Lockheed Martin is developing the Future Combat System (FCS) Multifunction Utility/Logistics and Equipment Vehicle/Armed Robotic Vehicle-Assault (Light) vehicle (MULE) under a contract for the FCS Lead System Integrator, The Boeing Company. The vehicle was selected to move into the System Development and Demonstration phase in 2003 and ultimately into production. The MULE offers an extraordinary capability that will support the U.S. Army's transformation to a lighter and more mobile fighting force. The MULE's unique mobility will enable it to go everywhere the soldier can go and more. It will … [Read more...]
Free Electron Laser (FEL) program: U.S. Counters China’s DF-21D
By Rob Anastasio, ONR Corporate Strategic Communications ARLINGTON, Va.-Scientists at Los Alamos National Lab, N.M., have achieved a remarkable breakthrough with the Office of Naval Research's Free Electron Laser (FEL) program, demonstrating an injector capable of producing the electrons needed to generate megawatt-class laser beams for the Navy's next-generation weapon system. The Dec. 20 milestone, which occurred months ahead of schedule, will be the highlight of a two-day preliminary design review scheduled Jan. 20-21 in Virginia. "The injector performed as we predicted all along," said … [Read more...]
Air Force Unleashes ‘Gorgon Stare’
The United States Air Force’s new revolutionary wide-area airborne surveillance system named “Gorgon Stare,” designed and developed by Sierra Nevada Corp., and the USAF’s 645th Aeronautical Systems Group was deployed to Afghanistan this winter. This revolutionary system, which operates day and night, allows its users to overcome the “soda straw” view that the current conventional single field of view EO/IR camera mounted on Predator and Reaper UAVs provides. The Air Force hopes to have 10 Reapers equipped with the Gorgon Stare system by early to mid-2011. The $15 million dollar sensor’s … [Read more...]
XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon System
The Army is planning on sending its much-anticipated high-tech, highly secret XM-25 Individual Airburst Weapon System (IAWS) to the warzone in the next few months. The IAWS provides the soldier with a 300% to 500% increase in hit probability to defeat point, area, and defilade targets out to 500 meters. The XM-25 is a smart airburst grenade launcher capable of neutralizing targets behind walls or windows. The gunner aims the weapon's Target Acquisition/Fire Control (TA/FC) system (developed by L-3 Communications Brashear) at the wall or window behind where the enemy is hiding. The fire … [Read more...]
57-mm Mk 110 Mod 0 Naval Gun System
The 57-mm Mk 110 Naval Gun system from BAE Systems is a multi-mission capable medium-caliber shipboard weapon that has been selected for the U.S. Coast Guard's National Security Cutter and the Offshore Patrol Cutter and is also baselined by the U.S. Navy for its Littoral Combat Ship Flight 0 and the Close-in Gun System for the DDG 1000 destroyer. The Mk 110 Naval Gun system delivers high rates of fire with extreme accuracy against surface, airborne and shore-based threats with proven effective 6-mode programmable 57-mm Mk 295 ammunition. Sailors are able to respond quickly and effectively to … [Read more...]
The Dillon M134D Gatling Gun
The Dillon M134D Gatling Gun is the finest small caliber, defense suppression weapon available. It is a six barreled, electrically driven machine gun chambered in 7.62mm NATO and fires at a fixed rate of 3,000 shots per minute. Gatling Guns typically feed from a 3,000 or 4,400 round magazine. They are capable of long periods of continuous fire without threat or damage to the weapon making them an excellent choice for defensive suppression.httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqDCCTCYTNI&feature=channel Dillon Guns are reliable. The M134D has system life in excess of one million rounds and … [Read more...]
GBU-43 “Mother Of All Bombs”
The GBU-43/B is large, powerful and accurately delivered. high explosive. The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb [MOAB] weapon is a 21,000 lbs total weight GPS-guided munition with fins and inertial gyro for pitch and roll control. It is probable that this munition was initially nick-named the "Mother Of All Bombs" with the retronymic expansion of MOAB following later. MOAB is a guided bomb which delivers the 18,700 lb BLU-120/B warhead bomb with KMU-593/B GPS/INS. The MOAB is the largest-ever satellite-guided, air-delivered weapon in history [not the largest ever, but the largest … [Read more...]
High-Tech “SFW” Bomb Destroys Tank Column In Debut
By Senior Airman Ryan Hansen Air Armament Center Public Affairs As the smoke begins to clear on Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Department of Defense continues to collect data on how well the U.S. military, and its arsenal of weapons, performed during combat operations. One weapon the DoD does not have to research is the CBU-105, better known as the Sensor Fuzed Weapon. The SFW, which falls under the Area Attack System Program Office here at Eglin, made its combat debut during OIF, and its report card was returned immediately after it was employed. The SFW is a 1,000-pound class weapon … [Read more...]
Husky vs. I.E.D’s
The below is from CSI - Critical Solutions International To date the U.S. Army has acquired in excess of 250 Vehicle Mounted Mine Detection (VMMD) Systems (in excess of 500 vehicles) and is in the process of purchasing additional systems to support Coalition Forces Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the USMC and the Canadian National Department of Defense have also purchased these systems to support their forces deployed in Afghanistan. More significantly the U.S. Army has taken a decision to establish Route Clearance Companies within its Force Structure, and the Vehicle Mounted Mine … [Read more...]
Taliban Snipers Beware
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has linked its Boomerang acoustic sensor and network-ready Long Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System to provide an enhanced counter sniper solution for the warfighter. "Connecting Boomerang and netted LRAS3 is a plug-and-play operation that results in a powerful counter sniper capability," said Glynn Raymer, vice president, Raytheon Network Centric Systems Combat Systems. "Combined, these systems facilitate a slew-to-cue capability that places the high-performance LRAS3 ‘eyes’ on the threat, day or night. The sniper then becomes the target with a number of … [Read more...]