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Technology & Intel for the Maneuver Warfighter

Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command

Ammo Strategist Brig. Gen. Kristin K. French www.GCT-kmi.com

Commanding General Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command Joint Munitions Command

September 2014 Volume 5, Issue 4

Exclusive interview with: David Smith JIEDDO

Vertical UAS O Vehicle Transmissions O Ammo Unattended Ground Sensors O ISR in the Joint & Coalition

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ground combat & TACTICAL ISR Features

September 2014 Volume 5, Issue 4

Cover / Q&A

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Who’s Who at jmc and JM&L LCMC

The future of small-caliber ammo. Historically, ammo was an afterthought in the development of a new weapon—no more!

By Scott Nance

Letting technology do the heavy lifting when it comes to covering large areas of real estate while keeping head count down.

By Henry Canaday

18

Lethal Rounds

Next-Gen UGS

Exclusive Ground Combat & Tactical ISR review of the leadership of the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command.

16 Brigadier General Kristin K. French

4

ISR in the Joint and Coalition Environment Reviewing the coalition and joint intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance process.

By Todd Rissinger, Will La Joie and Jessica Vancleaf

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21

Ground Combat & Tactical ISR talked with David Small of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization to gauge its work over the years, its metrics of success, and its vision of future threats and counters.

The need for a maneuver force to be faster and more agile across a spectrum of terrain requires a powertrain that can harness the power of the engine to running gear and give the warfighter battlefield mobility.

By Peter Buxbaum

Combating the IED Threat

Departments

Armored Vehicles in Gear

24

Eyes in the Skies Small unmanned helicopters bring special capabilities to growing ISR needs.

By John M. Doyle

Industry Interview

2 Editor’s Perspective 3 intel/People 14 Innovations 27 Resource Center

Commanding General Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command Joint Munitions Command

Chris Heavens

Vice President and General Manager AR Modular RF

28

The Authoritative Forum of Ground Combat Providing Comprehensive Expertise on Land Warrior Issues

“The JM&L LCMC is responsible for integrating the Acquisition, Logistics and Technology communities via a collaborative effort creating a synergistic, singular strategic direction for munitions.”

—Brigadier General Kristin K. French

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

Ground Combat & Tactical ISR Volume 5, Issue 4 • September 2014

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The Army, as DoD’s single manager for conventional ammunition (SMCA), receives operations and maintenance (O&M) funding to resource the acquisition planning and logistical support for conventional ammunition assigned to the SMCA. Conventional ammunition includes all explosive and kinetic energy munitions but excludes nuclear and biological devices.

The SMCA manages ammunition resources cradle-to-grave within the life cycle of conventional ammunition, including procurement administration, storage, surveillance, distribution, maintenance and demilitarization for all services. Activities include National Inventory Control Point and depot supply operations for all conventional ammunition requirements Jeff McKaughan Editor worldwide.

O&M funding has shown a decline from $447 million in fiscal year 2013 down to $422 million in FY15. Within this budget, the SMCA manages ammunition resources cradleto-grave within the life cycle of conventional ammunition, including procurement administration, storage, surveillance, distribution, maintenance and demilitarization for all services.

In this issue of Ground Combat & Tactical ISR, Brigadier General Kristin French discusses the ammunition community—military and civilian—and notes the challenges that it faces. “We are preparing for reduced requirements, funding and workload, which will have a great impact on our ammunition producers,” she said. “We anticipate a continued contraction within the base and are studying options that will ensure ongoing capability to meet all services’ requirements for conventional ammunition.”

It is not surprising that many of the capabilities that exist at the Army’s organic facilities are not duplicated outside the service. In fact, two-thirds of all ammunition end items rely on an organic producer for at least one component. The Army is currently working on an Industrial Base Strategic Plan for Ammunition, which is sure to emphasize the importance of maintaining the unique capabilities of the U.S. ammunition organic industrial base. According to French, “The plan will follow the same strategy that has been accepted for the Army’s hard-iron depots and arsenals. It will identify critical capabilities and identify what must be done to maintain those capabilities.”

As the intensity of combat operations has declined, ammunition consumption has followed suit. Ammunition stockpiles and war reserves—with proper care and sustainment—can replenish the combat arms when deployed again. However, maintaining a strong and balanced industrial base is the only way to preserve the integrity and quality of the ammunition supply chain. Funding the O&M budget and modernizing the ammunition plants is an investment well-made.

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INTEL

Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Cargo Pocket ISR Program

MRAP C4ISR Support Serco Inc., a provider of professional, technology and management services, has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Command (SPAWAR) System Center Atlantic (SSC-LANT) division to provide support and maintenance on mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles. This contract bolsters the company’s C4ISR services to DoD and has a one-year term with a $9 million value.

Serco will provide field support representatives (FSRs) to install, integrate, repair and provide maintenance training on the C4I equipment and systems deployed within the MRAP family of vehicles. The company will support the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marines with these efforts and be responsible for the sustainment of the MRAPs in Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan.

“Serco is honored to be awarded the opportunity to support this MRAP project,” said Dan Allen, Serco Inc.’s chairman and chief executive officer. “We have an excellent C4ISR division and are proud to apply our expertise and skills to help the U.S. military with their defense technologies.”

U.S. Army’s Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) Cargo Pocket Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance program (CP-ISR) is developing a pocket-sized aerial surveillance device for soldiers and small units operating in challenging ground environments.

The CP-ISR seeks to develop a mobile soldier sensor to increase the situational awareness of dismounted soldiers by providing real-time video surveillance of threat areas within their operational environment. The CP-ISR provides an organic ISR asset to the squad level.

While larger systems have provided “overthe-hill” ISR capabilities on the battlefield for almost a decade, none of those systems deliver directly to the squad level, where soldiers need the ability to see “around the corner” or “in the next room” during combat missions.

When soldiers and small units need to assess the threat in a village or in thick canopy terrain where traditional ISR assets

cannot penetrate, the CP-ISR can provide that capability. The size, weight and imagegathering capabilities of the surrogate system are promising advancements that fulfill the burgeoning requirement for an organic squad-level ISR capability. Ultimately, this capability will provide situational awareness, safety and a decisive edge to the Army’s most important resource—the individual soldier.

NSRDEC engineers, after investigating existing commercial off-the-shelf technologies, identified a surrogate CP-ISR system— Prox Dynamics’ PD-100 Black Hornet. This palm-sized miniature helicopter weighs only 16 grams and operates remotely with GPS navigation. It has the ability to fly up to 20 minutes while providing real-time video via a digital data link from one of three embedded cameras. Its tiny, electric propellers and motors make it virtually undetectable to subjects under surveillance.

Several efforts are underway to develop three different aspects of the technology to ensure it is ready for the soldier and small unit.

PEOPLE Major General Stephen M. Twitty, deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7, U.S. Army Forces Command, Fort Bragg, N.C., has been assigned as commanding general, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Colonel (P.) Patrick W. Burden, program manager, General Fund Enterprise Business System, Alexandria, Va., has been assigned as deputy program executive officer, ammunition, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. Major General Thomas S. James Jr., director, Mission Command Center of Excellence, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., has been assigned as deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7, U.S. Army Forces Command, Fort Bragg.

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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

Brigadier General Willard M. Burleson III, deputy commanding general, 7th Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., has been assigned as director, Mission Command Center of Excellence, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, Fort Leavenworth.

Colonel (P.) Francis M. Beaudette, executive officer to the commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., has been assigned as deputy commander, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss.

Marine Corps Major General James B. Laster has been nominated for appointment to the rank of lieutenant general and for assignment as director, Marine Corps Staff, Washington, D.C.

Laster most recently served as chief of staff, U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base.

Major General Stephen G. Fogarty has been assigned as commanding general, Cyber Center of Excellence and Fort Gordon, Ga. He most recently served as commanding general, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, Fort Belvoir, Va. Brigadier General David P. Glaser, deputy director, Ministry of Interior Advisory Group, Combined Security Transition CommandAfghanistan, International Security Assistance Force, Operation Enduring Freedom, Afghanistan, has been assigned as chief of staff, U.S. Army Central/Third U.S. Army, Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.

Colonel (P.) Richard C. Kim, executive officer to the commander, United Nations Command/Combined Forces Command/U.S. Forces Korea, Republic of Korea, has been assigned as deputy commander, 2d Infantry Division, Eighth U.S. Army, Republic of Korea.

Colonel (P.) William E. King IV, assistant chief of staff, G-3/5/7/9, Eighth U.S. Army, Republic of Korea, has been assigned as assistant deputy chief of staff, G-3/5/7 (Readiness), U.S. Army Forces Command, Fort Bragg.

Colonel (P.) Michael J. Tarsa, senior commander-Fort Carson, Colo., has been assigned as deputy commander, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson.

GCT 5.4 | 3

ISR in the Joint and Coalition Environment Reviewing the coalition and joint intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance process.

By Todd Rissinger, Will La Joie and Jessica Vancleaf

Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information provides the detailed knowledge (fusion) and foresight (intelligence) into enemy dispersal, intentions and methods that enhance a commander’s and his subordinates’ ability to make decisions supporting effective actions against a threat. The primary objective of reconnaissance and surveillance operations is to provide timely collection support and satisfy information and intelligence requirements, including alliance, national and theater requirements.

Basis for Comparison The current U.S. ISR and NATO collection coordination and intelligence requirements management (CCIRM) processes and tools have struggled for years to be fit-for-use and fit-for-purpose.

In response to continuing technical and procedural interoperability inadequacies, the U.S. coalition interoperability assurance and validation (CIAV) team has endeavored to facilitate a response to the global and joint ISR community mission-based interoperability needs.

Continued U.S. CIAV observations and reporting have suggested that the different approaches to ISR within NATO and the U.S. have resulted in the inability to utilize automated tools to address the end-user requirements. This has caused disagreements and miscommunications among coalition partners, which has increased the latency of ISR products and led to the inefficient use of ISR support assets (people/collectors).

Throughout the analysis of the information in this study, U.S. CIAV discovered corresponding definitions and responsibilities in the NATO doctrinal and non-doctrinal publications that showed a lack of functional agreement and understanding of the alliance definition of NATO collection management practice. This fundamental ambiguity has caused consistent difficulty in the alignment of resources, training, requirements and systems to support the alliance ISR collection.

4 | GCT 5.4

ISR Management Differences and Concerns The United States in peace and war consistently operates ISR at the tactical, operational and strategic levels of military command.

Furthermore, each U.S. combatant commander has at his disposal a cornucopia of ISR resources. Within the United States, management of the ISR force strategy is not a simple one-size-fits-all formula for optimum ISR employment.

The U.S. TCPED (tasking, collection, processing, exploitation and dissemination) cycle functions in a disciplined and specific manner. Imagery/GEOINT requirements are handed by imagery/ GEOINT specialists, and so on. Collection managers rely on cadres of experienced production requirement managers to parse requests for information (RFI) into actionable information requirements.

In the United States, careful coordination is necessary to manage intelligence; however, the detailed management of requirements is typically a matter of tradecraft that is left up to each command and each echelon to decide the best and most appropriate way to manage its activity based on the available resources.

The NATO CCIRM management cycle seeks to create a balance between NATO and the member nations’ intelligence personnel to create a harmonized, agreed-upon schedule for intelligence collection and exploitation.

CCIRM is the processes used by NATO to govern both the prioritization and distribution of RFIs and the RFIs’ implied information requirements among NATO nations. As defined, the process should efficiently regulate how NATO, as an independent entity, requests collection and directs support activities from member nations.

Since NATO historically does not have its own standing ISR collection capability, careful coordination has been the cornerstone of how NATO tasks national collection platforms.

CCIRM is not only a set of procedures; rather, it is also a deliberate gathering of a specific staff to facilitate the CCIRM utility. Typically, the CCIRM staff is comprised of the following key personnel: www.GCT-kmi.com

• • • • • • • • • • • •

Theater collection manager ISR manager RFI manager Information manager ISR planner CCIRM liaison officer Imagery specialist Component collection manager Subordinate command collection manager (as needed for large, dispersed task forces and SOF) ISR asset liaison officer ISR asset mission commander Command-level space representatives

The plan is a referential guide to who is collecting and producing what to support whom through which commander’s intent.

The ICP generally supports all-source collection, analysis and fusion. It is the primary intelligence requirement management vehicle.

The collection exploitation plan (CXP) is the primary vehicle for creating interoperability among nationally distributed capabilities. Although non-implemented, the CXP was to be used to facilitate the CCIRM process and augment RFI management. The CCIRM assumes that combined joint ISR providers have an ability to receive the CXP, manage and update the alliance CXP, and notify the alliance of their acceptance of tasking when a task leaves the

allied joint commander’s command structure, thereby exiting the allied commander organic collection arsenal.

Management of ISR Satisfaction in ISAF The transfer of authority (TOA) for ISR from the United States to NATO in Afghanistan has resulted in a change in approach that is neither the U.S. ISR management process nor the NATO CCIRM methodology, but more of a hybrid of the two. The effort is managed at the ISAF joint command/ISR division (ISR-D), separated from headquarters in order to have an operational focus on collections.

ISR-D at this echelon of command is very unusual per doctrinal guidance, as typically an ISR-D is part of an AOC as a component to the air component commander.

All flying assets in ISAF are coordinated through higher theater headquarters and at the combined forces air control center (CFACC), which is the lead for tactical airspace control.

The CFACC is responsible for de-conflicting proposed flight corridors to prevent collision of aircraft and other risks. However, the sensor tasking of ISR stays under the control of intelligence professionals. This is typically at the CAOC or the ISAF headquarters element; in this capacity, they are not necessarily acting as intelligence analysts, but as the liaison between the customers of intelligence (operational tacticians) and the ISR support community (collections agencies). In the ISAF HQ and IJC ISR-D, a consolidated task deck plans and executes theater-organic ISR

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GCT 5.4 | 5

plans and consolidates requests to assets outside the theater, i.e.

TCN-controlled sources.

Organic collection is any unit using its own operationally and tactically controlled assets to satisfy an information or intelligence requirement or for live direct support to missions, of which the goal is to provide unfettered support to the commander’s immediate operational objective. Although the effects of the local unit’s actions may fulfill the objectives of higher headquarters, the assets operate autonomously in their collection efforts. This method of centralized control and decentralized execution allows military units to meet objectives without being tied up by a continuous cycle of decision making and planning.

When a situation arises for an ISR activity beyond the scope of the ISR capabilities of a particular unit or region’s organic ISR capability, a request for collection (RFC) is generated to request the support from a higher echelon unit. These support efforts are driven by operational needs and the outcome required in order to accomplish the essential elements of information (a subset of all other intelligence and information collection orders).

The RFI and RFC are used to request intelligence information from higher and lateral commands when a unit’s organic collection capability cannot satisfy the local commander’s needs.

There is a division between the functional use of the RFI and RFC that is made by ISAF headquarters, subordinate commands and below. Active RFCs are assigned to available resources, creating a consolidated task matrix, also known in ISAF as the bid sheet.

The bid sheet is used to assign COMIJC’s (commander ISAF joint command) theater-owned or shared ISR resources based on operational priorities. Three sources of requirements prioritization are combined with the regional commander’s priorities to establish the prioritization and allocation of ISR tasks. The bid sheet is also a prioritization of requirements that are validated through multiple means. This is not a method of coordinating tasks, but a method of balancing how IJC’s tasks are addressed in a prioritized fashion. The full cycle of U.S. TCPED still occurs beyond this point and is really outside of the scope of the bid sheets alone to handle. However, the bid sheets provide the nations with the ability to know that they are supporting the NATO command in the way that the NATO command actually requires instead of supporting the NATO command under a nationally interpreted collection prioritization.

This conflicts substantially with the doctrinal concepts of ISR being prioritized by an intelligence-derived plan (e.g., the intelligence collection plan). The ICP tends to lean more towards how the intelligence cells will fulfill their obligation to the allied joint command and how they will prioritize their staff in the satisfaction of priority intelligence requirements and subordinate requirements. Rather, requests are almost completely pinned to the operation’s requirements and priority, not the intelligence requirements and priority.

Final closeouts are often the trickiest part of the cycle used in support of ISAF. An entire collection requirement can be closed or completely changed by a phone call, a chat message or the prosecution of a target. In many cases, a tangible product delivery occurs. Time delays in disclosure approval and a human review process (usually involving a two-person review at minimum) often create a very slow-moving fulfillment of ISR support and product satisfaction. The communications piece of the requirement has 6 | GCT 5.4

been used as a way around the latency problem for requirements that are directly supporting a “trigger-pulling” operation. Concise and intentional positioning of U.S. persons throughout the ISAF theater remains a work-around so that, at least, the time-critical pieces of information can be relayed to decision makers while the final products are scrubbed and prepared for permanent transmission into non-U.S. hands.

The Need to Create a Bridge The U.S. ISR cycle adapts to the needs of the American warfighter. The air tasking order/air combat order and U.S. ISR distribution can and will adjust to fit emergent national needs. Through CCIRM, NATO doctrine is fixed not to let any one nation have to adjust its national ISR process if it is not necessary. However, the only way to make that possible is to identify and provide the data necessary to create an international and intra-alliance mechanism to share ISR plans, strategy and collections posture when and how possible prior to ISR mission execution and in accordance with the legal statutes of each of the 28 nations in NATO. The NATO CCIRM process is aimed at making national information collections available to all alliance warfighters. Simply put, nations do not know what they do not know. In a battlespace where NATO is the COMIJC, a high level of interoperability is needed to strengthen national assets to the level of alliance partners.

Both NATO and U.S. intelligence processes are doctrinally prescribed techniques to manage information and intelligence collection and production. The U.S. TCPED attempts to manage the full life cycle of the information collection and exploitation requirements as a subset of the intelligence requirements. TCPED is practiced in an intelligence discipline/effect-specific manner, as each method has an intrinsically unique body of processing and exploitation capabilities, different and specialized methodologies and internal controls to protect sensitive sources. These disciplinary stovepipes aid collectors and exploiters in the gathering and generation of unbiased, non-influenced single-source intelligence information.

NATO collection managers must exercise more carefully balanced, less concise collection requirements to ensure that requirements can be achieved by any suitable method and by any capable nation within the NATO allied command structure.

This leads to a bridge that must be created between the two methods to effectively and accurately obtain detail when a requirement is leveraged against a heavily ISR-capable nation such as the United States. O Todd Rissinger is deputy, United States Coalition Interoperability Assurance and Validation National Lead Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Joint Interoperability Test Command, Coalition and Combat Service Support Branch.

Will La Joie and Jessica Vancleaf are contracting support, Coalition Interoperability Assurance & Validation ISR efforts, DISA/JITC, CIAV.

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gct-kmi.com.

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Ground Combat & Tactical ISR talked with David Small of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) to gauge its work over the years, its metrics of success and its vision of future threats and counters.

Q: As general background, can you provide some insight as to the role of JIEDDO and how it works with the services on route clearance requirements?

A: Specialized units, such as the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and route clearance teams within the services, are constantly refining their techniques and procedures against IEDs with the assistance of JIEDDO personnel.

In addition to working with combatant commands, JIEDDO determines route clearance requirements through technical analysis of recovered evidence from IEDs that have previously detonated.

Within JIEDDO, we have divisions who can interpret the needs of warfighters based on real-time evidence and intelligence derived from the combat area of operations. These two main lines of effort ensure that JIEDDO is receptive to the warfighter’s needs.

We have an open dialogue with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps engineer schools. Through this dialogue, JIEDDO gets relevant information from the engineer community on what is needed to accomplish the mission. Lastly, by assigning engineers to JIEDDO, the engineer community is able to have a voting interest in the decisions that are made at JIEDDO with regard to route clearance.

In the past, JIEDDO has funded hundreds of route clearance systems. One example is the route clearance optics system (RCOS), an enhanced optics system configured especially for route clearance teams. Route clearance teams use RCOS to identify IEDs and emplacement activity along routes. JIEDDO procured more than 45 systems for route clearance operations in Afghanistan and transferred this initiative to the Army in 2011.

Q: How do you balance programs and spending between the various types of solution—jammers, detectors, protection, etc.?

A: The service and combatant commands coordinate for development of initiatives through the joint urgent operational needs statement (JUONS). The JUONS process is the way JIEDDO receives www.GCT-kmi.com

demand signals from the warfighter on what they need to continue their mission.

Our JCAAMP website outlines how we balance requirements.

[For more information on the process, go to https://www.jieddo. mil/bizops.aspx.]

Q: What are the challenges to measuring success in route clearance? How do you measure what didn’t explode— whether you knew the device was there or not?

A: JIEDDO’s key overall metric has been the effective attack rate.

This rate is the percentage of IEDs that cause casualties divided by the overall number of IEDs encountered. The total includes effective attacks, ineffective attacks (IEDs that explode without causing casualties) and IEDs that are found and cleared without detonating.

Within this general metric, we look at the effective attack rate against different types of operations (such as route clearance patrols), differences among types of IEDs (radio-controlled, command-wire, victim-operated, etc.), and differences in types of targeted populations (U.S., coalition, Afghan National Security Forces, Afghan civilians).

Within the general category of effective IEDs, we also drill down to the specific combinations of factors that produce killed-in-action and the most severely (Category A) wounded.

We tend to look at these factors over time (daily, monthly, annual), incorporating knowledge of changes driven by seasons, religious holidays, military operations and significant events—elections, for example.

Any analysis that we do that identifies specific factors that make our forces more or less vulnerable is classified.

With regard to challenges in measuring success, we don’t know the full ground truth about IEDs on the battlefield at any given time.

JIEDDO can only gauge success against the IEDs that are found.

The level of detail in reporting is also a challenge, as some IED finds aren’t reported, thus reducing the total number of IEDs counted in determining the effective IED attack rate.

GCT 5.4 | 7

Another factor in terms of success is the persistence of clearance. Without some means to persistently monitor a route, a common problem in the past was keeping a “cleared” route cleared.

It is not possible to measure or know about IEDs that are not detected in the absence of an explosion.

If an IED is found and cleared without an explosion, it is counted as successfully cleared. Detonations without casualties are also counted in the denominator when determining the effective IED attack rate. Also, the method used to find any given IED is often reported in the significant activity report so that we can gauge the effectiveness of any given IED enabler used during a patrol.

Q: Can you discuss, in general terms, the cycle of staying in step with the adversary and meeting new threats as they emerge in response to countermeasures that are implemented?

A: The enemies we face now and into the future are adaptive. We must be prepared to anticipate and defeat a myriad of hybrid threats that incorporate regular warfare, irregular warfare, terrorism and criminality.

In executing the nation’s counter-IED strategy, JIEDDO has built capabilities to meet the global IED threat with a swift counterIED response.

The IED threat is not going away—it is global, enduring and spreading. We will continue to see tactics, techniques and procedures proliferate around the world.

The constant change in the threat environment has been described as Darwinian and requires a constant eye on the threat.

Q: To avoid duplication of research time and spending, how do you coordinate with the services and the command level to prevent duplication of effort and wasting of scarce resources?

A: JIEDDO implements several methods to improve coordination and reduce potential for duplication of effort. This process starts before a program is initiated and during the evaluation of a potential program through a portfolio review. These reviews are conducted with the specific purposes of identifying any similar efforts across DoD that may have similar thresholds or objectives prior to any release of funding.

In addition, JIEDDO emphasizes transparency in its acquisition process, ensuring key members from each service participate in the JIEDDO JCAAMP process.

JIEDDO has developed key partnerships across the various service labs and program offices that also help inform and coordinate our development efforts to avoid any unnecessary duplication.

Q: Are there initiatives to bring the size, weight and power down on soldier-carried/worn detectors and warning systems? Can you provide any insight/details?

A: The most recent item which would reduce the soldier load is the Stryder system. Stryder is a command-wire detection system worn 8 | GCT 5.4

JIEDDO’s Transition for the Future An interim report to Congress, responsive to the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the Department of Defense to report to Congress on its plans for JIEDDO’s future, was delivered June 18.

OSD has made the decision to retain selected quick reaction capabilities, including JIEDDO, developed during the last 12 years of war, that facilitate rapid response to new and evolving threats.

As such, OSD has decided to transition the essential capabilities of JIEDDO from its laser-like focus on countering IEDs to an integrated joint organization with a broader mission that still includes counter-IED. This scope enables tactical responsiveness and anticipatory acquisition to predict and react to battlefield surprise across a broader mission set.

The report articulates this decision, retains JIEDDO’s quickreaction capability, and sizes JIEDDO to meet fiscal realities.

It describes actions accomplished and planned during the coming months to facilitate JIEDDO’s transition across the next two fiscal years. on the leg to detect IEDs, thus reducing the risk of exposure to certain types of IEDs by dismounted troops.

Q: As combat operations subside in Afghanistan, how do you see that affecting product development and funding for mitigation and standoff devices?

A: The Department of Defense made the decision to retain JIEDDO. The question is no longer “Should JIEDDO endure past Afghanistan?” That decision has been made. The question is now “In what form will JIEDDO exist in the future?”

The department directed JIEDDO to continue to develop a plan for an enduring counter-IED capability for DoD while sizing to meet fiscal realities. Our plan was set in motion to remain supportive to the shrinking mission in Afghanistan and reflects the recent direction about current operations. As we look beyond Afghanistan, JIEDDO will continue to transform.

The department is transitioning JIEDDO to an integrated, joint organization that enables tactical responsiveness, is scaled to fiscal realities, and provides the flexibility to meet increased future threat requirements, if necessary. The president’s fiscal year 2015 budget submission supports the implementation of this strategy.

JIEDDO is working on a concept of operations with resourcing requirements to be able to endure and execute JIEDDO’s unique capabilities in counter-IED, counterterrorism and counterintelligence. We are working to better outline the future mission set and what kinds of things we need to have to conduct this mission, such as authorities, polities, recourses, etc.

The detailed concept of operation for the enduring organization will be presented by the JIEDDO director to DoD later this year.

Q: How will unmanned vehicles expand mission capabilities for route clearance, convoy lead and escort in the future? Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have an obvious role in IED investigation and clearance, but can they become more active in convoy leading?

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A: JIEDDO acknowledges that unmanned ground vehicles have and will continue to have a role in route clearance operations. The basic principle is that providing an unmanned system creates stand-off and reduces the risk for any warfighter. JIEDDO and the services all see unmanned systems development continuing as part of the future, which may include convoy operations.

JIEDDO is aware of the current efforts by the U.S. Army’s autonomous mobility appliqué system and the USMC to develop programs that provide driverless convoys for logistics missions.

JIEDDO also developed some initial systems deployed for evaluation that explored the insertion of UGVs into mounted formations for counter-IED missions. This is one of several technologies that could benefit convoys and route clearance operations, but still requires more refinement of requirements and improvements in reliability and maintainability.

Q: Can you explain the role and accomplishments of the office in developing training devices and simulations/ simulators for route clearance activities?

A: Two of the most comprehensive simulators that address route clearance and counter-IED operations are the route clearance suite (RCS) and iGame (in development). Both are virtual training environments where the soldier is immersed in scenarios where counter-IED operations are being actively conducted. For the RCS, this is a series of mobile trailers that the platoon-sized element can occupy for training and reinforcing their operating procedures for route clearance operations.

In this virtual environment, the operators for the vehicles will wear goggles and discuss reactions to different scenarios that the administrator provides to the platoon. In the RCS, the administrator can adjust the environment to set scenarios, or adjust them on the fly—for example, [setting] crowds [that] are large/small or hostile/permissive. The RCS also enables the platoon to run drills on reaction to small-arms fire and contact drills.

IGame is still in development, but is more of a computerized gaming module that incorporates the same standards of the RCS. IGame includes the implementation of handheld detectors and dismounted troops working in conjunction with the main body of the route clearance patrol.

Q: With no current broad agency announcement (BAA), how do you stay in touch with industry developments and, in turn, make sure industry knows what types of solutions you are seeking? Is a new BAA planned?

A: JIEDDO constantly conducts outreach to gain insight from various working groups, industry conferences and international engagements all seeking to identify any new technology developments. Any future BAAs can be found on JIEDDO’s website and will be noticed appropriately. O

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gct-kmi.com.

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GCT 5.4 | 9

The future of small-caliber ammo.

By Scott Nance, GCT Correspondent With the work of the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office Ammunition at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, the future of small-caliber ammo has finally come into its own.

No longer is ammo just an afterthought in the development of a new weapon, according to Lieutenant Colonel Philip Clark, the outgoing project manager for small-caliber ammunition.

“If you go back historically and you look at requirements for weapons and ammunition—and I mean historically all the way back to the 1930s with the M2 machine gun as an example— you’ll have documents and a set of requirements that describe a weapon and then it will simply say, ‘Oh, and by the way, we want some ammunition to go with it,’” Clark explained. “Generally speaking, historically requirements for all military weapon system development have focused on the weapon—and the ammunition is along for the ride, so to speak. So what we wanted to do is look at ammunition and how we can really make those gains and improvements—we have [a] family of ammunition development documents that look at what capabilities the Army wants to improve for the soldier.”

That means doing research and development (R&D) on the ammo itself, Clark said, so that in the coming years it might be lighter for a soldier to carry—or even improve a soldier’s survivability.

That sense of innovation in small-caliber ammunition is being carried on in industry as well, representatives of ammo manufacturers said.

“RUAG aims the development of new products or even new calibers mainly according to market needs and market trends,” said Peter Spatz, R&D specialist at RUAG Ammotec AG, an ammo maker based in Switzerland and elsewhere. “Yes, it is possible to make ammo easier through the use of appropriate materials,” he added.

The weapons themselves have progressed so far that it’s become crucial to advance ammunition and other “enablers” of weapons, Clark said.

“We’ve got really, really good weapons within the military.

We’ve wrung everything out of weapons capability in the particular calibers we have. So really, the advances that you look at

10 | GCT 5.4

would be advances in weapons’ optics, and then what we can do terminally with the bullet,” he explained.

That’s where the ammunition enterprise has focused for the last five to 10 years and will continue to focus—improving the capabilities of small-caliber ammunition from a technology perspective.

Acknowledging the quality of weapons in the hands of U.S. warfighters, Clark explained that while the United States can certainly improve on any system, it is as much about focusing on the ammunition and other enablers for significant improvements.

Overall, the goal is make the weapon, ammo and other enablers work as one seamless system.

New Technologies PEO Ammo is looking at new small-caliber ammunition technology from several different perspectives, Clark said.

That includes technology called one-way luminescence. Current tracer rounds have a burning compound in the back of the round that eventually will leave a big bloom and can identify a soldier’s position. “You’ve heard that tracers go both ways. That’s true—you have this huge bloom that the enemy can see to mark where you were shooting from,” Clark said.

PEO Ammo is evaluating different technologies to enhance a tracer so that a shooter can still see it but it doesn’t give away their position, Clark said. “Primarily, the big piece here is that you’re getting survivability of the soldier on the battlefield,” he added.

Another technology effort is known as lightweight smallcaliber ammunition “because reducing the weight of the soldier is an enabler,” Clark said. “Any time you can make the soldier’s load lighter, you’re making them a better fighter because you make that load lighter across the board, or they can replace that weight with something more important.”

In that effort, PEO Ammo is looking at a class of materials known as polymers. “Polymers are very light, and can be produced relatively cheaply. If we can find polymers that meet all those stringent requirements of the military in the battlefield environment, that will be a great benefit to the soldier,” Clark said.

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“It won’t make the ammo more accurate, it won’t Advances in Industry make it shoot any farther, but it will maintain all the capabilities it currently has and allow the sol“The Nordic Ammunition Company (Nammo), dier to reduce their carried weight.” a Norwegian/Finnish supplier, has recently develYet another development effort is called oped long-range cartridges in caliber 5.56 mm and reduced range training ammunition. “As we start 7.62 mm to meet the market need for sharpshooter to develop rounds that will go farther, we have ammunition,” said Fredrik Erninge, the firm’s range limitations at our current training ranges marketing and programs director. all across the Army. If you start rounds that go a “The cartridges fulfill applicable military speciwhole lot farther, then you could run into trainfications, providing a waterproof design with safe ing problems with that because [the rounds] function in extreme temperatures and after rough Fredrik Erninge could leave the range,” Clark said. “We are lookhandling, and safe and reliable function in all ing at providing a reduced-range training round fredrik.erninge@nammo.com machine guns and assault rifles,” he said. to complement these much higher-performing rounds so we will Due to increased projectile mass, the projectiles show excelnot impact the ability of the soldier to train.” lent performance at long distances, according to Erninge.

Based on whether requirements are approved and funded, the “Flatter trajectory, less sensitivity for wind drift and maingoal is to adopt and transition these new technologies into differtained velocity and energy offer an effective choice for missions ent small calibers, including 7.62 mm, 5.56 mm and .50 caliber. in open terrain, i.e., mountains, desert, etc.,” he said. “The carPEO Ammo is looking even further over the technology horitridges use an extremely temperature-stable powder, resulting in zon at future weapon systems, Clark said. “One of the things the a cartridge that will have the same point of impact independent of Army has underway right now is a study looking at the caliber and temperature. The soldier does not have to compensate for the temconfiguration for ammunition.” perature differences at night and day often found in desert areas.”

The Army is also looking at improving the environmental Nammo, too, has been looking at how to make small-caliber impact of both ammunition manufacture and the use of it in the ammo lighter to carry, Erninge said. field. “We’re always tracking with what environmental concerns The simplest way to make the ammo lighter is to replace the there are for different chemicals and components—and making material in the cartridge case, he said. sure that we keep our pulse on those,” he said. That includes “Nammo is following the development of lightweight cases, eliminating lead and replacing it with copper in some rounds, but has so far judged the technology not mature enough to meet he added. all military requirements,” he added. “Another way to save weight is, of course, to carry less ammunition. By using more effective ammunition … the soldier is able to get the same effect in the Shelf Life is Fine target using less ammunition.”

One key issue that Nammo is watching is a trend in discarding Interestingly, one area where PEO Ammo is not looking to old standard ammunition in favor of high-performing, lead-free improve is the shelf life of the Army’s small-caliber ammunition. ammunition, Erninge said. “With 15 years of experience pro“We have really great shelf life, so we don’t really strive to ducing high-performance lead-free ammunition, mainly for the increase our shelf life. We have rounds in the inventory … that Swedish and Norwegian defense forces, Nammo is well prepared were produced in the 1960s and 1970s that there is nothing wrong to meet this need.” with, and we still use them,” Clark said. “If ammunition is stored Erninge also noted that there are several international study properly and maintained to military standards, that ammunition programs investigating the capability of an intermediate caliber. can survive quite a long time. We do periodically test that ammu“The main purpose of such a caliber is to improve the ammuninition. We have a surveillance program to periodically test the tion/weapon/soldier system capabilities where the 5.56 mm system ammunition to make sure that it still performs well and safely.” is considered insufficient,” he said. “Nammo has a lot of experience When looking at changes to any elements to ammunition, the in developing and adapting to new calibers and is following those PEO is always considering the impact on shelf life to the compostudy programs with interest. However, it is Nammo’s opinion nents, propellants, primers and even the packaging. This includes that a caliber shift will be too expensive. By using specialty ammuaccelerated aging tests upfront on potential new components nition such as high performance ball, long range and armor to ensure they are not negatively impacting shelf life, said John piercing, it is possible to increase the soldier capability without Corsello, lead for small-caliber ammunition R&D at PEO Ammo. replacing the caliber. Nammo has focused on ‘non-conventional’ “So for me, it’s more of a do-no-harm to what I currently have specialty ammunition and is constantly developing new innovative than it is that we are really out looking for ways to dramatically products to meet customer needs.” O increase shelf life,” Clark said. “We don’t want to hurt [the shelf life] we currently have, which would be anywhere from 20 to as many as 40 years. It’s a great boon to the taxpayer because we For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories have that ammunition that we continue to use and we don’t have at www.gct-kmi.com. to throw it away.”

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GCT 5.4 | 11

Letting technology do the heavy lifting when it comes to covering large areas of real estate while keeping head count down.

By Henry Canaday, GCT Correspondent

Unattended ground sensors (UGSs) played an important role in both Iraq and Afghanistan, protecting U.S. facilities from intrusion and watching out for infiltration along borders and unsecured paths and roads.

UGSs are one of the ultimate force multipliers when U.S. forces must defend or monitor huge areas that are open to small and difficult-to-detect light adversary forces.

As with other technologies used extensively in the United States’ two recent antiterror campaigns, UGSs have improved and proliferated into many different types and specialties. Both the Defense Department and the manufacturers of UGSs can see plenty of possible opportunities—in some cases necessities—for their use in the future. And UGS technology itself is capable of much more development for specific tasks.

The Army has already deployed UGSs using seismic, acoustic, magnetic, infrared (IR), radar and other detection techniques suited to specific threats, explained Lieutenant Colonel Shane Sullivan, product manager, ground sensors in the Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors.

Changes in operating environments and threats have elicited new UGSs, some more adaptable and expendable, others with new capabilities, many with better size, weight, power and cost, and some with less complexity. Other UGS improvements have included longer detection and communication ranges and the ability to automatically cue aerial full motion video (FMV) cameras.

But Sullivan said traditional UGSs have been large and complex, so they required trained specialists to use. The Army is now developing requirements for sensors suitable for use by infantry soldiers with far less training. These new UGSs would be smaller and more automated, but they would still be interoperable with current equipment.

The Networked Expendable Sensor Technologies Capabilities Development Document (CDD), now being drafted, is considering several improvements. For example, new UGSs should be deployable down to squad levels, intuitive, simple to operate and emplace, and 12 | GCT 5.4

unlikely to be compromised. They should require no maintenance or recovery and produce timely and accurate reporting. In addition, they should have communication ranges and power durations commensurate with their missions. And the Army would like UGSs to allow rapid employment, camouflage and concealment.

The CDD may also seek slew-to-cue and cue-to-target interoperability with Army command, control, communications, computers, combat systems ISR assets, unmanned systems and weapon targeting. The Army would also like customizable detection and a positive identification capability that could be optimized for threats and terrain. Furthermore, UGSs should be usable by soldiers, crew-served weapons, indirect fire, and both manned and unmanned systems.

The CDD may also seek UGSs that adapt to new technologies with multiple algorithms, higher sampling rates and better discrimination for fewer false positives. And new UGSs should be networked to enable rapid decision-making and threat identification and to shift the communication burden to the Army’s network.

Other desirable UGS enhancements, according to Sullivan, include better scalability, better processing power, fewer external interfaces, open architecture for multiple devices, and the ability to change UGS parameters and algorithms without recovering the device.

This all seems like a pretty tall order. But highly sophisticated firms have acquired a lot of experience with UGSs and are eager to advance the technology.

Applied Research Associates developed an expendable UGS under contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency using ARA’s Extended Range Radio Frequency (ERRF) radio. Since 2010, ARA has delivered over 48,000 of these E-UGSs to the U.S. military, said Bob Quinn, Unmanned Systems and Security Products division manager.

These seismic sensors, weighing less than 1 pound, are easily carried and emplaced by individual soldiers to provide footstep alerts from miles away. Low cost makes them

expendable, so they do not need recovery when deployment ends. Long-range ERRF radio eliminates the need for costly, complex and bulky networks with multiple relays to provide long-range alerts.

Quinn said ARA constantly improves its E-UGS technology while keeping prices low and devices easy to use. For example, battery life has been more than doubled without changing configuration. Seismic sensitivity has been increased and new detection algorithms have been developed. ARA has reduced receiver size by 95 percent, and E-UGS can now distribute alerts to smart personal devices, creating what Quinn called “security in your pocket.”

Seven Technologies Group offers a comprehensive capability for remote, covert detection and alerting, summarized Business Development Manager Jon Turner. The firm’s Sentinel system is simple, yet flexible enough to provide user options for receiving the alerts depending on operational environment. For communication, Sentinel uses commercial satellite infrastructures such as Thuraya and Iridium, cell-phone infrastructure and data radios to give users both tactical and longer options.

Turner said Seven’s UGSs can be used for both friendly-force protection and adversary alerting. The Sentinel equipment uses several sensor types, including seismic, magnetic and passive IR. Seven provides power options to allow users to deploy sensors for long periods of time—for example, for border protection operations. And Seven’s Sentinel is fully interoperable with its own and other systems, including remote cameras. The sensor typically powers up the camera with an alarm and then transmits camera images until turned off.

Sensor alerts are delivered as audible alarms and flashing symbols according to whether the event is an alert or tamper detection. A line of text allows alarm investigation and can be relayed to a cell phone through short message service.

Seven is now working on several variations for specific uses. These include lower-cost www.GCT-kmi.com

solutions with high-resolution still images and transmission over satellite systems.

Turner said the key benefits of Sentinel are simplicity, flexibility, ability to work with many products and the range of its deployment options. Seven plans to offer a technically more complex solution while reducing user burdens.

Seven is enhancing Sentinel to work with multiple sensor types and transmit alarms on multiple back links. The new system will be mesh capable with local storage and security. Most notably, Turner said many different sensors will be processed, including video motion detection and facial recognition video, radio frequency range detection and analytics, dry-contact alarm inputs and several others. “This broadens the traditional UGS concept to a whole other level.”

Qual-Tron makes a wide variety of UGSs, including seismic, magnetic, acoustic, IR, break beams and break wires, said Bob Johnston, director of business development. The firm started 35 years ago by manufacturing to the designs of a government intelligence agency, then hired its own engineers and now sells to the military and law enforcement.

Qual-Tron recently developed a Web-based application so that cell phones can control its sensors.

Johnston said Qual-Tron RF frequencies are crisp, clear and easy to receive, as they are transmitted over Iridium relays. “Customers tell us that is why they buy from us.”

The firm now does all its design and manufacturing in-house. “If customers want a change we can do it. We are small enough to change fast, but big enough to do it well.”

The family-owned Qual-Tron has done substantial work for the U.S. military. “Special operations is a big user.”

All Qual-Tron detection systems operate on standard 9-volt direct-current batteries, require minimal training and can be programmed in one to three steps using a small screwdriver.

Textron Systems has provided UGSs for the U.S. Army for a number of years, is now approaching Customs and Border Protection (Department of Homeland Security) and international customers and will be ready when the Army comes out with its new UGS requirements, summarized Dean Frost, program director for UGSs at the company’s weapon and sensor systems.

Textron’s MicroObserver system is multimode and highly scalable. It starts with seismic sensors, which cue IR or daytime imagers. MicroObserver can comprise a few www.GCT-kmi.com

or hundreds of sensors in one system, which can cover up to a 1-kilometer grid. And it is durable. “It is networked through a lowpower network, so it can last up to two years,” Frost added.

Once cued, cameras take pictures and decide if these images are worth showing to command and control (C&C). Algorithms decide on the significance of these images to minimize purely nuisance alarms.

MicroObserver can interface with Textron’s C&C center or with the user’s C&C infrastructure. There are options also for communications. Textron offers off-the-shelf backhaul at 900 megahertz up to 50 kilometers. The firm is also considering using commercial satellites in a system with multiple nodes so that failure at one point would not compromise the link.

Frost said the images provided by MicroObserver are essential if users are going to take actions such as sending patrols or even drones to investigate alarms. But to keep the system practical, low-cost images are needed. Daytime images are in color, but both these and night IR images are essentially three to five frames over one to two seconds, enough to see motion, but not true FMV. This approach minimizes power and bandwidth requirements.

The Textron approach is highly flexible.

Users can deploy only seismic sensors without cameras, and they can mix cameras and sensors in whatever proportions meet their mission needs in the local landscape. “For typical uses, we recommend five to six seismic sensors for each imager,” Frost said.

MicroObserver aids covertness as its seismic sensors can be buried up to a half inch in the ground and detect movement at up to 50 to 75 kilometers. Imagers can stand off at a distance behind seismic devices, behind bushes or other camouflage. The devices can be installed fast and activated with one switch and no special mission setting, another aid to stealthy use.

Textron is testing MicroObserver with Customs and Border Protection, and an Indian agency has signed a memorandum of understanding intending the use of the system by Indian security agencies. Frost expects the U.S. Army will want a new program of record in one to three years for a UGS that is smaller and lighter and that has a smaller, logistical footprint. “We think we can do that.”

Durability, scalability, ease of use, stealthy deployment and imagers to reduce false or nuisance alarms all distinguish MicroObserver, Frost argued.

Digital Barriers calls its UGS RDC for remote detection and classification. “RDC is a seismic sensor that is designed to detect vehicles and people,” explained Ed Godere, vice president for Digital Barriers North America.

RDC has a unique form factor, as it is designed for rapid installation using a very simple tool. “The sensor is like a large screw that twists into the ground,” Godere stressed.

“This form factor provides many benefits.”

RDC is easy to install and there is no debris to dispose of. At just under 1.5 pounds it is very light, allowing one person to carry many sensors, and is easy to conceal. And because it is screwed into the ground, RDC achieves very good coupling to the earth, which is important for good seismic detection.

RDC’s sensor itself is solid state with no moving parts, unlike typical seismic sensors.

It is not sensitive to orientation. The sensor communicates alarms over a self-healing mesh network back to a master node that can either directly connect to monitoring devices or use RF backhaul links by cellular, pointto-point or mesh radio or satellite to connect to monitoring devices. RDC alarms can be monitored by PCs, laptops, tablets, iPhones or other smartphones.

Digital recently developed a new algorithm to detect digging near the RDC. Generally, RDC sensors detect people out to 50 meters, vehicles out to 100 meters and digging out to 30 meters.

Godere said RDC is distinctive in using Digital’s remote video surveillance technology to instantly verify alarms by slewing a camera and streaming very low-latency, 200- to 300-millisecond video over the same backhaul links used to send alarms. Digital’s video solution allows it to send full-motion streaming video over very low bandwidths, he emphasized. It streams video using half the bandwidth of conventional H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or advanced video coding video streaming and can thus stream full-motion video down to 9 kilobits per second. “This is important when deployments of the RDC are in degraded communication environments in remote areas.”

Overall, a lot of the individual UGS features the Army is looking for are out there or under development. O

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gct-kmi.com.

GCT 5.4 | 13

INNOVATIONS DCGS-A Standards-Based Architecture Under a two-year award, Jericho Systems Corp. will develop a standardsbased architecture and prototype that enables single-sign-on (SSO) and ABAC security for RESTful services for Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS)-Army. The Phase II effort provides important next steps toward fielding interconnected net-centric systems that meet mission and data security requirements.

Representational state transfer (REST) is a popular Web 2.0 architectural approach that supports highly interactive, browser-based user sessions and real-time access to cloud-based resources. For the Army to benefit from REST-based services, REST must be integrated into the enterprise’s identity and access management security architecture.

Jericho Systems will reduce the Army’s information technology burden by providing technical guidance for an integrated, cost-effective RESTful solution

Ground-Penetrating Radar Improvements One objective of route clearance operations is to detect threats comprising anti-personnel landmines, antitank landmines and improvised explosive devices. The Husky Mine Detection System (HMDS) is in widespread use with the U.S. military and combines a mine-proof vehicle with a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) sensor developed and supplied by NIITEK, a Chemring Sensors and Electronics Company, part of the Chemring Group.

Minelab’s single transmit multiple receive (STMR) metal detection array was developed to be added to any vehicle platform and includes the ability to be integrated with other detection sensors. STMR utilizes Minelab’s unique and superior pulse induction technology, thereby achieving unprecedented high probabilities of detection and low false alarm rates. The STMR system has been used in humanitarian demining operations for the past eight years and has undergone continuous improvement and development.

In an effort to increase the capability of HMDS, and in collaboration with NIITEK Inc., Minelab has been awarded a development contract from the U.S. Army through NIITEK that will focus on the integration of the array with NIITEK’s GPR sensor as well as productionization and ruggedization of the STMR system.

“The selection of STMR for integration with HMDS is an exciting award for Minelab and supports the potential we recognized in this product when it was first developed. Additionally, Minelab is delighted to be collaborating with NIITEK, which builds on other projects in which both companies are engaged,” said Peter Charlesworth, executive general manager, Minelab.

Once development is completed in June 2016, STMR will be available for integration with the existing U.S. fleet of HMDS vehicles.

14 | GCT 5.4

that can be deployed in Phase III. Phase II deliverables will include use cases, a concept of operations, a prototype and a roadmap to implementation. Use of architectural standards, including WS-Trust and WS-Federation, will enable diverse SSO credentialing mechanisms within the overall enterprise capability.

“A standardized RESTful access control architecture will benefit the Army in multiple ways,” said Jericho Systems Cybersecurity Architect Bill Doyle.

“It will improve user experience, promote system interoperability, maximize software code reuse and enhance warfighters’ ability to work together in secure, collaborative data exchanges.”

Jericho Systems’ commercial off-the-shelf ABAC software, EnterSpace Decisioning Service, will provide the enterprise-ready authorization engine for the prototype; additional new components will be delivered as part of the Phase II effort.

Military Modular Weapons and Ammunition Storage Traditionally, U.S. military bases have relied on costly permanent bunkers or stick-built structures to securely store weapons and ammunition. But most of these are WWII-era bunkers and were not constructed to fit today’s equipment and weaponry. Furthermore, building new permanent structures can be particularly challenging in a time of diminished resources after base realignment and closure.

Constructing conventional, military-compliant, stick-built weapons and ammunition storage vaults requires frequent inspections during construction.

Each wall and ceiling must be inspected before concrete is poured, requiring construction delays as well as the granting of access passes to inspectors and workers. Construction is also subject to delays due to weather, labor, logistics and scheduling, which can further extend the delivery date and lead to significant cost overruns.

One option is portable, modular Armag vaults, which are custommanufacturedby Bardstown, Ky.-based Armag Corporation and approved for ammunition and weapons storage by all branches of the U.S. military in accordance with DoD 5100.76M, AR190-11, and OPNAVINST 5530.13C. The company, a U.S. federal contractor verified vendor, is recognized by the U.S. military as an authority in highly secure, modular buildings, and served as a consultant to the U.S. Navy in developing the Type 2 specification for explosives storage.

In contrast to stick-built structures, such modular weapons and ammunition storage vaults are pre-fabricated modular structures constructed offsite in a controlled environment. The modular buildings are not subject to on-site construction delays and cost overruns due to weather-related issues.

Like permanent structures, the most robustly-constructed portable, modular weapon and ammunition storage vaults are built to last. Most Armag vaults built in the 1960s and 1970s are still being used today.

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Compiled by KMI Media Group staff

MAAWS for SOCOM Defense and security company Saab has signed a new framework contract with SOCOM for the company’s Carl-Gustaf man-portable weapon system (MAAWS; multi-role, anti-armor anti-personnel weapon system). The contract is a follow-on agreement to a previous five-year contract for the 84 mm recoilless rifle system. In connection with the contract, SOCOM issued an initial order with a value of $14.3 million.

The framework contract enables SOCOM to place orders for weapons and ammunition over a five-year contract period up to a total value of $187 million.

“This is another great milestone for Saab and the Carl-Gustaf system,” said Görgen Johansson, senior vice president and head of Saab’s business area Dynamics. “This new order demonstrates the continued belief by the customer in the capabilities and versatility of our product as well as its future potential.”

Man Transportable Robotic System The Project Manager of Robotics Systems Joint Project Office (RS JPO) located at the United States Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command in Warren, Mich., is seeking to identify sources capable of manufacturing a commercial off-the-shelf robotic system to support the proposed man transportable robotic system (MTRS) Increment (Inc) II program with the following potential applications: chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear, explosive ordnance disposal, and combat engineering.

The MTRS Inc II system will provide a standoff capability for soldiers and Marines to detect and confirm presence, identify disposition and counter hazards by providing an unmanned platform for payloads in support of current and future missions. The system is intended to be vehicle-transportable and capable of being carried by two soldiers. The system will be highly mobile and used in mounted and dismounted operations. MTRS Inc II will be a multi-mission modular system that can be reconfigured by adding or removing sensors, manipulator arms and mission module payloads, allowing this capability to operate together with sensors through an operator control unit. www.GCT-kmi.com

“The Carl-Gustaf has repeatedly proven itself in the most demanding environments and is a versatile, powerful tool for the soldier. The fact that the system is also being fielded to U.S. Army light infantry combat teams speaks for itself.” said Lars Borgwing, president and CEO of Saab Defense and Security USA. The Carl-Gustaf system has a successful history and has successively been modernized and adapted to meet new requirements. Anticipating future operational needs, a new, lighter-weight version of the Carl-Gustaf is currently under development.

The next-generation system will also include additional functionality that will greatly increase the capability of the alreadyformidable weapon system.

Other recent advances to the CarlGustaf system include the release of the new 655 CS (confined space) high explosive anti-tank round designed to reduce back

blast and allow soldiers to safely employ their weapon in confined spaces, minimizing the hazardous effects of traditional shoulderfired munitions.

JLENS Should the United States or its allies need enhanced protection against cruise missiles, hostile airplanes, sea-borne threats or unmanned aircraft, military commanders will have a new system at their disposal. Raytheon Company has finished preparing a blimp-borne radar system previously used for testing for use as a rapidly deployable strategic asset.

JLENS is a powerful airborne radar system that floats at altitudes as high as 10,000 feet, suspended from two 80-yard-long, helium-filled blimp-like aerostats tethered to ground stations via a rugged cable. It helps defend critical assets, population centers and infrastructures against a variety of threats, such as manned and unmanned aircraft and missiles.

“By putting JLENS in strategic reserve, the Army is giving combatant commanders around the globe the ability to pick up the phone and, in short order, receive this incredible air defense capability in their area of responsibility,” said Raytheon’s Dave Gulla, vice president of Integrated Defense Systems’ global integrated sensors business area.

The U.S. Army has procured two JLENS systems to date. In addition to keeping one system in strategic reserve, a second system

is scheduled to participate in an operational evaluation at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., in fall 2014. JLENS completed early user testing in the third quarter of 2013, and concluded system design and development in the fourth quarter of 2013.

“JLENS has proven its ability to extend the air-defense umbrella by integrating with our nation’s land-, sea- and air-based air defenses to detect and intercept threats such as airplanes, drones and cruise missiles,” said Doug Burgess, Raytheon’s JLENS program director.

“The success of this operational evaluation is another significant step forward because it will demonstrate that JLENS has unmatched defensive capabilities. Raytheon is doing its part to get both the soldiers and the system ready.”

GCT 5.4 | 15

Ammo Strategist

Q& A

Developing, Acquiring, Fielding and Sustaining Conventional Ammunition Brigadier General Kristin K. French Commanding General Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command Joint Munitions Command Brigadier General Kristin K. French assumed the duties of commanding general of the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command and Joint Munitions Command on July 2, 2013. The JM&L LCMC executes integrated life cycle management and provides effective, available and affordable munitions and lethality to U.S. military services. The overarching goal of the JM&L LCMC is to have the best munitions in the right place, at the right time, at the right cost.

French is a native of Glen Rock, N.J. She graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in 1986 and was commissioned into the Army as a lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps.

After completion of the Quartermaster Officer Basic Course, she was assigned to the 13th COSCOM at Fort Hood, Texas, from 19871990, where she served in both the 565th Repair Parts Company and the 553rd Supply and Service Battalion. After attending the Quartermaster Officer Advanced Course in 1990, she served in the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) in Kitzingen, Germany from 1991-1994. While in 3rd Infantry Division, she commanded Alpha Company, 703rd Main Support Battalion.

French left Germany to attend the Logistics Executive Development Course and Florida Institute of Technology at Fort Lee, Va., and obtained a master’s degree in logistics management. Following graduation, she was assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C., from 1995-1997 where she deployed to Zagreb, Croatia in support of Operation Joint Endeavor.

After graduation from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., she returned to the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart, Ga., from 1998-2001. While in 3ID, she deployed to Kuwait in support of Operation Desert Fox. French moved to Fort Carson, Colo., in 2001 and assumed duties at the 43rd Area Support Group. She assumed command of Regimental Support Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, in June 2002 and deployed her squadron to Iraq for one year in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. After command, in July 2004, she transferred to Fort Hood to the 4th Infantry Division.

In July 2005, French attended the U.S. Army War College. She received a master’s degree in strategic studies in June 2006. Following graduation, she assumed command of the 406th Army Field Support Brigade at Fort Bragg. In June 2008, after brigade command, she served at the Defense Logistics Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va. In June 2009, she was assigned to the Pentagon and became the military advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Logistics and Materiel Readiness in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

In June 2011, she assumed command of the 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) at Fort Knox, Ky., and in April 2012 16 | GCT 5.4

deployed the unit to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

French’s awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit (one Oak Leaf Cluster), Bronze Star Medal (one Oak Leaf Cluster), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (four Oak Leaf Clusters), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Army Achievement Medal (one Oak Leaf Cluster).

Q: What would you characterize as the primary functions of the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command?

A: The primary mission of the Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command is to develop, acquire, field and sustain conventional ammunition for servicemembers throughout the Department of Defense. The JM&L LCMC is responsible for integrating the Acquisition, Logistics and Technology communities via a collaborative effort creating a synergistic, singular strategic direction for munitions. JM&L LCMC is drawn from the “Ammunition Enterprise” of the Program Executive Office Ammunition, the Joint Munitions Command and the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center, and integrates the people, organizations, infrastructure and processes necessary for the effective life cycle management of conventional munitions.

The overarching objective of the JM&L LCMC is to have the best munitions in the right place, at the right time, at the right cost. www.GCT-kmi.com

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges to the JM&L LCMC in 2014?

A: We are preparing for reduced requirements, funding and workload, which will have a great impact on our ammunition producers. We anticipate a continued contraction within the base and are studying options that will ensure ongoing capability to meet all services’ requirements for conventional ammunition.

DoD policy states to “maintain a base of government-owned facilities for those industries determined essential to defense production, when private investment is inadequate or unavailable.” Elimination of organic installations needs to be balanced against the cost to sustain them, the costs to potentially close them (i.e., environmental remediation, explosive clean-up, moving equipment, movement of stock, impacts to communities, etc.) and the cost to re-establish capability if required (i.e., time to re-train the workforce, obtaining environmental permits, money for property, equipment, etc.)

Our experience has shown the value of maintaining certain government-owned production capabilities when the capability is available only from a single source within the private sector. For example, Holston Army Ammunition Plant produced concentrated nitric acid until 1998 at its magnesium nitrate facility (Maggie). In 1999, a new contractor took over operation of the facility and purchased concentrated nitric acid from El Dorado Chemical Plant more cheaply than it cost to make it. We halted production with the Maggie, but maintained the capability as a risk mitigation or contingency option in case the concentrated nitric acid supplies were ever insufficient.

In 2012, an explosion at El Dorado destroyed the plant’s concentrated nitric acid production capabilities. At that time, no other source in the continental United States could meet the DoD requirements, so we reactivated the Maggie. This reactivation averted a production shutdown at the Holston plant that would have stopped the supply of high explosives needed for munitions. Furthermore, it may have taken years, instead of months, to re-establish concentrated nitric acid production capability if the Maggie had not been available for reactivation.

Q: What is the health of the industrial base during current budget constraints?

A: Two-thirds of all ammunition end items rely on an organic producer for at least one component. This underscores the importance of maintaining the unique capabilities of the U.S. ammunition organic industrial base. Many of the capabilities that exist at the Army’s organic facilities can be found nowhere else. We are currently working on an Industrial Base Strategic Plan for Ammunition. This plan will follow the same strategy that has been accepted for the Army’s hard-iron depots and arsenals. It will identify critical capabilities and identify what must be done to maintain those capabilities.

Q: How have budget changes affected the way you do business with small businesses? How significant are small businesses to your overall product support quality?

A: Decreasing budgets have caused programs to decrease in size (quantity), which makes it more difficult to keep production lines warm for multiple contractor facilities. The end result is small businesses and second and third-tier producers go out of business. Eventually the government ends up in a sole-source situation, possibly paying a higher price for products. www.GCT-kmi.com

Small businesses play an important role in ammunition production. Small businesses have proven they are capable of producing quality parts in the required timeframe at a fair and reasonable price.

They also provide innovative and creative ideas that directly support our military. Small businesses tend to be leaner, agile and more responsive to changing requirements.

Q: What is the Joint Munitions & Lethality Life Cycle Management Command’s future?

A: As we look at the three legs of the Life Cycle Management Command, we need to understand and capitalize on the expertise that each leg brings to the total mission. ARDEC [Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center] brings the engineering and technology, PEO/PMs bring the acquisition and total life-cycle management, and JMC provides the logistics expertise. As we move into the future, it is crucial for all of these functions to continue to work together as part of the ammunition life cycle.

Q: There is a continuing undercurrent about the greening of ammunition. What are the challenges, benefits and drawbacks of greener ammunition?

A: Ammunition with a greener footprint is beneficial to the environment, life cycle management and the servicemember. Benefits can include lower toxicity to users and the environment, reduction of weight, and lower costs in sustainment. A prime example of environmental benefit is the reduction of lead with the advent of the 5.56 M855A1 enhanced-performance round.

Improvements can also result in extended ammunition lifespan and reduced maintenance, demilitarization or remediation expenses.

Greening improvements to the ammunition and/or the production process also present challenges. We must ensure that the greener munitions retain critical capabilities for our servicemembers. Another serious consideration is the impact to the ammunition producers, since greening efforts must be able to be implemented in the production environment, not just in design.

Each decision to green a process or product is unique and requires cooperative communication and partnering. A life cycle approach considers both short- and long-term impacts, thereby balancing costs and requirements in production against the overall sustainment strategy.

Q: Tell me about the management of the production and storage facilities. How important are partnerships with industry? Why is the Department of Defense in the business of manufacturing and why not just procure from industry?

A: There are statutes and policies that provide direction regarding the management of the industrial base. The policies and statutes provide a framework for integrating industrial base considerations into Army planning to include identifying, developing and sustaining the entire industrial base while assuring we maintain an essential nucleus of government-owned industrial plants for immediate use to supply the needs of the armed forces in times of, or in anticipation of, a national emergency. These statues and policies, combined with the Industrial Base Strategic Plan for Ammunition, our supply-chain management efforts, industrial base assessment tools, and our collaborative efforts with our industry partners, allow us to manage our industrial base GCT 5.4 | 17

jmc and JM&L LCMC

Armament Research Development and Engineering Center

Barbara Machak (Interim) Director

Col. John Scott Turner Military Deputy

Brig. Gen. Kristin K. French Commanding General

Cmnd. Sgt. Maj. Anthony Bryant Command Sergeant Major

Pete Glikerdas Chief of Staff

Sgt. Maj. Dewey Blake Senior Enlisted Advisor

Lt. Col. Greg Gibbons Hawthorne Army Depot

Col. Lee Hudson Blue Grass Army Depot

John Hedderich Executive Director Munitions Engineering Technology Center

David Castellano Executive Director Weapons and Software Engineering Center

Lt. Col. Michael Triplett Iowa Ammunition Plant

Kevin Hayes (Interim) Executive Director Enterprise and Systems Integration Center

Joseph Kennedy Holston Army Ammo Plant

jmc and JM&L LCMC

Joint Munitions & Lethality LCMC

Brig. Gen. Kristin K. French Commanding General

Joe Gormley Chief of Staff

Joint Munitions Command

peo ammunition

Dottie Olson (Interim) Chief of Staff

Patricia Huber Deputy to the Commander

Rhonda VanDeCasteele Executive Director for Ammo

Col. Roger McCreery Tooele Army Depot

Brig. Gen. John McGuiness PEO Ammunition

James Shields Deputy PEO Ammunition

Lt. Col. Wendell (Shayne) Moore Anniston Munitions Center

Richard Hansen Scranton Army Ammo Plant

Col. Robert (Joe) Dixon Jr. Crane Army Ammo Activity

Lt. Col. Bryan Fowler Letterkenny Munitions Center

Chris Grassano Chief of Staff

Col. Richard Hornstein Project Manager Close Combat Systems

Britt Locke Milan Army Ammo Plant

Col. Joseph Dalessio McAlester Army Ammo Plant

Lt. Col. Shane Upton Lake City Army Ammo Plant

Col. Chad Bauld Pine Bluff Arsenal

Col. Willie Coleman Project Manager Combat Ammo Systems

Col. Paul Hill Project Manager Maneuver Ammo Systems

Col. Steven Cummings Project Director Joint Services

John Curran Project Director Joint Products

Lt. Col. Luis Ortiz Radford Army Ammo Plant

to achieve efficient and effective operations, a quality product, and on-time delivery.

The partnerships we have with industry allow us to review, discuss and develop solutions to keep the industrial base, both organic and commercial, viable in order to provide the right solution at the right time and place. These partnerships are invaluable in our support to the servicemembers.

Certain sectors of the organic industrial base have unique capabilities and capacities not available in the commercial sector. These include capabilities available in the commercial sector, but the commercial sector’s capacity is insufficient to meet total demand. By virtue of being government-owned, retention of the organic industrial base’s capacities remains under the control of the government.

Commercial capability can, and likely will, be divested based on market conditions, regardless of military readiness objectives. But, the organic industrial base capability/capacity can be leveraged for expansion or to meet un-forecasted requirements. The governmentowned facilities have available footprints, facilities and infrastructure to meet unforecasted requirements. But it’s a balancing act. In order to have these large government-owned footprints, facilities and infrastructure, it is essential to maintain them, but systematically modernize them.

Most of the government-owned facilities were constructed during or shortly following World War II. Maintenance and modernization of these large World War II-era facilities cost millions of dollars annually.

and are in continual contact with them to forecast and fulfill ammo needs. In fact, liaisons from the other services staff offices at our headquarters, which further facilitates coordination.

Q: How do you go about managing ammunition inventory, tracking and forecasting usage?

Q: How has ammo logistics changed through the years?

A: JMC manages inventory at both the wholesale and retail levels. The wholesale level includes storage depots from which we ship assets.

Wholesale asset management is performed by the Logistics Modernization Program (LMP). With LMP, we manage every detail of an asset down to its precise location inside a storage building. JMC uses LMP to manage accounts for all military services, other government entities outside the Department of Defense and foreign countries. The LMP electronically updates service systems so all records are in sync on a continuous basis. During shipment from our storage locations to ammunition supply points, we track shipments using the Munitions Transportation Management System.

At the retail level, the Army uses the Standard Army Ammunition System Modernization system to account for assets that are being held at our ASPs. These supply points use the Training Ammunition Management Information System-Redesigned system to forecast ammunition requirements so that JMC ships assets as needed. Using these systems helps manage limited storage space at ASPs and also minimizes expensive shipments of excess ammunition back to the depots.

Q: How well do the services communicate and coordinate to try and sync ammunition requirements? Does your command facilitate those communications?

A: JMC successfully supports our joint forces’ conventional munitions requirements. We are directly responsible for joint ammunition readiness. As the SMCA (single manager for conventional ammunition) field operating activity, JMC provides logistics and sustainment support to all services to include storage, inventory, distribution and demilitarization. We lead monthly meetings with the other services 20 | GCT 5.4

Q: How did the Joint Munitions & Lethality Life Cycle Management Command support the war?

A: JMC has supported all U.S. military services with their ammunition requirements during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom with approximately 333,000 short tons of ammunition to date. To visualize this amount of ammunition support, imagine 20-foot containers lined end to end that extend for 90 miles. JMC also provided acquisition support to the PEO Ammunition, their program managers and continued logistics and readiness missions.

We’ve supported ammunition requirements in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility by providing quarterly resupply vessels, which supports requirements for all services.

JMC has maintained steady deployments of ammunition logistics assistance representatives, quality assurance specialist (ammunition surveillance), and ammunition managers to support the deployed force.

We also have been retrograding ammunition back from theater since 2007. With the exception of 200 short tons to support forces remaining in Afghanistan, all ammunition is scheduled to be removed by the end of 2014.

A: Within JMC, we’ve developed an Enterprise Integrated Logistics Strategy to manage and transform our logistics business. In the 2000 timeframe, prior to 9/11, we supported the major commands through a pull system. This resulted in too much ammunition on the ground at ASPs and an inability to support the units when and where needed.

In 2002, JMC stood up a process called Centralized Ammunition Management (CAM). CAM is a Chief of Staff of the Army Logistics Transformation Task Force initiative that bridges the gap in ammunition between wholesale and retail using supply chain principles.

Simply put, we know exactly how much ammunition is in each ASP in the continental United States, so we are able to push ammunition to meet training requirements. CAM enables the ASPs to operate more efficiently.

In 2006, we evolved into a regional strategy focused on requirements for contingency and outload. We analyzed our storage requirements, modified our regions and positioned ammunition for unit training and outload.

In 2011, we expanded our strategy to include all workload, manufacturing and third parties, in order to understand the capability requirements our customers needed and assure an effective/efficient enterprise. This initiative has enabled us to better support the installations and assures we can adapt to the future operating environment.

Aligning itself with current and future trends, JMC has integrated a number of automated information systems at its headquarters through data transfer links, and leveraged numerous automatic identification technology strategies at its depots to streamline business process models, modernize system architectures and make better use of available resources in managing the Class V supply depot operations mission. We continue to improve our business processes and expand our capabilities to better and more efficiently support our customer—the warfighter. O www.GCT-kmi.com

Armored Vehicles

in Gear

The Army is searching for more powerful transmissions for heavy combat vehicles.

By Peter Buxbaum, GCT Correspondent

A request for information (RFI) for a heavy combat crossdrive transmission released earlier this year by the United States Army Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) represents a continuation of current trends seen in the design and development of transmissions for military vehicles. In a nutshell, TARDEC is seeking a more powerful transmission for heavy combat vehicles that will take up no more space under the armor than current models. Transmission designers and manufacturers have been striving to achieve these goals, which have been a TARDEC requirement, for the last number of years.

TARDEC issued the RFI as part of a future demonstration of a power-dense propulsion system designed for a tracked vehicle in the 60- to 70-ton range. That would put the M1 Abrams in a position to benefit from such a new transmission.

According to the RFI, the transmission will be installed to the propulsion system to achieve a system power density of 4.5 horsepower per cubic foot.

The plan calls for the transmission design to achieve a technology readiness level (TRL) by March 6, 2019. TRL 6 means

www.GCT-kmi.com

that the transmission will meet performance requirements—in this case defined as completion of a 75-hour durability test—in a laboratory environment. TRL 7 refers to examining performance once the transmission is installed in a vehicle. The response date for the RFI was May 30, 2014.

TARDEC is currently evaluating responses.

“The design should include architecture that maintains high energy efficiency across the operating speed and load range of the transmission,” said the RFI. “The transmission architecture will need to be reconfigurable and developed to meet the interface requirements of the other propulsion system components. Products offered are desired to be already developed or under development.”

“The Army must be capable of operating wherever it is sent and TARDEC supports this expeditionary strategy for the future force,” said Craig Effinger, program manager at TARDEC research and technology integration. “From the Pacific Rim to the desert and mountainous regions of the world, ground vehicle platforms must be capable upon arrival. As such, our research and technology efforts focus on enhanced mobility developments that will optimize

ground vehicle capabilities in multiple environments.”

“TARDEC is considering the acquisition of a new crossdrive transmission,” acknowledged Sony Zanardelli, acting deputy for powertrain integration at TARDEC. “The purpose is to develop a transmission synchronously with compatible powertrain components to improve vehicle mobility.

[The goal is] a more compact, mechanically efficient design, optimized for vehicle mobility in terms of compatible powertrain components.”

The challenge for transmission designers and manufacturers is to provide higher rates of propulsion in the same, or even smaller, spaces. “Any transmission can be improved or upgraded, if the space claim constraint is relaxed,” said Pete Ostrom, vice president for business development at L-3 Combat Propulsion Systems. “The trend from the customer has been in the other direction, however, where volume under armor has been sought to be reclaimed, allowing more space for the crew.” In other words, TARDEC would like to see less space taken up by the propulsion systems so that crew space can be enlarged, providing greater comfort to personnel.

GCT 5.4 | 21

“The Army has driven industry for years to reduce size, weight and power,” said Ostrom. “We don’t know if expanding crew space is going to be a firm requirement in the next program of record, but it is definitely the direction in which the Army has moved. At the same time, [we would like to] have the power train perform better than it does today.”

L-3 CPS has adopted that thinking in its transmission designs by maintaining the current transmission space claim and using leap-ahead technology to make transmission upgrades a drop-in replacement, not requiring the vehicle manufacturer to allocate more space to accommodate the upgrade.

“This provides significantly increased performance in the same space as before,” said Ostrom. “For example, we developed an 800-horsepower transmission that takes up no more space than our previous 600-horsepower transmission. It has 200 horsepower of more power but because it operates at higher efficiency, it takes up no more space than the earlier model.”

According to Ostrom’s information, TARDEC intends to use one or two M1 Abrams chassis as test rigs for a new tank propulsion system. The testing would include not only a new crossdrive transmission, but also new engines, suspension systems, auxiliary power units and batteries, as well as a new electronics architecture. These are intended to be demonstrated in 2019. A separate RFI addressing the integration of new power train components is currently pending.

“The TARDEC program for the transmission is part of a very smart larger effort to spend the next five years maturing leap ahead and advanced technologies, which will have been matured to a TRL 6 and, at the right time, are ready for incorporation into a new program of record,” said Ostrom.

L-3 Combat Propulsion Systems has responded to TARDEC’s RFI. “The response provides TARDEC technical input about technologies that will achieve their objectives of increased efficiency, reduced size and weight, reduced fuel consumption, and lower costs,” said Ostrom. “Based on information provided by TARDEC, our approach and submitted technologies meet TARDEC’s desired goals in the time frame to achieve TRL 6 or higher and subsequent integration for vehicle demonstration within the next five years.”

L-3 Combat Propulsion Systems transmissions are already installed in the entire Bradley fleet, the multiple launch rocket 22 | GCT 5.4

system, and the Paladin PIM M109A7, as well as in multiple international platforms.

“Combat Propulsion Systems is currently the lead on all four of the modernization paths for the Army’s transmission road map,” noted Ostrom.

The platforms currently carrying L-3 transmissions are in the medium weight class of not more than 50 tons. “TARDEC is pushing for a new transmission for heavy vehicles of up to 70 tons,” said Ostrom.

“What they really want at that weight class is an engine and transmission that are smaller, lighter, and much more efficient so that fuel economy goes up.”

A partnership between QinetiQ and BAE Systems has also responded to the TARDEC RFI. The partnership has offered its E-XDrive transmission as meeting the RFI’s requirements.

“The E-X-Drive is a cross-shaft configuration,” said a QinetiQ spokesperson. “This innovative approach is scalable across a wide range of system weights and has been demonstrated with a TRL up to 7. An E-X-Drive transmission is not only smaller and lighter than comparable conventional transmissions, but enables novel configurations of power pack design and location to improve packaging efficiency, survivability, agility and mission success.”

The E-X-Drive transmission was supplied to the Army’s Future Combat Systems manned ground vehicle and the later ground combat vehicle, both of which were teamed with BAE Systems. “On these programs, E-X-Drive transmissions were successfully designed, built, delivered and operated, and have performed extremely well, meeting all requirements,” said the QinetiQ spokesperson. Both of those programs have since been canceled.

The E-X-Drive transmission represents a recent advancement in transmission technology, noted the spokesperson. “It combines the proven principle of mechanical steering power transfer via a cross-shaft arrangement with compact and efficient traction motors, providing a compact transmission that can be used in diesel electric or full hybrid configurations,” the spokesperson explained.

The transmission also features permanent magnet electrical machines with high torque density, improved manufacturability, lower cost, and compact and efficient gear change stages and steering differential.

As the medium weight class of tracked vehicles has grown in weight over the years, L-3 has partnered with several design firms

to increase the power capability and efficiency of the transmission while not increasing the size of the transmission so as to not impact the platform chassis. This effort has led to several innovations in transmission technology, such as multi-geared and staged pumps, coplanar gearing, and higherefficiency braking.

“What these technologies allow you to do is to increase the efficiency of the transmission and keep it as small as possible while delivering more torque to the vehicle,” said Ostrom. In each case, these technologies attempt to prevent the loss of power from the time it is put out from the transmission and until it reaches the wheels or tracks of a vehicle.

“Because there is a metal-on-metal interface, even through it is lubricated, some of the energy is lost,” Ostrom explained. “When we talk about efficiencies in the transmission world we are talking about minimizing those losses. So, the objective of our 800-horsepower transmission is to deliver 800 horsepower of energy to the sprockets that turn the track.”

The technology developments incorporated into L-3’s newer transmissions attempt to enhance efficiency by conserving the transmission’s power as it is delivered to the vehicle’s tracks. Coplanar gearing refers to a very high-efficiency gear set. Multi-staged gear pumps reduce the power required by the transmission from the engine.

“There are hydraulic oil pumps inside the transmission that require energy,” explained Ostrom. “That sucks power away from the engine, which in turn drives the transmission. A multi-stage pump doesn’t have to be driven at full speed all the time. You only run it as much as you need to.” High-efficiency braking reduces the energy and pressure within the transmission required to brake the vehicle. (In military vehicles braking is accomplished through the transmission.)

L-3’s newest transmission, the HMPT800 High Efficiency, will be fielded with the Bradley ECP II Program and the Paladin PIM M109A7. “The HMPT-800 is a high-efficiency improvement to the MPT-800,” said Ostrom.

“The significant efficiency gains associated with the HMPT-800 come from its continuously variable transmission. Through a set of balls and blocks, this allows the hydraulic fluid to essentially create an infinite number of gears so that [the vehicle] is very efficient and very powerful.”

The new transmission takes up no more room than its predecessor, allowing it to be www.GCT-kmi.com

dropped into the vehicle without having to crack the hull. “If you have to push the bulkhead backward, it impacts the crew space,” said Ostrom. “If you have to redesign the vehicle to accommodate a new transmission, you might as well start a whole new program. This ability to drop in transmission upgrades has allowed the Bradley to be in combat-ready useful service for decades and will allow it to continue to be so for decades to come.”

The scalability of the E-X-Drive transmission means it can be designed to suit the physical constraints of existing vehicle hulls with minimal changes, according to the QinetiQ spokesperson. “The inherent flexibility of the E-X-Drive design lends itself to retro-fit solutions where existing hull space constraints exist,” said the spokesperson.

“Moreover, the packaging flexibility of the electric powertrain further supports the integration into existing vehicles.”

Ostrom foresees hybrid transmission systems enhanced by electrical power to become more important in the future. “They will have significant value to the warfighter, helping to achieve reduced fuel consumption, silent watch, and burst dash speed capability,” he said. “Lithium ion battery technology has been maturing quickly and this will help provide the power required, not only for the drive train, but also to run the communications and air conditioning systems inside the vehicles themselves.” L-3 has successfully developed and demonstrated such systems in the past and will shortly unveil a hybrid 1,000-horsepower power package.

“The E-X-Drive based series hybrid electric drive system enables force protection and improved mobility in a lighter vehicle, while providing the capability for growth in power requirements and new technologies,” said the QinetiQ spokesperson. “In some instances, where demands for energy storage are low, application as a pure electric drive solution may be more appropriate solution.

The underpinning permanent magnet motor and closely integrated gearbox technology at QinetiQ would enable the technology to be applied to wheeled vehicle electric drive applications. QinetiQ has previously designed and built in-hub drive systems for high-mobility off-road wheeled vehicles and has concepts for wheeled vehicles using inchassis drive arrangements.”

For all of the advancements in this area, Ostrom warned that the U.S. industrial base in this area is fragile and requires additional congressional funding. “Right now www.GCT-kmi.com

The less times tankers spend changing out or working on transmissions, means more time available for operations.

[Photo courtesy of DoD]

this nation has only three combat vehicle transmission manufacturers,” he said. “The industrial base is critical to the future and very fragile as we look out at future Army requirements.

“In situations like this, U.S. Congress has stepped in to maintain these capabilities,” Ostrom added. “There are some things we can do as a joint team to lower costs to the Army, retain industry investment, and position this national capability for the future that does not rely on Congress bailing it out every year. As we are seeing in the 2015 defense bills, Congress is poised to inject additional funding, but they are also saying that the threat of sequestration is returning in 2016, meaning that 2015 will be the last year they can help. We all as a team need to

start now collectively taking action steps or the Army may not have anyone to build and repair transmissions.”

As for TARDEC, it hasn’t yet made any decisions on how, or at what pace, to proceed with a new heavy crossdrive transmission.

Zanardelli noted that a related RFI addressing the integration of new power train components is currently on the street. “After that closes,” she said, “there is potential for a request for proposals.” O

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gct-kmi.com.

GCT 5.4 | 23

Eyes in the

Skies

Small unmanned helicopters bring special capabilities to growing ISR needs.

By John M. Doyle, GCT Correspondent

Reductions in force and budget cutbacks have U.S. commanders increasingly turning to unmanned aircraft for intelligence, Skeldar is powered by a two-stroke, 59-horsepower engine runsurveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), while the low-intensity ning on heavy fuel such as JP5, JP8 or Jet A1, which is economical, conflicts springing up around the world in both urban settings and easy to obtain and less flammable—an advantage aboard ship, said remote areas without finished airfields increase the need for vertical Johan Hansson, vice president for aeronautics marketing and sales take off and landing unmanned air vehicles (VTOL-UAVs)—from the at Saab North America. full-sized Northrop Grumman Fire Scout to tiny pocket-sized quadThe Swedish VTOL UAV has a composite carbon fiber, titanium copters like Prox Dynamics’ Black Hornet. and aluminum fuselage. The system includes two to four air vehicles One of the largest and longest serving VTOL-UAVs is Northrop for uninterrupted operational availability. The unmanned helicopter Grumman’s MQ-8B Fire Scout. Designed to provide the U.S. Navy is 17.1 feet long including rotor blades, and stands 4.3 feet high, with intelligence, situational awareness and target acquisition for with a maximum takeoff weight of 518 pounds. With a payload of ground, air and sea forces, the 3,150-pound Fire Scout is derived 88 pounds, it can stay aloft for six hours. Maximum speed is 75 from the Sikorsky/Schweizer 333 manned helicopter. Powered by knots and, with recent data links upgrades, its mission radius 90 a Rolls Royce engine running on JP-1 or JP-4 aviation fuel, it has miles. The Skeldar operates both day and night in diverse weather a maximum speed of 85 knots and can stay aloft for up to five and conditions and requires just 10 minutes of flight preparation time. a half hours, depending on the payload. It has a service ceiling of Skeldar is “much, much smaller than Fire Scout,” said Hansson, 12,500 feet. The sensor package includes full-motion video and “but capable of many of the same missions.” electro optical/infrared (EO/IR) cameras with a laser range finder Skeldar was deployed on a Spanish Navy vessel on counter-pirate and illuminator. patrol off the Horn of Africa in 2013. Hansson said interest in tactiThree MQ-8Bs were deployed in Afghanistan for 28 months cal ISR has been building. Regarding sensors, “we’re agnostic as providing ISR to ground commanders, and others flew off of U.S. to what you can do with Skeldar,” he said, adding, “There are new Navy missile frigates on counter-piracy patrols in African waters. In areas all the time.” Skeldar has a low heat signature June, the MQ-8B began test flights with the AN/ZPYthanks to exhaust pipes that point up, making it hard 4(V) multi-mode radar that Northrop Grumman said to detect from the ground. Typically, it takes just will improve the Navy’s long-range surface search three or four people to launch, operate and recover capabilities and increase situational awareness in a the UAV. high-traffic littoral environment.

“Our system is very modular,” said Hansson, notThe newest version, the MQ-8C, with a design ing it has dual payload capability and rail-mounting based on the larger airframe of the Bell 407 manned that enables quick payload changes between mishelicopter, is bigger, faster and has longer endursions. The basic payload is a high-resolution EO/IR ance, range and payload capability than the MQ-8B. camera on a gimbal mounted below the fuselage.

The MQ-8C has a maximum speed of 135 knots, a With other payloads, Skeldar can perform ISR, target maximum ceiling of 16,000 feet, and can carry a Johan Hansson acquisition and fire control missions. combined fuel and payload weight of 2,800 pounds Schiebel Aircraft Industries describes its Camcop(1,270 kilos), compared to the earlier version’s 1,150 ter S-100 as a multi-mission unmanned air system pounds (kilos). It can stay aloft from 11 to 14 hours, (UAS). “We’ve sold pretty much all over the globe. We depending on the payload. operate in the desert, the Arctic, the mountains and “The [ground-based] area is there for us to go the tropics,” as well as over three oceans, said Chris into in the future, but right now it’s all about the Day, Schiebel’s head of capability engineering. CamNavy,” said Northrop Grumman Fire Scout spokescopter has won favor mostly with land forces because man T.J. Ortega. maritime services “tend to be late adopters” who “like Saab’s Skeldar was developed for both the land and their technology a bit more mature,” said Day. maritime environment. The medium-sized VTOL UAS But that’s changed in the last year, as the Camis being marketed as an ISR asset that can fly into and copter’s ability to land and take off from really small out of confined spaces—as little as 30 by 30 feet—like Chris Day or severely confined areas became widely known. a shipboard landing area or a small woodland clearing.

24 | GCT 5.4

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“The maritime market has really, really exploded,” Day said. In recent months, Schiebel has run Camcopter demonstrations for the Brazilian Navy and the Dutch Coast Guard.

“Most people don’t realize how small we are,” said Day, explaining that the 243-pound, 122-inch helicopter can be transported by aircraft, ship or truck. It can carry a payload of up to 110 pounds but can stay aloft for a maximum of six hours with a 75-pound payload.

Camcopter’s maximum take-off weight is 440 pounds. It has a ceiling of 11,500 feet.

Programming for an autonomous mission is controlled by a point-and-click graphical user interface with payload imagery transmitted to the control station in real time. There are also redundant navigation systems and GPS. Schiebel doesn’t make sensors for the Camcopter, Day said. “We provide the sky platform to hang payloads on,” he said, like Thales’ lightweight I-Master ground surveillance Vertical lift systems offer a range of tactical advantages. [Photo courtesy of Schiebel] radar. The Brazilian and Dutch tests included the L3 Wescam MX-10 electro-optical sensor.

Boeing is Schiebel’s Camcopter representative in the American defense market. It has a license with the U.S. government for the S-100, “which we purchase from Schiebel as a commercial off-theshelf product. We then modify it—adding sensors, payloads and other capabilities—to meet customer requirements,” said Alison Sheridan, a Boeing spokesperson. “The S-100 is used primarily for ISR and typical payloads would include EO/IR cameras to provide imagery, as well as communications relays or other electronic payloads,” Sheridan said in an email.

Lockheed Martin has a quad-copter small (SUAS). Developed by Lockheed Martin’s Procerus Technologies unit in Vineyard, Utah, the 4.8-pound Indago can fly for up to 45 minutes in low hovering Rotary wing unmanned systems are suitable for land operations but can also fill a maritime role with ease. [Photo courtesy of Saab] flight and go as fast as 30 mph. The SUAS is equipped with a Kestrel 3.1 autopilot system and a hand controller with a large, outdoorThe 5.3-pound quad-copter can stay aloft for up to 50 minutes with readable screen. Operated with the controller, Indago has a range of a payload. It has a 40-inch diameter and a height of 9.3 inches and a little over 3 miles, but that range can be extended with directional can fold up into a suitcase or custom backpack. Despite its small communications devices. size, the SkyRanger can handle sustained winds of 40 Powered by a lithium battery, the Indago is very mph and gusts of up to 55 mph. It is operated with a quiet. “You won’t find a quieter vehicle than Indago,” point-and-click touchscreen for both navigation and said Reed Christiansen, Indago’s program manager, camera control. adding: “You will not hear it.”

The battery-powered small drone has a beyondThe SUAS gimbal mount includes EO/IR cameras line-of-sight range of 1.9 miles. sensors and a laser illuminator to provide continuous Integrated payloads contained in a gimbal hung 360-degree panning capability. Indago can be deployed below the aircraft include stabilized, simultaneously in minutes and is collapsible into a man-packable streaming dual EO/IR high resolution cameras. “The unit that requires no tools for assembly. Air Force majority of the payloads we’ve developed ourselves,” and Marine Corps special operations commands have said Andrea Sangster, senior marketing manager. been looking at Indago, said Dave Pringle, program Reed Christiansen Datron of Vista, Calif., is Aeryon’s main distributor for manager at Procerus Technologies. “It’s been tailored to the Defense Department since the very beginning,” reed.christiansen@lmco.com the Scout and SkyRanger in the U.S. military market.

Conversely, “We work with those countries that the he added. Lockheed Martin announced in April that U.S. can’t work with, but Canada can,” said Sangster.

Indago had moved from the research and development SkyRanger is a larger, updated version of Aeryon’s stage to operational readiness.

Scout SUAS. In November 2009, a Scout was used Canada’s Aeryon Labs also makes a SUAS, the to supply ISR for a military-led raid in Central SkyRanger quad-copter, that is used by several miliAmerica on a suspected drug lord’s compound. In taries in North America, the Middle East and Asia, the summer of 2011, rebels fighting the regime of including U.S. Special Operations Command, said Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi acquired a Cameron Waite, the Waterloo, Ontario company’s Scout to obtain intelligence on enemy positions and North American sales director. coordinate operations.

Aeryon offers the SkyRanger for a number of land One of the smallest unmanned helicopters being and maritime missions, including covert ISR, convoy Dave Pringle used for tactical ISR in Afghanistan is Prox Dynamics’ and compound security, and shipboarding operations. www.GCT-kmi.com

GCT 5.4 | 25

PD-100 Black Hornet. The palm-sized nano helicopter moves at 16.4 feet per second and can fly at treetop level or zoom down to 1.31 feet above the ground.

Because it is so small, just over half an ounce, the Black Hornet doesn’t have a gimbal beneath its fuselage. Instead, the tiny gray helo comes with three internal full-motion video cameras pointing in different directions to give a 110-degree range of view, said the Norwegian company’s vice president for business development, Ole Aguirre.

“You can just hover above someone’s head and use the downwardpointing camera to take snapshots,” he said, adding that the subjects won’t see or hear the battery-powered UAV. The Black Hornet is also equipped with built-in GPS, internal sensors and an autopilot that allows pre-programmed autonomous flight or operator-controlled flight. Despite its tiny size, the Black Hornet can handle wind gusts of up to 20 knots with the GPS and auto pilot correcting its flight if it is blown off course.

The tiny single-rotor helo can stay aloft for 25 minutes, enough time to fly over a building or compound and allowing the operator, using a handheld control unit, to spot potential threats without getting dangerously close. The Black Hornet is described as a “personal reconnaissance system” that includes two UAVs and the control unit, which has a 7-inch monitoring screen. It all weighs just 2.87 pounds, but it can show an individual soldier operating from a safe distance instead of a squad going in harm’s way if there’s a threat around the next corner. “That’s where we bridge the gap between an aerial sensor and a ground sensor,” Aguirre said, and that makes the Black Hornet a force multiplier.

The Black Hornet Block II system, already in production and introduced at this year’s Eurosatory expo in Paris, can fly out to 3,937 feet without problems, Aguirre said. And with an extended antenna, the range grows to 6,561 feet, he added. “This is something available right now,” said Aguirre. The Black Hornet has been tested by the U.S., U.K. and Norwegian militaries and has been used by the British Army since 2012 in Afghanistan’s Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

The United Kingdom has acquired more than 300 Black Hornets through British surveillance manufacturer Malborough Communications Ltd. And the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center has awarded Prox Dynamics a $2.5 million contract to develop a pocketsized UAV for infantry and special operations troops.

In the United Kingdom, a Welsh company, Torquing Technologies, has begun rolling out its nano drone, Sparrow, and new communications technology for operating it. Sparrow has machineto-machine communication technology allowing multiple Sparrows to communicate with each other and fly in swarms. “It’s a simple communications protocol that can render its own mesh network,” said Ivan Reedman, Torquing’s director of research and development.

The unique way it is produced has turned Sparrow into “a flying circuit board,” said Reedman. The tiny UAV has a number of sensors integrated and fused together. All of the layers are manufactured almost like a line of model train cars, then snapped off the production line, layered on top of each other and housed in the drone’s composite material shell. The sensors stacked inside the 4.23-ounce nano drone include a tiny GPS, inertial navigation and inertial compensation capabilities so the pocket-sized Sparrow can calculate accurate movement in 3-D space.

Reedman said the final production version of the Sparrow will be able to carry payloads between 1.2 and 1.8 times its weight, or about 6.35 and 7.05 ounces. A built-in Linux webserver takes the data gathered by the onboard and payload sensors and can transmit 26 | GCT 5.4

With operational hours, vertical lift unmanned systems have operated both ISR and supply missions. [Photo courtesy of U.S. Navy]

it to almost any modern Web-browsing device—from an iPhone to a Kindle Fire—possessing the proper permissions and protocols. And using Torquing’s C3 operating system, any Web-enabled device can control the UAV via an encrypted signal. That means the Sparrow can be controlled through a tablet, smartphone or laptop device.

C3 also allows one operator to control hundreds of Sparrows because the small UAVs are autonomous. “You task it, you don’t fly it,” Reedman explained. Therefore anyone who can use a website can use C3 “to control any number of Sparrows and also seamlessly integrate them with other field assets” like soldiers or heavy vehicles, he said.

In Fort Collins, Colo., Scion UAS is developing two VTOL aircraft, the full-sized optionally manned SA-400 Jackal, which has been acquired by the Naval Research Laboratory for testing, and the smaller SA-200 Weasel. “The SA-200 is very versatile for ISR,” said Steen Mogensen, chief executive officer of Scion UAS. Like the SA-400, SA-200 is a carbon composite modular design with the same auto pilot technology, but the 150-pound Weasel is small enough to fit in the back of a standard long-bed pickup truck. The Weasel can stay aloft for about four hours and carry a payload ranging between 5 and 15 pounds.

“The SA-200 is an up and coming product. It’s kind of in the future,” said Jim Sampson, Scion UAS board chairman and manager.

Because the larger SA-400 can carry a pilot and fly in unrestricted airspace, most flight testing is being done on the bigger aircraft while the SA-200 is undergoing ground testing. Both aircraft are similarly designed to be payload agnostic, Sampson said. “We try to build the generic pickup truck because every user has a different payload in mind for their mission and every mission is going to require a different suite of payloads,” he noted. On both aircraft, Scion UAS has integrated a number of hardpoints and electrical connections on the fuselage, “so it is a very straightforward thing to switch from a camera platform to a belly-mounted radar, for example,” Sampson added.

That will lead Scion UAS to offer the SA-200 with two or three engine options: a gasoline-burning piston engine, a dual fuel-burning Wankel and a heavy fuel burning turbine for naval operations.

“We’re going to provide multiple options because each mission is going to have its own fuel requirements,” Sampson explained. O

For more information, contact Editor-in-Chief Jeff McKaughan at jeffm@kmimediagroup.com or search our online archives for related stories at www.gct-kmi.com.

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AR Modular RF............................................................................. 9 www.arworld.us/more Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp......................................... C4 www.ballaerospace.com Kaplan University........................................................................ 5 http://military.kaplan.edu

September 23-25, 2014 Modern Day Marine Quantico, Va. www.marinemilitaryexpos.com

October 13-15, 2014 AUSA Washington, D.C. www.ausa.org

October 2, 2014 C4ISR Breakfast Arlington, Va. www.ndia.org/meetings/592A

November 17-19, 2014 Expeditionary Warfare Conference Norfolk, Va. www.ndia.org/meetings/5700

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GCT 5.4 | 27

INDUSTRY INTERVIEW

Ground Combat & Tactical ISR

Chris Heavens Vice President and General Manager AR Modular RF Educated in Britain to degree level in telecommunications and microwave technology, Heavens has worked in engineering, project management and business management around the world over the past 40 years, with 20 years in business management and for the last 10 years as division executive for AR Modular RF in Bothell, Wash.

Another client needed a brand-new 400watt RF amplifier design to fit into a specifically sized package and interface with an existing tactical radio. Given that information, we successfully designed, built and delivered from scratch a completely new physical and electronic design in less than six months.

Q: Could you tell our readers about some of the solutions that AR Modular RF offers to the military and other government contractors?

Q: What are AR Modular’s objectives in 2014-15 for the government market?

Which of your sectors have experienced fast growth and why?

A: AR Modular RF offers a very wide range of RF amplifiers to our total customer base.

Military and government customers are offered a narrow subset of products aimed at tactical and non-tactical radio communications systems.

Q: What unique benefits do AR’s tactical amplifier products provide its customers in comparison with other companies in your field?

A: AR Modular has been designing and building RF amplifiers for 43 years. Our amplifiers are designed for 24/7 operation and over the long term, we have evolved design practices that produce very rugged and reliable products.

Our designs aim to keep the operation of the product intuitively simple, yet at the same time offer a product that can interface with a wide range of radios from multiple vendors. They can also deal with both the legacy and modern networking modulation formats all in the same system rather than having to offer multiple products limited to just one type of transmission. This [versatility] allows the operator the opportunity to focus full time on their real task at hand rather than worrying about the setup of the radio system.

Q: What are some interesting new programs or initiatives at AR Modular?

A: Military software defined radio (SDR) systems have evolved into very complex units 28 | GCT 5.4

offering a wide range of functionality to the operators. Additionally, the operating frequency spectrum has expanded upward to 2GHz, so AR Modular has been busy adding new products for portable and vehicle use that offer wideband networking capability as well as legacy waveforms such as our AR55L and the AR20R. In this marketplace, small, compact products are the order of the day; therefore, we have brought out a new smaller and lighter 20-watt VHF/UHF portable amplifier called the AR20.

Q: How is AR positioned in the market for expansion?

A: Business schools teach that you grow or die. After 43 years in the business, AR has moved with the market by bringing new products to market using the latest state-ofthe-art technologies. Our new product road map takes us forward for the next three to five years.

We’ve partnered with new vendors who offer improved services and quality and who can keep pace with our business needs. Globalization has meant that a number of these vendors are no longer in our backyard.

A: As I said earlier, the radio market technology continues to evolve, so we must also evolve with it. Therefore, our objective is to continue to be a leader in the tactical communications amplifier market offering new, advanced amplifiers to match the SDR radios becoming the norm for all services, especially multifunctional special operation forces. The SDR radios were slow to come to market due to their highly complex structure, but now that they have been fully proven, volume is rapidly rising and the need for matching amplifiers like our new AR55L, AR20R and AR20 continues to rise, so we see a good future ahead for many years.

Q: How are AR Modular’s solutions customized to meet the needs of the government?

A: Manufacturers all love to design and ship “standard” products. However, it rarely seems to happen. Take our 50-watt VHF/UHF tactical booster: the AR50 was conceived with the intent of being a universal solution for all users. Now, after four years in the field, at least six versions of it were designed to match a specific set of customer tasks or features.

Q: Can you provide a few success stories?

Q: Any closing thoughts?

A: A large radio vendor came to us with a requirement for a SINCGARS-only 50-watt amplifier. At the time we didn’t offer such a product and they only had two months before they needed to receive a production run. We completed a redesign of our existing AR50 product, successfully put it into production and delivered it on time.

A: Although the military market isn’t our whole business, it’s a very important part of our business not only from a fiscal point of view but from a sense of purpose. It’s not just smart technology—it’s technology that supports a group of very special people who maintain our freedom. O www.GCT-kmi.com

AUSA Issue October 2014 Vol. 5, Issue 5

Technology & Intel for the Maneuver Warfighter

Cover and In-Depth Interview with:

Brig. Gen. David G. Bassett PEO U.S. Army Ground Combat Systems

Features Full Motion Video FMV represents a higher level of intel, but the ability to bring it down to the operator in a digestible form is where it pays off.

Soldier Weapons Firearms manufacturers are offering a range of weapon options for the individual warfighter.

Energy Attenuating Vehicle Seats Armor may protect the vehicle, but the kinetic energy transfer of a mine or IED blast is just as dangerous as the explosion. Seat design can mitigate some of that risk.

Positioning, Navigation & Timing PNT is a top priority of the Army, at the direction of Assistant Secretary of the Army AL&T Heidi Shyu and PEO IEW&S Stephen Kreider.

Who’s Who Special Supplement U.S. Army Intelligence, Electronic Warfare & Sensors Exclusive interview with Stephen Kreider, PEO IEW&S, plus a pictorial review of the PEO IEW&S organization and its various program and product managers.

Night Vision Basic night vision can be found in a nursery room monitor these days, and even if opponents have night vision devices, technological advantages are still possible.

Insertion Order Deadline: September 19, 2014 ď‚ž Ad Material Deadline: September 26, 2014