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Reprinted with permission
JANE'S INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE REVIEW
(IDR)
December 1, 2003 v.036 no. 012
Low-rate initial production is due
to begin in 2004 of Spider, a hand-emplaced man-in-the-loop
munitions system under development by ATK and Textron
Systems as a replacement for anti-personnel landmines.
The two companies were jointly awarded a US$53.8million
contract to complete Spider development by the US Army
Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center
in November 2002.
The basis of Spider is its munitions
control unit (MCU), a pedestal which embodies a communications
module linked to the six lethal or non-lethal munitions
that it supports. On command from the operator's remote
control unit (RCU, a rugged laptop computer such as
the Tadiran Tacter-31A), the MCU launches its web of
tripwires, aligned with the direction of aim of each
of the six munitions ports. The latter may be charged
with grenades of various kinds, or fitted with an adaptor
allowing command-detonation of a Claymore mine or other
offset munition. If the wires are pulled, a signal is
automatically sent to the RCU for the operator to decide
a response. The operator is able to control a number
of MCUs from a single RCU, the communications module
in each MCU allowing the latter to be remoted up to
1.5km, or further if a repeater unit is deployed. Spider
is designed for recovery and reuse, the MCU battery
(which has a life of more than 30 days) being replaced
as necessary after a deployment, along with the expended
tripwire container and any munitions that may have been
discharged.
Meanwhile Textron is engaged on a US$34.9million
three-year contract to develop technology for Increment
1 of the Intelligent Munition System (IMS), one of two
unattended munitions programs included in the US Army
Future Combat Systems (FCS) unmanned systems (Annex
E) program. Incorporating a networked communications
system, IMS is expected to include anti-vehicle, anti-personnel,
urban, and non-lethal weapons variants. A parallel US$31.5million
IMS Increment 1 technology development contract has
been awarded to General Dynamics Advanced Information
Systems (GD AIS; see IDR 6/2003, p8).
Unattended sensors are also covered
by FCS Annex E. In this field Textron Systems has been
appointed prime contractor for the FCS Urban and FCS
Tactical unattended ground sensors (UGS), for which
it received a three-year US$30million development contract
in August 2003. The company has also won a US$19.2million
sole development contract for the US Air Force's Advanced
Remote Ground Unattended Sensor (ARGUS) and the similar
Advanced Air Delivered Sensor (AADS) for the US Marine
Corps (see IDR 9/2003, p12). ARGUS is intended to detect,
track, identify and report time-sensitive ground targets
to an Air Operations Center in near-real time, using
an air-delivered or hand-emplaced store containing sensors,
communications, other electronics and power supplies.
AADS will use similar means to detect, identify and
report enemy activity in a named area of interest. The
program runs until September 2009.
A third UGS activity area for Textron
is the MDUGS (Massively Deployed UGS) program in which
it is once again engaged in competitive study against
GD AIS (see IDR 10/2002, p20). For this program Textron
is understood to be developing a new multimode (seismic/acoustic/magnetic)
mini-sensor, able to generate azimuth information. MDUGS
functionality includes ground and air vehicle detection,
classification, identification and tracking; personnel
detection and classification; and artillery detection,
classification and location. ITT is one of Textron's
communications systems collaborators on MDUGS, downselection
for the development and demonstration phase of which
is expected in January 2004, with a view to delivering
a 10-node demonstrator later that year.
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