National Defense articles from May 2009

National Defense archives from May 2009

Robots are major players in U.S. military strategy.(PRESIDENT'S PERSPECTIVE)
May 1, 2009... * The Defense Department is serious about robotics. The use of robots in warfare has long ceased to be a topic for science fiction and the technology has now become an essential component of the U.S. arsenal. Defense Secretary Robert Gates...

Gates reshapes the budget, can he change the culture?(DEFENSE WATCH)
May 1, 2009... Defense Secretary Robert Gates' reshuffle of the Pentagon's $1.7 trillion weapons portfolio contained no major surprises. He had frequently voiced frustration about an "imbalance" in defense spending and a procurement system that operates in...

Laser weapons: it's not all bad news.(READERS' FORUM: VIEWS ... COMMENTS ... SUGGESTIONS)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... * The March issue of National Defense contained a skeptical assessment of laser weapons that concluded military users have begun to sour on the technology due to development delays and doubts about operational utility. There certainly is basis...

Hybrid car batteries.(READERS' FORUM: VIEWS ... COMMENTS ... SUGGESTIONS)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... * I found the February article "Converting U.S. Car Park to Hybrids Should be Priority One" by Michael Frodl and John Manoyan to be dynamic and interesting. There is one topic that seemed to be missing: the batteries in these cars will...

What about public shipyards?(READERS' FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... * The February article "Navy's Shipbuilding Strategy Remains Under Fire" made some exceLlent points. However, it did not mention how U.S. naval shipyards owned by the Navy could help address current problems. In the many articles that I have...

Better ways to buy weapons.(READERS' FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... * I read your March article "Message to Weapons Buyers: Make it Cheaper and Faster" with great interest but was very disappointed. The opinions of political appointees and four-star generals are interesting but not based on any real experience...

2010 budget: Gates: industry unharmed by program cancellations.(WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY)
May 1, 2009... * Military weapons programs often are justified on grounds that the nation must protect its industrial base. But the industry has consolidated into a handful of giant firms, so program cancellations these days don't necessarily harm companies,...

A 'disconnected' view of the Army.(WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY)
May 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Organizing and equipping Army brigades for war is far more difficult than it should be because commanders don't have a clear picture of what forces and equipment are available at any given time, said John Organek,...

Contract professionals feel like fall guys.(WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY)
May 1, 2009... * The crowd was rather dispirited at the recent National Contract Management Association World Congress in Long Beach, Calif., wrote Steve Kelman in his Federal Computer Week blog. "The mood at the events... has been, I guess I would say,...

Sen. Levin: lobbyists make it hard to debate.(WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY)
May 1, 2009... * The defense industry's political clout occasionally can backfire. Case in point are recent comments by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who chairs the influential Armed Services Committee. A reporter asked Levin to comment on a proposal by his...

Medical costs threaten Pentagon's fiscal health.(WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY)
May 1, 2009... * As if his weapons budget proposals weren't already a tough sell on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Robert Gates also will try to get Congress to endorse unpopular health care fees for military retirees. "I think we just need to lay out for...

Terrorists could tap Web to poison drinking water.(SECURITY BEAT)
May 1, 2009... * Militants could use the Internet to learn how to poison the water distribution system, experts said. Terrorists could easily read chemical companies' open access websites to view information on the toxicity level of everything from...

Chinese firm hawking eavesdropping systems.(SECURITY BEAT)
May 1, 2009... * The state-owned Chinese electronics giant CETC International Co. Ltd. wants to break into the homeland security market with a variety of products that only Big Brother could love. At the recent IDEX conference in Abu Dhabi, the firm was...

Offshore wind: an untapped energy source.(INSIDE SCIENCE + TECHNOLOGY)
May 1, 2009... * In the United States, the wind-energy industry has risen an average of 32 percent per year during the last five years. But despite efficiency improvements and other technology developments, the country still lags behind European and Asian...

Pentagon acquisition rules exacerbate problems.(VIEWPOINT)
May 1, 2009... * The defense industry has launched an intensive lobbying campaign in Washington. It contends that future reductions in acquisition funding will put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Industry makes a...

New methods to measure the safety of military equipment.(GUEST COMMENTARY)
May 1, 2009... The Defense Department has developed a new tool for acquisition programs that was designed to gauge the safety of weapons systems. It is called the "system safety metrics method" tool, or SSMM. SSMM can be especially useful for programs...

Untapped resource: natural gas: safer cleaner energy that pays for itself.(VIEWPOINT)
May 1, 2009... Unlike renewable energy sources, natural gas is a proven fuel with mature associated technologies. And it has a cost advantage over other forms of energy such as wind, solar and geothermal. Along with clean coal, natural gas is perhaps the most...

Power struggle: prolonged wars tax military capacity to deploy electricity.
May 1, 2009... The war in Afghanistan is testing the limits of "deployable energy." As the Pentagon prepares for a troop buildup, officials worry about the huge logistical challenge of having to ship enormous amounts of fuel and power generators to...

Green construction standards adopted at Army posts.(Battlefield Energy)
May 1, 2009... Army engineers are evaluating hundreds of construction projects to ensure that they meet "green" building standards, officials said. The goal is to apply the LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) rating system on all new...

Desert dealer: oil wealth helps Gulf nation build domestic arms industry.(Middle East Defense)(Company overview)
May 1, 2009... ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- On the sandy shore of this Persian Gulf nation, the Abu Dhabi Ship Building facility features five wet berths, a climate controlled composite molding facility the size of a football field, eight open air dry...

Middle East arms race: Iranian threat spurs Gulf nations to upgrade defenses.(Middle East Defense)(Company overview)
May 1, 2009... ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- The United Arab Emirates government in December announced a deal to buy two Patriot missile battalions from The Raytheon Co. When it comes to air-and-missile defense, the United Arab Emirates is sparing...

For the UAE, Iran is both enemy and trading partner.(Middle East Defense)
May 1, 2009... ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- As the United Arab Emirates spends billions to defend itself against a perceived Iranian threat, it also enjoys a robust trading relationship with its potential foe. The UAE sees Iran as both a threat and...

Under construction: smarter shipbuilding could help ease Navy's budget troubles.(Shipbuilding)(Cover story)
May 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MARINETTE, Wis. -- When the Navy's first littoral combat ship was in its final construction phase at this shipyard near Lake Michigan, about a quarter of the hull protruded from the end of...

Jury still out on future of littoral combat ship.(Shipbuilding)
May 1, 2009... * The Navy's littoral combat ship is under fire by lawmakers who are threatening to pull the plug at a time when the Obama administration is prepared to commit long-term funding to the program. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently...

Navy shifts shipbuilding dollars to mid-tier yards.(Shipbuilding)
May 1, 2009... Most of the Navy's large warships are built at the nation's "big four" yards in Avondale, La.; Pascagoula, Miss.; Bath Iron Works, Maine; and NASSCO, Calif. But as the Navy seeks to build smaller vessels for coastal patrols and other...

Alert video: Apache pilots receive real-time UAV data.(TECH TALK: A TIP- SHEET ON THE LATEST GADGETS)
May 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Lockheed Martin's video from unmanned aerial systems for interoperability teaming (VUITT) is allowing Apache gunship pilots to receive in their cockpits streaming battlefield information from unmanned aerial...

Global Hawk gaining scientific pedigree.(TECH TALK: A TIP-SHEET ON THE LATEST GADGETS)
May 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Two high flying Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles have been adapted for environmental science research missions thanks to a joint effort by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and Northrop Grumman Corp. ...

New hazardous material protective suits unveiled.(TECH TALK: A TIP-SHEET ON THE LATEST GADGETS)
May 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * A Merrimack, N.H., company will debut this month its line of lightweight, single-skin hazmat suits at a firefighter conference in Indianapolis, Ind. Saint-Gorbain Plastics' ONESuit line is flame resistant and...

Cheaper, more stable transistors on the way.(TECH TALK: A TIP-SHEET ON THE LATEST GADGETS)
May 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Reliable, inexpensive and printable electronics are within reach thanks to work by scientists from DuPont and Cornell University, who have found a way to produce volumes of semiconducting ink that can be made into...

Plastic sensor negates antenna interference.(TECH TALK)
May 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * The first all-plastic ice sensor for unmanned aerial vehicles and other small aircraft has been developed by New Avionics Corp. of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. It avoids the problem of traditional metal probes that tended...

Venerable transport getting makeover.(TECH TALK)
May 1, 2009... * The nearly 40-year-old Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy is receiving cutting-edge cockpit avionics systems that meet global air traffic management requirements. This is part of a larger modernization project to keep the Galaxy flying until 2040....

Breaking down the info tech 'rice bowls'.(NDIA NEWS: ASSOCIATION BRIEFS)
May 1, 2009... The Defense Department's directive 5000 series governs the defense acquisition process. Most recently updated last December, the policy instruction DoDI 5000.02 aims to simplify the management of acquisition programs that include weapon...

Building STEM coalitions.(STEM NEWS: SCIENCE * TECHNOLOGY * ENGINEERING * MATHEMATICS)
May 1, 2009... There has been much dialogue about the shortage of skilled labor and workers with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The solution is to build industry led coalitions focused on realistic, achievable, continuously...