts and provide troubleshooting techniques and maintenance training to troops.

“With decades of support to the military, Oshkosh knows that properly maintained vehicle fleets have higher readiness rates and reduced life-cycle costs,” Juergens said. “The urgent need for the M-ATV required that training be completed simultaneously with vehicle maintenance training so our FSRs are working side-by-side with the Warfighter to maintain mission-ready fleets for the more than 5,000 M-ATVs in-theater.” The company also received an aftermarket order for more than 290 explosively formed penetrator (EFP) protection kits. The EFP kits are scheduled to be delivered in the second quarter of fiscal year 2011. The FSRs are expected to support the Armed Forces from September 2010 through September 2011.

Together, the combined awards from the U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command (LCMC) are valued at more than $58 million.