During a series of flights last week in subfreezing temperatures at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground, UT, the Unmanned K-MAX demonstrated autonomous and remote control flight over both line-of-sight and satellite-based beyond line-of-sight data link.

“We met or exceeded the requirements within the scheduled three-day timeframe of the demonstration,” said Dan Spoor, Aviation Systems vice president at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Sensors facility in Owego, NY. “The system performed a rigorous set of cargo resupply scenarios as programmed, allowing the ground-based operator to monitor progress, and make adjustments to aircraft positioning only when requested by the Marine Corps for demonstration purposes.”

Performance attributes demonstrated included hovering at 12,000 ft. with a 1,500-pound sling load; delivering 3,000 pounds of cargo well within the six-hour required timeframe to a forward operating base (two 150 nm round-trip flights); remotely controlling flight and a precision load delivery by a ground-based operator in both day and night conditions; and uploading a new mission plan to the aircraft’s mission management system during flight.

As an optional demonstration, Team K-MAX showcased the Unmanned K-MAX helicopter’s four-hook carousel, which enables multi-load deliveries in a single flight. Lifting a total cargo of 3,450 pounds, the aircraft flew to three pre-programmed delivery coordinates, autonomously releasing a sling load at each location. At the customer’s request, the fourth load delivery was performed under manual control by the ground operator.

“The Unmanned System performed operationally representative cargo resupply scenarios, and each time the system delivered as promised,” said Sal Bordonaro, President, Kaman Helicopters, a division of Kaman Aerospace Corporation. “This capability gives the Marine Corps a proven unmanned power lifter to bring vital cargo to troops on the battlefield without the need for ground vehicles and manned helicopters.”

Team K-MAX has flown the Unmanned K-MAX nearly 400 hours in unmanned mode since 2007. The demonstration fulfilled an $860,000 U.S. Marine Corps contract awarded to K-MAX manufacturer Kaman Aerospace in August 2009.

A manned version of K-MAX has accumulated more than 250,000 flight hours, conducting repetitive lift operations for the construction and logging industries worldwide.

One more point, I would like to emphasize that, I am not against the Russian T-90 Tank. This is for my friends who have repeatedly pointed out to “the fact” that I am anti T-90. Most of the times, I have put up the other side of the fence, whenever there has been attempt to malign the Arjun Tank. Many a times, I have been informed that Frontier India Strategic and Defence” has the most comprehensive collection of data, facts and stories. While I always took it as an compliment, some indicated that it proves I am anti T-90. I absolutely have no arguments for them.

For starters, whoever is working overtime on the anti-Arjun Tank campaign has been responsible for demonization of T-90 in Indian service. There are some points to be considered. The anti Arjun Tank camp is normally Indians. If there are Russians behind it, then I would say, these Russians are doing their job and doing the best for their country. Russia has great generals who make these tanks and great statesmen who would like India to posses these toys for its defence. On the other side, we have Indian generals. They could or could not be thinking about their own country. Let me give them a benefit of doubt and say that, they indeed want the best for their country. But, having said that, even with their best of intention for the country, we have a very “vision” challenged generals when compared to the Russian, American, Israeli generals who make their own stuff and fight.

I have seen the arguments that DRDO has not made tanks up to their standards hence they import. At the same time, we have seen the development histories of tanks in the world. Majority of the tanks have been adopted by their armies when these tanks were not up to their mark. subsequently, they have evolved their tanks to a state that, Indian generals drool at them. Infact, Our generals wanted an Israeli company to evaluate and tell if Arjun Tank was good or bad. Then they wanted DRDO to improve the tank as per the recommendation of the Israeli company. Is army incapable of making a qualitative requirement for itself and the evaluate it themselves?

The habit of changing the qualitative requirements to suit imports was the brain child of General Gopal Gurunath Bewoor. While he was the Deputy Chief of Army Staff (1967 – 1973), he earned a dubious distinction of changing a qualitative requirement, which led to purchase and license production of SS11B1 and the death of the Indian Anti Tank Missile program. Who can argue that General Gopal Gurunath Bewoor was not a good Army Chief? Was there any foreign lobby involved?

I must admit that Indian Army has an history of using Indian equipment. Most of them were shoddy quality from the Indian public sector units and defence production units (DPSU). DRDO was in infancy then. So was Indian Navy. I am not trying to pitch Indian Army vs Indian Navy. Let me give you another example. The Indian Air force, wanted a replacement for the MiG-21’s. The light combat aircraft, though has not achieved the newly formed “air staff requirement,” the IAF is willing to take a specified number of LCA’s. Why? Because they think that LCA, even in its current form is better than the MiG-21’s in service. Indian Army had a similar chance back in 1980’s when they scuttled the induction of Arjun Tank, in favour of T-72 tanks. Look at Akash Missiles induction into IAF and recent orders.

Armed Forces Chiefs can make or break history. IAF chief’s have been not very dynamic in this respect. I am not implying that they were not competent in other departments. It took former Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major to push the much needed change in Indian Air Force mentality. In the Indian Army, General Shankar Roychowdhury was the only general who made a difference. Rest of the Army chiefs were not in his grade in this respect. There is an argument that Indian Army is the user and not an R&D or production unit. An argument which is flawed.

The mismanagement and frequent attacks on the Arjun Tank project by the Army has attracted worldwide attention. The Arjun Tank project detractors were largely responsible for the popularity of the project. I would like to give you an example. When the media is invited to any of the armed forces events, they expect media not to ask ugly questions, eat refreshments and then print their press releases. But media seeks sensation. Press releases don’t sell. Now look who is bad mouthing Arjun Tank project? It is the anonymous Army officers and some retired army officers. They succeed in feeding sensational news about constant failures of the project. Then media somersaulted. When it was pointed out to media that there was a likely sabotage of Arjun Tank trials, they realised that it was a bigger sensation than the regular failure news. It was a matter of DRDO establishing its Public Interface Directorate that the anti Arjun Tank camp faltered. Under strict media and political glare, Arjun Tank showed up its mettle. Nay sayers could not manipulate the results. Also, I hope Indian Army personnel should read a bit on internet. I had already written what Indian Army would cook up during the AUCRT trials. It came as no surprise when Indian Army reported in parliament that Arjun Tanks failed.

Hypothetically, If Russians are very concerned about the image of T-90, then they should be sacking their Indian agents (bothe official and unofficial ones). T-90 tank purchase was a knee jerk reaction to T-80 sale by Ukraine to the pesky neighbor. The Arjun Tank detractors probably bunked their class during studies. Probably that can explain their lack of knowledge of the phrase ” people living in glass houses don’t throw stones at others.” The T-90 tanks came with their set of inefficiencies which were greater than the Arjun tanks advertised deficiencies. There is another aspect to T-90 purchase. Indian Army gives the linage argument. T-90 is logical successor to T-72, an argument which Russian army does not buy. Russians want Black Eagle, a fifth generation tank. Now, if you read carefully the press reports after the acquisition of T-72, these tanks were always under performing. Retired Tankers have said so. They like Chieftains and Centurion better. The T-72 tank was an interim main battle tank in 1979. Since the tanks were worse at the other side of the border, it was okay. Subsequently it was DRDO which improved the T-72 and it was called combat improved Ajeya. When Pakistan acquired T-80 tanks, Russia gave a proposal to improve T-72. Since the DRDO came up with Tank-Ex upgrade, Indian Army did not want an T-72 upgrade. (you can read Indian Armies reaction here.) So Indian Army pushed for T-90. It was not the issue that enemy Pakistan bought T-80’s, the issue was the enemy DRDO came up with Tank-Ex upgrade.

I would like to add one point here. A lot has been said about Indian Army’s problems with DRDO. Less has been said about DRDO’s problem with Indian Army. It is not just the ego the Indian Army officers have inherited from British. They have also acquired the traits of colonial British when dealing with other Indians. I am sure, I have generalised it. But, how far is it away from the truth? Some time back a DRDO’s project manager wanted to demonstrate an equipment to Indian Army. His main concern was not the demonstration, but, where will he and his team mates stay. The place was an remote place, far away from civilization. “You see, they (Indian Army) have quarters there, but not for us” he explained defensively. After some discussion on Indian Army attitude, he again defended Indian Army by saying that “Customers are never satisfied.” DRDO has been bending back to accommodate the Army’s daunting requests, which later on goes on to boomerang on DRDO. I hope, one can understand how strained is the relationship. Its equally strained both ways.

Then there is another argument that Arjun Tank was not available when Army needed it. Sometime back, I was chatting up with two retired senior army officers. This point came up. One of the officers observed dryly that “or is it the Army did not induct Arjun Tank.” Actually, this example can be seen the sequence of events after 1996, when Arjun Tank displayed that it was fit for induction as per the last of Army qualitative requirements.

Army has not been entirely out of loop of developing the tank. There are two names of Indian Army personnel whom I wish to mention or my article will not be complete. One is Lt.Gen Ajai Singh who is the governor of Assam state in India. He was responsible for rejuvenation of the Arjun Tank project. The other one is Retired major general H.M Singh. He has been with the Arjun Tank project in excess of 20 years. A die hard Arjun Tank backer. The 43rd armored regiment have been involved in the development and testing of the Arjun Tanks. They have seen various versions of this tank. They say that every cloud has silver lining.

Some sections feel that Arjun Tank will not get a fair trial by the army. Some say that Army does not has the competency to evaluate Arjun Tank. There is an anecdote. While Arjun Tank was on trial, the engine compressor broke down. The engine was replaced in less than 30 minutes and the tank was up and running. The engine can be repaired and put on to the next tank. Where as if the same thing happens to the T-90, its grounded till the repairs are effected. It may take in excess of 3 hours. So, finally when the report reached the Army HQ, it stated:

Arjun Tank: engine broken. Complete replacement
T-90: engine broken, repaired.

Then there is another anecdote. The Advanced Light helicopters built by HAL in Army service were running huge repair bills inspite of army being specifically told that ALH does not need as many services as a Chetak helicopter.

There is a view that the army had issued GSQR to see that Arjun Tank does not fructify ever. DRDO pulled a fast one on them by importing all it cannot make in time and put together the tank. If army orders it, it will indigenise it as much possible. So, Arjun detractors ended up blaming that it has imported content. They forgot that T-90 was not even an Indian design.

In India, there is no professional independent agency that can interface between the R&D, production and the user. The US has it. The Russians have the military backing their R&D centers. So do others.

Like rest of the apprehensive Indians, even I am eagerly looking forward Arjun Tank vs T-90 comparative trial results. Is the anti Arjun Tank lobby is running and avoiding these trials for the obvious reason?

The Seastar and Gatekeeper sensors provide the vessels with the capability to detect small targets encountered during missions, and to counter frontier-running, pollution, drugs trafficking and piracy. The two new sensors will be matched with the tried-and-true SMART-S surveillance radar and the STIR weapon control radar that are on board of the M-frigates.

Based on the cooperation between the Dutch and the Belgian Navy, this contract was already an option in the contract that Thales concluded in 2008 with the Royal Netherlands Navy, and that provided for the delivery of the Seastar and Gatekeeper sensors to the two M-class frigates of the RNLN.

The Marker Pen like AGNI-3 Missile is 17 meters long with 2 metres in diameter. The Missile is a two stage solid propellant system with a pay load capability of 1.5 tons. During the course of flight the Missile reached a peak height of 350 kms and re-entered into the atmosphere successfully tolerating the skin temperatures of nearly 3000 degree Celsius.

The missile is equipped with a state of the art computer system, navigated with a most advanced Navigation system and guided with an innovative guidance scheme. The Navigation system used for guidance is first of its kind. Number of Radars and electro optical tracking systems along the coast of Odisha have monitored the path of the Missile and evaluated all the parameters in realtime.

The launch is part of the pre-induction trial. Indian Army (the user) has carried out the total launch operations guided by the DRDO scientists. Now the Missile system will be fully inducted into the armed forces.

Mission Director Sri Avinash Chander and Project Director Dr V.G. Sekaran have guided and controlled the complete Missile integration and launch activities. Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri and Director General, DRDO Dr V.K. Saraswat has over seen the total launch operations.

Dr V.K. Saraswat and Sri Avinash Chander congratulated all the Scientists and employees of DRDO and the industry partners.

The project will push the technology boundaries of cloud computing with an infrastructure design that not only supports large-scale networks, but meets rigorous security standards and the government’s Information Assurance guidelines for all networks. The Air Force’s network manages the operations of nine major commands, nearly 100 bases, and 700,000 active military personnel around the world.

“Our goal is to demonstrate how cloud computing can be a tool to enable our Air Force to manage, monitor and secure the information flowing through our network,” said Lieutenant General William Lord, Chief Information Officer and Chief, Warfighting Integration, for the U.S. Air Force. “We examined the expertise of IBM’s commercial performance in cloud computing and asked them to develop an architecture that could lead to improved performance within the Air Force environment to improve all operational, analytical and security capabilities.”

IBM researchers, software architects, analytics specialists and cyber security experts will work with military personnel and other federal agencies to demonstrate an unprecedented level of security and network resiliency into the Air Force cloud design. Advanced “stream computing” analytics will be a key design component. This technology, coupled with sensors, monitors and other detection devices, would enable the Air Force to perpetually analyze the massive amounts of data flowing through its network and get fast, accurate, and actionable insights about possible threats, such as cyber attacks and network, system or application failures, while automatically preventing disruptions.

In the design, customized executive-level dashboards will be used to deliver up-to-the-second information on the health and status of the network and facilitate decision-making. This instant access to information, for example, would enable Air Force officials to automatically shift the prevention environment based on rules-based protocols in the event of a cyber attack or network anomalies.

Autonomic computing will be another important feature of the cloud model. This automated functionality will enable virtual cloud services to be managed remotely and provide capability for the cloud infrastructure to constantly retune itself for optimal performance – without human intervention.

The Obama Administration has called for more extensive adoption of cloud computing in the federal government to improve information technology (IT) efficiency, reduce costs, and provide a standard platform for delivering government services. In a cloud computing environment, IT resources – services, applications, storage devices and servers, for example – are pooled and managed centrally. These resources can be provisioned and made available on demand via the Internet. The cloud model strengthens the resiliency of mission-critical applications by removing dependency on underlying hardware. Applications can be easily moved from one system to another in the event of system failures or cyber attacks.

The AGM-65 Maverick family of precision-attack missiles is used by the air, naval and marine forces of 33 countries. More than 69,000 missiles have been produced to date, and more than 6,000 have been used in combat with a 93 percent success rate.

“Raytheon’s Maverick is an affordable, combat-proven missile integrated on more than 25 aircraft with a history of on-cost and on-schedule delivery,” said Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon Missile System’s Air Warfare Systems’ product line. “While the Maverick family is a best-value solution for the warfighter who needs a direct-attack weapon, the infrared-guided Maverick is ideally suited to counter high-speed maneuvering sea targets such as swarming boats.”

Raytheon will build and provide life-cycle support for more than 500 new missiles. The company began production of the missile’s IR guidance and control sections in November 2008.

The avionics support agreement with Thales flows from the comprehensive Rafale throughlife support contract awarded to Dassault Aviation by SIMMAD in late 2008 under a similar arrangement, with an initial five-year tranche followed by five further optional tranches of one year each. SIMMAD is the Defence aircraft joint in-service support organisation. It is the maintenance arm of the French Air Force with responsibility for joint forces operations, and receives its directives from the Chief of the Defence Staff.

Pierre-Eric Pommellet, Thales Senior Vice President in charge of aerospace businesses, stated: “The contract is the first of its kind for this type of equipment, with a fixed price per hour of flight adding new extended services such as obsolescence management”.

This new contract is part of Thales’s innovative approach to service provision, based on endto- end support solutions with guaranteed levels of operational availability. “We are continuing to tailor our services to match the evolving requirements of the armed forces while reducing the overall cost of support,” Pommellet added.

Thales is also drawing on its experience with the French armed forces to serve export customers. The company’s comprehensive support solutions are meeting with increasing success in these markets.

SIMBAD-RC has been developed to meet the latest requirements of navies operating in either littoral or blue waters and is highly suited for ships with low crew numbers and for modern ship design requirements, particularly those relating to stealth and very fast craft concepts. The remotely controlled SIMBAD-RC twin launcher, deploying two Mistral 2 fire-and-forget missiles can provide the primary self defence capability on all classes of warship such as Fast Patrol Boats and large support ships for example or, alternatively, it can complement the main air defences of first rank warships such as frigates and destroyers. A single operator, working from a compact terminal located within the ship, can control two SIMBAD-RC launcher systems. With the operator not being exposed to the elements, this latest system from MBDA offers high availability in all weather and sea conditions.

SIMBAD RC , Photo: MBDA

With fast and easy loading, SIMBAD-RC features rapid reaction times in the face of complex and multiple attacks. The fire-and-forget missiles allow for rapid re-engagement after launch and the time delay between missile preparation and firing is less than five seconds. In addition the turret can be slaved from the ship’s radar or EOS (Electrical Optical System).

SIMBAD-RC is an improvement on the original SIMBAD system currently in service with the French Navy among others. Thanks to the same on-deck footprint and mechanical interfaces, legacy SIMBAD firing units can be easily upgraded to SIMBAD-RC.

With its advanced passive infrared seeker, Mistral 2 has been designed to defend against saturating attack from rapidly crossing or manoeuvring missiles or aircraft. It has also proven its effectiveness in countering attacks by small craft such as FIACs. Incorporated in various naval and land based launch variants, the Mistral missile has been ordered by around 30 countries. Its operational test record shows a success rate of well over 90%.

The jet, known as BF-3, departed the runway near Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant at 4:02 p.m. CST for its first flight. During the one-hour sortie, F-35 Chief Test Pilot Jon Beesley tested the aircraft’s handling qualities, engine functionality, landing gear operation and basic subsystem performance.

BF-3 joins two other F-35Bs and one F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft currently undergoing active flight test. The first CTOL F-35, AA-1, is now preparing for live-fire testing. The F-35 program continues to accelerate the time from flight line arrival to first flight.

BF-3 was built and instrumented to conduct flight sciences test work and will be used primarily to evaluate vehicle systems and expand the aircraft’s aerodynamic and structural-loads envelope. It will deploy later this year to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., where it will carry and release most of the weapons the F-35B will employ in combat.

BF-3 and all other Lightning II aircraft will be supported by the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System and monitored by the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Global Sustainment Operations Center in Fort Worth. F-35 sustainment is based upon the principles of Performance-Based Logistics, involving extensive partnering agreements between government and industry. The F-35 team has developed an advanced sustainment system capability with designed-in sustainability that will reduce overall life-cycle costs and ensure mission readiness.

The MUE receiver card development program, awarded to Rockwell Collins in 2006 by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC), is developing the military user equipment portion of the next-generation GPS system that incorporates a new military signal and security architecture. The new technology offers enhanced integrity, exclusivity and improved anti-jam capabilities.

M Code, which stands for Military Code, is a key element in the modernization of military GPS. While it is transmitted on the same L1 and L2 frequencies used by the legacy P(Y) Code, it will significantly improve the security of military GPS. The ability to track the new code by the modernized GPS receivers is an important milestone for the MUE program.

“Pioneering GPS technology has long been a core competency for Rockwell Collins, dating back to our involvement in the development and launch of the Navstar Global Positioning System in the 1970s,” said Ron Hornish, vice president and general manager of Precision Strike Solutions for Rockwell Collins. “Our success with the MUE program is indicative of our heritage and expertise in developing new GPS solutions that will deliver heightened security and performance to the military.”