Glenn Dean's Blog, page 14

Viper Strike and the reuse of Brilliant Weapons

Gizmodo.com has a recent article up about the Viper Strike glide bomb, which has evolved from a special operations weapon to a much more widely used small weapon for UAV employment.  But while the GBU-44 is a mere "smart" laser- and GPS-guided bomb, it is evolved from one of a suite of "brilliant weapons" that began development some time ago, of which almost none have made it to service.

Viper Strike is evolved from BAT, the "Brilliant Anti-Tank" submunition that was designed to be delivered by MLRS projectiles.  When deployed over the battlefield, the BAT would search the nearby area until it found a likely high-value target like a tank, then aim itself and attack.  This "brilliant" behaviour of finding its own target distinguished it from mere "smart" weapons which could guide into a target once the target was pointed out.

One of my old bosses was the guy who closed down BAT in 2003, so I'd bet he'd be happy to see this technology getting re-used, even if it's in less than "brilliant" form.

The Army killed another "brilliant" munition not long ago, the tank-fired Mid-Range Munition or MRM.  MRM could operate in smart mode guiding on ot a target, or in a semi-active mode where it would find its own target once launched into a general area.  It demonstrated out well, though admittedly after multiple prior iterations of similar programs (TERM, STAFF) that did not prove out.  MRM died with FCS because someone along the way decided the Abrams shouldn't have a requirement to fire this munition.

At least one brilliant Army munition has seen effective active service: the Sense and Destroy ARMor artillery projectile, or SADARM.  SADARM was an artillery-delivered submunition that would deploy a parachute then search the local area using radar for a tank, and it if found one, would attack from the top with an explosively-formed penetrator.  The effort was terminated after procuring about 900 rounds, probably due to cost, but 3rd Infantry Division deployed SADARM during the invasion of Baghdad.

I once talked to some of the 3ID troops that employed SADARM, and they were very enthusiastic about the round's performance.  In their words: "we fired a couple of SADARM rounds at an Iraqi tank formation, and the tanks just evaporated."  Officially, about one in every three SADARM rounds fired destroyed a tank, which is a pretty good exchange rate and darn cost effective given the price of a main battle tank these days.

Who knows, perhaps one day some of these brilliant weapons may return ...

Google Glasses? Why not Google Goggles for Soldiers?

There's been a fair amount of press lately about "Google Glasses", a project Google has going for glasses that project data into spectacles.  According to an article at Gizmodo, Google may also be working on a patent for helmet use.

I certainly hope so.  The Army has been struggling to get good wearable computing displays for Soldiers for a good 20+ years now.  The original OICW requirement, as well as the original Land Warrior program, included a helmet-mounted display that had an eyepiece for one eye through which the soldier could see a map display or the view and symbology from his rifle.  Unfortunately, that display was heavy, awkward, and hard to train with --  notably, in a number of demonstrations, soldiers walked into trees while trying to use the helmet mounted display.

The Mounted Soldier System program tried to do the same things with a helmet-mounted display for vehicle crewmen.  Though that display worked better than the Land Warrior one, that program looks like it's on the ropes and not likely to survive.  So no waerable display systems are in the works except perhaps for smartphone based solutions like Nett Warrior.

Incorporating a lightweight display into the ballistic glasses all soldiers now wear in the field seems like a good solution, and a similar technology could be integrated into the helmets of vehicle and air crewmen for a far better human interface than the eyepiece/head-mounted display designs.

Good luck, Google.

Laser-Guided Rockets to Afghanistan

I mentioned the other day that I used to work Apache weapons systems.  One program that I didn't think would ever see the light of day back then but is apparently now going forward is the Advanced Precision Kill Weapons System (APKWS), a laser-guided 2.75mm folding fin rocket.

Back when I supported Apache, the APKWS program kept trying to get steam but was always falling below the critical cut line to maintain funding.  It had some technical challenges (seeker, warhead size, etc), so at the time we doubted it would go forward, even though it was a pretty logical requirement.  According to Danger Room, the Navy kept the project alive where the Army could not, and is now sending the system to USMC units in Afghanistan.

At the time, we were killing insurgents in Iraq very effectively by shooting Hellfire missiles at them.  In the dense urban environment, the Hellfire was effective because it could be accurately targeted quickly with little collateral damage risk, and with the 30mm it was the weapon of choice, while rockets got very little use due to their general inaccuracy.  Shooting a Hellfire to kill and IED team was effective, but still a use of an expensive missile with a warhead that is a bit too large for just a couple of insurgents.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, Apache crews were using rockets even more than their missiles.

With APKWS, a much smaller warhead can be delivered for much less cost, precisely, further reducing collateral damage risk.  An aircraft can carry more APKWS rockets than Hellfires -- with pods designed for 4, 8 , or 19 rockets, an Apache could theoretically carry as many as 76 guided rocket shots.  There are obviously still tradeoffs in methods of engagement, but it's another tool in the kit bag.

Here's to hoping the Army picks up APKWS too to arm Kiowa Warriors and Apaches.

 

A Brief History of Stealth

Gizmodo.com has a great short article up on the history of the development of "Have Blue", the project that became the F-117 stealth fighter and how Lockheed got into the stealth business.  It's from a new book, Stealth Fighter: A Year in the Life of an F-117 Pilot by Lt. Col. William B. O'Connor USAF (ret.) An excerpt:

To test the model at all, Lockheed then had to design an invisible "stealth pole" to mount the model utilizing the same technology as the proposed fighter. The results were once again astounding, and incredulous USAF officials were called in to witness and verify the data.

The first opportunity to impress these officials almost resulted in embarrassment. When the radars were turned on, the reflections, while still very small by airplane standards, were orders of magnitude larger than what the USAF officials had been led to expect. They could still clearly see a small radar return from where the model was mounted.

While the Lockheed engineers were trying to explain this discrepancy, a radio call came in from a technician downrange. He reported that a bird was perched on the ten-foot model. The quick reply was an order to blow the horn of the pickup truck the guy was sitting in. As the startled bird flew away, the radar reflection on the test scope disappeared.

The very idea that a combat aircraft could be made so invisible as to hide behind a bird was an opportunity that couldn't be passed up. Everything associated with the program became classified at the highest levels. The program was transferred from DARPA to the USAF special projects office. The word "stealth" was forbidden to be mentioned in any unclassified document. And in April 1976, the Ford administration gave Lockheed the go-ahead for a full-scale aircraft. The Skunk Works was officially in the stealth fighter business.

If you found the Gizmodo article interesting, check out the book, or the quite excellent Skunk Works by Ben Rich, which documents not only the stealth fighter but also the U-2, SR-71, and other Skunk Works projects.

Happy Patriot's Day!

Happy Patriot's Day, everyone!  (Or at least those of US citizenship.)

What, you've never heard of Patriot's Day?  I'll give you a hint: it's one of four possible birthdays for the United States (it is the 237th this year).  Need an additional clue?  Those of you who grew up in the '70s and early '80s might remember this:

Patriot's Day is the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord on 19 April 1775 that began the American Revolution (not to be confused with Patriot Day, 11 September).  Though Independence Day, 4 July 1776 is traditionally celebrated as the birthday of the United States as the day the Declaration of Independence was signed, one could argue that the first irevocable steps down the road to American Independence were taken today 237 years ago.  (I'll go on record, though, s saying that the best birthday of the modern United States is either 17 September 1787, the day the Constitutional Covention adopted the current US Constitution, or better yet 21 June 1788, the day the ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified the Constitution and it became the law of the land.  But I digress ...).

History is written by the victors, so I suspect that calling today's events 237 years ago "The Shot Heard Round the World" is a bit of an exaggeration.  As self-centered as we Americans are, I suspect at the time it was a mere footnote, and I'll bet in most countries' history books this date never gets a mention.  Though I suppose on reflection that it might merit a paragraph in the UK, but sandwiched between the Seven Years' War and the great Napoleonic Wars I'll bet the rebellion of those pesky American colonists would have remained a footnote there had it not been for the events of the 20th Century that established the US as a great nation.

I wonder, too, how the events of that fateful day might play out today.  Some speculation:

- The "Sons of Liberty" would have been labeled a terrorist organzation, and would never have been able to amass the stores in Lexington and Concord that prompted the British expedition.

- Paul Revere and his fellow riders would have announced the British movements on Twitter and Facebook, so there would have been no need to drive his Subaru through the night to warn the patriots.

- The British would have converged on their objectives from multiple direction by truck and helicopter, but would find them already occupied by the media and flash mobs.

- Alerted by the Internet, people would have lined all the British routes too and from Lexington and Concord, posting photos and live-blogging the events.

- The action at Lexington Green and the Old North Bridge would have been captured by hundreds of cell phone cameras and rehashed live and for the next 72 hours on 24-hour media.  Whomever fired the first shot would have been quickly located, interviewed, and would have appeared on network television the next day.

- Media spin and rapid communication with England might have kept events from spiralling out of control; the British commander would have been sacked, an apology issued, and focus turned to hunting down the "terrorists" who remained a threat to the community.

In hindsight I suspect that today, the American Revolution couldn't happen.

So, my fellow Americans, pause briefly today and thank our Colonial forebears who were willing to stand up and sacrifice for what they thought was right.  I'll leave you with another bit of '70s patriotic nostalgia:

Picatinny Arsenal working on Reactive Materials

From Army.mil ... the weapons mad scientists at Picatinny Arsenal are working on munitions designs using reactive materials.  What are reactive materials, you ask?  Just potentially the next best thing in future warhead design.

Reactive materials are structural materials that become reactive at high impact velocities.  In other words, they are materials that become explosive when hurled with enough force.  Here's a short video with more details:

I got some exposure to RM when working with ATK o...

Another Osprey crash

Via DefenseTech.org ...

A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey went down in southern Morocco earlier today killing two and injuring two American troops, Reuters is reporting.

The aircraft was in Morocco for the annual African Lion exercise that focuses on joint training between American troops and African counterparts.

No word on the cause of the crash or status of the survivors.

The Osprey has had more than it's fair share of crashes, or seems to have, though based on most of what I read its...

US files antitrust lawsuit over Apple eBook price fixing

Bloomberg.com is reporting that the US government has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple alleging it colluded with publishers to fix prices on eBooks.  According to the article:

When Apple came out with the iPad in 2010, it let publishers set their own prices for e-books as long as it got a 30 percent cut and the publishers agreed to offer their lowest prices through Apple. This agency model overtook Amazon's practice of buying books at a discount from publishers and then setting its...

New Humanitarian Airdrop Tech

The Air Force has some neat new airdrop tech, designed to help deliver humanitarian rations to a disaster zone.  According to Danger Room, the new system does away with both high velocity package drops and large parachute-delivered systems in favor of a small foam package that delivers either a single serving of water or an energy bar.

Working in conjunction with the Army (which actually owns most of the air-drop gear the Air Force uses) they did away with the refrigerator-size box, replacing...

Weapons of the Zombie Apocalypse, Chapter 6: Aircraft

[This is a sample chapter from the book Weapons of the Zombie Apocalypse. The complete book is available for purchase in eBook formats -- see The Books link.]

In the Zombie Apocalypse, most of us probably will not have the skills to make use of aircraft, but should you be a pilot, know a pilot, or be able to link up with a pilot, there may be some use for aircraft.  The question is: which ones, and how to use them?

First, let's address uses for aircraft during the zombie apocalypse.  There are ...