Officials say the vehicles are being acquired from excess inventory of U.S. stockpiles but will be upgraded before they are put into service. The cost of the AAV7 acquisition was not mentioned.

The upgrade is likely to be carried out by BAE Systems' Global Combat Systems unit, Defense Market Intelligence and Chile's Defense and Military blog reported. Independent comment on the acquisition and upgrade was not immediately available.

The first of the AAV7s is set to be delivered in 2014 after the upgrade, likely to involve installation of more powerful engines. Chile's purchase includes 10 AAVP7 A1 troop transports, one AAVC7 command vehicle and one AAVR7 recovery vehicle, the reports said.

Manufactured by U.S. Combat Systems, the AAV-7A1 is the current amphibious troop transport of the U.S. Marine Corps.

The vehicles, once commissioned, will be part of a 1,400-strong brigade Chile operates aboard its Sargento Aldea multirole assault ship, acquired from France in a $80 million deal. The Sargento Aldea previously operated in the French navy as the Foudre and served allied forces in NATO Yugoslavia operations in 1992-93 and French military action in Ivory Coast.

Analysts said the tracked AAV7 could work well with the Sargento Aldea and other Chilean navy vessels but might not be suitable for peacekeeping missions requiring faster, wheeled vehicles.

It was not immediately clear if the BAE upgrade would extend to weaponry.

A standard AAV7 is usually equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun and a 40mm grenade launcher.

Chile is also looking into acquiring new helicopters, landing craft and other hardware for its armed forces.

The Chilean military, recently spotlighted for its alleged failure to spend enough of its allocations channeled through the copper export tax and other financial instruments, is aiming to catch up with military advances made by South American neighbors Brazil and Argentina.

However, the military is also hamstrung by low response to its recruitment drive. Chile's economic growth has opened new career opportunities and turned the military into an employer of last resort.

The armed forces enlistment numbers are set to be the lowest this year since 2007, the Santiago Times reported.

The number of Chileans volunteering to join the military is down 21 percent from 2012 and is the lowest since the rules on military service were reformed in 2007, the newspaper said on its website.

"The explanation for the decrease is similar to previous years, as we have been a country with full employment and a wide range of educational opportunities," Armed Forces Undersecretary Alfonso Vargas told La Tercera newspaper. "There has been a strong competition that has changed the landscape."

Chile's economy has continued to grow by more than 5 percent each year since 2009 and the average unemployment rate is 6.4 percent, the Santiago Times said, citing 2012 data.

The military announced new incentives including higher pay, bonuses and scholarships as part of the effort to reverse falling recruitment.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 04, 2013 - Raytheon Company booked a $106 million contract for its combat-proven Paveway II family of precision-guided munitions. The company was awarded the direct commercial sale from an international customer.

The contract includes Paveway kits for both GBU-12 (500lb) and GBU-58 (250lb) guided bombs. Paveway is a Raytheon-designed kit that transforms "dumb" bombs into precision-guided munitions. The contract order was booked in Raytheon's second quarter of 2013.

"Customers worldwide continue to select Raytheon's Paveway to protect their warfighters and citizens," said Harry Schulte, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems' Air Warfare Systems. "This contract further demonstrates Raytheon's long-standing commitment to its international partners."

Raytheon continues to evolve Paveway to meet the needs of the U.S. armed forces as well as allied nations.

The Raytheon Paveway family offers precision guidance kits compatible across a broad spectrum of warheads. Enhanced versions of Paveway include Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System guidance capabilities.

These combine the precision and flexibility of traditional laser-guided weapons with the all-weather capability of GPS guidance, resulting in a weapon that decreases the required sortie count and weapons inventory while simultaneously increasing the mission success rate.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Buffalo NY (SPX) Jun 04, 2013 - Northrop Grumman has been awarded a task order by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to provide its enhanced Combat Electromagnetic Environment Simulator (CEESIM) system to the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center (WR-ALC). This is a single award under the Alliant indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract.

The Northrop Grumman CEESIM is an advanced technology simulator that generates complex dynamic electromagnetic environments to simulate true-to-war conditions.

The new system includes an updated user interface that makes programming of complex emitters more intuitive while allowing the operator to customize the interface to suit specific needs. It also includes latest-generation digital hardware that is optimized to produce greater pulse density for advanced threats.

"This represents the latest in a long history of CEESIM systems in use at Warner Robins," said Joe Downie, site director of Northrop Grumman's Buffalo-based Amherst Systems business unit.

"This enhanced system ensures that the Air Logistics Center will continue to have a versatile test asset to support a variety of electronic warfare systems."

The CEESIM provides angle-of-arrival radio frequency simulation techniques including phase, amplitude and time difference of arrival. It is an off-the-shelf solution that will seamlessly integrate into the existing Simulation Network lab control system at WR-ALC.

The system also supports software maintenance and reprogramming of multiple electronic combat systems, including those onboard C-130 and F-16 aircraft.

With the CEESIM's new digital subsystem and updated graphical user interface, the process of programming the most realistic and advanced threat emitters is simplified, which will result in overall cost and time savings for WR-ALC.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Washington DC (SPX) Jun 04, 2013 - Since 2000, more than 2,000 servicemembers have suffered amputated limbs. DARPA's breakthrough research with advanced prosthetic limbs controlled by brain interfaces is well documented, but such research is currently limited to quadriplegics; practical applications of brain interfaces for amputees are still in the future.

In contrast, nerve and muscle interfaces allow amputees to control advanced prosthetics in the near term. Recent demonstrations may give Wounded Warriors hope that they can soon take advantage of these breakthroughs.

DARPA's Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET) program researched the long-term viability of brain interfaces and continues research to develop high-performance, reliable peripheral interfaces.

These new peripheral interfaces use signals from nerves or muscles to both control prosthetics and to provide direct sensory feedback. Ongoing clinical trials present compelling examples of both interface types.

"Although the current generation of brain, or cortical, interfaces have been used to control many degrees of freedom in an advanced prosthesis, researchers are still working on improving their long-term viability and performance," said Jack Judy, DARPA program manager.

"The novel peripheral interfaces developed under RE-NET are approaching the level of control demonstrated by cortical interfaces and have better biotic and abiotic performance and reliability.

"Because implanting them is a lower risk and less invasive procedure, peripheral interfaces offer greater potential than penetrating cortical electrodes for near-term treatment of amputees. RE-NET program advances are already being made available to injured warfighters in clinical settings."

A team of researchers at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) demonstrated a type of peripheral interface called targeted muscle re-innervation (TMR). By rewiring nerves from amputated limbs, new interfaces allow for prosthetic control with existing muscles.

Former Army Staff Sgt. Glen Lehman, injured in Iraq, recently demonstrated improved TMR technology. In the following video, Lehman demonstrates simultaneous joint control of a prosthetic arm made possible by support from the RE-NET program.

Researchers at Case Western Reserve University used a flat interface nerve electrode (FINE) to demonstrate direct sensory feedback. By interfacing with residual nerves in the patient's partial limb, some sense of touch by the fingers is restored. Other existing prosthetic limb control systems rely solely on visual feedback.

Unlike visual feedback, direct sensory feedback allows patients to move a hand without keeping their eyes on it-enabling simple tasks, like rummaging through a bag for small items, not possible with today's prosthetics.

The Case Western Reserve University video shows how direct sensory feedback makes some tasks easier. The FINE is one of many different types of nerve interfaces developed under the RE-NET program.

"With the RE-NET program, DARPA took on the mission of giving our wounded vets increased control of advanced prosthetics," added Judy.

"TMR is already being used by numerous amputees at military hospitals. As the RE-NET program continues, we expect that the limb-control and sensory-feedback capabilities of peripheral-interface technologies will increase and that they will become even more widely available in the future."

DARPA's current efforts with peripheral interfaces are scheduled to continue up to 2016.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST United Nations (AFP) June 3, 2013 - More than 60 countries on Monday signed a landmark conventional arms trade treaty, but the United States held back from joining the first wave of signatories while Russia and China are expected to stay out of the accord.

The UN-brokered treaty is the first covering weapons of any kind for more than a decade and aims to bring transparency and protection of human rights into the often dubious $85 billion-a-year global trade.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the treaty will "put an end to the 'free-for-all' nature" of weapons dealing and make it harder for warlords, pirates and terrorists to get arms."

The treaty covers tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, as well as the vast trade in small arms.

Countries that ratify the treaty would have to evaluate before making a deal whether it risks breaching an international embargo, violates human rights law, or could be used by terrorists or criminals.

The opening of signatures was described as an "extremely important milestone" by ministers and other representatives of Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan and Kenya which sponsored the first 2006 UN resolution calling for treaty talks.

Argentina was the first of 63 countries to sign the treaty on the first day.

Fifty ratifications are needed for the treaty to come into force. Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said this could be done within a year.

The UN General Assembly passed the treaty in April when 154 countries voted in favor, but Syria, North Korea and Iran voted against and Russia, China, Egypt and India were among 23 countries to abstain.

Russia and China are not expected to join the treaty any time soon.

Among major arms exporters, Britain, France and Germany all signed the treaty on the first day.

Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called the treaty a "historical breakthrough".

But he added that the treaty "can only make a real difference if it is fully implemented on a global scale. Our first task is to push for its early entry into force." Westerwelle said the German parliament will start work on a draft ratification law this week.

Britain's deputy foreign minister Alistair Burt said doubters of the treaty were now under pressure to join. "The force behind so many states wanting to conclude an arms trade treaty after so long meant something. The world is now different," he told reporters.

"France hopes for a rapid entry into force of the Arms Trade Treaty, a major step for human rights," said France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in a statement.

The United States, the world's biggest exporter of arms and ammunition, played a key role in getting the treaty passed but was not among the first signatories.

"The United States welcomes the opening of the Arms Trade Treaty for signature, and we look forward to signing it as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed satisfactorily," said US Secretary of State John Kerry in a statement.

He said many of the controls in the treaty were already enforced in the United States. But Kerry added that "the treaty is an important contribution to efforts to stem the illicit trade in conventional weapons."

The US administration has faced pressure from the domestic arms lobby over the treaty but Kerry said it "will not undermine the legitimate international trade in conventional weapons, interfere with national sovereignty, or infringe on the rights of American citizens."

Brian Wood, Amnesty International's specialist on arms control, said "the United States could sign soon but ratification will be a bigger hurdle given the positions in Congress."

He added that China could still be convinced to join the treaty but Russia and India were unlikely to sign.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Washington DC (SPX) May 30, 2013 - DARPA's Adaptable Sensor System (ADAPT) program aims to transform how unattended sensors are developed for the military by using an original design manufacturer (ODM) process similar to that of the commercial smartphone industry. The goal is to develop low-cost, rapidly updatable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors in less than a year, a marked improvement to the current three-to-eight year development process.

The program has developed the core ADAPT hardware and software package using a customized Android Operating System (OS) to provide capabilities common to all ISR sensors. The program recently completed its first reference design and developed application-specific software for an unattended ground sensor (UGS) that uses the ADAPT core. This new UGS could provide users with a cost-effective ground sensing capability.

The UGS design is a very small cylinder. It features applications to remotely sense ground activity for a number of potential military applications. The sensor is self-powered and can wirelessly network with other sensors or user interfaces, such as a video monitor at an operations center.

"We're excited to have the first reference design for a small, adaptable ground sensor and look forward to testing a significant number of these new sensors in field scenarios starting this summer," said Mark Rich, DARPA program manager.

"We believe that the ADAPT building block approach-where you take the ADAPT core and easily plug it into any number of ISR sensor reference designs-will transform how the military Services and the defense industry approach ISR sensor research and development. This method has the promise of being much more cost-effective, faster to the warfighter, and easier to refresh with technology upgrades."

DARPA may develop additional reference designs that integrate the ADAPT core and sensor-specific apps into airborne, sea and undersea sensor designs. Researchers recently removed the control interface of a small quad-copter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and replaced it with the ADAPT core. This successfully provided flight control input to the UAV and marked an initial step in applying the ADAPT core to other sensor reference designs.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Cambridge MA (SPX) May 29, 2013 - Raytheon BBN Technologies has been awarded $1.7 million in funding by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) under the Foresight and Understanding from Scientific Exposition (FUSE) program.

This funding follows $5.2 million awarded in the first phase of the program. Raytheon BBN Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company.

According to the IARPA website, "the goal of the FUSE program is to develop automated methods that assist analysts and subject-matter experts in recognizing emerging technologies in published scientific, technical and patent literature." According to the solicitation, IARPA envisions a FUSE system that will:

+ Process the world's massive, growing and multilingual collection of full-text scientific, technical and patent literature.

+ Automatically generate, validate and prioritize areas of greatest importance.

+ Offer multilingual capabilities.

"We are exploring theories and models to scan the scientific, technical and patent literature around the world to detect emerging technical capabilities," said Lance Ramshaw, FUSE principal investigator for Raytheon BBN Technologies.

"The solution we envision will recognize trends and connections at a speed and scale far beyond what has been possible previously."

Under the first phase of the program, Raytheon BBN Technologies developed a system that uses analytical techniques and algorithms to automatically recognize related topics in a variety of printed materials and identify areas that are most likely to develop into significant technical solutions.

Under the new funding, the Raytheon BBN team will extend their techniques with finer-grained models, applying them to forecast future levels of interest in particular technologies based on patent applications and grants, and on scientific papers in multiple languages.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST East Lansing MI (SPX) May 27, 2013 - In a study that evaluated some of the latest in automatic facial recognition technology, researchers at Michigan State University were able to quickly identify one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects from law enforcement video, an experiment that demonstrated the value of such technology.

In the Pattern Recognition and Image Processing laboratory, Anil Jain, MSU Distinguished Professor of computer science and engineering, and Josh Klontz, a research scientist, tested three different facial-recognition systems.

By using actual law-enforcement video from the bombing, they found that one of the three systems could provide a "rank one" identification - a match - of suspect Dzokhar Tsarnaev.

"The other suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the one ultimately killed in the shootout with police, could not be matched at a sufficiently high rank, partly because he was wearing sunglasses," Jain said. "The younger brother could be identified.

"This study was revealing in that facial recognition technology can successfully handle some cases in which facial images extracted from a video were captured under favorable conditions," he said.

Under controlled conditions, when the face is angled toward the camera and if the lighting is good, this technology can be up to 99 percent accurate.

Automatic face recognition can quickly attach a name to a face by searching a large database of face images and finding the closest match. This is what law enforcement agencies typically do for mug shot databases.

It is unknown, Jain said, what automatic facial recognition technologies were used by investigators in Boston. Some algorithms are better suited than others for face recognition in uncontrolled video.

While the technology has made great strides in recent years, it doesn't mean that improvements aren't needed. Also, more police agencies have to put the technology to use.

"If you use an automatic system, it speeds up the process," Jain said. "Sometimes police get bad tips so innocent people are questioned. Such situations can be avoided with a robust and accurate face-recognition system."

Jain and his team are internationally recognized in the field of identification technology. His team has developed methods to match forensic facial sketches with mug shots, as well as technology that allows police to identify criminal suspects by tattoo matching.

Klontz and Jain's technical paper on evaluating automatic facial recognition technology can be viewed here.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Dallas TX (SPX) May 24, 2013 - Lockheed Martin has conducted the first Engineering, Manufacturing and Development (EMD) flight of the new Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS) Alternative Warhead at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

Launched from a HIMARS mobile launcher, the GMLRS rocket flew 35 kilometers to the target, where the warhead detonated. This flight followed a successful ground-based test of the Alternative Warhead two weeks earlier.

"These tests are early indicators that we are on the right track in developing a warhead that meets the requirements defined by our armed forces, and that gives our Soldiers and Marines a distinct advantage on the battlefield," said Scott Arnold, vice president of precision fires at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

The Alternative Warhead Program (AWP) is part of a U.S. Department of Defense plan to phase out submunitions, and is designed to achieve the same area-effects as the GMLRS submunitions warhead, but without the lingering danger of undetonated explosives.

The GMLRS Alternative Warhead is unitary and fits within the existing GMLRS architecture as a replacement for the Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition warhead. The Alternative Warhead is being developed by ATK under subcontract to Lockheed Martin.

In April 2012, Lockheed Martin received a $79.4 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop AWP. Under the terms of the contract, the EMD phase of the program runs 36 months, focusing on system performance, warhead qualification and producibility.

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is a 2012 recipient of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for performance excellence.

The Malcolm Baldrige Award represents the highest honor that can be awarded to American companies for their achievements in leadership, strategic planning, customer relations, measurement, analysis, workforce excellence, operations and results.

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Washington DC (SPX) May 24, 2013 - Success on the battlefield requires warfighters to know as much as possible about themselves, their surrounding environment and the potential threats around them. Dismounted infantry squads in particular risk surprise and loss of tactical advantage over opponents when information is lacking.

While squads use many different technologies to gather and share information, the current piecemeal approach doesn't provide the integrated, real-time situational awareness needed for individual warfighters and squad leaders to anticipate situations and effectively maneuver to positions of advantage.

Providing this capability would provide dismounted squads with overwhelming tactical superiority over potential adversaries similar to what warfighters enjoy at the aircraft, ship and vehicle levels.

To help address these challenges, DARPA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) about technologies that can help lead to digitization of dismounted squads. By digitization, DARPA means collecting sensor data that would provide much more detailed and actionable real-time information about a squad's condition, surroundings and adversaries.

It is believed that digitization could provide squads of 9-13 members and their unmanned assets with enhanced tactical awareness and advantage up to a mile away, in both urban and open-air environments.

"Imagine a squad moving through a complex urban environment that has heavy threat activity," said Army Lt. Col. Joseph Hitt, DARPA program manager.

"The squad members don't know it, but a group of hostiles is waiting 100 meters ahead of them in an alley. Today, the squad must rely heavily on line of sight to identify the threat-which would bring them very close to the attackers, affording squad members little time and space to react."

"With digitization, the squad's long-loiter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flying overhead could detect those hostiles, alert the squad and automatically trigger the squad's quadruped robot to investigate," Hitt continued.

"Entering the alley, the robot could automatically inform all squad members via visual and other cues about the hostiles' composition, location and weapon types. Moreover, the robot could check biometric databases to determine if any hostiles are known threats. These crucial insights would provide the squad time to maneuver to a position of advantage and safely take appropriate action."

To deliver these capabilities, DARPA seeks innovative technologies in the following areas:
+ Sensing technologies for warfighter health and operational status

+ Absolute or relative geolocation technologies, particularly for global positioning system (GPS)-denied areas, with accuracy comparable to that of current GPS technologies

+ Non-optical and distributed sensing solutions

+ Communication network solutions

+ Approaches to tactical information synthesis and delivery

Proposed technologies must meet the following criteria:
+ Ensure all hardware, power and processing capabilities are integrated into equipment that squad members and the squad's complement of ground and air unmanned systems can carry

+ Minimize system size, weight and power (SWaP)

+ Inherently enable real-time action by squads

"We're looking to leverage emerging technologies, integrate and optimize them through rigorous experimentation, and deliver the decisive technological advantage dismounted squads deserve," Hitt said. "We're reaching out to the performer community to see what game-changing technologies they could contribute."

]]> Wed, 12 JUN 2013 00:51:26 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D