Think tank Battelle has developed a new Line-of-Sight millimeter wave comms system that offers 10 Gb per second transmission rates.
Operating in the E and W bands, it boasts a mere 64 nano-seconds of latency and is already being looked at to transmit wide area persistent surveillance data to ground stations and in the commercial sector to support financial transactions. The 2′ antenna (seen above) offers 53 dB gain and has a 4.8m beam width.
For more info contact GDataWave@battelle.org.
The SIG MPX is a machine pistol. That’s right, a machine pistol even though it seems like a word we don’t use much anymore.
It combines SIG’s short-stroke gas piston system with the AR-style controls you are familiar with. Additionally, it can be set up to shoot 9mm, .357 SIG or .40 S&W. This is the MPX-K but barrel lengths and types of stocks can be swapped out to change the configuration at the operator level.
All told, there are four models: MPX-K, MPX-P, MPX-SD with integral suppressor and MPX-C.
One of the things I miss about this new super-sized SOFIC is the small business aspect. You used to walk into SOFIC and see lots of innovative small companies that develop products to support SOF. Some of those things are still there, but now they’re generally tucked into a larger company’s booth. This year, in the booth of Faircount Media, publishers of “The Year In Special Operations” were a couple of such products. One was the Strykr Covert Carry pant but the one that caught my eye was a wooden box containing a knife.
Turns out, it was the G1 Urban Bayonet from Saevus. It’s a very innovative design and I definitely give the creator some credit for thinking outside the box. Essentially, what you are looking at, is a knife that pulls double duty as a foregrip. Granted, most of us have abandoned full length foregrip a due to weight and ergonomics. But look past that because the blade of the G1 stores in the grip and being spring activated, telescopes out into position once deployed. The 3-1/2″ Dual Edge Dagger Blade is made from 440 stainless and the handle is of urethane casting resin.
While it’s time may have already passed due to TTP changes, it’s definitely an interesting design and I look forward to seeing what else SAEVUS comes up with.
When you visit the SureFire booth, your attention is immediately drawn to the Polaris RAZR, set center stage. Atop that RAZR are mounted several Arc series lights.
The Arc series includes the handheld Arc-2 and Arc-3 as well as the highly successful Hellfighter weapon mounted lights including the new Hellfighter-5 which boasts 4500 lumens at 80 minutes with its integral battery pack (continuous with vehicle DC power).
We all know how well the Hellfighter family of lights work but what you really need to read up on are the Arc- and Arc-3 handhelds. The Arc-2 offers the same 4500 lumens at 1,000,000 candela as the Hellfighter-5 but in a handheld! This means you can reach out over 2,000m.
During last week’s SOFIC we mentioned the new AJAX Armor System from Tactical Revolution for use with crew served weapons in fixed positions that are not equipped with gun shields.
Now, we’d like to share the video of ballistic testing of the system so you can see that it works and why it has such an elaborate mounting system. In this high speed camera footage, you’ll notice how the plate returns to its proper position after mitigating the energy of the projectile strike.
Available through International Armored Group and manufactured by Tactical Revolution, LLC
We still have a few articles from last week’s Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida.
I ran across this gem the other day while looking for scorpion photos on SSD. This story goes back to when this latest round of Camo Wars began in 2009. Look what the prevailing thought was. Turns out, the Afghanistan was much larger than this, throwing in several additional patterns, Here we are, almost five years on and it looks to have turned out to be a Scorpion variant of all things.
In light of an impending directive from Congress to the Army to get their camo house in order, rumors continue to circulate about an upcoming test involving four camo patterns with the Army’s current Universal Camouflage pattern serving as a control.
The four patterns are MARPAT-Woodland, MARPAT-Desert, Multicam, and Desert All Over Brush (seen below). Originally, we had heard that the fourth pattern would be the 3-color Desert pattern issued to all services prior to adoption of their new distinctive uniforms. However, based on some recent, unverified information we believe it is actually the Desert All Over Brush which interestingly gave a very good showing during the Army camo trials of 2003-2004. According to a Natick report, a modified variant of the Desert version All Over Bush pattern performed best in all environments. You can also access a briefing presented on the subject at the 2004 International Soldier Systems Conference here.
Based on a series of evaluations documented in the report and briefing slides Natick developed the variant of All Over Brush pattern.
Having said all of that, the info on that particular pattern is old news. At some point in the Spring of 2004, the Army took a serious sidestep from all of its research and adopted UCP. if the rumors are true, looking at what is on the table, neither Marine patterns would really be considered serious candidates due to a variety of morale, and as we have discussed before, branding issues. You think the black beret issue was rough, imagine the outcry from two services if the Army adopted a Marine camo pattern. Consequently, while effective, we don’t consider the MARPAT variants as serious contenders. This leaves, depending on who is telling the story, either 3-color Desert which is still used by some US Navy forces (and a few others) or the prototype Desert All Over brush pattern in addition to Crye’s Multicam. While there are limited stocks of 3-color equipment still in the system, virtually none of it is in the configuration currently used by US forces. If it were adopted, the US Soldier would literally take a five year step back in capability until production of current issue equipment could be accomplished. Additionally, there is a political dimension to such a move. UCP was sold as a superior pattern to both Woodland and 3-Color Desert. Someone would naturally ask the question of why the Army discarded a pattern in favor of something less effective.
This leaves Desert All Over Brush and Multicam. Multicam has been used operationally by select US forces to great success and even more importantly, is currently supported by the US industrial base. A wide variety of Berry Compliant products (and raw materials) are available as COTS items. Additionally, industry already offers versions of current issue equipment in Multicam. Furthermore, there are numerous lightweight and multi-purpose Soldier Systems items designed specifically for environments like Afghanistan. Multicam is a mature, widely available, low hanging fruit. On the other hand, adoption of Desert All Over Brush would require long lead times as fabric mills first perfect and then produce sufficient quantities of materials. Only then could uniforms and equipment for our Soldiers begin to be procured.
We are waiting with bated breath to see if these rumors are true and what’s more, if they are, what will come of them. Naturally, Soldier Systems Daily will keep you updated.
And we’ve been keeping you updated ever since.
It’s Scorpion – go choke on a fat one.
In the post where I suggested that readers go ask their CSM which Camo the Army had chosen, Anthony decided that I was an attention whore that was crying wolf. If you know Anthony give him a swift kick in his fourth point of contact for me.
