Posted on 04/10/2003 1:20:05 PM PDT by vannrox
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New High Tech Weapons And Advanced Systems
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Introduction
The quick implementation of systems and networks that are geared towards near-instantaneous decision-making and rapid response has had a dramatic impact on U.S. war fighting doctrine since combat operations began in Afghanistan in October 2001. Testing of several weapons and systems in development has aggressively continued throughout this year. Some of the brightest engineers and technicians in the defense industry are working with the Department of Defense to accelerate promising weapons and systems to an acceptable state of maturity that will enable them to be placed in the hands of the war fighters. Research and development centers such as Boeing's "Phantom Works" and Lockheed Martin's "Skunk Works" have numerous highly classified programs that the public will never know about, or will find about only once the systems are used in actual operations. Combat crews from all the services, and including the CIA, have been involved with robust field training and hands-on experience with state-of-the-art technologies that could have a debut in an Iraqi conflict. Contingency plans should call for the most extensive use of electronic and psychological warfare in military history coupled with tactics and equipment that have never been used before. The list below is a sample of some unclassified program developments that might be introduced to the next battlefield. Additionally, the public should expect a never-before-seen level of media coverage. Near real-time images of military forces and battle damage throughout the assault on Iraq should be state-of-the-art.
New Capabilities
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"Smart bombs" are getting smarter, cockpit selectable fusing and multiple seekers on precision-guided munitions continue in development to enable airborne flexibility for optimum weaponeering while keeping the possibility of collateral damage to a minimum. |
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Operation Enduring Freedom troops saw a rapid modification to U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunships, allowing them to receive live 'streaming' video from an RQ-1A Predator unmanned air vehicle (UAV). This capability enabled ground forces to direct the gunship's fire on to terrorist ground targets. Special Operations Forces now are experimenting with a laptop software program called 'Rover' that will allow troops on the ground to draw directly on to photographic imagery of the target area. They will be able to annotate friendly and hostile forces then shoot the information directly to an AC-130, greatly enhancing the situational awareness of the battlefield while reducing friendly fire. |
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The first Navy squadron to deploy with the Super Hornet (VFA-115) is now at sea aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln. The aircraft is equipped with several Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) systems that have a more powerful laser designator, an electro-optic sensor and a third-generation infrared sensor for delivering precision-guided weapons. The new Super Hornet can designate four separate high-value targets on a single sortie, carrying four Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). |
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The AH-64D Apache Longbow is touted as the most advanced combat helicopter in the world. It would be a significant asset to assist in the mission of finding and destroying Iraq's mobile Scud missiles. The U.S. Army has eight Longbow battalions certified combat-ready and on call for duty in the event of an Iraqi conflict. This includes a battalion stationed in Germany that completed extensive training at Fort Hood, Texas, in the summer of 2002. The sophisticated Longbow Fire Control Radar (FCS) has the capability to detect, classify and prioritize stationary and moving targets both on the ground and in the air. The system can detect and classify more than 128 targets out of visual range from about five miles away and prioritize the 16 most dangerous. Those targets can be attacked by a 30mm machine gun that fires 650 rounds a minute, Hydra rockets, or a new radar-guided Hellfire missile that can lock onto and track moving targets. |
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Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters are now able to transmit and receive imagery to and from Special Forces on the ground using the F-14's Fast Tactical Imagery (FTI) system. FTI is also compatible with the Army's AH-64 Apache helicopters. This capability can significantly shorten the "sensor-to-shooter" time frame in prosecuting pop-up or mobile targets. |
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The USS Shiloh (CG 67) is part of the Lincoln battle group and is the only deployed ship in the Navy with the Area Air Defense Commander (AADC) system onboard. AADC is a state-of-the-art planning and coordination system that provides joint force commanders with a more integrated air-defense capability and could enable the air commander to control the daily management of the air war from the ship in case land-based assets were not available. |
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A 30,000-pound precision-guided bunker buster delivered by a B-2 is under test and is the largest precision-guided munition in the U.S. conventional arsenal. |
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The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) is a stealthy cruise missile bunker buster that has been under flight test for more than a year. Low-rate initial production was approved in December 2001. It weighs more than 2,200 pounds and has a range of over 200 miles. Primary platforms that are slated to carry the missile are the B-1, B-2, B-52, F-16 and F-18 Super Hornet. These aircraft would need a software upgrade of their operational flight program computers to be JASSM capable, however. |
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The British cruise missile counterpart to JASSM, the Storm Shadow, is now being put on Tornado fighter-bombers that would be part of any coalition air campaign in Iraq. The missile can be fired day or night and in most weather and operational conditions and is capable of destroying highly protected targets, such as command bunkers and communications centers from a range of more than 200 miles. Storm Shadow is designed to cruise at low altitude and uses both inertial navigation and terrain-reference navigation to find the target, and automatic target recognition for its high terminal accuracy. During the final target approach phase, the imaging infrared homing head is activated and automatic target recognition algorithms compare the actual scene with the memorized scene, identify the designated target and select the target impact point. The missile is then guided onto the selected aim point. The long-range weapon would give the Royal Air Force significantly greater firepower than it has had in any previous conflict. 1 |
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Thermobaric bombs and rockets are just entering the inventory of all the services, and will be a significant enhancement to U.S. capabilities in the event of urban warfare. The Marine Corps may use a shoulder-mounted weapon (Shoulder-launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon — SMAW) if tasked to take out hard-to-penetrate bunkers and buildings. It has the combined effects of a huge fireball and an overwhelming pressure of an intense blast concussion that fills the space into which it is fired, and is capable of turning corners and traveling upward through openings between building floors. The Air Force's BLU-118/B laser-guided "bunker buster" has been battle-tested in Afghanistan and penetrates walls of underground bunkers, detonating deep within. A penetrating warhead with thermobaric filling for the AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile is also under development. 2 |
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The CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon (SFW) is the first smart munition available for Air Force fighter-bombers. Equipped with dual-mode, passive infrared and active laser sensors on each warhead, the SFW can detect, aim and engage both fixed and moving enemy land combat vehicles. The 1,000-pound class weapon, houses 10 BLU-108 sensor fuzed submunitions, each with four smart Skeet warheads, for a total of 40 lethal warheads per weapon. Each Skeet warhead has the destructive capability to defeat a land combat vehicle. One SFW can cover a 30-acre area. |
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The U.S. armed forces have long sought a capability to locate and destroy stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons (CW and BW) such as Iraq is believed to possess. Paramount among these concerns is finding a way of destroying the agents without releasing them into the atmosphere a problem complicated when they are stored or hidden underground and in populated urban areas, as is the case with Iraq. One program under development is a special high-temperature incendiary (HTI) "thermo-corrosive" filling for both the 2,000-pound GBU-24 laser-guided bomb, and the 2,000-pound Joint Direct Attack Munition bunker-buster variants. The filling burns at 1,000ºF for a long time and with low overpressure so any remnants are not ejected from the WMD bunker. The resultant heat and gas chemical reaction destroys any CW or BW agents in the area. 3 |
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The British and the U.S. are also developing a "radio frequency weapon" or E-Bomb that can disable electronic grids and electrical systems by sending bursts of high-powered microwave energy. These non-kinetic electronic strike weapons produce a short spike of energy that can damage electronic devices, scramble computer memories or disable car ignitions. In addition to disabling chemical or biological production sites, a directed-energy weapon can also target air defense radars without the mass destruction of a high-explosive-incendiary type warhead. Suspected WMD facilities will be a number one priority target. A concern in bombing any such facility is the spread of chemical or biological agents into the civilian population or invading forces. The E-Bomb could cripple a plants refrigeration and computer systems rendering the effectiveness of a chemical warfare arsenal useless. 5 In order to reach any WMD tunnel complexes in Iraqi cities that have been built over with public buildings or dense housing units, a penetrating warhead that would carve its way into the underground space and then produce an electronics-destroying pulse would have to be developed. Both high-power RF and high-power microwave weapons are progressing rapidly out of their "infancy stage" of development. 5 |
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The "blackout bomb" is another classified non-kinetic weapon that could be used in a conflict with Iraq. It is a "special-purpose" munition that dispenses carbon-fiber filaments that are essentially spider webs of superconductive material. The filaments disable electrical power grids by short-circuiting power distribution equipment without any collateral damage. These "soft bombs" can be delivered by cruise missiles or tactical aircraft as was done during the Gulf War and again in the Kosovo air campaign. |
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New high-tech chemical-biological detection equipment and vehicles will assist in evaluating the environment combat troops will be operating in throughout operations in Iraq. Six new biological-weapons detection systems called "Portal Shields" are in place at U.S. headquarters in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Experimental foam that can be used to decontaminate troops and equipment exposed to chemical weapons has also been shipped to the Gulf area. 6 |
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The Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) low-to high-altitude air defense system is the latest version of land defenses to counter the threat from Iraq's Scud missiles. Since August 2002, about 36 PAC-3 missiles have been delivered — or enough to deploy two Army air defense batteries. The system has major software improvement upgrades that provide four times greater computer throughput and a more efficient data recording and retrieval capability. The new PAC-3 missile will provide hit-to-kill lethality against high-speed tactical ballistic missiles; maneuvering tactical missiles; cruise missiles; and other air-breathing aircraft. |
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Expect improved surveillance sensor packages for unmanned aerial and ground vehicles (UAVs and UGVs) to play a major role. Testing of miniature UAVs with sensors that can collect air samples, analyze them and relay the findings to troops on the ground to detect a chemical weapon environment is ongoing. 7 |
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Robots on the ground have been used in Bosnia and could be used as tools in combat for reconnaissance and mine-clearing missions. PackBots, small robots armed with weapons and sensors, first used in Afghanistan, could patrol areas before putting troops in harm's way. Five and half-pound Dragon Eyes that fit into a backpack could locate enemy troop placements. 8 |
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Reconnaissance UAVs netted/linked with armed Predator UAVs in a hunter-killer tactic could be the next quantum leap in state-of-the-art technology on the battlefield. The forces that control Predators are very interested in arming them with Brilliant Anti-armor (BAT) submunitions that are designed to attack moving armor through passive acoustic and infrared sensors. The latest upgraded version has advanced millimeter wave radar and improved infrared sensors that can provide better discrimination of moving and stationary targets. 9 This would be a significant enhancement to time critical targeting of evasive Scud missile launchers and mobile surface-to-air missile launchers. |
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The U.S. Army's new Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington, could make its debut in Iraq. Soldiers from Company A, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, will compose the first company to field the Stryker. Sixteen Stryker crews have been involved in intense training exercises throughout the summer. The vehicle is a 19-ton, eight-wheeled, infantry carrier filled with state-of-the-art combat systems. The Stryker can be deployed by C-130 or C-17 aircraft, and be combat-capable upon arrival in any contingency area. It has robust armor protection and can sustain speeds of 60 miles-per-hour. The Stryker family includes the Infantry Carrier Vehicle, Mobile Gun System, Anti-Tank Guided Missile Vehicle, Mortar Carrier Vehicle, Reconnaissance Vehicle, Fire Support Vehicle, Engineer Squad Vehicle, Commander's Vehicle, Medical Evacuation Vehicle, and a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) Reconnaissance Vehicle. 5 |
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If the Army deploys the two new Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, the Shadow UAV may be with them in the battlefield as well. The 1st Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division completed the initial operational testing for the Shadow Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System in May 2002. The brigade is fully operational and ready for combat. The Shadow can transmit high-quality, full-color images back to a tactical operations network. The Shadow provides brigade commanders with highly mobile target acquisition, battle damage assessment, and battle management capabilities. The drone has a 12-foot wingspan, weighs about 300 pounds and can stay airborne for over five hours. Each system includes four aerial vehicles, two ground control stations, two ground data terminals, a hydraulic launcher, a tactical automatic landing system, and an aerial vehicle transport. 6 |
End Notes
1 Michael Evans, "British Military Awaits Clarion Call," London Times, September 2, 2002.
2 Andrew Koch, "USA Speeds Development Of Thermobaric Weapons," Jane's Defense Weekly, August 28, 2002.
3 Andrew Koch, "USA Expedites Chem-Bio Bunker-Buster Project," Jane's Defense Weekly, Sept. 18, 2002.
4 Michael Smith, "Saddam To Be Target Of Britain's 'E-Bomb'," London Daily Telegraph, Aug. 26, 2002.
5 David A. Fulghum, "Pulse Weapons, Stealth Defenses Near Readiness," Aviation Week & Space Technology," Sept. 30, 2001.
6 Greg Jaffe, "How Vulnerable Are Troops If Iraq Taps Poison Agents?" Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2, 2002.
7 Peter Pae, "Sept.11 Proved To Be Turning Point For The Predator," Los Angeles Times, Sept. 7, 2002.
8 Stan Crock and John Carey, "Storming The Streets Of Baghdad," Business Week, Oct. 21, 2002.
9 "Northrop Grumman Tests Feasibility of Dropping BAT From Hunter UAV," Defense Daily, Oct. 9, 2002
10 Sara Wood, "Brigade shows off equipment's potential lethality," www.lewis.army.mil/TransNews/2002.
11 Susan Flowers, "Tactical UAV Team Congratulated by Assistant Secretary of the Army," AAI Corporation News Release, June 20, 2002.
| Rear Adm. (Ret.) Stephen H. Baker, USN CDI Senior Adviser sbaker@cdi.org |
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WOW!! 50% more explosives than even a MOAB, and in a ground-penetrating weapon, to boot! Talk about a headache...
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