AUSA 89: focus on firepower; some major up-and-coming programmes in the pipeline.

AUSA 89: Focus on Firepower

Some Major Up-and-Coming Programmes in the Pipeline

The 1989 Association of the US Army exhibition in Washington was widely considered to have been the best in four years. The number and quality of visitors were the highest for a long time, and the industry showed an even more remarkable range of new developments than has become the norm at this outstanding annual event. Visiting Soviet Military Intelligence officers must have been overwhelmed.

The plethora of new systems on display was surprising in view of the parlous state of the US defence budget, and the Army's share of it in particular. Analysts predict that, in order to comply with the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act that seeks to bring some sanity to the towering US budget deficit, the Army's funds will be cut by two percent in real terms every year from now until 1997. They then foresee a flat budget curve for another three years, followed by a slight rise in 2001.

This, of course, assumes that glasnost and perestroika continue on the course that Mikhail Gorbachev has charted, and that the international security situation does not deteriorate once more. Given the current social and economic turbulence in the USSR and Eastern Europe, such assumptions contain a sizeable element of prayer.

If these prayers are answered, however, the reduction in US Army budgets is going to mean inevitable cuts in manpower. Can the Army accommodate such cuts while stil maintaining its global commitments? That $64 000 question is one that will be answered finally by the US Congress. But several experts believe that the Army can do both. How? By making increasing use of the Reserve. According to these experts, a reservist costs a mere 20 cents for every dollar that a regular Army soldier costs the US taxpayer. Whether or not the Army Staff is willing and able to lobby successfully in Congress for this solution remains to be seen. If it does not, we can expect some possibly dramatic withdrawals of US military forces from overseas, with or without equivalent Soviet pullbacks.

What will the budget cuts mean in terms of future US Army equipment programmes? Here, the analysts are almost all unanimous: in future, the Army is going to be so strapped for cash that it will be forced to abandon many of its planned single-mission systems in favour of procuring increasing numbers of multi-role platforms, weapons and equipment.

Meanwhile, however, the modernization of the Soviet Army's equipment is proceeding unabated. As it is progressively reorganized into combined-arms brigades and corps, the Soviet Army is able to get rid of the dross in political gestures (both unilaterally and in arms control agreements), while at the same time becoming leaner and very much meaner.

Defence Minister Dmitry Yazov told the Supreme Soviet in July, for instance, that under present plans only older battle-tanks fielded in the 1960s and '70s are to be withdrawn and destroyed. There is no evidence that a single Soviet artillery piece has yet been withdrawn from Eastern Europe under unilateral reductions, and there is much to suggest that Gorbachev's proclaimed new doctrine of <<defensive sufficiency>> has failed to reach Soviet field formations. These may be far better organized and equipped now for a high-speed offensive than ever before.

If Gorbachev survives the transitional economic, social and political upheavals he has precipitated in the USSR and Eastern Europe, and conventional armed forces cuts are achieved on both sides in Europe, NATO's reduced in-place forces will find it harder, not easier, to deal with a surprise attack by Soviet formations remaining in East Germany. This will place a premium on good intelligence, high mobility, survivability, and the ability to bring down sufficient firepower to stop several Operational Manoeuvre Groups dead in their tracks.

To guard against the actual capabilities of Soviet combined-arms formations, as against the Kremlin's proclaimed intentions (which could alter overnight), the US Army is wisely concentrating its procurement efforts on obtaining a more efficient, more mobile and more survivable bang for its dwindling bucks.

AUSA '89 therefore focussed heavily on the state-of-the-art in precision-guided munitions and highly mobile survivable platforms to carry and launch them. Since an aggressor can capture and hold territory only with troops on the ground, the emphasis was on the anti-armour and anti-helicopter roles, in which every round - increasing - must be made to count.

While most of these new systems are covered in the photos and captions to this report, the remainder of the text provides detailed descriptions of several key fire-power programmes, selected for their international importance.

Follow-On To Lance (FOTL) Political Dynamite

The hottest political potato at AUSA, by far, was the US Army's planned Follow-On To Lance (FOTL).

This new nuclear missile is intended to be deployed in Europe in the early 1990s under NATO's highly controversial Short-Range Nuclear Forces (SRNF) modernization programme. It is to have a range of some 450 km, more than four times that of the present Lance it is due to replace, and approaching the lower range limit on missiles banned under the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The Follow-on To Lance is to be carried in pairs, in two launch containers mounted on conventional Multiple-Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launch vehicles. As is the case with the conventional long-range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS - see below), now in low-rate initial production at LTV, the containers are to be camouflaged so as to be indistinguishable from the six-pack containers for the more than 30 kilometre-range MLRS rockets already being deployed in NATO. This camouflage is designed to make the nuclear Follow-On to Lance systems difficult to recognize by anti-nuclear demonstrators and saboteurs in peacetime, as well as by Soviet conventional assets (both airborne and Spetsnaz special forces) in time of war. The Army specifications do, however, call for the FOTL to be identifiable by Soviet <<technical means of verification>> (i.e. satellites). They will, in any case, be available for inspection by visiting Soviet verification teams in peacetime, in compliance with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty rules.

As this article went to press, the US Army was scheduled to issue Requests For Proposals (RFPs) on FOTL to industry. It plans to issue one or more development contracts in May/June, just as political campaigning for the December 1990 West German federal elections gets into full swing. If the US Army sticks to this appallingly ill-judged timing, it will guarantee an electoral firestorm over FOTL in West Germany, where the Lance replacements would have to be deployed. This will be two years earlier than NATO had agreed to re-discuss the thorny issue of its future SRNF requirements, and eventual negotiations on their reduction. Unless it changes its schedule, the US Army therefore risks having the FOTL programme killed off by anti-nuclear pressure from German politicians and public opinion, before it has even got into development.

Recognizing the political sensitivity of the Follow-on To Lance programme, at least two of the major US companies expected to bid for it had no FOTL exhibit, and refused to discuss it. Speculation that LTV would propose an extended-range version of ATACMS, and that Martin Marietta would bid a boosted variant of Assault Breaker (or a Pershing 3), could thus not be confirmed.

Boeing, on the other hand, had no such reservations. It showed a model and handed out a data sheet on its proposed FOTL design. This is based on the new SRAM T nuclear weapon Boeing is already developing for the tactical air-to-surface role from the existing SRAM II (Short-Range Attack Missile). In the ground-launched FOTL role, SRAM T would require virtually no modifications other than being fitted with two off-the-shelf, 6" diameter strap-on booster rockets.

Compared to the obsolescent Lance, Boeing claims that its FOTL design would provide not only a dramatic range increase, but also improved ground and in-flight survivability, greater accuracy, and reduced collateral damage. "Replacing the dedicated Lance force structure with multi-capable (MLRS/ATACMS/FOTL) battalions", Boeing says, "will yield a better than 5-to-1 reduction in required manpower-to-ready missiles."

According to Boeing the 2 600lb missile would, however, require a launch container 20 cm longer than the standard MLRS six-pack. For satellite verification, the launcher would simply be elevated and the end-covers removed, revealing the missiles in their containers. The missiles could also be electronically "tagged".

Under its Air Staff Requirement 1244 (for a 500 km range stand-off nuclear missile) the RAF has funded studies of the SRAM T, fitted if possible with a British nuclear warhead. The RAF has also awarded contracts for similar studies of the nuclear Tactical Air-to-Surface Missile (TASM) version of Martin Marietta's Supersonic Low-Altitude Target (SLAT) and a Franco-British 500 km range Air-Sol Longue Portee (ASLP) derived from the Aerospatiale Air-Sol Moyenne Portee (ASMP). ASR 1244 is to replace the RAF's ancient WE 177 nuclear gravity bomb.

Should it be decided that FOTLs will be based in the UK in peacetime, for rapid airlift in a crisis into the US and British corps areas in the FRG (whence they could cover the whole of the Inner German Border), the British might find a combined buy of both Boeing systems economically and logistically attractive for their own SRNF modernisation.

Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) - NATO Needs it

ATACMS is a conventional semi-ballistic missile designed for the deep attack of Warsaw Pact second-echelon forces, as part of NATO's Follow-On Forces Attack (FOFA) concept. Its range is approximately double that of Lance, or about 200 km.

The Missiles Division of LTV's Missiles and Electronics Group won the contract for its development and integration with the MLRS launch vehicle in March 1986. This contract included options for three years of production. First flight test took place in April 1988, when all test objectives were met. An initial 66 missiles are being produced in FY 1989 under a $70.7 million contract. Full-scale production will start in FY 1990, with 152 missiles budgeted at $94.9 million, and $200 million are in the FY 1991 budget request for a further 452 missiles.

A key advantage of ATACMS is that it integrates into the MLRS force structure without additional soldiers, launchers or other military specialties. It is treated as just another crate of MLRS ammunition. It will, however, enable corps commanders to bring down rapid and accurate fire not only against deep targets to their front, but also against enemy formations attacking neighbouring allied corps.

If the FOFA concept is to be applied successfully throughout the NATO area, ATACMS is going to have to be deployed with allied, as well as US Army corps. The US is therefore actively soliciting co-production in Europe of the missile and its current anti-personnel /anti-materiel warhead (containing hundreds of dual-purpose M74 bomblets). The US is also seeking allied development or co-development of future alternate munitions and warheads. The latter include anti-armour Terminally-Guided Sub-Munitions (TGSMs), mines, hard target and runway-busting munitions.

Both Raytheon and General Dynamics exhibited competing infrared TGSM designs for the so-called ATACMS Block II warhead system. General Dynamics' Valley Systems Division last August won a $19 million Army contract to demonstrate the proof-of-concept of its IRTGSM candidate.

Martin Marietta, meanwhile, has been working for many years with LTV on TGSMs for both MLRS and ATACMS, and has experience in both two-colour IR and millimetre-wave seekers for them. Martin Marietta's partnership in the MDTT consortium (with Diehl of the FRG, Thomson-CSF of France and Thorn-EMI of the UK), which is developing the three-submunition Terminally Guided Warhead (TGW) for MLRS, is likely to weigh heavily in the final choice of the TGSM for ATACMS.

Unlike the IR seekers of the General Dynamics and Raytheon candidates, the MLRS TGSM (scheduled to enter production in 1995) uses a millimetre-wave seeker. This is considered to offer operational advantages over IR, particularly in rain, fog and smoke, but its development is more risky since MMW technology is more recent.

Should the FOTL be cancelled for any reason, ATACMS would very likely become the leading candidate to replace it. A nuclear warhead would weigh less than the ATACMS conventional warheads, thus conferring a significant increase in range with little or no modification. With minor modifications, a nuclear version of ATACMs could probably fly as far as the INF Treaty limits.

FOG-M - The Favourite Future Weapon System

The FOG-M (Fiber-Optic Guided Missile) was one of the stars of the show, featuring on at least four company stands. With the first 256 missiles scheduled to enter production in 1991 (for a budgeted $ 131.2 million), it is popular with the Army which designed it, popular with the industry that is developing it, and popular with Congress which is being asked to pay for it.

Being developed officially as the Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) element of the Army's Forward Area Air Defense System (FAADS), FOG-M is remarkably simple in concept and operation. Yet it provides ground troops with a capability to kill enemy helicopters and tanks at ranges in excess of 10 km, with near 100% certainty. No army has ever had such a capability before. And, due to the fact that virtually all the "smart" (and therefore costly) electronics are back at the launcher, where they can be used time and time again, the missiles themselves are relatively inexpensive. Small wonder, then, that - with a highly successful series of development firings behind it - FOG-M has survived the budget-cutters' scythe unscathed.

The NLOS system consists of a fire unit containing the gunner's station and control electronics, and the FOG missiles in sealed canisters. The fire units in US Army Light Divisions will be mounted on M-1037 Hummers (with six ready missiles each), while in Heavy Divisions they will be carried on M-993 MLRS carriers (with 12 missiles each).

In a typical fire mission, the gunner will receive data on his fire unit's assigned target area over his command intelligence net. On his console, he can call up a digital map of the terrain on which he can pre-programme the missile flight route into the target area, taking advantage of terrain features to minimize missile detection by the enemy. Given a target location via any one of a number of cueing means, the gunner can have the first missile vertically launched and in the air within a matter seconds.

When the missile is fired, it will automatically fly the pre-programmed route, paying out fibre-optic cable from the bobbin in its tail section. The fibre-optic cable remains connected to the fire unit and permits continuous two-way, broad-band communications between the missile and the fire unit. Video from the TV or Imaging IR camera in the missile's nose is transmitted back down the fibre, for display on the screen of the gunner's console. The gunner can slew the seeker camera in both azimuth and elevation to ensure a complete view of the area ahead of the missile.

Once it is in the target area, the gunner locates and positively identifies his target by controlling the seeker's look angles and fields of view. When he then initiates track on the target, the missile is controlled by commands from the auto-tracker in the fire unit, transmitted up the optical fibre. Upon track initiation, the gunner is free to turn his attention to a following missile. The FOG-M system permits multiple missiles in flight simultaneously, each flying pre-programmed attack routes.

The optical fibre allows the gunner to remain hidden from enemy fire, and the non-ballistic flight of the missile precludes enemy detection of the fire unit's location. Since neither the fibre nor the missile emit any radiation, the attack remains covert. In addition, all critical decisions (route planning, target identification, aim point adjustment, etc.) are made by the gunner, who can switch targets at will.

Under a 43-month full-scale engineering development contract awarded in December 1988, prime contractor Boeing and team member Hughes will build eight NLOS systems consisting offour Light Division fire units, four Heavy Division fire units and 40 missiles. Major subcontractors are Williams International, for the 100 lbt WJ119-2 axial-flow turbojet thatpowres the missile, and Emerson Electric Co. for vehicular equipment design, development and production support.

The Boeing-Hughes team will continue together through low-rate initial production, but will compete for full-scale production contracts.

NATO 155 mm APGM - Follow-on to Copperhead 

No fewer than eight NATO nations and 22 companies, divided into two competing industrial consortia, are currently working on a fire-and-forget antitank round for their 155 mm artillery weapons. Development is expected to take another seven years, with entry into service in 1998 at the earliest. Designated the 155 mm Autonomous Precision-Guided Munition (APGM), the new smart projectile is to be a true all-weather, fire-and-forget weapon of identical geometry to conventional 155 mm rounds.

The eight NATO nations involved, in order of financial and industrial participation, are: the US, the FRG, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada and Turkey. No one country is permitted more than 40% of the industrial business. The two consortia are led, respectively, by General Dynamics Valley Systems Division and Honeywell. GD's joint venture team includes, as equal partners, ASELSAN (Turkey), Computing Devices Company (Canada), Dornier (FRG), Empresa Nacional Santa Barbara (Spain), Matra (France), OTO-Melara (Italy) and Signaal (Netherlands). Dornier is using MBB as the warhead subcontractor, while Santa Barbara is subcontracting software support to INISEL.

Honeywell's team has formed the joint venture Alliance Development Corporation (ADCO). In addition to Honeywell, partners are: Hughes Aircraft (USA); Rheinmetall and TST/AEG (FRG); GIAT and ESD (Fr.); Garrett Canada, Arsenals Canada and Honeywell Ltd. (Can.); Fokker (Neths.); Selenia and SNIA BPD (It.); EXPAL (Sp.); and MKEK (Tur.).

In both of the competing designs now funded for Expanded Feasibility Demonstration (including inert firings by 1992), the APGM is to be fired in a standardized carrier shell from which it is ejected towards the end of the ballistic trajectory. At that point, the sub-munition deploys its wings and fins, and goes into glide mode, activating its seeker. Once the seeker has identified and locked onto a tank target, the APGM initiates the terminal attack phase, diving onto the thinner-armoured top of the target. To counter any add-on reactive armour, both APGM designs feature a precursor charge ahead of the main warhead.

The fundamental difference between the two designs is that, whereas the ADCO seeker is purely millimetre wave, the General Dynamics team's so-called All-Weather Smart Projectile (ASP) uses a dual-mode MMW /2-colour IR seeker (borrowed from the Stinger RMP). Both elements are activated when the seeker switches on. The advantage claimed for the dual-mode approach is that the two-colour IR element provides better discrimination of the terminal guidance aimpoint than MMW.

In April 1988, both consortia were selected for the Phase 1 Expanded Feasibility Demonstration. The losing teams were headed by Martin Marietta and Raytheon. The Phase 1 contracts were only awarded in June 1989, however, due to German funding problems. The General Dynamics team was awarded approximately $ 75 million, while ADCO received $84 million. This phase is due to be completed by 1992. The Phase 2 Project Definition/System Demonstration stage (including first live firings) is due to run for 22 months throughout 1992 and 1993. This will be followed by 36 months of fullscale engineering development by a single consortium, starting in 1994/5, after which production will start in Phase 4.

There is some concern about the APGM programme since, although in the US it is funded as a Nunn collaborative project, Congress zeroed the US budget for it in FY 1989. The US, France and FRG gave up their own national programmes in favour of the NATO APGM, and - unlike the first-generation Copper-head whose drawbacks the APGM rectifies - there is an alliance-wide military requirement and potential $6 billion NATO market for it. The UK and Switzerland may join in at a later stage.

As a safety net in case the NATO APGM goes down, the US Army at end-1987 awarded Martin Marietta a $30.5 million contract to develop a seeker for an Interim APGM. Building on its experience with Copperhead (more than 27 000 produced to date), Martin Marietta took this contract several steps further with its own funds, and began development of the complete Interim APGM round, which it diplomatically calls the Fire & Forget 155 mm projectile (F&F155). Basically a Copperhead cut down in length to that of a standard 155 mm projectile, and with wrap-around wings to save internal space, the F&F155 also has a tandem warhead.

The Army-funded seeker uses both Imaging IR and semi-active laser (SAL) technologies to provide three operating modes: dual-mode, in which it home in on laser energy reflected off the target from a separate designator, locking onto the target's IR signature for terminal guidance: the IIR-only mode which provides fully autonomous fire-and-forget capability; and the SAL-only mode, for precision strike of separately designated targets regardless of their IR signature. Two inert F&F155 rounds, with Copperhead SAL guidance, scored bull's-eyes in first firings on 27 September. The new seeker has been successfully tower-tested with the IIR and SAL modes operating individually, and tests of the combined mode should be complete by end-1989. The next phase calls for two years of captive flight testing of the seeker. In parallel, Martin Marietta expects to win Army funds for live firings with a Physics International warhead. Martin Marietta claims that its F&F155 could go into production as an Interim APGM in 1991.

PHOTO : The US Army was to decide in mid-December on production by BMY of the initial 19 Howitzer 

PHOTO : Improvement Program kits to upgrade 155 mm M109A2s and A3s to A6 status. Six prototypes

PHOTO : have now completed testing. 40 more HIP kits are budgeted for FY1990 and 163 for FY1991.

PHOTO : Improvements include: range increase to 24 km (30 km with RAP); firing within 60 sec from

PHOTO : the move; onboard navigation and auto fire-control system; 50% better survivability when

PHOTO : hit; and optional semi-auto loader (for Israel).

PHOTO : Boeing is proposing its 500 km-range SRAM T nuclear air-surface missile, withtwo

PHOTO : strap-on boosters for ground launch from the MLRS carrier, as the US Army's Lance

PHOTO : replacement (top). Proposals are also expected from Martin Marietta and LTV. The US Army

PHOTO : plans to select one or more designs for development in May/June 1990.

PHOTO : GD Land Systems exhibited a model of the latest M1 A2 Abrams version (above), which

PHOTO : entered full development in December 1988. Production of 1809 M1 A2s is scheduled to begin

PHOTO : in 1992. Improvements over the 120 mm-gunned M1A1 (4227 to be fielded, half now delivered)

PHOTO : are known collectively as Block II. These include: an Improved Commander's Weapon Station

PHOTO : with added protection and new periscope array; a fully rotatable "hunter-killer"

PHOTO : Commander's Independent Thermal Viewer, by Texas Instruments; armoured doors for the

PHOTO : stabilized Gunner's Primary Sight; a new eye-safe CO2 laser rangefinder, capable of

PHOTO : penetrating fog and smoke; and Inter-Vehicular Information System exchanging map, graphic

PHOTO : and text information via an encrypted SINCGARS radio link; a Smiths Industries

PHOTO : Position/Navigation System, with displays for commander and driver; a Driver's Thermal

PHOTO : Viewer; classified Armament Enhancements that include "improved and special ammunition to

PHOTO : meet the new threat" (i.e. explosive reactive armour); and Armour Enhancements. These are

PHOTO : also classified but, according to congressional testimony, they include depleted uranium

PHOTO : armour. On the model, the depleted uranium armour was shown bolted to the turret front and

PHOTO : top.

PHOTO : AAWS-M for 1994 production. The Texas Instruments/Martin Marietta fire-and-forget Advanced

PHOTO : Anti-tank Weapon System-Medium (AAWS-M) began a scheduled 36 months of Full-Scale

PHOTO : Engineering Development and Initial Production last June. Dual-source competitive

PHOTO : production is due to start in 1994. AAWS-M uses a longwave (8--10 micron) IR focal plane

PHOTO : array seeker for day/night operation, plus trajectory-shaping guidance electronics and

PHOTO : thrust vector controls for top attack.

PHOTO : Emerson is developing the GLH-H weapon station, with General Electric turret drives, 8

PHOTO : Rockwell Hellfire missiles and Hughes G/VLLD laser designator, as a drop-in module for

PHOTO : Bradley (left), LAV and M113 vehicles. A fire-and-forget version of the 8 km-range

PHOTO : Hellfire will have an IIR or MMW seeker.

PHOTO : The Army TACMS is packaged in Multiple Rocket Launcher System (MLRS)-size launch

PHOTO : pod/containers.

PHOTO : Britain's VSEL Armaments showed its first private venture prototype 155 mm Ultra

PHOTO : Lightweight Field Howitzer, now on firing trials in the United Kingdom. The second will be

PHOTO : tested by the US Army in 1990. The Ultra Lightweight Field Howitzer is designated to

PHOTO : provide the same performance as the current US Army and US Marine Corps 155 mm M198,

PHOTO : which weighs 7 163 kg, for a mass of only 3736 kg, allowing lift by UH-60 Black Hawk or,

PHOTO : in two loads, lighter helicopters.

PHOTO : LTV's laser-guided LOSAT kinetic energy missile is a priority Army development to defeat

PHOTO : reactive armour. Fired at a blistering 5000 ft/sec from a retractable quad launcher on the

PHOTO : Bradley, it is to replace the Improved TOW Vehicle.

PHOTO : Textron Defense Systems showed its competitor for the Army's imminent WAM full-scale

PHOTO : development contract. Emplacement is to be by hand, heli-borne Volcano dispenser, ATACMS

PHOTO : or MLRS. After dispensing, WAM comes to rest on the ground, self-erects, autonomously

PHOTO : searches for tanks or vehicles within a 100 m radius, then launches a top-attack smart

PHOTO : munition.

PHOTO : Ford's new version Chaparral air defence system mounted on a M987 (MLRS) carrier. The

PHOTO : improved MIM-72G missiles feature 15 km-range and dual-mode passive IR/RF guidance. Corps

PHOTO : SAM can fire on the move, is fitted with passive FLIR, low-light TV, RF sensors and radar.

PHOTO : Teledyne Continental Motors used AUSA to promote its modular 105 mm overhead mount,

PHOTO : designated the Low Profile Turret, for the US Marine Corps' upcoming LAV 105 mm

PHOTO : requirement and tracked Army vehicles.

PHOTO : FOG-M engagement concept

PHOTO : The FOG-M on the Boeing stand revealed many of its features.

PHOTO : In development by Boeing-Hughes, FOG-M has been successfully tested to rangesin excess of

PHOTO : 12 km against ground vehicles and helicopters. The missile is powered by a Williams

PHOTO : International WJ119-2 turbojet in the 100 lbt class. Under the current FSED contract, 20

PHOTO : missiles are to be produced with TV and 20 with IIR guidance.

PHOTO : Emerson's FOG-M vertical launchers: 6-cell on Light Division Hummers (top left) and

PHOTO : 12-cell on Heavy Division MLRS carriers (top right). Below is a FOG-M gunner's station in

PHOTO : a Hummer.

PHOTO : Special Forces night aiming devices from IMO subsidiary Varo showed two new night aiming

PHOTO : devices at AUSA. The Model 98-86A IR aiming light (top) is used with night vision goggles.

PHOTO : Output of 3.2 mW is 100x more powerful than the current AN/TPQ-4 and max. effective range

PHOTO : is 300 m, where beamwidth is that of a man. At 100m, it is 4.5 in. Powered by AA or

PHOTO : lithium batteries, the $750 unit is watertight to I m. First customer is the FBI. US

PHOTO : Special Forces are showing high interest, and several are on test in NATO. The 4x Aquila

PHOTO : passive mini weapon sight (below) was developed for Special Operations Forces. It is 35%

PHOTO : lighter than the present AN/PVS-4, uses interchangeable sealed Gen. II or Gen. III image

PHOTO : intensification tubes and standard AA batteries. Prices are below $4000 with a Gen II tube

PHOTO : and under $5000 with a Gen. III tube.

PHOTO : Artist's impression of the General Dynamics team's ASP, shown in mockup form at AUSA.

PHOTO : Under US Army contract, Oerlikon is to supply a new type of 25 mm Long Rod APFS-DS round,

PHOTO : fired at full spin without slipping drive bands, for testing in the XM919 programme to

PHOTO : improve armour penetration of the McDonnell Douglas Helicopters M242 Bushmaster cannon.

PHOTO : The round is being developed with Patec and MDH.

PHOTO : ITT's new F4975 Gen. III night vision pocketscope (top left), can be hand-held or mounted

PHOTO : directly on a camera. The scope extends operation from the visible to the near infrared

PHOTO : spectrum. The ITT F4960 Stinger Night Sight (left) is competing for USMC procurement. It

PHOTO : uses a 60 mm F 1.2 lens with 23.5 [degrees] FOV, and a 25 mm Gen. III + I image

PHOTO : intensifier tube, allowing target detection at up to 7 km under starlight-only conditions.

PHOTO : LTV's stand featured an AM General Armoured Hummer vehicle, including the new doors

PHOTO : subjected to ballistic trials. The left half had withsood the impact of 18 rounds of 7.62

PHOTO : mm ball, fired at 2750 ft/sec, and the right half 20 rounds of 5.56 mm ball, fired at

PHOTO : 3000 ft/sec. No rounds penetrated the non-spall, 1.6-inch laminated glass/polycarbonate

PHOTO : windows made by Sierracin. The new front hood and rear cargo door are also proofed against

PHOTO : 7.62 mm armour-piering rounds fired at 3100 ft/sec.