The system is called Tanin (Alligator) and it mounts a .50 cal Barrett sniper rifle.
This system is undoubtedly not cheap, but the risk of losing a rifle and mount is less than that of losing a sniper, who are highly trained and rare commodities.
I wonder if we will see this in use in the near future.
My hunch is that it will be used often…it’s the middle east.
I haven’t followed the entire body armor controversy particularly closely.
My interest there has primarily been the allegations of corruption and war profiteering, but I know that this is a subject that tends to get people screaming at each other, with the word “conspiracy” being thrown around.
So the army’s decision to postpone tests on flexible armor will doubtless raise some hackles.
It may be that the army saw some new technology coming down the pipe, as we also have a press release from Allan Bain, one of the creators of scale armor,* regarding a new technology to forge the plates that will result in improved performance
Evolution Armor Systems calls it “Skaalar Exoskin Gen 4+”.
*Truth be told, the technology is thousands of years old, so we are talking about the recreators of scale armor.
It’s called a UltraFlex solar array, and it looks like the photovoltaics are mounted on mylar or something similar.
It’s intended for the Orion crew exploration vehicle, which is intended to, among other things, carry a crew to the moon.
Cool system:
It looks like they are checking out both the, “Piasecki/Boeing X-49 SpeedHawk compound helicopter and the Sikorsky X2 coaxial helicopter,” as an interim measure toward higher performance helicopters, and they are looking at things like the Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) , such as the, “Bell Boeing QuadTiltrotor, a Sikorsky heavylift helicopter concept and the Karem/Lockheed optimum speed tiltrotor,” to carry A-400M sized, or at least larger than C-130 sized, loads.
What is really at the core of a lot of this is that since 1947, when the USAF became a separate branch of the service, and took over fixed wing aviation, they have not been well served, so they are looking toward bringing the capabilities back in house through new helicopter technologies.
NASA is looking at reinvigorating its quiet supersonic program, and their concept vehicle looks very familiar to my eyes:
Remember the Fireflash from the 1960s series, Thunderbirds?
Truth be told, I don’t know if this is sweet, or lame.
The Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS), which incorporates a laser seeker guidance system.
There is an interesting twist to the guidance package, the APKWS mounts a fixed laser seeker on each wing, as opposed to the traditional gimballed laser seeker in the nose.
It’s certainly mechanically simpler. My guess would be that the deltas between the 4 seekers are used to get a precise aim point with the processor.
It’s called the Distributed Aperture Semi-Active Laser Seeker (DASALS) a good example of using computing power to make a simpler and cheaper device.
Note for the metrically disinclined 70mm= 2.75-inch rocket.
BTW, here is some video pr0n of the system (4m 16s):
Because the US Navy is setting up a Cyberwar Command too.
It’s budget grab stupidity.
The US Marines have just put in orders for 7 more Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles (EFV).
It’s a very ambitious ambitious amphibious vehicle, when I worked on it it was called the Advanced Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAAV), and it is a very ambitious program, a 35 ton vehicle capable of 40 kts in the water by planing like a speed boat.
In any case, it has hit the trifecta in military contracting, over budget, behind schedule, and having technical shortcomings, and the new protypes are supposed to address.
They are not looking at full rate production starting at 2025.
*Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can’t hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as “technical hit man”, where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.
Boeing is looking at licensing Piasecki Aircraft’s compount helicopter technology for an improved Apache.
It strikes me that this might be a very good marriage of technology.
I’m not sure that it will make much difference on the actual battlefield, the mode would still be pop-up and shoot, but I can see a serious increase in range for deployment or by reducing response time from a base to the station.
It was a foregone conclusion after Congress cut total funding from $120 million to $10 million for the hypersonic demonstrator.
The FCC Office of Engineering Technology just finished its tests on “white space devices”, which operate in the space between television channels, and they have determined that they work without interfering with licensed TV channels in the spectrum.
Basically, these devices are supposed to detect which channels are in use by broadcast TV, and avoid those specific frequencies, which will open massive amounts of spectrum to small relatively low power devices.
It should be noted that there are strong forces opposed to such an application:
Opponents to the Google’s white spaces plan have included not just T-Mobile, but also the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the wireless microphone industry. These two groups contend that interference will be caused to HDTV and other digital TV signals if mobile devices start operating in currently unused white spaces next to spectrum allocated by the FCC for TV broadcasting.
And this opposition occurs without regard to whether there is interference, they object to the possibility of interference from infringing devices.
The fact is that the broadcasters and T-Mobile want to find a way to make money off of unused spectrum, and the wireless microphone industry has been a laboratory for interference problem, since they have been operating illegally in this spectrum for well over a decade, despite complaints from the public safety community (see here and here for some of Harold Feld’s marvelous takes on the hypocrisy of the Wireless mike industry).
I’m not sure where this is all going to go, though the fact that FCC chairman Martin is optimistic on open use of the spectrum is encouraging.
Note though that he is a short timer, and we don’t know who his successor will be after Bush and His Evil Minions™ leave office.
Truth be told, this article reads more like a press release than anything else, and the real development that all of these aircraft programs needs is a change in regulations, which currently prohibit supersonic flight over land.
Theoretically, at least, this program is a precursor to a Mach 6 missile.
I say theoretically because the first two tests ended in failure.
RR expects to be able to certify its RB2011 open rotor engine in the next 9-10 years, which is a fairly aggressive schedule, when one considers the issues of noise and certification for a completely new type of engine. (paid subscription required)
In addition to noise issues, fan shrouds make conventional turbofans typically quieter, there are also issues such as bird strike and blade loss that have not been addresses from either an engineering or a regulatory perspective, and all these issues are non-trivial.
Care of The DEW Line. Stephen Trimble took a video of the Sikorski promotional video with his moblie
They have been talking about replacing the .50 cal M2 Browning machine gun for decades, and now they are talking about the LW50 as a replacement.
The M2 has some flaws, most notably weight, a lack of a quick change barrel, and the need to set head spacing, but I’ll withhold judgment for now, particularly since I’ve never served of handled an automatic weapon.
It appears that the sticking point may be rate of fire, which is about 2/3 that of the M2.
I always wanted to be John Browning when I grew up.
You know, Voyage to the Botom of the Sea.
It appears that someone in DARPA did too, because they are looking at the flying sub, though it does not look as cool as the original:
DARPA’s strategic technology office wants an aircraft that can reach a destination, whether it is 1,850km (1,000nm) away by air or 185km by sea or 22km travelling underwater, in less than 8h.
I want whatever it is that they are smoking.
Well this is new, an improved weapons system whose primary improvement is a reduction in cost.
Specifically, the precision guided Excalibur round:
The 1A1 version cost between $130,000 and $150,000 per round. The 1A2 is down to less than $85,000. Of course, one limiting factor to lowering price on the 1A models was LRIP, which provides no economy of scale. The hope for 1B is to reach a number somewhere in the mid-$30,000 range.
When all is said and done. most of the technology here is old hat. The precision guided M712 Copperhead 155mm round has entered service before Desert Storm.
The flight profile is actually simpler than that of the Copperhead, actually, since it is GPS guided, and so does not have to deal with the visibility issues and two flight modes of the copperhead.
The German Hope penetrating glide bomb hit its target in flight trials in September.
It’s a 3000 lb class weapon that is supposed to have a better penetrating capability than the 5000 lb GBU-28, and it has a range in excess of 100 km and a CEP of 3m.
I find it interesting that it appears to have a variable incidence oblique wing, at least as shown in the picture, which is probably needed to get the range.
If one assumes a launch at 35,000 feet, and a terminal dive from 5000 feet, the range implies a 10:1 glide ratio, which would require decent aerodynamic efficiency.
Well, first, it appears that as a part of a potential M4/16 replacement, the army is once again looking at the 25mm smart grenade launcher, now called the XM25 Individual Air Burst Weapon, which grew from the abortive Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW).
Incorporating this into a standard carbine or rifle is, I thin, a losing proposition. You add weight and complexity when only one person on the fire team really needs to have the weapon under most scenarios.
As such I favor a solution analogous to the M203, which can be installed on the weapon as needed.
There are two issues with the M4 and one with the M-16, they both require a lot of care and cleaning, and the M4 has lethality issues beyond about 50 or so meters.
As to the former, much of the issue is the gas tube system, in which the gas which it tapped to drive the bolt directly, and there is a drop in kit, basically a new upper receiver assembly, which adds a piston, the H&K 416.
While people talk about going with a heavier round, the real problem with lethality with the M4 is that its barrel, at 14-1/2 inches is just too short, and so velocity, and hence energy, suffers. Seeing as how bullpup rifles are shorter with a barrel typically about 4 inches longer, that solves the problem.
As an interim solution, going with the upper receiver replacement makes sense, while one looks at something more extensive.
BTW, good article on the H&K G11, which used a 4.85mm caseless round, which would have been a world beater.
My understanding is that they fixed the cookoff issues, but the rounds, and the weapon, were too fracking expensive.
Here is some gun pr0n, with the pictures from here:
