Mil-Tech

US Military Testing High-Tech Dirigibles

The skies over the Utah desert are becoming the test site for a new fleet of hulking high-tech dirigibles the U.S. military is hoping will provide battlefield commanders a bird’s-eye view of cruise missiles and other threats.

One of the unmanned balloons — a 242-foot-long craft known as an aerostat — was sent into orbit about 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. It stayed aloft for about three hours before it was pulled back down as scheduled.

It was the first several tests expected in the coming year or so in Utah, according to Paula Nicholson, a spokeswoman for Dugway Proving Ground. The next flights could be made later this week.

Vast tracts of military-owned desert were chosen for the testing because of their remoteness and resemblance to the mountainous, arid environment of Afghanistan, the military said in a statement.

The dirigibles are outfitted with radar and communications systems to provide long-range surveillance targeting threats from aircraft, ballistic and cruise missiles.

Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co. was awarded a $1.4 billion contract from the Army in 2007 to design, build and test the aerostats.

Several more tests are proposed for Utah later in the year, including over the remote northern portion of the Great Salt Lake and parts of the Snake Valley.

The aerostats were first flight-tested in Elizabeth City, N.C., last summer but were limited to a height of 3,000 feet. In Utah, the dirigibles are expected to fly some 10,000 feet above the U.S. Air Force’s Utah Test and Training Range, where air space is restricted up to 58,000 feet, the military said. The dirigibles are tethered to processing stations on the ground, and each is capable of staying aloft for a month.

They don’t need an airstrip to launch and could even be tethered to ships at sea.

Officials said the aerostats will be less expensive to maintain and operate than conventional aircraft-based radar while providing battlefield commanders a bird’s-eye view of threats in a given area.

“Not only will it expand the view well over the horizon, but do so at the least cost to the taxpayer. This is a critically needed capability as we continue to prosecute the global war on terrorism,” Col. William E. King IV, Dugway’s commander, informed in a statement.

The program is known formally as the Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System, or JLENS.

AFGHANISTAN: NATO Treads SILK For Cyber Defence

NATO has been treading safely the Virtual Silk Highway (SILK). Named after the Great Silk Road trading route linking Asia and Europe, the cyber network was initiated in 2002 under the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme that NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division (NATO-PDD) is managing.

“Experts are discussing plans for using the SILK-established networks for applications such as cyber defence and earthquake response,” says a report posted on NATO website. A critical role for the purpose has been assigned to VIZADA Networks of Norway and the Turkish Computer Emergency Response Team as well as the Geological Research Centre in Potsdam, Germany.

The NATO C3 Agency and the Public Diplomacy Division of NATO have completed the signature process of the Letter of Agreement in support of the ‘SILK-Afghanistan’ project, another NATO report said on Dec. 21. “This is a significant step towards expanding broadband Internet connectivity for higher education throughout the provinces in Afghanistan.”

While the Caucasus and Central Asia sites are migrating to terrestrial connectivity with support by the European Union, the new NATO project ‘SILK-Afghanistan’ will extend the connectivity to initially seven provinces of Afghanistan.

An expansion of the SILK network to Afghanistan has brought connectivity to 15 academic and governmental institutions in Kabul and will soon incorporate universities in seven Afghan provinces. NATO has invited IT experts from Afghan universities to participate in discussions on future steps, including the formation of a new supervisory board for the expansion project ‘SILK-Afghanistan’, says the report.

NATO-PDD, through its Science for Peace and Security Programme, is assisting the Afghan authorities in paving the way for developing their educational system. In early 2009 NATO-PDD tasked the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) to prepare an Invitation For Bids to the Industry for expanding Internet connectivity for universities and higher education institutes in Afghanistan.

The signature of the Letter of Agreement between NC3A and NATO-PDD concludes the tender process which took place in spring/summer 2009 and authorizes the ‘SILK-Afghanistan’ project to be run for three years. NC3A will act as Procurement Agent and manage the new contract with the selected service provider to maximize the potential of the “SILK-Afghanistan” project for universities in Afghanistan, the NATO official website reported.

“NC3A is committed to support NATO’s Comprehensive Approach through Information and Communications Technologies. The SILK-Afghanistan project is a good example of how far NATO members could go together — International Staff, NC3A, Industry and Nations — and benefit from cooperation initiatives. We are looking forward to successfully achieving the full operational capability for this academic network and to supporting other projects bringing stability to Afghanistan and empowering Afghani people to improve their lives”, declared Velizar Shalamanov, NC3A Directorate Support Account (DSA) NATO Nations (NN).

Seven universities have been identified as the first beneficiaries of this expansion project: Bamiyan, Herat, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Khost, Mazar-e-Sharif and Sheberghan, in addition to the already serviced Kabul University and the Government Media and Information Centre in Kabul, enabling them to access the public Internet network and the GEANT network (multi-Gigabit Pan-European data communications network) dedicated to use in research and education.

The selected provider, VIZADA Networks in Norway, will ensure connectivity to the nine sites via satellite resources. VIZADA will install satellite ground terminals at each site. Traffic will be anchored at VIZADA’s teleport in Bratislava, Slovakia and will connect from there to the European network.

As the project comes to an end in June 2010, discussions have been under way for the transfer of connectivity in Central Asia on July 1 next year to the Central Asian Research and Educational Network (CAREN) project, supported by the European Commission (EC).

The EC’s Black Sea Interconnection (BSI) project has already taken over from the SILK project in the Caucasus, where connectivity provision has been switched from satellite to fibre.

Under the Declaration by NATO and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to maximize the potential of the Virtual Silk Highway, the NATO Public Diplomacy Division (PDD) Science for Peace and Security (SPS) programme is assisting the Afghan authorities in paving the way for developing their educational system.

In 2008, the NATO-PDD SPS programme connected all 14 faculties of Kabul University and the Ministry of Higher Education to a campus network, as well as setting up a video teleconferencing facility. Work is in progress to provide high-speed Internet access through the Virtual Silk Highway to other higher education institutions in Kabul, including the National Military Academy of Afghanistan.

In March 2008, the NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) was tasked by NATO-PDD SPS to conduct a feasibility study on the potential provision of internet connectivity for universities outside of Kabul. The tender process for this expanded SILK project is currently underway, and implementation could start end 2009.

Body Armor Demonstration In Italy.

Three dozen soldiers wearing body armor and carrying heavy packs are hiking into the rising sun amid mountainous terrain.

Their forward operating base (FOB) is barely perceptible in the distance from high up along a ridge, and the soldiers know it will be many hours before they return to a hot meal and the comfort of a cot.

In between will be a day like all others since they arrived: long marches, entering and exiting armored vehicles, firing rifles, scrambling through obstacle-laden villages and treacherous insurgent houses and wolfing down an MRE (meal ready to eat) in stolen moments at midday.

If this sounds like a typical day for a soldier in Southwest Asia, the Training and Exercise Management Office at Yuma Proving Ground has arranged similar conditions for soldiers in Arizona. Recently, the proving ground delivered a realistic environment in support of a critically important exercise aimed at developing the next generation of body armor.

The perfect fit

Since the beginning of American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this decade, YPG has played an instrumental role in reducing the incidence of the most horrific events experienced by soldiers in theater.

Fatalities from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have diminished with the mass fielding of the MRAP (mine-resistant ambush-protected) vehicle, which underwent extensive testing at the proving ground, as well as cutting-edge electronic counter-IED technology developed and tested at YPG.

Yet while the most horrific fatalities have been dramatically reduced, heavy body armor can impede the mobility of soldiers on the battlefield. Consequently, soldiers run the risk of being outmaneuvered by the enemy.

To counter this threat, in December 2008 the Defense Department issued a request for information to find a more lightweight armor system for American soldiers.

“Our goal is to field a lighter, more mobile body armor system to allow soldiers operating in high elevations increased mobility without lessening the amount of protection the armor provides,” said Jeremy Reed, a project officer from Fort Benning’s Maneuver Battle Lab who served two tours in Iraq.

Since the new armor system would be especially beneficial to soldiers deployed in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, evaluators needed a site that accurately simulated the topography encountered in Southeast Asia. Yuma Proving Ground’s extensive range space was a logical choice.

“We wanted a location that mimics the environment there and YPG meets all the requirements,” said Lt. Col. Robert Myles, product manager for soldier survivability at Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier of Fort Belvoir, Va.

PEO Soldier is an Army organization responsible for developing, acquiring and fielding virtually everything soldiers wear or carry. A key part of its mission is to constantly improve soldiers’ equipment to enhance their lethality, survivability and comfort.

Using volunteers from Fort Bragg’s 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, the Maneuver Battle Lab staged a two-week long exercise at YPG in May to evaluate personal armor systems. All troops that participated had previously been deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

Since the systems under test will likely be tested at YPG’s Tropic Regions Test Center (TRTC) at a future date, TRTC personnel provided support for the evaluation. Of the eight YPG data collectors who recorded test data, five are typically based at TRTC’s facility in Panama.

“We’re testing the compatibility, mobility and effectiveness of the equipment,” explained Maj. Michael Williams, branch chief of the Maneuver Battle Lab. “Our job is to test in conditions as close to combat as possible.”
Average day

Each day began with a conference at the FOB in which each soldier donned the armor that would be evaluated that day. The soldiers were organized into teams, each of which was assigned a different armor system each day.

For comparison purposes, one of those systems was the Improved Outer Tactical Vest currently in use in Iraq and Afghanistan. The soldiers carried the exact same rucksack every day, which data collectors weighed to confirm that the previous day’s specifications would be duplicated.

The soldiers then undertook a foot march into a nearby mountain range. The soldiers and several data collectors climbed uneven rocks up the slope, wound their way across the top of a ridge, then descended back to the valley below.

“The terrain is exactly like Afghanistan,” remarked Staff Sgt. Joshua Vaughn, who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, as he marched up the mountain. “It even smells like Afghanistan.”

After data was collected, the soldiers proceeded by bus to a rigorous obstacle course outside the K9 Village, one of YPG’s simulated insurgent villages.

Each soldier tested the maneuverability of the body armor by climbing walls, negotiating a tire course, crawling through narrow tunnels and covered ditches and climbing up and down deceptively steep A-frame roofs and staircases.

They pulled themselves up through high windows, and navigated through the narrow, dark warren of a simulated insurgent house. Each soldier went through the course multiple times while carrying their rifles and occasionally throwing an inert grenade at a distant insurgent mannequin.

Even for these highly conditioned veterans of overseas combat, the course was physically challenging, but representative of the conditions encountered by ground forces in theater.

There was little time to rest, however, as the troops proceeded to a firing range, where they practiced combat maneuvers while still wearing the armor. Under the blazing hot sun, groups of soldiers took turns following a series of directions from a uniformed leader who barked instructions through a megaphone.

“On my command, you will run to the 10-meter line and engage your target,” he boomed through the megaphone. “Ready? Run!”

The participants charged the 10 meters and fired as the retractable targets moved upright, sending them falling to the ground amidst crackling reports and the acrid smell of gunpowder.

At the conclusion of this stage of the day’s activities, the soldiers returned to the FOB and ate a quick lunch of MREs, then spent the remainder of the afternoon rotating through a series of test stations.

The stations measured how quickly soldiers could enter and exit a series of common combat vehicles that were on site, the range of motion each soldier was capable of while wearing the armor, how easily the armor could be donned and doffed in a variety of positions while wearing a helmet. They also examined how quickly a simulated wounded soldier could be evacuated while wearing the armor.

When the day’s objectives were completed, the soldiers ate a hot meal in the FOB’s mess area and retired to their tents to rest up for another day of the same exercises.

Culmination

Over two weeks, testers collected quantitative data on the performance of each armor system, as well as more than 10,000 pages of feedback from the soldiers who participated in the exercise. The tested armor systems will next undergo ballistics testing at another facility.

The evaluations conducted at YPG could benefit deployed soldiers as early as this summer.

“YPG is a great place,” said Williams. “We couldn’t have asked for a better place or better people to work with.”

'Beans, bullets and BTUs' define Army energy security

The Army will soon be the largest fleet owner of both low-speed electric vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles.

“That will have significant impact on our fuel consumption at our installations,” said Dr. Kevin T. Geiss, program director for energy and partnerships in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations and Environment.

Geiss said orders are in now for an additional 800 low-speed electric vehicles, formerly called “neighborhood electric vehicles” by the Army. The purchase is part of a plan to add 4,000 of the LSEVs to the Army over three years. The Army is getting an additional 502 hybrid vehicles for installations as well.

The vehicle purchases are part of a larger plan by the Army to focus on energy security, Geiss said. The plan also includes a solar project at Fort Irwin, Calif., and a geothermal project at Hawthorne, Nev. Geiss said the Army should know soon who the civilian developer will be for the Fort Irwin project, and that a memorandum of agreement with the Navy is now being finalized for the 30Mw geothermal project in Nevada.

“Our goal there is to by the end of the summer or early fall, have the request for proposal on the street and have the industry day to get the developer for that project,” Geiss said.

The Army’s plans for energy security include such things as electric and hybrid vehicles, micro-grids for more efficient power distribution, reductions in consumption of energy on installations, certification of tactical vehicles for alternative fuel use, and partnerships with industry to build power-production capacity.

Ensuring the Army has enough energy, when and where it needs it, is an important consideration when prosecuting both training missions and contingency operations overseas, Geiss said. And efforts to provide that energy, so the mission can continue uninterrupted, focus on five key components: surety, sufficiency, supply, sustainability and survivability.

“All of those things are important to us for energy security,” he said. He modified a Marine Corps motto, “beans, bullets and bandages,” to include “BTUs” or British thermal units — a unit for measuring energy.

“Think of the concept of beans, bullets and BTUs,” he said. “Most people are familiar with the beans and bullets — but beans, bullets and BTUs, I think, focuses us on the vital importance of energy for the Army and our missions.”

Right now, Geiss said, neither the Army nor the United States is in a place where it can claim it has energy security.

“I would say energy security is an end state,” he said. “If we were able to satisfy those five key requirements at our installations and our deployed operations, and with our weapons systems, then we would achieve a state of energy security. I don’t think that the nation is in an energy-secure state at this point.”

Inside the United States, the Army has to consider what happens if the civilian electric grid, on which it depends for its power needs, should go down. Plans for that event, and the ability to continue operations unimpeded are at the center of the Army’s energy security concerns in the United States.

Solutions could involve equipping every installation with its own power-generating capability — a natural gas power plant, for instance. But the cost for that, Geiss said, is prohibitive. Additionally, there are community, state and federal restrictions about what kinds of things can be done.

Instead, Geiss said, the solution involves looking at both power production and reducing energy consumption. Reduction involves identifying what power consumption on an installation is mission critical and also taking measures to be more efficient in energy use. The Army is conducting ongoing studies to determine the nature of energy use at its installations.

For reduction of energy use, the Army must now comply with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, that says all new and remodeled facilities must be off fossil fuels by 2030. Additional legislation mandates a decrease in consumption of 3 percent a year for a period of 10 years. By 2015, Geiss said, the Army will have achieved a reduction of about 30 percent.

For generation of power on an installation, the Army will look to partner with industry to develop renewable energy production capability. Last year the Army established the Energy and Partnerships Office to facilitate those kinds of developments.

“The Army does not have the funds internally to accomplish all this,” Geiss said. “We can’t fund all the geothermal plants, all the wind farms, all the solar farms, to get us the power and energy that we need. It’s going to require a partnership with industry.”

Partnerships with industry mean looking for investors and the right locations around the country to develop projects that will benefit both the Army and the developer.

“We can generate large projects that will provide us with power, as well as an economic case for the developer being able to sell some of that power off to the grid,” Geiss said.

Ongoing Army energy projects include the solar projects at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and Fort Carson, Colo., and large-scale energy-management programs at Fort Hood, Texas. There is also the development of a 500-megawatt solar thermal plant at Fort Irwin, Calif.; a 30Mw geothermal plant at Hawthorne Army Depot, Nev.; and biomass-to-fuel demonstrations at six Army posts.

Overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, energy security is also important for contingency operations and for weapons systems. The Army needs continuous, uninterrupted power for its forward operating bases. Added to the mix in forward locations is the exponential increase in the cost of fuel.

While fuel prices rose at the pumps in the United States last year, the price for fuel used by forces in Iraq and Afghanistan rose as well. But there, the cost of the fuel itself is eclipsed by the cost of getting it to where it is needed.

“Last year, the big deal was the price of fuel,” Geiss said. “You go from $2 a gallon to $4 a gallon — so we are doubling our costs. But that’s really the tip of the iceberg as far as how much it really costs to get a gallon of fuel to an operating base or some other operating location.”

The “fully burdened” cost of fuel accounts for the cost of transporting it to where it is needed, Geiss said. And moving fuel by convoy or even airlift is expensive.

“In some places you have to fly it in by plane or by helicopter and drop off bladders of fuel,” he said. “Those costs can be an additional $20, $40 or even $200 a gallon. To complete that mission with weapons a system in a remote location in Afghanistan, for a week, you (might) need 1,000 gallons. For us to get that in there, it’s going to cost us maybe $200 a gallon. So that’s $200,000.”

In some places, Geiss said, analysts have estimated the fully burdened cost of fuel might even be as high as $1,000 per gallon.

Energy consumed by a combat vehicle may not even be for actual mobility of the vehicle, Geiss said, but instead to run the systems onboard the vehicle, including the communications equipment and the cooling systems to protect the electronics onboard.

One combat vehicle, Geiss said, operates an 800-horsepower power plant — of which only 200 horsepower are used for mobility. The rest is to power the vehicle’s subsystems.

“What is it cooling? Electronics and sensors, some for the engine,” Geiss said. “That’s how significant this other stuff is.”

In January, the Defense Science Board released a report titled “More Fight, Less Fuel,” that focused on the fully burdened cost of fuel. Addressing the issue means changing the way Soldiers operate at forward operating bases, and even the way weapons systems are designed.

Applying spray foam insulation to a tent can reduce energy costs related to climate control by as much as 50 percent. That was determined though research conducted at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Also at the NTC, the Army has demonstrated microgrid technology that can better manage and reduce energy consumption at forward deployed locations.

“At an FOB, electricity is generated by a generator,” Geiss said. “You fill it up and turn it on and they go 24/7 — whether you need all the power being generated or not.”

With micro-grid technology, generators are linked together and equipped with computer-controlled intelligence. The system is aware of the total power demand and can turn generators on or off to meet that demand.

“If you are turning the generator off instead of running it when you are not using all the power, it’s pretty simple,” he said. “The savings estimates are 25-40 percent. But you have to have the intelligent systems to do that.”

The culture of Soldiers themselves also has to change, Geiss said. He said Soldiers must realize that the price of fuel needed for survival at FOBs is paid not only in dollars, but in lives and mission resources to get it there.
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City firm nets $1B military contract

London’s military machine is $1-billion richer.

General Dynamics Land Systems Canada will get a slice of a $5-billion investment in Canada’s fleet of armoured vehicles — and that could be just the beginning.

The federal government announced yesterday it’s upgrading made-in-London LAV III armoured vehicles, some of which are used in Afghanistan, as well as adding new vehicles to the military.

“The LAV III upgrade is very significant. It’s very good news for us,” said Ken Yamashita, spokesperson for GDLS Canada, which is located on Oxford St.

GDLS will sit down with the Department of National Defence and determine what the requirements will be for the upgrade and after that a contract will be issued, he said.
 

“We’re moving forward in the future for a potential contract, but we still have to determine what the work will be,” Yamashita added.

What is known is that the work will focus on a more powerful drivetrain and suspension to carry about 10,000 pounds more of armour and other equipment, possibly new weapons and electronics.

“This certainly offers the London plant some stability, and depending on the timelines, there may be some growth,” said Pete Keeting, a spokesperson for General Dynamics in Sterling Heights, Mich.

It may be 12 to 18 months until work begins.

About 550 of the 650 LAV IIIs in the Canadian Forces will get the upgrade in London, while there’s an option for another 80 vehicles.

“Our first goal is to define the requirements, but this will mean significant work for 400 Canadian suppliers. The upgrade will be based on lessons learned in Afghanistan,” said Keeting.

“This is good news for the Canadian defence industry all around.”

There may be more good news coming. Ottawa is also buying three other new vehicles to add to the government’s armoured fleet, and GDLS may bid on two of those three — meaning more work may be on the horizon.

Those new vehicles are:

– A tactical armoured patrol vehicle that can fulfil a variety of roles on the battlefield, such as reconnaissance and surveillance, command and control, and acts as cargo and armoured personnel carrier.

– A close-combat vehicle that will provide the Canadian Forces with a medium-weight infantry fighting vehicle that is both highly protected and also tactically mobile.

– GDLS will likely not bid on a force mobility enhancement vehicle that supports Leopard 2 tanks.

The military is purchasing 108 of the close combat vehicles, with an option to buy 30 more, and 500 tactical armoured patrol vehicles, with an option for 100 more.

“We will look at those closely as (the defence department) still has to determine the requirements on those. It could be something we have a product for,” said Yamashita. “If we have products that meet the requirement we will pursue it.”

There are about 500 hourly workers at GDLS Canada on Oxford St. and 1,200 salaried workers.

“This will provide some stability for the present workforce, especially our skilled workers,” said Jim Reid, vice-president of Local 27 representing GDLS workers. “There is a real shortage of skilled workers, especially welders, and I am hoping if GDLS grows they will hire some other workers who are laid off in London.”

Peter White, chief executive of the London Economic Development Corp., called the news a good example of the benefit of advanced manufacturing — a bulk of the workers at GDLS are engineers, designers and other technology-related skills.

“It is an outstanding announcement. This means we are making the vehicle of choice for the Canadian and U.S. military. It puts them in a phenomenal position,” said White.

This is one of the largest contracts awarded to the London plant. Last summer, it won a $1.2-billion deal to provide more Stryker armoured vehicles for the U.S. Army, with about half that work to go to the London plant. It also won a contract of more than $1 billion for a mine blast protection vehicle last summer, but those vehicles are made in South Africa.

Corps Moves to Reduce Armor Burden

Note to insurgents: hit the treadmill. The Marines are about to get a few steps quicker.

Reacting to injuries caused by over weighted body armor and security improvements in some combat zones, the Marine Corps is adjusting the way it equips Leathernecks in the field with personal protective equipment.

The service is shifting the decision making down the chain of command and instituting a graduated armor scale in the coming weeks for the promise of a lighter load to reduce injuries and hopefully quicken the feet of Marines in the field.

The first move, effective immediately, will push control to lieutenant colonels in deciding what amount of personal protective equipment Marines will wear for a given mission.

“Recognizing that body armor is modular and scalable, [we'll] try and leverage that by empowering our commanders … to make the appropriate decision with regards to what composition of body armor their Marines will wear,” said Maj. Tom Wood, infantry advocate for the plans, policies and operations branch of Marine Corps headquarters in Washington.

Previously, the decision for the body armor composition Marines wore into the field rested in the hands of colonels. The Corps hopes devolved decision making to the equivalent of battalion commanders will translate to a more flexible policy.

“Our battalion and squadron commanders are really the right individuals to make the decision with regards to balancing weight versus protection in a given operating environment,” Wood told Military.com in an exclusive interview.

Wood trumpeted “increased tactical mobility” as a key justification for the new move.

“What you are going to see, undoubtedly, is the ability of the average Marine to move quicker and enhance his tactical mobility and thereby the unit can move from point to point quicker,” Wood said.

Combatant commanders will still have the authority to issue theater- or region-wide guidance on the level of personal protective equipment, but Wood hopes that “the reduced level of violence of this new authority may help stir some discussion between Marine force commanders in Iraq and their joint force commander supervisors.”

In January of last year, Corps commanders in Iraq were pushing to shed the body armor load of their grunts by making neck guards, groin protectors, side plates and even helmets optional in some areas of Iraq. But they were shut down by higher-level Army commanders who were unconvinced the threat had diminished enough to justify the new armor edict.

As more Leathernecks deployed to Afghanistan, with its high altitude battlefields and rural geography, the Corps quietly began letting grunts wear light-weight plate carriers instead of the bulky Modular Tactical Vest, exchanging protection for pounds as the strategic environment dictated.

Potentially an even more drastic change is a forthcoming move by the Corps to create a graduated system of personal protective equipment that will allow Marines in the field to quickly move between different body armor configurations.

Wood explained the so-called “armor protection levels” are being modeled after the MOPP — mission orientated protective posture — gear levels that Marines are familiar with in relation to nuclear, biological and chemical attack protective gear. Currently, the Corps is drafting a proposal to create four APLs.

We want to “standardize that across the Marine Corps … so that a commander can rapidly disseminate what his chosen body armor protection level or posture is for his forces,” Wood said.

It’s not new gear, just a new mindset. The four levels will incorporate the small-arms protective insert plate carrier and the modular tactical vest already in use.

Wood acknowledged that complaints from Marines in the field, bolstered by a growing litany of injuries related to gear, played a significant role in prompting these changes.

“We needed to get away from the one size fits all mentality of ‘you are going to go out with all your kit,’ ” Wood said. “Marines have become very, very comfortable operating with all their gear, but there are some body injuries that have occurred that we are just now starting to get our arms around in terms of long-term damage to the human body.”

He said neck, shoulder and back injuries are the most common, but did not provide figures as to the seriousness or frequency of the injuries.

Wood said heat considerations — unavoidable in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where temperatures routinely climb above 100 degrees in the summer months — also factored into the decision.

And besides, walking around like some bulked-up Storm Trooper in head-to-toe armor makes it tough to win hearts and minds in a war that hinges on separating the population from the insurgents.

“There are times and places where a Marine who is less kitted up poses less of a civil, informational or psychological threat to the people that he is attempting to engage with,” Wood said.

As a result of their own success, Marines are spending a lot more time in places like that. The tough part is figuring how to dress for it.

– Bryan Mitchell

Navistar Debuts Its Husky TSV At UK Vehicle Show

Navistar Defense has debuted its International Husky Tactical Support Vehicle (TSV) at the U.K. Ministry of Defence vehicle show known as DVD.

In April, the Ministry of Defence awarded the company a contract to provide 262 Husky vehicles. Organized by the Ministry’s Defence Equipment and Support division, DVD offers attendees the chance to see vehicles in action on the show’s off-road course.

Specially designed to meet U.K. urgent operational requirements in Afghanistan, the lighter and more mobile Husky is built to navigate the rough Afghan terrain, while offering added protection from ballistics fire, mines and roadside bombs.

The Husky, which is the medium variant for the TSV program, will be procured in three vehicle types: patrol, ambulance and command vehicle. Integrated with U.K. specific systems by Dytecna, the vehicle accommodates a four-person crew and is equipped with a MaxxForce D 6.0 L V8 engine, Allison five-speed automatic transmission, and also incorporates Plasan Sasa’s armouring solution.

Last month, Navistar also delivered its first two Husky prototypes, ahead of schedule, to undergo final requirements testing before full production begins this summer.

“The Navistar team is going after an aggressive delivery commitment to provide our U.K. forces with the equipment they need as soon as possible,” said Archie Massicotte, president, Navistar Defense. “Not only will we deliver quickly to support those in theater, but Navistar is prepared to rapidly incorporate design changes into our vehicles as in-theater threats evolve.”

Network-based field tests underway for BCT modernization

The U.S. Army is now conducting a series of high-tech network and equipment verification tests at its massive White Sands test range as part of brigade combat team modernization.

The tests support the Army’s efforts to modernize all brigade combat teams with the latest networked intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and lethality capabilities, officials said.

As part of what is termed the Technical Field Test, Army engineers and product developers — supported by Soldiers of the Army Evaluation Task Force and a host of industry partners — are testing the performance of unmanned ground and air vehicles, unattended sensors, an unattended munitions delivery system and the network that supports them.

“These tests mark an important step toward the goal of spinning out networked equipment sets to the brigade combat teams,” said Lt. Col. John Matthews who is overseeing the integration and validation of tests.

“The ability to transmit vital situational awareness data over the network will be key to how these brigades will fight, and the recently completed first series of TFT events assisted Army engineers in gathering technical details of how that will happen,” Matthews said.

Data gathered from the early TFT events will factor into network and product development improvements as the network and equipment move to the next level of evaluations, Matthews said.

“These capabilities are in a continual state of testing and evaluation, which will culminate in late summer with the Limited User Test,” Matthews said. He explained that a successful LUT will help form a production decision in early FY 2010.

Recently, Soldiers of the AETF, a special unit set up to test the modernization equipment, participated in various stages of the TFT.

“Until recently it has largely been the engineers who had the interaction with the assets and the network,” Matthews said. “This marks the first time in this test series that Soldiers were outfitted and tasked with passing data through the network in a field environment.”

Test cases in the TFT included passing target and image data taken from networked equipment transitioned from the Future Combat Systems program to the new Army Brigade Combat Team Modernization plan. The equipment includes the Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle, or SUGV; the Class 1, Block 0 Unmanned Air System, known as UAS; the Unmanned Tactical and Ground Sensors, T-UGS and U-UGS; and the Non-Line of Sight Launch System, or NLOS-LS.

Images and data from these assets were captured and sent in real time to a humvee containing a Network Integration Kit, a key component to ensuring battlefield sensor and target acquisition data can be transmitted across the brigade combat team.

These networked humvees contain an Integrated Computer System consisting of multi-band antennas, a ground mobile radio suite from the Joint Tactical Radio System family, Wideband Networking and Soldier Radio Waveforms. The waveforms allow for secure image transfer to the onboard integrated computer system.

In this configuration, the integrated computer works with the current force battle command software equipment and can pass up to higher echelons from there in real time, providing ground and air situational awareness to those who need it.

“We are rapidly integrating this technology with the network to provide Soldiers down to the platoon level with the kind of important battlefield situational awareness that is needed in such complex operating environments as Afghanistan,” Matthews said.

Satellite Broadband Internet in Iraq and Afghanistan for U.S. Troops

WARSAW, Poland, Jan. 22 /Reuters/ — TS2 Satellite Technologies‘ network in Iraq and Afghanistan has over 15,000 military users of local broadband satellite connections.

“We were among the first telecommunications operators in the satellite technology in the territory of Iraq and Afghanistan, and as such we have enjoyed a successful cooperation with the U.S. Army for several years now,” says Marcin Frackiewicz, CEO of the TS2 Satellite Technologies.

TS2 Satellite Technologies offers two-way high-speed Internet access with no phone lines, no cable and no dial-up modem. It’s always on, available virtually anywhere, and affordable. The laptop or Wi-Fi network can receive Internet signal through a special satellite VSAT modem, which was usually set up in a building or tent when deployed.

The one VSAT access point provides the following services for soldiers:

– Broadband access to the Internet (WWW, E-mail, FTP etc.)
– Data transfer to many other users simultaneously
– Telephone connections including VoIP, IP phone
– Video-conference connections

Advantages of the system:

– Short set-up time
– Fast and easy upgrades
– Possibility of guaranteed CIR
– Transmission in almost all weather conditions

The communication among the bases is possible thanks to the simultaneous lease of bands on the Intelsat 10-02, Intelsat 901 and Eutelsat W6 satellites whose coverage enables configuration of connections between any place in Europe, Middle East and Southwest Asia.

TS2′s satellite military networks are located in Al Taqaddum Air Base, Bahgram AF, Balad Base, Baquba Airfield, Brassfield-Mora, Cob Adder, Cob Speicher, Camp Al Asad Airbase, Camp Bucca Basra City, Camp Buehring, Camp Charlie Basra, Camp Eggers, Camp Fallujah, Camp Grizzly, Camp Korean Village, Camp Liberty, Camp Mejid, Camp Ramadi, Camp Slayer, Camp Stryker, Camp Taji, Camp Victory, Fob Bagram, Fob Brassfield Mora, Fob Delta Al Kut, Fob Diamondback, Fob Falcon, Fob Garryowen, Fob Gardez, Fob Ghazni, Fob Kalagush, Fob Kandahar, Fob Lagman, Fob Mchenry, Fob Marez, Fob Normandy, Fob Rustamiyah, Fob Summerall, Fob Sykes, Fob Salerno, Fob Torkham, Fob Warhorse, Fob Warrior, Herat RTC, Jallahabad Air Base, Kabul Airport, Kabul Camp Eggers, Kandahar Air Base, Lsa Anaconda Balad, Q-West Base Complex and Tallil Ab Lsa Adder.

Especially for U.S. Military Personnel, Contracting Officers and DoD Contractors, TS2 delivers satellite equipment to most of all military addresses in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle East, within maximum of 7 days.

Supported military locations in Iraq -
http://www.ts2.pl/en/Internet-in-Iraq-for-US-Army-Soldiers

Supported military locations in Afghanistan -
http://www.ts2.pl/en/Internet-in-Afghanistan-for-US-Army-Soldiers

Contact:

Piotr Kubiak and Michal Skrok
TS2 Satellite Technologies
phone +48 22 630 70 70
fax +48 22 630 70 71
http://www.ts2.pl

PEO Soldier unveils lighter, more lethal weapons systems

Two weapons in development are expected to be more precision-oriented, lighter and lethal: the laser-sighted XM-25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System and the Lightweight .50-Caliber Machine Gun.

The XM-25 will undergo field-testing this summer while the LW50MG is already being tested by Soldiers.

Program Executive Office Soldier at Fort Belvoir, Va., opened its doors earlier this month to give the media a look at the two weapons and other new gear in development that will lighten a Soldier’s load yet improve survivability, lethality and comfort.

XM25: First shoulder-fired ‘smart’ weapon

The semi-automatic, shoulder-fired XM-25 with a five-round magazine of 25mm dual-warhead ammunition weighs in at about 14 pounds (about the same as an M-16 with a 203 grenade launcher) yet it’s only a few inches longer than an M-4 Carbine with the shoulder stock extended. Decked out in Army Combat Uniform camouflage, its toy weapon appearance belies its expected lethality.

Richard Audette, deputy program manager for Soldier weapons, said the technology behind the XM-25 is a leap ahead because it’s the first smart weapon system with a smart round in small weapons.

“The way a Soldier operates this is you basically find your target, then laze to it, which gives the range, then you get an adjusted aim point, adjust fire and pull the trigger,” he said. “Say you’ve lazed out to 543 meters… when you pull the trigger it arms the round and fires it 543 meters plus or minus a one-, two- or three-meter increment, then it explodes over the target.” That, he added, makes it a full-solution fire control weapon.

Audette said the evaluations this summer will test accuracy and effectiveness, and because it’s a completely different type of weapon system its use will call for different tactics.

“For example, in Iraq we had many instances where there was a sniper firing from a rooftop and you have a squad trying to engage that target, but the Soldiers couldn’t get to him with the weapons they had, so they’d call in the Air Force to drop a JDAM (joint direct attack munition),” he said. “We can take out the target at $25 per XM round as opposed to a $20,000 to $50,000 JDAM.”

According to Audette, ranges in Afghanistan are longer than in Iraq. He said the XM-25 has an effective range of 750 meters, which is longer than an M-16 and M-4 and outperforms the 40mm M-203 grenade-launcher range by more than double.

LW50MG: Less weight, better accuracy

The MK-25 doesn’t offer a Soldier any weight-savings, but the Lightweight .50-Caliber Machine Gun definitely will coming in with tripod at 64 pounds – half what the M-2 .50- caliber heavy machine gun weighs.

With the addition of a modified M-145 machine-gun optic, the LW50MG will be more accurate and quicker to reach its target because it will also have 60-percent less recoil than the M-2, which has been an Army staple in some form or another since 1921.

Col. Doug Tamilio, program manager for Soldier weapons for Soldier lethality and weight reduction, said the Army has more than 34,000 of the M-2s, each weighing in at 128 pounds with 256 moving parts, but the prototype LW50MG has not only half the weight, it also has only 128 moving parts.

“The M-2 is a great weapons system, but before you fire it, you have to set the head space and timing and if you want to change a barrel out, you have to unscrew it, pull it out, then insert and screw in a new barrel; then you have to open the feed tray cover… if you fail to check it or do something improperly, you could have an issue with a round going off because it doesn’t have a safety on it,” he said.

To fix that problem, PEO Soldier developed a quick-change barrel kit which allows Soldiers to simply pull out the barrel without having to screw in a new one. They simply insert a new barrel, lock it in place and start firing – the barrel moves but not the carriage which allows the LW50MG to carry the M-145 machine-gun optic, which is the one used on the 7.62-caliber M-240 medium machine gun.

“It has a lower cyclic rate, but because it has much less recoil and can fit a sight, it allows a Soldier to get a hit on a target much quicker and to hold that target with the sight,” Tamilio said. “It’s still in the development stage, but it has proven out to be very, very durable and accurate firing the same .50-caliber rounds the same distance.”

Another plus to the lightweight machine gun low recoil is that the tripod spade grips won’t have to be slammed into the ground and sandbagged to hold the weapon in place.