It's action movie season but that doesn't mean everybody and their cousin can just take the afternoon off to sneak into the movies with two wars going on. That's right, the folks that make your suspension of disbelief a reality, the United States Department of Defense, are still in full swing. And just like Hollywood (and Nintendo), the DoD believes that "If it ain't broke then don't fix it... but you CAN upgrade it." What can you expect? Read on...
Let's kick it off with sequelitis. With the success of the blockbuster hits, Predator and EOD's bomb disarming robots, we are seeing a torrent of autonomous copycats. The Marines are a bit late to the unmanned party but they will enlist GUSS, a self-navigating robo-mule. Plug in A to B and it figures out its own path to get there. Though carrying 1,800 pounds of equipment is very useful, I'm not sure how its 5mph top speed is. I'd imagine being able to move the wounded while the unit stays to fight would be great, but that doesn't seem like something I'd leave unattended.
But the Marines aren't done folks. What about when the worst happens? Well now the Marines will have a new way to get blood to the front lines. Previously, 5,000lb pallets would be dropped at the nearest base and then transported by ground to the lines. This is obviously time consuming and doesn't help the Marine who's bleeding out NOW. The modified JPADS system, dropped from loitering cargo planes, can now deliver up to 150lbs of blood in 10 minutes. Much in the way precision skydivers can steer themselves around, these Companion-Cube-shaped bots will be using GPS to maneuver themselves to medics right at the line. Barring mechanical flaws, this system would have to be a God-send for the grunts slugging it out on the ground.
Not be outdone by the Jarines, the Army's joint venture with Carnegie-Melon has come up with the worlds first autonomous full-sized helo. Unmanned choppers are nothing new, but they've previously needed pre-planned routes or maps of the area. This unmanned Little Bird was able to take off, fly stably at low altitude while avoiding obstacles like power lines and land itself in an un-mapped area using a laser scanner package. The exact use of this system is not detailed, but it could allow for quick extract to safe areas or aid in collision avoidance for pilots task-saturated in the Fog of War.
What about, say, a lighter touch? How about a bug-sized drone? Details on this literal fly-on-the-wall spybot are sketchy at best, but I'm guessing the Army boys will be using this for locker room recon more than scouting out the bad guys.
What about shoehorning old ideas into a new era? The Army is looking into upgrading its venerable M24 platform, proven in two Iraq wars, for its soldiers in Afghanistan. Iraq has become to be the urban war we've been talking about since the 60's. Yet Afghanistan isn't quite the open battlefield war we've been wishing for since the 60's. So snipers need something more tailored. First, the weapon will be adapted to accept a .300 round, extending its range to 1400 yards. The weapon will also accept zoom scopes and rangefinders to allow snipers to quickly zero the insurgents that pop up from unexpected locations. And if this wasn't good enough for you, now they've even upgraded the scopes with the One Shot program. With an effective range of 2000m, the advanced optical prediction technology should take all the windage and elevation guesswork out of firing on goats with burkas.
Because the Air Force is the Air Force, they want to have the coolest stuff while showing their softer side. To help the USAF tread lightly, Boeing is rapidly prototyping the Phantom Eye, a hydrogen powered recon plane. Capable of carrying 450lbs of spy stuff, the plane can stay airborne at 65,000ft, out of range of small arms in urban conflicts and most SAM's in the open battlefield. Being hydrogen powered, the plane's only by-product will be water and will sip away the fuel it does use. But enough of this hippie resource conservation. I want something that kills stuff too. Well Boeing has all of its bases covered with the Phantom Ray. Being a smaller tactical platform, Ray sees Eye's recon and raises it CAS, SEAD, tac strike and even EW. But... something's missing. I want them to take a page from Tony Stark when they unveil something cool... wait....
As we know, some scripts in Hollywood never make it to the silver screen. The Navy has one of those ideas: flying subs... or submersible airplanes? The Navy has asked DARPA to merge two exclusive camps together for one weapon. Think about it. Airplanes quickly and quietly flying to a naval target and then dropping below the surface to initiate an undetected attack. Well DARPA doesn't even know how this one will go through. Airplanes need to be light, move air over their wings to stay aloft and generally use efficient air-breathing motors. Submarines need to maintain hull integrity underwater (heavy), use ballast to stay "aloft" (heavy) while requiring an engine that doesn't breathe. Just because the Navy wants it, doesn't mean they'll get it.
At least you can count on the Air Force to be thinking ahead. Currently, our military is almost as reliant on GPS as they are explosives. With GPS-guided drones launching GPS-guided weapons... well you could see what would happen if GPS were to be destroyed, jammed or spoofed. So the USAF wants to replace it... WITH THE SAME %$@&ING SYSTEM! The only current back-up to GPS, Coastie-run LORAN-C, is a ground-based signal system that we were just now getting around to installing solid state transistors for. Unfortunately, Bush Jr. moved to have it done away with and Obama feels no differently about the system. So to replace it, the USAF proposes a system of blimps/airships and ground stations to relay signals to units. It DOES provide redundancy, but fails to skirt the initial problem.
So what has the Navy been up to anyway? Just like the Air Force, they don't have a helluva lot to do in the War On Terror, so they're thinking ahead too. The project is currently on life support, but the F-35 canland on a carrier. This means that if the military can keep its clench on the Lightning II funding, the Navy's variant is one step closer to reality and one step closer to blue paint. Thank the heavens that al-Qaeda or any related terrorist organizations have no naval operations to speak of. Unfortunately, China and North Korea, whom we have tense relations with, are very active in their naval programs. Given their advertising of their generally cheap-assed tactics, planning ahead for mine sweeping is not a bad idea. Locked in the battle with Air Force for who has the coolest toys, the Navy has just returned volley. They may not ever get their flying submarine, but they do get a GIANT FRAKKING LAZOR!!!! Yes Dr. Evil's wildest dream, the LAser Weapon System (LaWS) has just successfully shot down an airborne drone in testing. Designed to be a faster and more devastating augmentation for the Phalanx, the LaWS will allow ships to avoid having to immediately turn to an unruly 20mm shower of bullets. But really, I'm sure they just want to etch "Navy wuz hear" on the side of a Chinese boat.
