Whispers

The Motor Pool: Updated for the New Millenium

Its been several years since we last overhauled our site to give it its current look, feel and appearance. Now, as we approach the all-important holiday selling season, we felt it necessary to take our e-commerce site to the next level and give it an even fresher look.

From a technological stand point, we recognize that a great many viewers and customers are surfing the web from a variety of platforms, covering everything from the traditional computer desktop to mobile devices, tablets and even wrist watches.

People can even be transported to the web directly from a print advertisement. Equally important are the Google search rankings, which now examines each site to see if it conforms to mobile standards.

That said, we are close to deploying our first web site design utilizing what is termed a responsive template. In effect, the viewing area a customer sees on the screen dynamically rescales to fit any sized device, and, just as importantly, maintains the look and feel of the site across the entire device spectrum. So, what you see on the desktop will look pretty much the same on much smaller screens. We’ve posted an image of a similarly constructed site to this blog post so you can get a better understanding of what we are doing. We will post a follow-up blog post once we are ready to fully deploy the new template.

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The F-35C: Last of a Breed?

In a rather stark admission, US Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, disclosed that the soon-to-be-deployed F-35C will be the last manned strike fighter for the US Navy.

The F-35C “should be, and almost certainly will be, the last manned strike fighter aircraft the Department of the Navy will ever buy or fly,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said in a speech in April at the annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition outside Washington, D.C. Fighter jocks would still be needed for dogfighting, but Mabus envisions a future when strike missions will be fulfilled by unmanned aircraft.

According to Defense News, Mabus announced the creation of the N99 Navy staff office for unmanned weapons systems and a new position for deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for unmanned systems.

“Unmanned systems, particularly autonomous ones, have to be the new normal in ever-increasing areas,” he said.

The announcement came the same day as a milestone test for the Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration program, the first of three aerial refueling tests that mark the program’s concluding step.

Following the tests, the two UCAS jets will be sent to an aviation museum or to the aircraft boneyard in Arizona, Capt. Beau Duarte, Carrier Unmanned Aviation program manager, said Tuesday at the exposition.

“The UCAS-D program was born with the primary role of, ‘Okay, let’s show ourselves that we can successfully take off and land from the ship, integrate operations around and on the carrier, and work in the pattern [with manned jets],’ ” Duarte said.

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Lockheed’s Skunkworks: The Future is Now

According to a recent article that appears in the June issue of Popular Science, the folks at the legendary Lockheed Skunkworks are at it again.

“With regional threats growing and portable surface-to-air missiles evolving, engineers have once again set out to build the fastest military jet on the planet.

This time, it will take the form of a 4,000-mile-per-hour reconnaissance drone with strike capability. Known as the SR-72, the aircraft will evade assault, take spy photos, and attack targets at speeds of up to Mach 6. That’s twice as fast as its predecessor.

Aeronautical engineers at Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne have been designing the SR-72 at their Skunk Works black site in California for the past several years. It will require a hybrid propulsion system: a conventional, off-the-shelf turbo jet that can take the plane from runway to Mach 3, and a hypersonic ramjet/scramjet that will push it the rest of the way. Its body will have to withstand the extreme heat of hypersonic flight, when air friction alone could melt steel. Its bombs will have to hit targets from possibly 80,000 feet. Lockheed says the craft could be deployed by 2030. Once it is, the plane’s ability to cover one mile per second means it could reach any location on any continent in an hour—not that you’ll see it coming.”

Several on-board systems will need to be redeveloped for such a reconnaissance and weapons platform to work at a speed of Mach 6, chief among them targeting, high altitude bombing, piloting, and stability at a high friction rate of speed. Frankly, if anyone can do it, its the boys at Lockheed, who are responsible for creating some of the most sophisticated aircraft ever to take to the sky.

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Star Trek Continues

Some times I think we’re completely out-of-the-loop when we stumble upon information that could have knocked us over with a feather. While perusing the web, we discovered a brand new web-based film series based upon the original, Gene Roddenberry-created Star Trek television series. Named, aptly enough, Star Trek Continues, these “webisodes” feature all of the familiar characters, sets, costumes, and hokey special effects first witnessed in the 1960s series, going so far as to even include the same dated introduction, sound effects and animations. To view the five uploaded webisodes and see what’s in store for Trekkies, visit: http://www.startrekcontinues.com/

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The DoD Breathes New Life into the Abrams

Back in 2014, long before the Russian T-14 Armata main battle tank was unveiled to the public, the US Department of Defense awarded General Dynamics with a contract to build 12 advanced main battle tanks with digital vetronics. Dubbed the M1A2 SEP Version 2, the tank, according to Military and Aerospace Electronics, “is considered to be one of the most technologically advanced and most survivable digital tank available worldwide. The networked tank has an electronic backbone, improved processors, high-resolution color displays, increased memory capacity, a day and night forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sighting system, auxiliary power, a tank-infantry phone, and an open architecture designed to accommodate future upgrades without redesigns.”

Its not clear how the upgraded M1A2 SEP V2 will fair against Russia’s new battle tank in a one-on-one slugfest, or whether the Abrams has the ability to defeat other armed threats on the battlefield, particularly from air-launched heliborne assets. This electronics-based upgrade could serve as a short-term solution before the Armata gets fielded en masse, further extending the life-cycle of several thousand battle tanks that have seen service throughout the world with a number of armies.

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Should Japan Rename Its Armed Forces?

On Thursday, the Japanese cabinet approved a set of bills bolstering the role and scope of its military, as the pacifist country redefines its position in the increasingly roiled Asia-Pacific region. Since the end of the Second World War, Japan had focused solely on the defense of its home islands, going so far as to name its army the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Now, in light of recent hostile moves by North Korea, territorial disputes with both mainland China and Russia over several islands, and terrorism, Japan, at the prodding of several allied nations, looks to protect its interests by expanding its zone of control and mandate for its military. According to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, “In the past two years, Japanese nationals have fallen victim to terrorism in Algeria, Syria and Tunisia; Japan is within range of hundreds of North Korea’s ballistic missiles and the number of (fighter jet) scrambles has risen seven-fold in a decade. This is the reality. We should not try to ignore it.”

Revisions include removing geographical constraints on logistical support for friendly forces in “situations that would significantly affect Japan’s security.”

They also say Japan can defend allies “in situations where there is a clear risk that Japan’s existence is threatened and its people’s rights…are compromised through an attack on a country which has a close relationship with Japan.”

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Erecting a New Wall

In the early 1960s, Russia decided to construct a wall across their section of East Berlin that was designed to keep the city’s inhabitants “within” its borders. Now, fifty years later, Ukraine has decided to build a similar barrier, this time around aimed at keeping Russia out.

According to Russia Today, “Kiev authorities have approved a major new program to isolate the country from Russia by constructing an enormous barrier, equipped with anti-tank ditches and remote controlled weapons stations. They intend to spend $200 million on the grand plan.

On April 14, the Ukrainian cabinet approved a plan for technical arrangements on the Russian-Ukrainian border for 2015-2018.

The plan includes a project initially called ‘The Wall’ or ‘European bulwark’. It’s estimated to be worth 4 billion hryvnias (about $US200 million) and involves the construction of a barbed-wire fence with 17-meter high steelwork turrets. There will also be four-meter wide, two-meter deep antitank ditches, a lateral route and a drag road, remote combat modules, fortified sectors, observation posts, CCTV cameras, communication towers and alarm systems.

The plan is to complete construction within three years, yet previous intentions to erect a barrier on the Russian border floundered due to Ukraine’s lack of cash.

Initially, the idea of digging a ditch on the Russian-Ukrainian border was voiced by the former governor of Dnepropetrovsk region, Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoysky. He even funded a military field engineering vehicle that created a ditch on the border with Russia.”

Barriers have been used with varying results over the course of the past hundred years. The most notable include France’s Maginot Line, Finland’s Mannerheim line, Germany’s West Wall, Israel’s West Bank Barrier, the US-Mexican Border-Enforcement Wall, and the South Korean defensive belt straddling the 38th Parallel. Considering the cost, length of its border with Russia, and much weaker military position with its neighbor to the east, its highly dubious if such a barrier could work in the 21st Century, particularly when Ukraine is already faced with mounting debt to certain international monetary agencies.

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The PL-01: Poland’s Answer to the T-14

When you think of the Polish armed forces, most equate it with either their collapse at the outset of World War II or its membership in the Warsaw Pact alliance following the end of the Second World War. However, ever since the end of the Cold War in the early nineties, Poland has allied itself with the West, going so far as to become a member state of NATO in March 1999. Since that time, Poland has quietly developed its own military-industrial complex, and has even begun the arduous task of creating its own next generation main battle tank.

The PL-01 is a Polish armoured fighting vehicle created by OBRUM with support from BAE Systems. The concept vehicle project was first unveiled at the International Defence Industry Exhibition in Kielce on September 2nd, 2013. A full prototype is estimated to be completed in 2016, and should the project be finalized and approved following evaluation, mass production is scheduled to begin in 2018. Looking very much like a futuristic take on David Darke’s “Hammers Slammers,” the layout of the PL-01, nevertheless, is similar to that of modern standard main battle tanks, with the driver located at the front of the vehicle and an unmanned turret mounted in the rear. Within the hull are the commander and gunner, and the rear part of the fuselage can carry four soldiers. The vehicle chassis is based on that of the Combat Vehicle 90.

The vehicle armour has a modular ceramic-aramid shell, which is designed to provide protection compatible with NATO standard STANAG 4569 Annex A at level 5+ within the front portion of the hull and turret. Additional armour panels are mounted on the turret and hull, and are designed to provide full protection against projectiles. The hull of the vehicle provides protection against improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and landmines in accordance with appendix B parts 4a and 4b of the STANAG 4569 standard. The entire vehicle will be covered with radio wave absorbent material.

The PL-01 is to be equipped with a 940 horsepower (700 kW)+ diesel engine coupled to a torque converter, automatic gearbox and driving assistance mechanism. The suspension is based on seven wheels, with the drive shafts having active damping of torsion bars mounted on the first and last two pairs. The vehicle can reach speeds of up to 70 kilometres per hour (43 mph) on paved roads and 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) in rough terrain with a maximum range of 500 kilometres (310 mi). It can overcome an inclination of 30 degrees, ditches and trenches to a width of 2.6 metres (8 ft 6 in), and cross water obstacles with a depth of up to 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) without preparation, and up to 5 metres (16 ft) deep with preparation.

With no clear cut successor to the Abrams in sight, it would be interesting if the US DoD decided to test and procure the PL-01 for the US Army once the Abrams reaches retirement age.

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Of Black Jacks, Foxhounds and Pak FAs

Russia has been causing quite a stir amongst the military comunity of late, as it continues to modernize its air force with aircraft that span the gamut of combat missions. In April, The Russian Air Force added two dozen upgraded multi-role MiG-31BM fighters to its fleet and more than 100 others are expected in coming years, according to UPI.

The first 24 aircraft, which NATO calls the Foxhound, were modernized by the Rostec Corporation, which is inducting about a dozen earlier variants of the MiG-31 for upgrade each year.

In December, Russia finished a $103 million upgrade to its fleet of supersonic “Blackjack” bombers, bringing what was already considered the world’s fastest nuclear bomber into the 21st century with new electronic systems that could give the 33-year-old Soviet-era planes an edge in the skies over the United States B1 “Lancer” bomber.

When the Tu-160, known to American military experts as “Blackjack,” was introduced in 1981, the bomber was the crown jewel of the Soviet Union’s Air Force. Following the collapse of the communist empire a decade later, many of the Blackjack bombers were destroyed as part of nuclear disarmament deals with the West.

Looking forward, plans are already underway to produce several variants of the Pak FA stealth fighter, in conjunction with the Indian Air Force. A family of Su-50 derivatives are planned, although no word as yet when any of these proposed systems will enter service.

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Russia’s 21st Century Under Water Navy

While its easy for Russia to parade new ground-based weapons systems past the Kremlin in Moscow, or use the venue as a fly-over for the latest aircraft, its a far different scenario for the ships that plum the ocean’s depths. According to Defense News, “Four different kinds of submarines are under construction and more are coming. The country expects to lay down five new nuclear submarines in 2015.

The Navy is accepting Borey-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, Yasen-class nuclear attack submarines, and Kilo- and Lada-class diesel electric attack submarines. Six Kilos are being built for Vietnam and more are offered for export.

This rate of construction is beginning to look more like Cold War days rather than the lethargic shipbuilding rates prevalent since the 1990s.

By comparison, the US only recently returned to building two nuclear attack submarines per year, and industry is gearing up to begin construction of a new class of ballistic submarines in 2021 — a three-subs-per-year construction rate not seen since the Reagan era.”

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