“ReconRobotics is honored to assist the U.S. armed forces in defending our country,” said Ernest Langdon, director of military sales for ReconRobotics Inc. “The lightweight, throwable Recon Scout IR will allow our troops to assess hostile situations from a safe distance and plan operations with greater confidence and safety. Every infantry unit or special operations team should have access to this lifesaving capability when they go into harm’s way.”
The Recon Scout IR is a man-portable, remote-controlled reconnaissance robot designed to provide military personnel with immediate video surveillance of hostile environments. It is less than 7.5 inches long and 3 inches wide, and weighs just 1.2 pounds, making it easy to carry in a pocket or on a vest. Personnel can deploy the robot in under 10 seconds by throwing or driving it into the target environment, and its small size and extremely quiet operation make it difficult to detect as it moves. The robot systems’ video and command signals have a line-of-sight range of 300 feet outdoors and 100 feet indoors, depending on number and composition of intervening walls. The robot uses a no-light camera system with IR emitters, which gives the warfighter a clear, crisp image of the environment even in total darkness.
The Recon Scout IR is also designed to survive the punishing environment of the military battlefield. It can withstand repeated forceful impacts such as those delivered by throwing the robot 100 feet or dropping it from a height of 30 feet onto a concrete surface. The robot has a zero turning radius and can move at speeds of 1 foot per second. Directing the movement of the robot requires just one hand, leaving the soldier’s other hand available for a firearm or radio.
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SOF Precision Strike Systems
The need for additional lethal strike capability from airborne assets was driven home by USSOCOM Commander Admiral Eric Olson during recent testimony to the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. He was testifying on the fiscal year 2010 National Defense Authorization Budget Request for U.S. Special Operations Command.
“Special operations forces require a family of precision strike systems to address current and future static and mobile targets,” said Olson. “The current inventory and capabilities of AC-130 gunships and smaller manned and unmanned platforms are insufficient to meet our need for guided munitions that minimize unintended deaths and damage. I intend to fill this capacity gap by installing a platform neutral precision strike package on our existing MC-130W aircraft, and to field them as soon as practical. I will accept short-term risk in SOF’s aerial refueling fleet in order to do this quickly, recognizing that a future program will be required to address the resultant shortfall.”
SOTECH’s Gunship Lite article (SOTECH June 2009) mentioned the Marines Corps’ Harvest Hawk program, which is working to provide a very similar system for their C-130J tankers.
Netted Comms
Iridium Satellite LLC has announced that the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, has awarded one of its subsidiaries a $21.7 million indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity cost-type contract to support development and delivery of the Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS). DTCS is an extension of Netted Iridium, the company’s push-to-talk communications capability. DTCS will provide over-the-horizon, on-the-move, beyond line-of-sight netted voice and data communications over the Iridium network for the tactical warfighter.
DoD has been testing Phase One Netted technologies since 2006. The Navy awarded Iridium the five-year contract on June 4, 2009, marking Phase Two of netted technologies development. The DTCS team also includes ITT Corp. and Boeing. ITT Corp. is leading the effort to design, develop and produce the DTCS tactical radio, along with design, development and installation of the DTCS ground-based management system. Boeing is updating software for the Iridium satellite fleet, as well as performing systems integration and testing.
“Since Desert Storm, we’ve had an unsatisfied requirement for C2 OTM [command and control on-the-move], and no material solution to date has had such great potential in filling that requirement across such a broad spectrum as Netted Iridium does,” said U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Bowman, U.S. Central Command J-6. “In my opinion, Netted Iridium will be the most significant tactical communications improvement developed and fielded during the global war on terror.”
DoD also selected DTCS as the number-two candidate for a 2009 joint concept technology demonstration.
DTCS development has proceeded in two phases. Iridium and DoD developed Phase One under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between industry and the Navy. Funded by industry, it provided a capability used for concept-based experimentation by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Va. In Phase Two, Iridium will enhance its satellite network further with on-orbit software upgrades in addition to making ground infrastructure enhancements.
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Clarification
From the “Fast Boats” article in SOTECH 7.4, VT Halter Marine asked SOTECH to clarify their recent lineage. Sarah Thurman explained, “Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd., through its U.S. arm, Vision Technologies Kinetics Inc., purchased the assets of Halter Marine, the shipbuilding arm of U.S.-based Friede Goldman Halter Inc. in 2002. The company became VT Halter Marine in 2002 and now is regarded as the marine operations of VT Systems. VT Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd.” ♦