The deputy undersecretary of defense for science and technology is testing
an intelligent, web centric distribution system for sensor information, which
is designed to enhance situational awareness for war fighters at lower echelons.
The Smart Sensor Web—on display at the 2002 Science & Engineering
Conference—is being tested at the McKenna Military Operations in Urban
Terrain site at Fort Benning, Ga.
The McKenna site has both the urban infrastructure and the operational sensor
tracking system to observe the effects of enhanced situational awareness on
the warfighter, according to David Greinke, a senior defense analyst at Strategic
Analysis Inc., which provides program support to the web. Other technologies
exhibited at the conference included:
• The Low Cost Autonomous Attack System, or LOCAAS. This 85-pound munition—developed
by Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, of Dallas—can be dropped
from a conventional fighter or bomber or fired from missile. It can fly under
its own power for 30 minutes, guided by a global positioning system, and hit
a precise target miles away. Its warhead, designed by the Air Force Research
Laboratory, can be detonated as a long-rod penetrator, an aerostable slug or
as fragments, depending on the hardness of the target.
“It’s like having a miniature cruise missile, with a rifle and
shotgun in the same weapon,” said Michael E. Wallace, a laboratory scientist.
The estimated production cost, he said, is $33,000 per unit.
• Cold-weather food for long-range patrols. The Defense Department’s
Combat Feeding Program—a part of the Army’s Soldier Systems Center,
in Natick, Mass.—has developed a food packet to meet the nutritional needs
of special operations troops and Marines during long-range patrols and the initial
phases of combat assaults in extremely cold weather.
Twelve menus provide dehydrated entrees, cereal bars, cookies and candy, with
accessory packets and plastic spoons, said the center’s Janice E. Rosado.
Some of the food can be eaten right out of the container, dry if necessary,
she said. Each menu contains an average of 1,540 calories. If used for three
meals, the package will provide the 4,500 calories required for heavy exertion
in extreme cold.
•High-performance computing. The Defense Department’s High Performance
Computing Modernization Office delivers high-speed and high-power computational
capability to its facilities around the country, according to spokesperson Cathy
MacDonald. The program, based in Arlington, Va., supports more than 4,000 scientists
and engineers at more than 100 departmental laboratories, universities, test
centers and industrial sites, she said. The program has contributed to the development
of such projects as the Joint Strike Fighter, the Comanche helicopter and the
Javelin missile, MacDonald said.