Category: Military

Military Industry Complex Bullsh%$: FCS Armor Edition

No Comments

It appears that the good folks at Aberdeen Proving Ground just set up a petting zoo for the press with a dog and pony show on the high tech armor for the manned ground vehicles (FCS-MGV).

I have no doubt that this armor will be more effective on a per unit weight and a per thickness basis, but the following is a flat out lie:

All these materials had apparently been used in the search to create the “B” armor for FCS. They are using what is called B-1 armor now and plan to come up with two more variants, using B-3 as the main armor once the FCS vehicles make it to LRIP in fiscal 2013. B-1 provides, a very careful public affairs officer told me, protection roughly equivalent to the Chobham armor on the Abrams tanks. The next variants should be much lighter and provide even greater protection.

(emphasis mine)

Simply put, you are not going to get higher armor levels out of a 25-30 ton vehicle than you do out of a 70 ton vehicle, the laws of physics.

It could be that they are factoring in the effects of an active protection system (which could be easily retrofitted to legacy vehicles) and greater situational awareness (which also could be easily retrofitted to legacy vehicles), but if they are, they are ignoring the realities of modern combat (IEDs, EFPs, and an insurgent enemy who has information superiority).

In other words, it’s a lie.

Alkali Laser?

No Comments

It looks like General Atomics has snagged a $667,000 contract to develop a high power alkali laser. (paid subscription required)

As I noted last week, they are already working with the USAF on solid state lasers (HELLADS), but this is a different technology, a “diode-pumped alkali-vapor laser” (DPAL), which may be more efficient, and would likely be easier to cool, as the alkali-vapor could just be conveyed to a heat exchanger.

Speaking of Insubordination

No Comments

The presiding judge at Gitmo, Army Colonel James Pohl, is refusing to suspend one of the trials, and has scheduled the arraignment for February 9:

Hours after taking office last week, Obama ordered Guantanamo prosecutors to seek 120-day delays in all pending cases to give his administration time to decide whether to scrap the widely criticized tribunals created by the Bush administration to try suspected terrorists outside the regular U.S. court system.

But the judge, Army Colonel James Pohl, said the law underpinning the tribunals gives the presiding judges sole authority to delay cases. He ruled that postponing proceedings against Abd al Rahim al Nashiri would harm the public interest in a speedy trial.

Note that al Nashiri appears to be one of the “high value” defendants who was water boarded, and he has been held for over 5 years…so much for speedy trials.

Seriously, Bush and His Evil Minions™ did their level best to politicize every level of government, including the military.

This will be poisoning the military and the civilian bureaucracy for decades to come.

Obama Needs to Tell Ray Odierno to STFU

No Comments

Because it’s clear that General Odierno is doing his level best to box Obama in on Iraq:

Among those consulted by the president was Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander in Iraq, who has developed a plan that would move slower than Mr. Obama’s campaign timetable, by pulling out two brigades over the next six months. In an interview in Iraq on Wednesday, General Odierno suggested that it might take the rest of the year to determine exactly when United States forces could be drawn down significantly.

This is borderline insubordinate.

A president needs his generals to tell him, and congress, the truth, but you don’t want them spouting off to the press in order to make your job more difficult.

If this is not slapped down now, it will only get worse.

China Releases 2008 Defense White Paper

No Comments

Not surprisingly it shows an increase in spending, and far more focus on the application of the military in non warfare situations than the US military.

The Chinese see the use of their military in peacekeeping and aid situations as a necessary adjunct to their diplomacy, while the US military does its level best to stay within the bounds of “kinetic” warfare.

Certainly, China sees its military as a way to increase its diplomatic status and prestige.

Still, it’s an interesting picture of what really is the only near term meaningful military rival.

Laurent Nkunda Captured by Rwandan Army

No Comments

His arrest, see also here, comes as a bit of the surprise, as he was always close to the Rwandan army, and his pursuit of the remnants of the genocidal Hutu Interahamwe militias were certainly in agreement with the Rwandan government.

It appears that this might be some sort of quid quo pro, with Congo allowing Rwanda to send in troops to take out the Hutu militias in exchange for neutralizing Nkunda.

Solid-State Laser Programs Advance to High-Power Tests

No Comments

HELLADS

Textron “ThinZag”

Hellads In B-1 Bay

Aviation Week had a cover story, and 3 articles on lasers, and it looks like the signs are in that chemical lasers, which has been the next big thing for battlefield applications are on the way out, because they rely on toxic and expensive chemicals that are remarkably unfriendly to battlefield conditions.

One of the issues for solid state lasers has always been that when you have a high power ceramic generating the laser, the cooling tends create thermal shock that can break the material.

The Joint High-Power Solid-State Laser (JHPSSL) program is looking to demonstrate proof of concept models in the next year or so, with outputs in the 100kW, and DARPA is looking at the High-Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (Hellads).

For JHPSSL, there are two contractors and technologies, Northrop Grumman, which gangs the output of 8 or more laser modules, and Textron which uses a single module, and boosts the output with “gain modules”. (Textron’s “ThinZag” concept is the 2nd picture)

The goals of both programs now is efficiency, both in terms of gross power-in/power out ratios, and beam quality, which effects beam quality at a distance.

DARPA appears to be ahead in terms of developing a modestly sized laser that can fitted to existing platforms. (bottom picture is a theoretical system in a B-1 Weapons bay)

HELLADS is being developed by General Atomics, and the concept is described as a “liquid laser”, where the amplification disks are immersed in a coolant to avoid thermal shock issues.

Further, the DARPA is developing with Raytheon a electronically scanned optical array under a separate program, where they are electronically steering the fiber optic inputs from multiple lasers (7 lasers are shown being combined in the top picture).

If You Need to Incorporate Stealth into a Transport Aircraft

No Comments

Then maybe you have a problem like lack of air superiority over your airfields, which pretty much means “game over”.

This makes me wonder why the USAF is soliciting proposals from Boeing and Northrop-Grumman for stealthy STOL airlifters.

My guess is that this is a way to get additional money for a successor to the B-2 bomber through a back door, because there ain’t any money in the front door.

Obviously, this is technically challenging, if just because tailless designs do not lend themselves to short take-off and landing and the slow speeds that this entails.

The basic requirement, the ability to operate from a a 1,500-2,000ft landing strip and cruise at Mach 0.80 is doable, and has been done, even at the size that they are looking at, a 35T payload, roughly equivalent to an EADS A400M, which comes close to these goals…Or it will when it finally flies.

Clearly, the two proposals differ, with Boeing going with a tail, and they will rely heavily on things like blown flaps, and perhaps some application of the Coandă effect.


Boeing Concept


Northrop-Grumman Concept


STOL Technologies from Northrop-Grumman

Is This a Deliberate Attempt to Obsolete the Existing Fleet

No Comments

It looks to me like USAF is making some decisions with their date links with an eye toward deliberately obsoleting the current fleet. (paid subscription required)

The short version is that the USAF has an existing data link, Link 16, which is both narrow-band and non-stealthy, so it needs replacement.

The USAF has just selected the directional multifunction advanced data link (MADL) in preference to the competing tactical targeting network technology (TTNT) for the B-2, F-22, and F-35.

While this appears to be inside baseball, the caption on a picture along with the article speaks volumes, “An anti-access data link will allow B-2s to share information with F-22s and F-35s, but not legacy platforms such as F-15s.”

So I am wondering if this is a deliberate attempt to obsolete legacy platforms so as to justify more F-22 and F-35 purchases?

Obama Getting Rolled by Pentagon and NASA?

No Comments

It now appears that people in the Pentagon and in NASA are feedinb Obama and his transition team scare stories about a Chinese manned program to the moon:

President-elect Barack Obama will probably tear down long-standing barriers between the U.S.’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China.

The argument is that the Chinese will be able to put a man back on the moon before the US’s goal of 2020.

It should be noted that planting a flag on the moon means nothing.

That China is making strides in space development is true, and the military implications are a legitimate concern, and the idea of replacing NASA’s Ares vehicles with existing vehicles, which means military launchers because NASA has meticulously destroyed the opposition on their end, is a good thing.

But this whole “race to the moon” thing is 6 pounds of sh%$ in a 5 pound bag.

If Obama and his team believe this, I have some ballots in Florida for them to count.

Like This is a Surprise

No Comments

Well, defence ministry spokesman Huang Xueping has announced that China is considering building an aircraft carrier.

This is really no surprise. There have been indications that China was considering building a carrier for some time, as I have noted.

It will be news when China actually starts formally drawing up requirements, and again when it starts cutting metal or negotiating a purchase, but this is no surprise.

Why Barack Obama Needs to Fire a General or Two

No Comments

So, the status of forces agreement is signed, and General Ray Ordierno immediately starts making public statements about how it a binding timeline in the agreement does not really mean a binding timeline.

Now we have unnamed sources deep in the Pentagon saying that the pullout of troops from Iraqi cities will be a pullout in name only:

Even though the agreement with the Iraqi government calls for all American combat troops to be out of the cities by the end of June, military planners are now quietly acknowledging that many will stay behind as renamed “trainers” and “advisers” in what are effectively combat roles. In other words, they will still be engaged in combat, just called something else.

Let’s be clear, this is a case of the Pentagon leaking from near the top: the leaks have been approved by Gates, Petraeus, or Ordierno.

On January 21, they need to be told that they will stop all comments, and that the entire chain of command needs to know that the status of forces agreement is now the position of the government of the United States of America, and that anyone who suggests otherwise is engaging in insubordination, and will be subject to severe disciplinary actions.

And then, the next relatively senior officer (Lt. Col. and above) who shoots off his yap gets fired.

Because this really is insubordination, and while it may serve the desires of Bush and His Evil Minions™ to subvert the timetables in the SOF, it does not suit the desires or needs of the nation.

If anything else is done, Barack Obama will be rolled for the rest of his time as President by the Pentagon.

Tin Foil Hat Time

No Comments

We have reports now that the Army War College is doing studies on the use of the military against US citizens during times of unrest.

A new report by the U.S. Army War College talks about the possibility of Pentagon resources and troops being used should the economic crisis lead to civil unrest, such as protests against businesses and government or runs on beleaguered banks.

“Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security,” said the War College report.

The study says economic collapse, terrorism and loss of legal order are among possible domestic shocks that might require military action within the U.S.

Not surprising as the Posse Comitatus act has been whittled down to nothing over the past few years.

Defense May Boost Orbital Power Generation

No Comments

It looks like the military is seriously looking into developing orbital power stations in order to reduce the logistical tail for remote bases. (paid subscription required)

The theory here is that if a relatively cost effective power station can be developed, then things like remote forward bases in Afghanistan would not require regular resupply of fuel for generators, which are both expensive and vulnerable.

They are in the very early stages, but the notational concept appears to be a 5-10 MW pilot power plant in about 10 years.

If they can manage that, we might start seeing commercial applications in the decade following that.

Russia Unveils FCS Killer RPG

No Comments

The folks at Danger Room quote the Russian descriptions as an “Abrams Killer”, but the RPG-30 is really designed to defeat active protective systems and reactive armor, neither of which are currently used on the M-1, which they note.

It’s pretty simple in concept. The RPG-30 launches two projectiles, the main 105mm projectile, and a smaller decoy, which it launches a few milliseconds ahead of it.

It would serve as a decoy against active protection systems, which intercept incoming rounds, and with even a tiny warhead, and it looks to be about 30mm in diameter, so there is space for this, it could serve to pre-detonate reactive armor, allowing for better function of the main charge.

Neat technology, and another nail in the FCS manned ground vehicle concept of substituting technology for armor.

Murtha Calls for Cuts in DoD Budget

No Comments

This is no surprise. Anyone with eyes can see that the defense budget is wasteful, bloated, and not serving the current security needs of the country.

It’s also refreshing that he wants to bring the “emergency wartime supplementals” back into the regular budget process, as well as noting that the defense procurement process is broken.

Of course, he also gets on his high horse about reinstating the draft, where I have mixed emotions.