March 4, 2024 | International, Aerospace
July 15, 2019 | International, Other Defence
Army researchers building ‘smart’ landmines for future combat
By: Todd South
FREDERICKSBURG, Va. – Army leaders see a future battlefield with networked minefields a commander can see from across the globe through satellite communications and that can be scattered in minutes but also retrieved and reused when needed.
The push is an effort to keep landmines of various types in the weapons portfolio while still meeting the agreements made to get out of the old school “dumb” landmine use.
Smart mines being developed now are a way to replace some of the aging stocks in the “Family of Scatterable Mines” run by the Army's Program Manager Close Combat Systems.
The program actually runs nearly half of all munitions from non-lethals to hand grenades to shoulder-fired rockets and counter explosives equipment.
The portfolio, its challenges and what's happening now were laid out for attendees at the annual National Defense Industrial Association's Armament Systems Forum in June.
Top of the priority lists are some simple munitions needs — more hand-grenade fuzes and better shoulder-fired weapons.
But the big ticket items that need problem solving are how to use “terrain shaping obstacles,” or landmines, that can be delivered to close, middle and deep distances and then controlled to avoid the problems of scattering mines across war zones and then leaving them for an innocent passerby to trigger years or decades later.
Small options such as the remote activation system used for current mine emplacements relies on radio frequency transmissions.
But, as Pelino noted, in a near peer fight it's likely that adversaries will do RF jamming.
The Army has a host of terrain-shaping obstacles, everything from the trusty standby Claymore mine which came online in the late 1950s and saw extensive use in the Vietnam War to the Gator system, which can be air dropped to take out everything from an individual soldier to a tank.
They're also the anti-personnel area denial artillery munition, or ADAM, mine that can be launched using a 155mm round from artillery. Its cousin, the remote anti-armor munition, or RAAM, packs a bit more of a punch but also can be delivered from anything that fires a 155mm shell.
Both are fired to the area of the threat and then roll out multiple mines that detonate when the appropriate level of vibration triggers them.
Pelino described the Modular Pack Mine System, or MOPMS, like a minefield in a suitcase. Though coming in at 165 pounds, that's a very heavy suitcase. A single radio-control unit can run up to 15 MOPMS on the battlefield. They can also be hardwired to a controller.
An upside to the MOPMS is it can be recovered and reused.
On the lighter side is the M86 pursuit deterrent munition. It was designed for special operations forces to use when being pursued by an enemy. Think classic films where the character scatters nails or an oil slick to slow down their chaser, except with a lot more boom.
Only instead of firing from a cannon, the soldier has to arm the device and deploy tripwires for bad guys to stumble upon.
The Volcano mine system takes more of an industrial approach. Allowing a UH-60 Black Hawk to create a 1,000-foot minefield in less than a minute, Pelino said.
The problem with all of those systems is they don't currently meet treaty obligations and many that had about a 20-year shelf life are pushing past 30 years now.
Most will still be in stock at 2035, as the Army uses updates to keep them serviceable, Pelino said.
The newer Spider System is one that allows soldiers to put in a porcupine-looking system that gives 360-degree coverage to deny enemy access to an area while also networking with other systems and a common controller.
Future systems will look a lot more like Spider and a lot less like pressure plate mines of the World War II era or the venerable Claymore.
The future minefield systems must have a 2 to 300km communications capability, an ability to be switched on and off, remotely modified self-destruct or deactivate mechanisms, self-report status so that users will know if they've been tampered with or if a mine went off.
The Army also wants the mines to be able to not just blow up when something rumbles by but also detect, track and engage threat vehicles for everything from tanks to engineer equipment. Oh, and it must work in all terrain and weather conditions, be easily trained and employed, recoverable, reusable and affordable.
The standard kit will include between half and a full brigade's worth of mines to block off areas for maneuver and prevent enemy flanking.
On the same subject
-
-
November 18, 2020 | International, Aerospace
EUROJET signs contract with NETMA for provision of 56 new EJ200 engines for the German Air Force
Hallbergmoos, Wednesday, November 11, 2020 - EUROJET Turbo GmbH (EUROJET), the consortium responsible for the EJ200 engine installed in the Eurofighter Typhoon, today signed a contract with the NATO Eurofighter & Tornado Management Agency (NETMA) to provide 56 new EJ200 engines for the German Air Force. The contract, signed in Munich, between General Miguel Ángel Martín Pérez, General Manager of NETMA, and Gerhard Bähr, CEO of EUROJET, covers EJ200 engines for a new order of Tranche 4 Typhoon fighter aircraft. Production of the engine modules will be carried out locally by the four partner companies of the EUROJET consortium; Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines, ITP Aero and Avio Aero. As partner for the German Air Force, final assembly of the engines will take place at MTU Aero Engines with deliveries to the German customer scheduled to begin in 2023. Commenting on the finalisation of the contract Mr Bähr stated: “This contract signature is a clear statement of confidence in the platform and of the performance and sustainability of the EJ200 engines which power it. In addition, it also demonstrates a high level of confidence in the consortium and its European industrial base, and will secure highly skilled workplaces in the aerospace industry in the coming years.” ABOUT EUROJET: The EUROJET consortium is responsible for the management of the EJ200 engine programme. EUROJET's shareholders comprise Rolls-Royce (UK), MTU Aero Engines (Germany), ITP Aero (Spain) and Avio Aero (Italy). The engine represents outstanding and innovative technology and continually demonstrates its exceptional performance in the Eurofighter Typhoon. With its unprecedented performance record, combined with multi-role capability and highest availability at competitive life-cycle costs, the EJ200 engine is perfectly set to meet air force requirements, both of today and the future. Since delivery of the first production engine in 2003, well over a thousand EJ200 production engines have been delivered to Air Force customer fleets of nine nations, and the EJ200 engine has achieved in excess of 1 million engine flying hours. View source version on EUROJET Turbo GmbH : https://www.eurojet.de/2020/11/11/eurojet-signs-contract-with-netma-for-provision-of-56-new-ej200-engines-for-the-german-air-force/
-
May 31, 2019 | International, Aerospace
French Military Launches Development Of Future Joint Light Helicopter
Program Based On Airbus Helicopters H160 Brought Forward To 2021 The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, has announced that the launch of the Joint Light Helicopter (Hélicoptère Interarmées Léger; HIL) program has been brought forward to 2021. The HIL program, for which the Airbus Helicopters' H160 was selected in 2017, was initially scheduled for launch in 2022 by the current military budget law. Launching the program earlier will enable delivery of the first H160Ms to the French Armed Forces to be advanced to 2026. During a visit to the Airbus Helicopters headquarters, the Minister also revealed the full-scale mock-up of the H160M that will be presented on the Ministry of the Armed Forces stand at the next Paris Air Show. The helicopter was also given its official name and will be designated as “Guépard” (“Cheetah”) by the French Armed Forces. The H160 was designed to be a modular helicopter, enabling its military version, with a single platform, to perform missions ranging from commando infiltration to air intercept, fire support, and anti-ship warfare in order to meet the needs of the army, the navy and the air force through the HIL program. “We are proud that the HIL is considered a strategic program. I would like to thank the Ministry, the French Defence Procurement Agency DGA and the armed forces for their trust and for the close collaboration which helped create the conditions for the program to be brought forward within the framework of the current military budget law. This will make it possible to speed up the replacement of the older generation of aircraft, while optimising the support and availability of the French State's helicopter fleet,” said Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters. “Our teams are committed to delivering an aircraft in 2026 that meets the needs of the French armed forces in terms of availability, performance and capability, thus enabling it to rapidly become the new benchmark on the world's medium-lift military helicopter market.” Built around a platform that will enter service next year, the HIL program will benefit from many of the advantages inherent in the civil H160, particularly in terms of support, with simplified maintenance and lower operating costs than the previous generation of helicopters in this category. http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=5c30e0d6-3111-42dc-a6fa-63252c17dd58