Defense Technology International - March 2008 - (Page 10)

AROUND THE WORLD NEWS BRIEFS CELL WALLS SECURE AMMO The British Army has used a geotextile cell wall developed by British companies J&S Franklin and Terram to build joint ammunition supply points (ASP) at Camp Bastion, a forward operating base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The design is the basis of what the army calls a “new generation in force protection systems”—the DefenCell blast wall, ground stabilization and vehicle barrier system. DefenCell is a honeycomb structure made of polymer fabric that’s ﬁlled with sand and rocks. It solves three problems faced by British engineers in building an ammo storage site. The footprint of the walls had to be small and the logistics burden of construction reduced. The walls also had to be metal-free to reduce secondary fragmentation should an explosion occur, and to limit static electricity buildup that could affect fuzes. Terram supplied 20 km. (12.4 mi.) of geotextile cells to build the ASPs, which required more than 1,000 meters (3,281 ft.) of 4-meter-high bunds around the storage points for protection. The ASP must contain an explosion equal to 70,000 kg. (154,000 lb.) of TNT. I J&S FRANKLIN OYSTEIN PAULSEN/ROYAL NORWEGIAN AIR FORCE THALES UPGRADES TORNADO RADIOS Thales will equip the Luftwaffe’s Tornado strike and suppression aircraft with secure Saturn air-to-air and airto-ground radios. The company was selected by the German defense procurement agency BWB and NATO’s Euroﬁghter and Tornado management agency based on recommendations by EADS, manufacturer of the aircraft. The model speciﬁed is the TRA 6030, part of the TR 6000 family of radios developed by Thales Land and Joint Systems. TR 6000 radios are combat-proven and comply with NATO’s Saturn waveform standard. They comprise airborne (TRA 6000), ground/surface (TRG 6000) and manpack (TRM 6000) versions, and are in service with many countries. Airborne versions are in use on a range of aircraft. TR 6000 radios are also ﬁelded in infrastructure or mobile stations for ground-to-air communications, and on surface ships and submarines. I LIVE-FIRE TEST PLANNED FOR RHEINMETALL GUN Rheinmetall is conducting live ﬁrings this month in Turkey to prove the 35-mm. gun technology it developed for NBS C-RAM, a standalone counter-rocket, -artillery and -mortar system developed to protect ﬁeld compounds in Afghanistan. Initial static ﬁring tests against RAM-type targets were done in Switzerland last fall, followed by live ﬁrings against a towed airborne sleeve target in Germany. NBS C-RAM is being developed under a €48-million ($70.7-million) German defense procurement agency contract. It involves upgrades to Rheinmetall’s 35-mm. gun and Ahead ammunition. Ahead rounds normally contain 152 cylindrical-shaped metal subprojectiles, each with a mass of 3.3 grams. These are ejected in front of a target based on data from the gun computer, which is programmed into the round’s fuze upon ﬁring. To hit targets with a radar cross section of 0.001 sq. meters (1.5 sq. in.), Rheinmetall increased the accuracy of the gun and ﬁre-control system. It modiﬁed the Ahead ammunition with a different conﬁguration of submunitions involving their number and individual mass. The new ﬁgures are classiﬁed. I 10 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL MARCH 2008 AviationWeek.com/dti RHEINMETALL CONCEPT http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - March 2008 Contents Sweden Cancels SEP; Israel Launches Imaging Satellite; Geotextiles Secure Ammo Dump U.S. Navy Taps Neural Architecture Software to Assure Job Satisfaction Shrapnel-Like Pieces of Reactive Materials Increase Explosive Force of Bombs Technology is Rapidly Closing the Gap Between Sensors and Shooters Italian Army Program Aims to Develop a Fully Networked Land Force Political and Military Uncertainties Plague U.S. Defense Budget Democrats Put Pentagon on Notice Over Spending and Policy at DTAR Conference Russian Combat Vehicle Protects Tank Formations from Anti-Armor Weapons European Battlelabs Use Simulation to Verify Technologies and Stretch Defense Funds Malaysia Accelerates Fleet Modernization to meet Long-Term Goals U.S. Navy Says Composite Raiding Boat May Reduce Injuries From Wave Shocks Seeing Isn’t Believing When it Comes to Deciphering Funds for Secret Projects Advances in Sensors and Propulsion Make Torpedoes Ever More Lethal FAA is in No Rush to Approve Rules that Let UAVs Fly in Civil Airspace USS Truman Carrier Strike Group Patrols a Rough Neighborhood 24/7 U.S. says Sino-Russian Space Disarmament Plan is Riddled with Pitfalls Hyperspeed Projectile; “Sound Cloak” Hides Subs; Improving Nuclear Forensics Dutch Air Commodore Theo ten Haaf Analyzes the Impact of Rotary-Wing Operations One Soldier’s War is a Behind-the-Headlines Look at Russia’s Campaigns in Chechnya Black Budgets are Huge and Growing, and Often Conceal Amazing Failures

Defense Technology International - March 2008

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