thedrifter
09-17-07, 03:13 PM
SOCom seeks better helicopter protection
By Kris Osborn - kosborn@militarytimes.com
Posted : September 24, 2007
As the rocket-propelled grenade streaked toward the Special Operations Command helicopter, it was spotted by the quad radars of a nascent defensive system called Angelfire, or Full Spectrum Close-in Layered Shield, which shot down the incoming munition with a lightweight warhead.
SOCom officials hailed the Aug. 26 test — even though the helicopter remained firmly on the ground at Camp Williams, Utah. Much work remains before airborne tests are planned. For one thing, the system weighs too much.
Still, an operational prototype could be ready in 14 months if more funding is provided, said Pat Traeger, vice president of special projects at the lead contractor, Chang Industries, which is based in LaVerne, Calif.
Just one of several Pentagon efforts underway to better protect combat helicopters, Angelfire features a defensive warhead designed so neither it nor debris hits the rotor blades.
“An RPG is a notoriously unreliable weapon. It is unreliable because it has a booster rocket. Sometimes it fires late. The variable speed on the incoming threat can go anywhere from 450 to 750 feet per second. If you don’t know where it is, you have to kill everything in the space where it could be, which means a huge warhead or a huge amount of explosive matter. Our radar ranges the incoming threat and we know exactly where we can direct the warhead,” Traeger said.
SOCom and Chang developers are working to trim the system’s weight from several hundred pounds, Traeger said.
In 2007, Congress allocated $2 million for helicopter Active Protection Systems development. For 2008, the Senate Armed Services Committee has asked for $70 million in research and technologies “to enhance the force protection of deployed units, including advanced materials for vehicle and body armor, active protection systems that shoot down incoming rocket-propelled grenades, and sniper detection systems,” according to committee documents. The amount requested includes funds for helicopter APS systems, among other technologies.
The system would cost $50,000 to $60,000, if bought in large enough quantities, Traeger said.
The helicopter APS effort began in 2004 with the Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center, SOCom and the Department of Energy.
By September 2006, SOCom officials had slowed down the effort. However, helicopter APS development has now been revitalized by SOCom in anticipation of building the first prototypes.
Special operations forces, which frequently descend into heavy enemy fire from RPGs and other weapons, might benefit greatly from helicopter APS, said Daniel Goure, vice president with the Lexington Institute think tank in Arlington, Va.
“RPGs brought down Black Hawks in Mogadishu and hit choppers in Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan,” Goure said.
As an Air Force special operations exchange pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Tom Sexton flew a command-and-control Black Hawk in Somalia in 1993.
“In Mogadishu, you had RPGs coming at you all over the place. Anything we can do to mitigate the risks to the crew is fantastic,” Sexton said.
Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army and SOCom officials have installed an ultraviolet-triggered flare dispensing system, the Common Missile Warning System, on more than 850 helicopters. BAE is delivering the warning system under a $1.4 billion deal with the Army.
The ultraviolet sensors are designed to detect smoke from a missile launch.
“At the right point in time, it sends a message to flares, which shoot up from the aircraft and basically lure the missile away from the aircraft,” said Stephen duMont, business director with BAE’s electronic warfare division.
The Army is also developing the Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures, a helicopter-mounted laser jammer that spots incoming missiles with an infrared sensor and then throws them off with a multiband heat laser, Army Col. Mark Hayes, Training and Doctrine Command system manager, said in May.
The Army is paying BAE $57 million to develop the countermeasures, including $40 million for the multiband laser and $17 million for testing, duMont said.
The countermeasures work with the warning system now on all Army aircraft, including Black Hawks, Chinooks and Apaches.
The idea for the warning system evolved out of Army combat experiences during Operation Iraqi Freedom — specifically, the downing of a Chinook that killed more than a dozen soldiers, duMont said.
“The current countermeasures have seemed to work rather well, as we have had a static rate of shoot-downs over the last few years. In fact, the shootdown rate has gone down since 2004,” Goure said. Hayes said the infrared countermeasures could be crucial if the Army faced an enemy with more sophisticated weapons than those soldiers are facing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“If we ever get to face an enemy that has long-range anti-aircraft capability with radar and infrared, then we need a much better suite of counterthreats before we ever fight that combat,” Hayes said.
Ellie
By Kris Osborn - kosborn@militarytimes.com
Posted : September 24, 2007
As the rocket-propelled grenade streaked toward the Special Operations Command helicopter, it was spotted by the quad radars of a nascent defensive system called Angelfire, or Full Spectrum Close-in Layered Shield, which shot down the incoming munition with a lightweight warhead.
SOCom officials hailed the Aug. 26 test — even though the helicopter remained firmly on the ground at Camp Williams, Utah. Much work remains before airborne tests are planned. For one thing, the system weighs too much.
Still, an operational prototype could be ready in 14 months if more funding is provided, said Pat Traeger, vice president of special projects at the lead contractor, Chang Industries, which is based in LaVerne, Calif.
Just one of several Pentagon efforts underway to better protect combat helicopters, Angelfire features a defensive warhead designed so neither it nor debris hits the rotor blades.
“An RPG is a notoriously unreliable weapon. It is unreliable because it has a booster rocket. Sometimes it fires late. The variable speed on the incoming threat can go anywhere from 450 to 750 feet per second. If you don’t know where it is, you have to kill everything in the space where it could be, which means a huge warhead or a huge amount of explosive matter. Our radar ranges the incoming threat and we know exactly where we can direct the warhead,” Traeger said.
SOCom and Chang developers are working to trim the system’s weight from several hundred pounds, Traeger said.
In 2007, Congress allocated $2 million for helicopter Active Protection Systems development. For 2008, the Senate Armed Services Committee has asked for $70 million in research and technologies “to enhance the force protection of deployed units, including advanced materials for vehicle and body armor, active protection systems that shoot down incoming rocket-propelled grenades, and sniper detection systems,” according to committee documents. The amount requested includes funds for helicopter APS systems, among other technologies.
The system would cost $50,000 to $60,000, if bought in large enough quantities, Traeger said.
The helicopter APS effort began in 2004 with the Army Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center, SOCom and the Department of Energy.
By September 2006, SOCom officials had slowed down the effort. However, helicopter APS development has now been revitalized by SOCom in anticipation of building the first prototypes.
Special operations forces, which frequently descend into heavy enemy fire from RPGs and other weapons, might benefit greatly from helicopter APS, said Daniel Goure, vice president with the Lexington Institute think tank in Arlington, Va.
“RPGs brought down Black Hawks in Mogadishu and hit choppers in Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan,” Goure said.
As an Air Force special operations exchange pilot with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Tom Sexton flew a command-and-control Black Hawk in Somalia in 1993.
“In Mogadishu, you had RPGs coming at you all over the place. Anything we can do to mitigate the risks to the crew is fantastic,” Sexton said.
Since the start of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Army and SOCom officials have installed an ultraviolet-triggered flare dispensing system, the Common Missile Warning System, on more than 850 helicopters. BAE is delivering the warning system under a $1.4 billion deal with the Army.
The ultraviolet sensors are designed to detect smoke from a missile launch.
“At the right point in time, it sends a message to flares, which shoot up from the aircraft and basically lure the missile away from the aircraft,” said Stephen duMont, business director with BAE’s electronic warfare division.
The Army is also developing the Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures, a helicopter-mounted laser jammer that spots incoming missiles with an infrared sensor and then throws them off with a multiband heat laser, Army Col. Mark Hayes, Training and Doctrine Command system manager, said in May.
The Army is paying BAE $57 million to develop the countermeasures, including $40 million for the multiband laser and $17 million for testing, duMont said.
The countermeasures work with the warning system now on all Army aircraft, including Black Hawks, Chinooks and Apaches.
The idea for the warning system evolved out of Army combat experiences during Operation Iraqi Freedom — specifically, the downing of a Chinook that killed more than a dozen soldiers, duMont said.
“The current countermeasures have seemed to work rather well, as we have had a static rate of shoot-downs over the last few years. In fact, the shootdown rate has gone down since 2004,” Goure said. Hayes said the infrared countermeasures could be crucial if the Army faced an enemy with more sophisticated weapons than those soldiers are facing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“If we ever get to face an enemy that has long-range anti-aircraft capability with radar and infrared, then we need a much better suite of counterthreats before we ever fight that combat,” Hayes said.
Ellie