February 2020 | Soldier Systems Daily Soldier Systems Daily

Archive for February, 2020

Germany Joins ESSOR – Rohde & Schwarz commissioned for national implementation

Sunday, February 23rd, 2020

Rohde & Schwarz has been named as the German industrial representative for the ESSOR project and is participating in the development of a European wideband waveform for tactical interoperability in multinational operations.

In mid-December 2019, the Budget and Defense Committee of the German parliament agreed to join the European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR) project – the trans-European interoperability initiative for armed forces at the tactical level. Approval of the participation proposal also initiated national implementation of the current OC1 (operational capability) phase of the ESSOR wideband waveform, which is part of the large-scale project “Digitalization of Land Based Operations” (D-LBO). Rohde & Schwarz has been named as the national champion and joins the group of member-state companies that have been working on the implementation of ESSOR since 2008.

ESSOR is a long-term program, managed by OCCAR , in which the national champions from Italy, Spain, France, Finland, Poland and now also Germany are leading the joint enterprise a4ESSOR S.A.S. as prime contractor. The overarching objective is further development of capabilities in the area of secure communications technology to improve the interoperability of the armed forces. In concrete terms, ESSOR OC1 defines the joint development and updating of an interoperable, trustworthy, robust and wideband radio waveform for connected armed forces.

“Rohde & Schwarz is proud to take its place in the ESSOR community. With our experience in software defined radio and associated waveforms from many years of development of our own products as well as SOVERON D (known from the SVFuA development project) for the German armed forces, which is ramping up for series production in 2020, we are very well prepared for this. This is complemented by our expertise as an architect of secure communications networks and approval for encryption up to the highest classification levels in Germany, the EU and NATO,” comments Hartmut Jäschke, Executive Vice President of the Secure Communications Division and member of Corporate Management of Rohde & Schwarz.

The partner companies are Thales (France), Leonardo (Italy), Indra (Spain), Radmor (Poland) and Bittium (Finland), which have been developing the OC1 phase since 2017.

The high data rate waveform (HDRWF) developed for ESSOR OC1 is designed for operational and tactical unit command and IP connectivity at the brigade, battalion and lower levels. It features flexible configuration and adaptability to demanding scenarios, and it offers soldiers versatile and robust MANET networks on their national radio systems for combined missions and in the framework of territorial and collective defense.

With support from the European Defense Fund, ESSOR will be augmented with additional waveforms, for example for specific use cases or for air based operations. “The collaboration of European industry and provision of the most advanced commercially available SDR in the form of SOVERON D will give major projects of the German armed forces, such as D-LBO, an enormous boost in the connected, secure and jam-proof transmission of voice and data,” concludes Mr. Jäschke.

Posted in Comms, International, Press Release | Comments Off on Germany Joins ESSOR – Rohde & Schwarz commissioned for national implementation

In Memorium – Benchmade Founder Les deAsis

Saturday, February 22nd, 2020

We received this note from the deAsis family last night.

Benchmade friends and family –

I have some very sad news to share with you. My father, Les, passed away today following a stroke he suffered earlier this week.

No words can properly express the sadness of our loss. Our family has lost our beloved husband, father, and grandfather. Benchmade has lost our founder, friend and visionary who built one of the greatest knife brands in the world.

My father loved all customers, employees, suppliers, friends, and the storied list of knife makers who influenced him and the world of knives since his humble beginnings in the 70’s. He was especially passionate and proud of the knife and shooting sports industries and always hoped they would thrive well beyond his years.

His commitment to enriching education, growing local communities, and creating a better future for knife owners around the country is unparalleled.

The values, culture, and essence of our brand are all thanks to his lifelong pursuit of making great knives even better, and providing users with products they can depend on every day, no matter the circumstance.

His personality and character extended far beyond business, creating fun friendships and relationships that brought him tremendous joy day after day. He always cherished interactions with people from all walks of life; from folks in law enforcement and military, to those who love hunting and fishing, and also those who simply like to “smoke cigars, bullshit and eat good food” – in his own words!

We will host a celebration of Les’ life and accomplishments and will share details when they are available.

Please help honor my father by continuing your dedication to the company that he loved and cared for so much.

-Jon deAsis

Posted in Memorial | 3 Comments »

Army Scientists Develop Cutting-Edge, Durable 3D Printing Technology

Saturday, February 22nd, 2020

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Army scientists are on the brink of a pioneering additive-manufacturing technology to help Soldiers quickly swap out broken plastic components with durable 3D printed replacements, says a top Army researcher.

In the past, troops have either lugged replacement parts around or ordered them from warehouses thousands of miles away, only to wait weeks for them to arrive.

But with dual-polymer 3D printed parts — developed by scientists at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Laboratory, or ARL — Soldiers could be a few clicks away from swapping out broken pieces and heading back to the fight within hours.

“We’re crossing a threshold where low-cost, easy-to-operate and maintain printers will be proliferated on the battlefield — and able to produce engineering parts of very good quality with short turn-around times,” said Dr. Eric Wetzel, ARL’s research arealeader for Soldier materials.

“In order to do that, we need printing technologies that can print parts that are accurate geometrically and have mechanical properties that are sufficiently robust to survive conditions in battle,” he added.

The printing technology comes on the heels of Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy pushing an advanced manufacturing policy last October, intended to enhance supply chains in the field.

Until this point, 3D printing technologies that produce mechanically robust parts have required printers and print technologies that are not suitable for austere environments, while the printers suitable for austere environments produced poor-quality parts, Wetzel said.

That’s where the ARL scientists come in. For the last few years, they have delved into this issue, Wetzel said. For the first time, ARL scientists have developed a cutting-edge filament capable of being used in off-the-shelf, low-cost 3D printers to produce mechanically strong, battlefield-ready parts.

“By summer, we hope to have samples of the filament distributed to Army transition partners,” Wetzel added. Based on their feedback, ARL could ramp up production — with help from industry partners — and have it in the hands of Soldiers within the calendar year.

THE DUAL-POLYMER TECHNOLOGY

“Conventional polymer filaments for 3D printing are made up of a single polymer,” Wetzel said. “Our innovation is that we’ve combined two different polymers into a single filament, providing a unique combination of characteristics useful for printing and building strength.”

The dual-polymer filament combines acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, or ABS, with polycarbonate, or PC. A critical design feature of the filament is that the ABS and PC phases are not simply mixed together, a common approach for creating blended polymers. Instead, a special die-less thermal drawing process developed by ARL is used to create an ABS filament with a star-shaped PC core. Once coupled, the filament is used as feedstock in a desktop fused-filament fabrication, or FFF, printer to create 3D prints with a heavy-duty ABS/PC meso?structure.

FFF printers work with a heated nozzle that emits thin layers of melted plastic, similar to molten glass. The filament is deposited onto a print bed, one layer on top of another until it forms the 3D printed part. In order to fabricate a unique part, the nozzle, print bed, or both move while the hot plastic streams down.

The two polymers found in the new filament technology have distinct melting temperatures, Wetzel said.

After the solid bodies are initially printed, they are put in an oven to build strength. During this annealing process, the deposited material layers fuse together while maintaining their geometry and form. This stability is caused by the higher temperature resistance of the built-in framework.

“The second polymer holds the shape like a skeleton while the rest of it is melting and bonding together,” Wetzel said. “Through a series of filament design trials, we were able to identify that the star-shaped PC core provided a superior combination of part toughness and stability compared to other arrangements of ABS and PC in the filament.”

Current filaments — traditionally consisting of a single thermoplastic — produce parts that are brittle and weak, and would deform excessively during the annealing process, he said.

“We focused in on what can we do to improve those mechanical properties,” he added. “We wrote a series of papers getting very fundamentally down to the details of exactly why conventional single-polymer parts are not sufficient, what’s happening in the physics of the polymer — really at a molecular level — that prevents conventional printed polymer parts from meeting these requirements.”

The legacy thermoplastic deposits like a hot glue gun, he said. As the layers build, they don’t stick very well to the previous layer because by the time the second layer adds, the first one is cooled off.

“So, you’re not melting the layers together, you’re just solidifying material on top of one another, and they never really bond between layers,” Wetzel said. “Our technology is an approach that allows us to use these conventional desktop printers, but then apply post-processing to dramatically improve the toughness and strength between layers.”

“Manufacturing at the point-of-need provides some exciting possibilities,” Wetzel said. “In the future we can imagine Soldiers deployed overseas collaborating with engineers in the United States, allowing new hardware concepts to be designed and then sent as digital files to be coverted into physical prototypes that the Soldiers can use the same day. This paradigm shift could allow us to innovate at a much higher speed, and be keenly responsive to the ever-changing battlefield.”

Story by Thomas Brading, Army News Service

Photos by EJ Hersom

Posted in Design, Disruptive Tech, Guest Post | 6 Comments »

Alcon Braking Systems to be Part of Patria’s Breakthrough into Widening Military Markets

Saturday, February 22nd, 2020

Patria, a global market leader in the production of armoured wheeled vehicles, have been selected with their 6×6 platform to be part of a joint programme to develop sustained mobility enhancement for the Finnish and Latvian Armies. Alcon Components Ltd, world-class specialists in brake and clutch systems, is the principal supplier of braking components for Patria’s heavy armoured vehicle range, and specifically the Patria 6×6.

Alcon has worked closely with Patria to determine the specific requirements aligned to vehicle specification, usage profiles and operating environment; developing a bespoke braking system to match the needs of high-performance defence vehicles. With the exceptional performance of Patria’s wheeled vehicle range creating conditions close to that of a rally car in terms of disc and pad temperature cycling, Alcon were able to draw on their pedigree of providing braking solutions for the top echelons of motorsport to develop exclusive calliper and disc mounting concepts for Patria; a fusion of those seen on heavy commercial vehicles and high-performance motorsport.

The Patria 6×6 is acknowledged as being unrivalled in performance and mobility, setting new standards for all future armoured wheeled vehicles. Reliability is underlined by the multitude of commercial components used in the vehicle. Commercial components, long life-span and easy maintenance make the vehicle extremely cost-efficient; ideally matching the Finnish-Latvian programme’s aim to develop a common armoured wheeled vehicle system with enhanced mobility, cost-efficiency, interoperability and security of supply.

Alcon braking solutions have been sought out by some of the world’s finest defence industry vehicle OEMs. Amongst 18 defence and security equipment OEMs currently using or assessing Alcon systems, as well as Patria, Supacat, the designers of the Jackal, BAe, Ricardo and Jankel have turned to Alcon to deliver bespoke braking systems that fully meet the demanding requirements of the challenging, high-performance, modern-day battlefield.

Mr. Janne Räkköläinen, Vice President Vehicles, at Patria Land said: “Our 6×6 vehicle is designed to be operated in all conditions and it needs to deliver the solid performance throughout the various missions and operations. In addition to the performance, braking systems are safety critical elements of the vehicle so the complete reliability and fulfilment of requirements are top priority for us. We know we can rely on Alcon’s support and performance”.

Jonathan Edwards, Group Sales Director at Alcon said: “Alcon’s previous selection by Patria is an unqualified confirmation of Alcon’s status as a company that provides the finest bespoke braking systems to the global defence markets. We’re delighted that the Patria 6×6 has been selected for this programme and we look forward to a continued strong relationship with Patria as the programme evolves.” He added: “It is a key strategic company aim for Alcon to become the first-choice braking system supplier to defence vehicle companies across the globe. This recent announcement underlines our ability to deliver and become exactly that.”

Posted in International, Mobility, Press Release | Comments Off on Alcon Braking Systems to be Part of Patria’s Breakthrough into Widening Military Markets

Sneak Peek – Atlantic Signal SPEAR line

Friday, February 21st, 2020

Next week Atlantic Signal will introduce the next generation in Executive Protection Comms – The SPEAR line.

Posted in Comms | 7 Comments »

Gerber Prybrid Utility

Friday, February 21st, 2020

The upcoming Prybrid Utility from Gerber combines a replaceable utility blade with a compact Multi-Tool.

All-in-all, the Prybrid Utility offers eight functions in a compact form.

Posted in Advertiser, Knives | Comments Off on Gerber Prybrid Utility

2020 Crye Precision Catalog

Friday, February 21st, 2020

Download the 2020 Crye Precision catalog here.

Posted in Advertiser, Catalog | 6 Comments »

Air Force Changes Path of Entry for Enlisted Special Warfare Operators

Friday, February 21st, 2020

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas – To better afford enlisted recruits the time and opportunity to find the path of their greatest calling, the Air Force has created a single path of entry into the special warfare recruiting and initial training pipeline.

TACP FTX @ Camp Bullis, Texas

The Special Warfare Operator Enlistment Vectoring program will officially commence in early April of this year with a new Air Force Specialty Code for accessions and the first shipment of special warfare candidates to the service’s basic military training.

“On initial entry into the Air Force, the 9T500 AFSC will be the only path for new Airmen to pursue a career into the Combat Control, Pararescue, Tactical Air Control Party or Special Reconnaissance career fields,” said Lt. Col. Joseph Lopez, chief of the special warfare division at Air Education and Training Command headquarters. “This change allows candidates to make a more informed career decision, prior to being vectored, after months of education, training, development, and mentorship, to see what career field might be the best fit for them. The program also enhances the Air Force’s ability to assign Airmen a permanent AFSC in an equitable way across the special warfare community after a thorough “whole-person” evaluation has been conducted on every candidate going through through the accessions and initial phase of training.”

Every day, special warfare Airmen deploy around the world to project American military power through global access, rescue friendly forces through personnel recovery operations and to destroy the enemy through precision strikes.

The SWOE-V program centers on a “coach-develop-mentor” mindset that begins in the pre-accession phase where recruiting development teams identify potential special warfare operators and begin the process to prepare them for the rigors of the special warfare training pipeline and later, their designated career field.

“The typical special warfare scouting, recruiting and development process for a candidate from pre-accessioning to shipping to BMT takes from four to six months,” said Lt. Col. Heath Kerns, commander of the 330th Recruiting Squadron which specializes in special warfare and combat support recruiting. “During pre-accessioning with help from our developers, candidates begin a 21-day “Pass the PAST” workout program developed to help them pass the Physical Abilities Stamina Test, while at the same time being educated on special warfare components, missions and specialties and the SWOE vector process.”

Another key element to the SWOE-V program will be the base lining of enlistment standards for recruits.

“Having a standardized baseline of enlistment standards will eliminate confusion amongst potential recruits, as well as opens up a larger pool of candidates during the recruiting process who might be eligible for and interested in a career in special warfare,” Kerns said.

After a potential candidate passes the PAST, a test that represents the minimum physical fitness entrance standards for enlisted special warfare career fields, they compete for selection and receive a developer recommendation before contracting and shipping to BMT at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, as a SWOE candidate, Kerns said.

During BMT, SWOE candidates will master curriculum that includes the Air Force mission and vision, core values, drill and ceremony, history and priorities, field training and joint warfare like every other trainee, but undergo additional training to prepare them for the Special Warfare Prep Course.

100% and then some, TACP apprentice course

“While assigned to their special warfare BMT flights, candidates conduct additional physical training and continue their education about all things special warfare related including components, missions and specialties and the SWOE vectoring process,” Lopez said.

SWOEs’ BMT performance evaluation data is collected throughout training to be included as part of the vectoring process once trainees enter the Special Warfare Prep course, administered by officials at the Special Warfare Training Wing, also at JBSA-Lackland.

“Along with the performance data from BMT, data from the Special Warfare prep course, and a SWOE’s career preference, candidates are vectored to either the Special Tactics and Guardian Angel, or the Tactical Air Control Party, courses of initial entry,” Lopez said.

Selection for a specific special warfare Air Force Specialty Code is heavily based on a candidate’s performance, which drives a competitive model early on, even before shipping to BMT, thus helping shape individual’s drive, determination and strengths, intended to create trust and team cohesion among candidates, Lopez said.

Special Warfare trainees honor fallen combat controller

“Nothing is given; Airmen must earn their spot in their chosen career field and fight for it,” Lopez said. “We are evaluating them continuously through pre-accessioning, BMT and the Special Warfare Prep Course, using a whole person concept that includes cognitive, physical skills, as well as Airmanship and instructors’ evaluation of teamwork and attitude.”

From this point in the pipeline, SWOE candidates are split into one of two paths: the four-week Special Tactics and Guardian Angel course of initial entry or the TACP initial course of entry.

“After successful completion of the ST/GA initial course of entry, candidates will be assigned into the combat controller, pararescue or special reconnaissance AFSC based on their continued performance during training and their preference,” Lopez said. “After successful completion of that course, candidates continue along their respective AFSC-specific training pipelines.”

Special Warfare Airmen train with U.S. Marine Corps Reserve

Those who enter the TACP course of initial entry and successfully complete it will continue along in the remainder of the TACP training pipeline, said Lopez.

“The SWOE-V really is a big deal as it represents a momentous change for the Air Force special warfare community,” Lopez said. “By removing constraints in the recruiting and accessions process, we are expanding the talent pool while streamlining entry into the service. We also ensure ensure equitable distribution consistent with and proportional to Air Force-established production goals.”

By Dan Hawkins, Air Education and Training Command Public Affairs

AF Note: To hear more about the SWOE-V program, listen to “The Air Force Starts Here” podcast featuring Lt. Col Lopez, AETC’s special warfare division chief, and Lt. Col. Heath Kerns, 330th Recruiting Squadron commander. The podcast is available for download or streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Play, as well as on the AETC website.

Posted in AFSW, Air Force, Guest Post, Profession of Arms, SOF, Training | 4 Comments »