Gripen has been used since 2006 as the test aircraft for the development of Meteor. Multiple missiles have been fired from Gripen to date. This experience can now be utilised for a more cost-effective integration of Meteor with the Swedish Armed Forces’ Gripen C/D.

The order mainly concerns Saab’s operations in Linköping and to some extent Gothenburg.

Praetorian DASS has been designed specifically for the Eurofighter. Delivery of the first batch of the Praetorian systems will be made to the four partner countries (UK, Italy, Spain and Germany) by mid-2012.

Praetorian DASS is already employed in the Eurofighter Tranche 2 aircraft. They are also supplied with the capacity for additional enhancements that can meet clients’ current and future operational requirements.

SELEX Galileo is the lead contractor and retains design authority for the Praetorian system. The company leads the EuroDASS Consortium (comprising Elettronica, Indra Sistemas, EADS and SELEX Galileo) and is responsible for the production of more than 20 line replaceable items that make up the Praetorian system.

“Our lasers give off a signal that’s like throwing sand in the eyes of the missile,” says Mohammed Islam, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

The new technology uses inexpensive, off-the-shelf telecommunications fiber optics. Islam is developing sturdy and portable “mid-infrared supercontinuum lasers” that could blind heat-seeking weapons from a distance of 1.8 miles away.

The technology is being commercialized through Islam’s company, Omni Sciences, which is a Univ of Michigan spin off. US Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are funding $1 million for creating a second-generation prototype.

“Because this new laser emits such a broad spectrum of infrared light, it can effectively mimic the engine’s electromagnetic signature and confuse any incoming weapons,” says Islam.

The lasers are promising for helicopter protection because their robust, simple design can withstand shaky helicopter flight and their mid-infrared supercontinuum mode can effectively jam missile sensors.

Most lasers emit light of just wavelength, or color. But supercontinuum lasers give off a focused beam packed with light from a much broader range of wavelengths. Visible-wavelength supercontinuum lasers, for example, discharge tight columns that appear white because they contain light from across the visible spectrum.
Islam’s mid-infrared supercontinuum laser does the equivalent, but it is the first to operate in longer infrared wavelengths that humans can’t see, but can feel as heat. Heat-seeking missiles are designed to home in on the infrared radiation that the helicopter engine emits.

“The laser-based infrared countermeasures in use now for some aircraft have 84 pieces of moving optics. They couldn’t withstand the shake, rattle and roll of helicopters,” Islam said. “We’ve used good, old-fashioned stuff from your telephone network to build a laser that has no moving parts.”

Teams from 15 Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) and Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) nations are planned to take part in the exercise and 11 additional countries are scheduled to participate by sending staff officers.

All together, more than 600 individuals belonging to civilian and military teams from NATO and partner countries with capabilities to deal with different aspects of emergencies will take part in the event. Some 40 observers are also expected. “Armenia 2010” will allow NATO and partner countries to practice disaster response mechanisms and capabilities and to enhance co-operation in emergency situations.

The scenario for the exercise will be a severe earthquake in the vicinity of Yerevan, resulting in high numbers of victims and widespread damage to critical infrastructure, including chemical spills and a radiological incident.

Through this exercise, NATO and partner nations will practice the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) procedures and capabilities, in order to improve nations’ ability to respond to a disaster. The exercise will also contribute to strengthen the stricken nation’s capability to effectively coordinate consequence management operations.

The exercise will consist of the following phases:

11-13 September 2010: Organisation of on-site Operations, reception of teams, training for participants and a Command Post Exercise.

14-15 September 2010: Field activities at the exercise sites.

15-16 September 2009: Evaluation, VIP day, demonstrations and a closing ceremony.

The exercise “ARMENIA 2010” is an Armenian contribution to the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Work Programme for 2010. Since 2000, this is the twelfth field exercise conducted by the EADRCC.

AVIATOR 200 simultaneously provides data speeds up to 200 Kbps and a single AMBE 2 channel for real-time video, data and voice relay links between the aircraft and ground control stations. Data and voice services can be accessed via wired or wireless connections built into the AVIATOR 200, alleviating the need for external wired and wireless routers. Thrane & Thrane’s launch of the AVIATOR 200 is particularly significant for smaller aircraft used for military, security and government applications where weight and size of the antenna system may be critical considerations. An exceptionally compact and lightweight system, the Thrane & Thrane AVIATOR 200 is set to revolutionize satellite communications for smaller aircraft operating in these sectors.

Thrane & Thrane engineers have significantly reduced overall system size and weight as well as cost and complexity of aircraft modifications required to install the system. This has been achieved while still developing a solution that provides a high level of service for the end user.

The IMUs, which provide motion data for the aircraft, will be built by the company’s German navigation systems subsidiary, Northrop Grumman LITEF, which also provided IMUs for Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of the aircraft.

Developed as part of the flight control system of the Eurofighter Tycoon, the IMU system, with its highly accurate inertial sensors and built-in redundancy, is the sole sensor which measures the motion of the aircraft and continuously provides motion data to the flight control computer to drive the control systems and actuators. This closed control loop stabilization system enables the aircraft to perform with extreme agility as well as a high degree of maneuverability, ensuring it can operate to the maximum of its capability and to the limit of its flight envelope. In a secondary function, the IMU provides backup navigation data.

“The high-energy laser beam delivers its energy to a small spot on the target — only a couple inches in diameter — but the intensity is strong enough to melt steel,” said GTRI senior research scientist David Roberts. “Our goal was to develop a method for determining how many watts of energy were hitting that area and how the energy distribution changed over time so that the lasers can be optimized.”

(image: GTRI)
GTRI teamed with Leon Glebov of Orlando-based OptiGrate to design and fabricate a target board that could survive high-energy laser irradiation without changing its properties or significantly affecting the beam. The researchers selected OptiGrate’s handmade photo-thermo-refractive glass — a sodium-zinc-aluminum-silicate glass doped with silver, cerium and fluorine — for the target board.

“This glass is unique in that it is transparent, but also photosensitive like film so you can record holograms and other optical structures in the glass, then ‘develop’ them in a furnace,” explained Roberts.

The researchers tweaked the optical characteristics of the glass so that the board would resist degradation and laser damage. OptiGrate also had to create a new mold to produce four-inch by four-inch pieces of the glass — a size four times larger than OptiGrate had ever made before.

During testing, the four-inch-square target board is secured between a test target and a high-energy laser, and the beam irradiance profile on the board is imaged by a remote camera. The images are then analyzed to provide a contour map showing the power density — watts per square inch — at every location where the beam hit the target.

“We can also simultaneously collect power measurements as a function of time with no extra equipment,” noted Roberts. “Previously, measuring the total energy delivered by the laser required a ball calorimeter and temperature measurements had to be collected as the laser heated the interior of the ball. Now we can measure the total energy along with the total power and power density anywhere inside the beam more than one hundred times per second.”

GTRI’s prototype target boards and a high-energy laser beam profiling system that uses those boards were delivered to Kirtland Air Force Base’s Laser Effects Test Facility in May. The researchers successfully demonstrated them using the facility’s 50-kilowatt fiber laser and measured power densities as high as 10,000 watts per square centimeter without damaging the beam profiler.

Scaling the system up to larger target board sizes is possible, according to Roberts.

AeroVironment’s chief test pilot, Andy Thurling, a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and former USAF flight test pilot, operated the aircraft remotely from the portable Launch and Recovery Element (LRE). The aircraft performed a pre determined flight and it is expected that it will gradually demonstrate the parameters like endurance and operating altitude.

Global Observer Ground Taxi. Image: AeroVironment, Inc

The joint test team is preparing communications and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads for aircraft integration. Once development flight tests are complete, payloads will be installed and joint operational utility flight demonstrations will be performed at EAFB.

The contract provides NATO with routine and short-notice airlift capability to transport personnel and equipment. The guidelines for the new contract included the need for quieter aircraft as identified by the recommendations set forth in the Landrum and Brown Final Comprehensive study. The TNTfleet is comprised of modern aircraft equipped with newer engines that meet all the current EU standards for noise. Even though these aircraft are quieter, they will continue to operate within existing Geilenkirchen base operating hours. Additionally, the current TCA airplanes will be phased out during the time period before and just after the contract begins. The first TCA is schedule to be retired in August.

TNT Airlines S.A. is a well established company and operates a mixed fleet of more than thirty aircraft and 250 pilots.

In October 2009, the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Programme Management Organisation (NAPMO) Board of Directors approved the way ahead to conduct a competition to replace the current TCA airlift capability. Consequently, a Request for Proposal was jointly developed by the NAPMO organizations impacted and issued to numerous international firms. A source selection team comprised of personnel from NAPMA, the Programme Force Command (SHAPE HQ, Mons, Belgium), the Main Operating Base for the AWACS aircraft (Geilenkirchen, Germany), and the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA, Luxembourg) selected TNTS.A.’s proposal as the best value solution to the NATO requirement.

The Abrams TIGER program program covers parts, engineering, depot and field support services, enabling Anniston Army Depot (ANAD) to reset an additional 505 AGT1500 engines and perform sustainment repairs on up to 90 engines using a Condition-Based Overhaul (CBO) process.

Under the TIGER program, the AGT1500 engine configuration, field use and maintenance history is tracked and evaluated so that depot maintenance can be performed based on the evidence-of-need rather than traditional complete overhaul practices.

Additional Honeywell equipment on the M1 Abrams includes engine controls, navigation, generator and controls.