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PowerFlares – An Alternative to Incendiary Flares

Saturday, April 11th, 2009

Invented by a police officer, the PowerFlare PF-200 Electronic LED Safety Light is designed for use by police, firefighters, EMTs, rescue first responders, military, and members of emergency response teams. The applications are limited only by your imagination but work well for marking routes, drop and landing zones, and items of interest. It can also be used for IFF, Personnel Recovery, as well as illumination. In addition to a Morse Code SOS blinking feature the PowerFlare has 10 User-selectable blinking patterns.

The advantages are obvious as PowerFlares overcome the myriad problems experienced with incendiary flares. Flares/fusees cause unintentional fires, in some cases spontaneous trunk fires, they often donâ€™t light, leave toxic residue, and contaminate air and water. Additionally, flares are an expensive one time use item, not to mention that fusees burn out in in a mere 20 minutes.

On the other hand, PowerFlares can be used from 8 to 150 hours per battery (with a shelf life of up to 10 years) while the LEDâ€™s last for up to 100,000 hours. In addition, the systems are extremely impact resistant and can withstand the weight of a truck so they won’t need to be replaced.

PowerFlares are available in a variety of colors

Shells are available in Yellow, Orange, Blue, and OD. LEDs are offered in Amber, Blue, Green, Red, and White. Additionally, a special version of the PowerFlare is available with IR LEDs. The best value is the PF-200R 6-Pack Rechargeable System which comes with six of the PF-200R beacons packed in a recharging case. The recharger can be plugged into a vehicle hot point (12-30VDC) or wall outlet.

They also offer storage bags in UCP as well as other colors that carry four PowerFlares.

To order visit PowerFlare Distribution Center, Inc.

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Comms Cord and Reel

Friday, April 10th, 2009

From high tech to low tech. The last article depicted the latest in intra-squad communications but there are more traditional methods. Although rarely used by US forces, the British continue to utilize a comms line when setting up a patrol harbour (base). Naturally, this can’t be used while patrolling but it is a silent means of communication while lying up. The concept is to string lines between emplacements in order to signal one another. Codes are worked out to signify different messages, for example, two tugs means stand to.

Comms Cord on a Reel from RV Ops

Comms cord on a reel with a handy carabiner clip is available from RV Ops in the UK.

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Army Develops Rifleman Radio

Friday, April 10th, 2009

The Joint Program Executive Office Joint Tactical Radio Systems (JPEO-JTRS) is developing the Rifleman Radio as part of an effort to bring secure, networking capabilities to the intra-squad level.

The Rifleman Radio will be interoperable with other Joint Tactical Radio System products, to allow needed connectivity to higher echelon command elements. Photo by: Jason Bock (C-E LCMC)

The Rifleman Radio is interoperable, software programmable and upgradable and employs the Soldier Radio Waveform. It is ruggedized and light, includes a convenient push-to-talk, and a hands-free headset. The system is self-networking and will expand and contract as radios are added or subtracted from the net. Recently tests of the new radio were conducted at Fort Bliss, Texas with the 1st Armored Division.

“Right now, the individual Soldiers and their squad leaders are the biggest have-nots within the communications arena,” said Maj. Tracy Mann, of the TRADOC Capability Manager for Tactical Radios. “This capability will allow squad leaders and team leaders to talk directly to their subordinates, and their subordinate leaders to be able to command and control their individual squad and platoon battle troops.”

By employing a National Security Agency Type 2 certification, the Rifleman Radio can offer controlled but unclassified communications a Soldier can employ without requiring security clearances. This solves one radio problem for infantry units, which are comprised mostly of troops who are not cleared. The NSA Type 2 encryption bars classified information from being passed during transmissions and makes secure information more difficult for enemies to intercept. With these factors in place, the Rifleman Radio will not only deliver 10 to 100 times the bandwidth to the tactical edge, but at the same time, make sharing information more secure for the Soldier.

In addition to voice communication, the Rifleman radio also supplies a commander with a GPS picture of his squad members through a Position Location Information, or PLI, display. At Fort Bliss, the 1st Armored Division used the GPS features of the Rifleman Radio in a shoot-house situation. Squad leaders positioned outside of a darkened room were able to locate and identify the positions of each member of their team through the PLI.

The Rifleman Radio is being developed as a stand alone system, but will integrate into the Ground Soldier System Ensemble platform providing mission planning, execution, and situational awareness capabilities to squad team leaders and above. The Rifleman Radio will also be interoperable with the other suite of JTRS products being developed including the Ground Mobile Radio and HMS Manpack radio, to provide the needed connectivity to higher echelon command elements.

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