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Weapon technology (general) 2002 Assessment of the Office of Naval Research's Air and Surface Weapons Technology Program This web site provides access to a report prepared by the National Research Council's Committee on the Review of the ONR's Air and Surface Weaponry Program, National Academy Press, 2002. This report presents an assessment of the ASWT programme. The committee found the ASWT program to be reasonably well focused and containing several excellent science and technology (S&T) projects. An executive summary is available in HTML format, a report brief can be viewed and downloaded in PDf format, and the full text of the report can be accessed online in Open Book format. A Methodology for Developing Army Acquisition Strategies for an Uncertain Future This monograph (MG-532-A) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by John E. Peters, Bruce Held, Michael V. Hynes, Brian Nichiporuk, Christopher Hanks and Jordan Fischbach. This monograph addresses the following two specific questions: What should a robust acquisition investment strategy look like — one designed to perform well against all anticipated threats? How should the Army acquisition community assess the appropriateness of its investment strategy over time? The study proposes adaptation of a RAND tool called Assumption-Based Planning to help Army personnel maintain proper alignment between strategic guidance and the Army acquisition program and budget. It uses this tool to create a model that recommends acquisition investments across a broad range of capabilities. The model works toward the goal of satisfying the complex and evolving requirements specified in the national security guidance. The model applies five main steps, by identifying (1) the assumptions that underlie Army acquisition policy; (2) load-bearing assumptions, i.e., important assumptions that underpin and shape Army acquisition plans; (3) signposts or indicators that an assumption is becoming vulnerable; (4) shaping actions that can be taken to keep assumptions viable, and (5) hedging actions that can be taken to prepare for unwelcome but unpreventable developments. For the acquisitions community, shaping and hedging actions both take the form of investments. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Aerospace 2020 Vol. II This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD Advisory Report, AGARD-AR-360-02, Vol 11, dated September 1997. Volume II, the main volume, of the report of the NATO Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development (AGARD) study: 'Aerospace 2020'. This study explored the most advanced technologies, relevant to aerospace, being researched and developed in laboratories today. The study focused on the most promising current technologies and the organizational and tactical consequences they will have at the field and system levels, over the course of the next 25 years. Topics include: a discussion of the impact of proliferation, human-machine interaction, synthetic environments, directed-energy weapons, information technologies, unmanned tactical aircraft, suborbital launchers, hypersonic missiles, and a discussion of affordability issues. Technologies are assessed from the viewpoints of both potential capabilities and threats. Observations and recommendations are presented. Volume III contains technical papers in support of the conclusions reached. Volume I is a short summary of the conclusions. Bibliographic details and an abstract are available in HTML format and the full text is available in PDF format from the RTO's web site. Aerospace 2020 This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD Advisory Report, AGARD-AR-360-03 (volume III), dated September 1997. It was sponsored by the Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development. This study explored the most advanced technologies, relevant to aerospace, being researched and developed in laboratories today. The study focused on the most promising current technologies and the organizational and tactical consequences they will have at the field and system levels, over the course of the next 25 years. Topics include: a discussion of the impact of proliferation, human-machine interaction, synthetic environments, directed-energy weapons, information technologies, unmanned tactical aircraft, suborbital launchers, hypersonic missiles, and a discussion of affordability issues. Technologies are assessed from the viewpoints of both potential capabilities and threats. Observations and recommendations are presented. Volume II contains the conclusions of the report. Volume I is a short summary of these conclusions. Bibliographic details and an abstract are available in HTML format and the full text is available in PDF format from the RTO's web site. Air Force Link : Fact Sheets Provided by the United States Air Force, this site contains fact sheets on aspects of the USAF. Topics covered include organisations; space systems including satellites, GPS, surveillance and radar; weapons including missiles, sidewinder and joint direct attack munitions; and fighter, bomber, transport and reconniassance aircraft including Hercules, Globemaster, F 117A Nighthawk, F 15 Eagle, Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, and U 2. Each factsheet contains an overview of the mission, specifications and capabilities of the equipment, a picture and contact details. Aircraft Accidents: Trends in Aerospace Medical Investigation Techniques This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-CP-532, dated September 1992. These proceedings include the Technical Evaluation Report and 58 papers of the Symposium sponsored by the AGARD Aerospace Medical Panel held at the Altin Yunus Hotel, Cesme, Turkey, April 27 - May1 , 1992. Since the commencement of aviation, accidents have occurred for a variety of reasons in both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. As the complexity of aviation systems increased, so did the task of investigating aircraft accidents. At the same time, advanced techniques in aviation and weapon systems have exacerbated greatly the physiological and cognitive demands on aircrews. The result is that aircraft accidents due to material causes have diminished progressively while the percentage of human factor-caused accidents has not. For individual titles, see N93-19654 through N93-19710. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (120.42MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Army Technology - Current Projects Army Technology provides information about defence industries - army. This part of their site provides details of current projects being undertaken by the defence industry. These include contracts for Main Battle Tanks, Armoured Fighting Vehicles, Artillery Systems, Missile Systems, Attack and Support Helicopters. For each project information is also available about approved suppliers. The rest of the Army Technology site can be accessed from here, which gives details of defence equipment, companies and conferences. Biological Weapons Convention: Collection of National Implementation Legislation This is an online database of national legislation relating to the implementation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC). The database is composed by an independent research organisation (VERTIC) who specialise in the verification and monitoring of international agreements. The database is organised alphabetically by country with references to the relevant laws and links to the full text where available. The site gives background information to the BWC and the compilation of the database. There are also links to related resources including the questionnaire used to compile the data, the final report produced by VERTIC called Time to lay down the law: national legislation to enforce the BWC and the text of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists This site provides the full text of the Bulletin and back issues to 1990. Produced bi-monthly, its focus is on nuclear technology, the dangers of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction and global security. The site is also available in Spanish. Bureau of Arms Control The US State Department Bureau of Arms Control provides a collection of links to the full texts of arms control treaties and agreements. These include; the Ballistic Missile Launch Notification Agreement, Biological Weapons Convention, Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) and the Geneva Protocol. The site also provides texts of the Hot Line Agreement, Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) Guidelines, Outer Space Treaty, Prevention of Nuclear War Agreement and the Threshold Test Ban Treaty. There are also sections providing information on the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, Missile Defence and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Threat. Centre for the History of Defence Electronics The Centre for the History of Defence Electronics (CIHDE) is based at the History of Technology Research Unit at Bournemouth University. It specialises in the development of equipment during the 1930's, forties and fifties. Its research activity has been taken on by the Oral History Research Unit. The oral history section contains links to a presentation on radar and one on the Wireless Set No.10, which was the first radio unit to offer multi-channel communication. There are also transcribed contributions to the history of defence electronics. Code One Magazine Online This site provides the full text of this magazine which is published quarterly by Lockheed Martin. The magazine is concerned primarily with the F-16 and other fighter programs including the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Archives back to 1986 list the articles that appeared in each issue, and selected articles are available in full text. Other resources available from the site include further information on the JSF, F-16 and F-22, aviation history, photographs and art and listings of pilots according to the number of fighter hours they have flown. All the information is available in HTML format. Combat Automation for Airborne Weapon Systems: Man/Machine Interface Trends and Technologies This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-CP-520, dated April 1993. Recent advances in combat automation technologies offer significant potential for improving overall mission effectiveness. Development of advanced situational awareness display concepts, parallel distributed computer architecture, and tactical information fusion techniques have paved the way for new operational capabilities and weapon system employment tactics. Harnessing these innovative technologies is critically dependent upon establishing an effective and intuitive pilot vehicle interface. The symposium addressed changing and possible future operational scenarios, advanced technology concepts, application issues and experimental development efforts and included sessions on: fusion, situation awareness, human capabilities and limitations, and design and evaluation of integrated systems. For individual titles, see N93-28851 through N93-28872. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (117.96MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Cost Structure and Life Cycle Costs for Military Systems This web site provides access to a Research and Technology Organization (RTO) Technical Report, RTO-TR-058, dated September 2003. The report was sponsored by the the RTO Studies, Analysis and Simulation Panel Task Group SAS-028. The report study is based on Cost Breakdown Structure. In system analysis, a Cost Breakdown Structure may be considered as a tool that enables analysts to define and compute with Life Cycle Costs and decision makers to take decisions. The way analysts and decision makers use Life Cycle Costs has necessarily an impact on its definition and thus on Cost Breakdown Structure. That is why this aspect has been taken into account in the study. This aspect includes the classification of costs into several categories (direct, indirect, variable, etc.), the definition of Life Cycle Costs variants and the use of each one. The main results of the study consists of: 1. a Generic Cost Breakdown Structure and associated definitions that can be used by any military programme to construct its own Cost Breakdown Structure, 2. an analysis of the way to use Life Cycle Costs in the decision making process. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Defence Equipment 2010 : sixth report of Session 2009-10 report together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence A House of Commons Defence Committe inquiry to examine aspects of the UK MoD’s Defence Equipment programme. It examines areas of weakness and poor performance with particular focus on armoured vehicles and the future of the FRES (Future Rapid Effect System) programme, strategic air-lift and maritime capability. Defence Systems Daily This facility provides a daily electronic news service and includes current and archived news stories and features. It offers a breakdown of these by industrial sector, including air, commercial air, space, land, sea and technology. News is organised under these main subjects systems, sectors, regions and facilities. The site also makes news available from South and Southern Africa and Australia and New Zealand. A search facility is also provided. It is also possible to register to receive daily news headlines by email. Selected articles from a publication called Defence Analysis are provided ahead of its monthly publication. An 'ownership jigsaw' is offered - this allows the complex relationships between the main industry players (who owns whom) to be tracked. In addition, stock prices are also available. The site is published by Defence Data Ltd and its format is HTML. Defense Acquisitions : Assessments of Selected Major Weapon Programs This provides access to a US Government Accountability Office Report (GAO-06-391) date March 2006. In the last 5 years, the Department of Defense (DOD) has doubled its planned investments in new weapon systems from about $700 billion in 2001 to nearly $1.4 trillion in 2006. While the weapons that DOD develops have no rival in superiority, weapon systems acquisition remains a long-standing high risk area. GAO's reviews over the past 30 years have found consistent problems with weapon acquisitions such as cost increases, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls. In addition, DOD faces several budgetary challenges that underscore the need to deliver its new weapon programs within estimated costs and to obtain the most from these investments. This reportprovides congressional and DOD decision makers with an independent, knowledge-based assessment of selected defense programs that identifies potential risks and needed actions when a program's projected attainment of knowledge diverges from the best practices. Programs for the assessments were selected based on several factors including, (1)high dollar value, (2) stage in acquisition, and (3)congressional interest. The majority of the 52 programs covered in this report are considered major defense acquisition programs by DOD. This report also highlights higher level issues raised by the cumulative experiences of individual programs. GAO updates this report annually under the Comptroller General's authority. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the report is available in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Defense News Media Group This publishing group produces a number of professional defense trade periodicals. Publications including Armed Forces Journal, Defense News, Training & Simulation Journal and C4ISR Journal. The Group web site describes the each title and provides links to their individual homepages. A link is also provided to the Conference Group. Department of Energy Historical Films Videoclips Database Provided by the Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI). This site is a searchable and browseable database of historical nuclear weapons tests films. Each record contains a detailed description of the background to the test, and a short clip from the film can be viewed online. The complete films are available for purchase. Depleted Uranium and Health This site provides information on the links between depleted uranium and the health of war veterans of the Gulf and the Balkans and provides a summary of scientific findings for civilians, veterans and serving personnel. It also links to related sites and reports on depleted uranium safety instructions, biological monitoring policy, depleted uranium and its use by UK forces, depleted uranium and the environment, and Gulf veterans illness. There are also links to Royal Society depleted uranium reports, the Depleted Uranium Oversight Board, and the Medical Assessment Programme. Ensuring America's Space Security : Report of the FAS Panel on Weapons in Space This site provides access to the full text of the Federation of American Scientists report published in September 2004. The report assesses the security benefits of space weaponisation, how to protect the United States' space assets, and alternatives to space weapons. The chapters look at: the background to the debate over weaponizing space; the historic growth and evolution of space activities; US space systems vulnerabilities and threats; protecting US systems; anti satellite weapons; threats from High Altitude Nuclear Explosions (HANE); orbital debris effects from space based ballistic missile interception; and potential adversaries capabilities. Equipment Training and Support News (ETS News) This is a quarterly journal on simulation and training, defence procurement, defence upgrades and the defence industry. It contains news items as well as reports from defence equipment exhibitions. Articles are available on-line in full text, illustrated with photographs. An archive is also available. Federation of American Scientists (FAS) This is the web site of the FAS. It lists publications, key personnel, recent press releases. Its sub-sites include: Global Security topics, News, Emerging Technologies, and FAS initiatives and projects. It is searchable and has a list of on-line resources, e-journals, related web sites, resource directories, and an official document collection. Areas of current research include US Arms sales and military aid, export-control, weapons of mass destruction and Iraq. Federation of American Scientists Military Analysis Network This site has information on military operations and equipment, both U.S. and rest of the world. The equipment information,including ships, missiles, aircraft, land-based weapon systems and smart weapons give specifications for each weapon described and many images. There is information about U.S. defence contractors, analysis on military and world news. There are many useful links, including government sites, defence industry sites, peace, security and analysis sites, doctrine and associations and societies. Ground Systems Index GroundSystems-Index is a database of ground systems manufacturers aimed at ground forces professionals in the civil and military communities. It allows searching or browsing of the directory by product/service, name or country. The products and services include ground equipment and systems, weapons and munitions, information technology, ground-based platforms, personnel systems, communications and medical. The site also provides access to articles, press releases, company and government news, details on exhibitions and conferences and a job centre. The site is also available in Spanish and Arabic. Guardian Unlimited, Special Report on Depleted Uranium This site includes all aspects of the current issue of ill-health due to depleted uranium. There are articles, comment and analysis, explanation, lists of campaigning groups involved, as well as government departments and sources who are involved. The site also divides the issue into geographical location, Kosovo and Great Britain. High Energy Weapons Archive This site is linked to the federation of American Scientists web site and contains information on all aspects of Nuclear Weapons. It lists nuclear arsenals by country, and has a database listing all nuclear weapons. There are links to other nuclear-related web sites, publication and product reviews and historical information on nuclear weapons. There is also an FAQ page. HK Defense This is the web site for the defence arm of Heckler and Koch, Heckler & Koch Defense Inc., a producer of small arms for the armed forces, police and security forces since 1949. The site provides information on the HK Defense Training Group and details of their courses; a technical data section contains user manuals for the USP, Mark 23 and UMP submachine gun. There are also sections on military programmes and federal operations, which contain details on various handguns, supressed handguns, rifles and carbines, personal defence weapons, submachine guns, special application products and sniper rifles. Each weapon has a picture, information about its design and specifications. How safe should our weapons be? This is the full text of a thesis by Danny R. Hayles which was presented to the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2005. Congress incorporated language into the Fiscal Year 2002 Defense Appropriation Bill requiring the Secretary of Defense to ensure our munitions are developed or procured to be safe, to the extent practicable, from unplanned stimuli throughout their life cycle. However, to date, the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) is the only major Air Force weapon system to meet the insensitive munitions criteria for full compliance. This paper provides an objective assessment of whether there are compelling arguments that would lead the Air Force to expend the resources required to achieve a fully compliant insensitive munitions inventory. To facilitate the understanding of the basic issues and thus the compelling arguments for achieving or not achieving insensitive munitions compliance, this paper provides the reader with a basic understanding of insensitive munitions including: a definition of insensitive munitions with an explanation of the criteria required to achieve insensitive munitions compliance; a summary of munitions related accidents/incidents to establish the risk associated with non-IM compliance; a historical perspective of insensitive munitions within the Air Force; and a series of compelling arguments assessing the law, the changing world environment, and the operational impact of insensitive munitions. From the framework of these assessments, this paper recommends a way forward for the Air Force in addressing this federally mandated requirement. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the thesis is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. How Stuff Works : Weapons Site provided by the HowStuffWorks media company which gives explanations on how things work, links to other relevant sites, and provides a forum for discussion of topics. This site is devoted to weapons and covers subjects such as Apache helicopters, fighter aircraft, body armour, missiles and bombs, grenades, guns, camouflage, and missile defence systems. How to do Business With the Norwegian Armed Forces This document is available on-line as well as in hard copy and is regularly updated. It is intended for use by both Norwegian and foreign suppliers and industry who wish to win or already have contracts with the Norwegian military. It deals with all aspects of procurement from local office supplies to multi-million dollar contracts for weapons systems. Procurement policy, organisation, procedures and regulations are laid out in the document which has links to the Norwegian government and Ministry of Defence homepages. Iraq Weapons Inspection Database This is a searchable database providing a record of weapons inspections carried out by the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Iraq between November 2002 and March 2003. The database is compiled by an independent research organisation (VERTIC) who are concerned with the verification and monitoring of international agreements. The database can be browsed alphabetically by site inspected and the records provide details of the type of facility, region, proprietor, date of inspection, type of inspection team and number of inspectors. The site also provides background information to the weapons inspections, a guide to how the database was compiled and links to related VERTIC publications which can be freely downloaded on the site. Is Weapon System Cost Growth Increasing? A Quantitative Assessment of Completed and Ongoing Programs This technical report (MG-588-AF) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by Obaid Younossi, Mark V. Arena, Robert S. Leonard, Charles Robert Roll, Jr., Arvind Jain and Jerry M. Sollinger. In recent decades, there have been numerous attempts to rein in the cost growth of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition programs. Cost growth is the ratio of the cost estimate reported in a program’s final Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) and the cost-estimate baseline reported in a prior SAR issued at a particular milestone. Drawing on prior RAND research, new analyses of completed and ongoing weapon system programs, and data drawn from SARs, this study addresses the following questions: What is the cost growth of DoD weapon systems? What has been the trend of cost growth over the past three decades? To address the magnitude of cost growth, it examines cost growth in completed programs; to evaluate the cost growth trend over time, it provides additional analysis of a selection of ongoing programs. This sample of ongoing programs permits a look at growth trends in the more recent past. Changes in the mix of system types over time and dollar-weighted analysis were also considered because earlier studies have suggested that cost growth varies by program type and the cost of the program. The findings suggest that development cost growth over the past three decades has remained high and without any significant improvement. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Kit : UK Online This site provides information on equipment currently in use with the British Army. The site is divided into equipment, aircraft, armoured vehicles, artillery and air defence, BOWMAN, electronic battlefield, engineer equipment, individual equipment, landing craft and assault boats, logistics vehicles, NBC defence equipment, and small arms and support weapons. It provides brief information and specifications of the equipment and images. It is also possible to link to a website which provides 360 degree images of vehicles used by the British Army and their interiors. Laser Based Stand-Off Detection of Biological Agents This is a Research and Technology Organization (RTO)Technical Report RTO-TR-SET-098, dated April 2009. The link consists of a document on the detection biological weapons. Biological weapons have become an increasingly important potential threat in today’s military and civilian arenas. They are relatively inexpensive to produce and can yield a significant impact as a terrorist weapon. Early warning of a biological attack is essential to establish a timely defense and to sustain operational tempo and freedom of action. In addition, the mapping of a biological attack is needed to obtain intelligence on affected areas. For these reasons the need to develop methods to remotely detect and discriminate biological aerosols from background aerosols, and ultimately, to discriminate biological warfare agents from naturally occurring aerosols, is paramount. A table of contents, and the full text of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Libya Special Weapons: Federation of American Scientists This site on Libya weapons is maintained by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). It provides access to brief information on Libya's weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological and nuclear) capability and programmes. It includes statements relating to the December 2003 decision by Colonel Gadafi to dismantle the programme. Links are provided to related sites. Maritime Index Maritime-Index is a database of maritime systems manufacturers aimed at professionals in the civil and military communities. It allows searching or browsing of the directory by product/service, name or country. The products and services include marine equipment and systems, weapons and munitions, information technology, marine platforms, personnel systems, communications and medical. The site also provides access to articles, press releases, company and government news, details on exhibitions and conferences and a job centre. The site is also available in Spanish and Arabic. Measuring the Statutory and Regulatory Constraints on Department of Defense Acquisition. An Empirical Analysis This report (MG-569-OSD) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by Jeffrey A. Drezner, Irv Blickstein, Raj Raman, Megan McKernan, Monica Hertzman, Melissa A. Bradley, Dikla Gavrieli and Brent Eastwood. Managers of weapon system acquisition programs and their staffs have often voiced concerns about the burden of complying with federal statutes or regulations requiring certain business and oversight processes. The essence of the concerns is that program offices spend an inordinate amount of time complying with statutes and regulations that add little value, and that the regulatory burden translates into cost increases, schedule delays, and adverse effects on system performance. While many other studies have addressed this topic, few have succeeded in generating the empirical evidence needed to inform the policy debate. To fill this gap, NDRI developed a Web-based data collection tool to capture the program staff’s estimates of hours spent on compliance efforts. A total of 316 individuals in seven DoD program offices were recruited to use the web tool to estimate biweekly the time they spent on regulatory compliance-related activities over the course of a year. While statutes and regulations do place constraints on program execution, the study found that program office staffs do not appear to spend a significant amount of their time complying with those statutes and regulations. Further, there is little evidence that program office compliance activities have adverse consequences for program outcomes. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Military Technical Academy The Romanian Military Technical Academy trains engineer officers in technical specialties such as armament, missiles, aircraft, armour, electronics, computer systems, engineering and geodetics. This site provides information about the Academy and its educational process, events and admissions. Links are also provided to other Romanian resources and related sites. The site is also available in Romanian and French. Military.com Designed for America's military community, this site aims to meet the needs of military consumers. It is a joint service site and covers travel, careers, reunions, finance and merchandise, as well as military history, military equipment, military news and military operations. There are areas tailored specifically to members of the army, navy, air force, marine corps, coast guard, veterans and spouses which you have to register to use, but subscriptions are free. Ministry of Defence Finland This is a comprehensive web site giving information on all aspects of the Ministry of Defence in Finland. The subject areas are divided into an overview, topical (latest news), total defence (national security strategy), defence policy, resources - which includes finances, procurement and infrastructure, legislation and research, and publications which covers the Finnish defence budget and defence contracts bulletin. National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Formed by a merger between the American Defense Preparedness Association and the National Security Industrial Association, the NDIA is a non-profit international association based in Arlington, VA. Their mission is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas between government and industry, focusing on; business and technical aspects of the relationship, government policies on acquisitions, research and development, logistics support and procurement. The Association has four affiliates; Association for Enterprise Integration, National Training Systems Association, Precision Strike Association and Women in Defense. The site provides details on the company, meetings and events, committees and divisions, membership and government policy. There is also access to the journal National Defense, a media room, links to other organisations, and a list of publications. National Defense Magazine Produced by the National Defense Industrial Association, this magazine focuses on issues concerning the US industrial base and technological advancement in weapon systems, industry sectors, and acquisition policy. This site provides the full text of the magazine and back issues to January 1999. North Korea Special Weapons Guide Provided by the Federation of American Scientists, this is a comprehensive guide to North Korea's weapons of mass destruction. There is information and specifications on its ballistic missiles; nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programmes; details and locations of special weapons facilities; military doctrine and defence policy of the DPRK; and details of the organisation of special weapons agencies. There are also links to the sources and resources that the information within the web site came from. Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century Provided by the Federation of American Scientists, this web site contains information and resources on nuclear weapons and related subjects including; radiological weapons or dirty bombs; next generation nuclear weapons and bunker busters; nuclear non proliferation and verification; nuclear missions and forces; and nuclear testing. There are also links to full text documents which look at Bush administration nuclear policy; a nuclear weapons effects calculator and a tutorial on the role of gas centrifuges in proliferation. Perfecting War: Search for a Technological Solution to Human Endeavor This is the full text of a thesis by Eric J. Schnitzer which was presented to the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 2005. This paper discusses the role of technology in war. War is a uniquely human endeavor. Technology offers the promise of easy victory. Humans are perceived as messy and difficult to control, while technology is perceived as clean and easy to control. This paper explores both human and technology impacts on warfare in the past, present, and future. The challenge for military strategists is to understand the correct emphasis to put on technology while pursuing a human outcome. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the thesis is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. Pointing and Tracking Systems This is Research and Technology Organization (RTO) AGARD-CP-539, dated May 1994. This volume contains the 19 unclassified papers, presented at the Guidance and Control Panel Symposium held in Seattle, the United States from the 12th to the 15th of October, 1993. The papers presented cover the following areas: (1) overview of pointing and tracking systems and techniques; (2) optical pointing and tracking systems; (3) weapon control and mechanical systems; (4) pointing and tracking algorithms; and (5) sensor fusion. For individual titles, see N94-36617 through N94-36634. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text (65.35 MB) of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Precision Engagement at the Strategic Level of War : Guiding Promise or Wishful Thinking This gives access to a U.S. Center for Strategy and Technology, Air War College Occasional Paper No. 25 written by Timothy Sakulich and dated December 2001. Air Force Basic Doctrine asserts that the precise application of force can reliably generate desired, discriminate effects at the strategic level of war. A deconstruction of that assertion reveals three necessary assumptions: the ability to clearly define desired discriminate effects at the strategic level of war, the ability to trace the desired discriminate effects back to a triggering action, and the ability to ensure that the actual effects generated by the triggering action are only the discriminate ones being sought. This paper presents evidence that these assumptions suffer from important conceptual weaknesses that are amplified when examined from the perspective of nonlinear and complex systems. Further evidence suggests that technological fixes will neither resolve these weaknesses nor produce the strategic efficiencies implied by the doctrinal concept. In fact, such fixes could increase the potential for small errors to combine in unexpected ways to create a system accident, where outcomes diverge in significant and undesirable ways from the intended discriminate strategic effect. This paper cautions against using the term “precision” in ways that imply congruency between technology and war, and recommends that doctrine clearly differentiate technical exactness from strategic correctness. It concludes that effect-based approaches can foreclose adversary option sets with far more reliability than compelling specific, predetermined behaviors, and it emphasizes the need to ensure that adaptation remains a fundamental feature of any effects-based concept. [Taken from abstract]. The full text is in PDF format so Adobe Acrobat software is required in order to read it. Proposals for a Defence Diversification Agency : White Paper This site provides the full text of a white paper (Cm 4088) presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Defence, November 1998. The publication of the white paper followed the production of a consultative Green Paper, Defence Diversification: Getting the most out of defence technology (Cm 3861). The text is in HTML format. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd Rafael, Advanced Defense Systems Ltd undertakes research, development and production of defence systems for air, land, sea and space applications in co-operation with the Israeli Defence Forces and other armed forces. They also develop commercial applications and are involved with technology transfer. The site provides details of products and capabilities, news and events. Rongstad's Worldwide Military Pages This site provides links to a wide range of military sites. These links are grouped into subject areas, which include war and the history of war, the art of war, battles, military news, military books, information warfare, civilian internment, Iraq War, blogs, military web rings, the United States and weapons. Signature Technology Laboratory (STL) This is part of the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI)and specialises in computer modelling and simulation capabilities in multi-spectral signature control, mainly for the field of aircraft and weapons systems designs. The laboratory carries out research which serves the Department of Defense, but also which is applicable to commercial and medical areas amongst others. The major areas of research are listed on the web site, and within those details of current research and projects. The main research groups are as follows:- electromagnetic materials and structures; electromagnetic apertures and scattering; optical and infrared physics and phenomenology; secure information systems. SMi Conferences : Defence Events This site provides a list of defence-related conferences and briefings held by the business and information group SMi. The conferences, for which you can register on-line are aimed at military personnel, procurement executives, and government officials. The topics of the conferences are varied and include IT, missile and weapon technology, procurement, logistics and support and training and simulation. Proceedings of past conferences can also be bought on-line. Special Operations Weapons Focus The site contains a wide range of information and links to other sites concerned with sniper rifles, handguns/pistols, combat shotguns, grenade launchers, light and medium machine guns, and assault weapons, SMGs and carbines. Strategic Management of the Cost Problem of Future Weapon Systems This is Research and Technology Organization(RTO) AGARD Conference Proceedings, AGARD-CP-602, dated September 1998. This proceedings was sponsored by the Flight Vehicle Integration Panel(FVP) in a symposium held in Drammen, Norway, 22-25 September 1997. The Symposium comprised five sessions, each devoted to a particular field: Lessons learned; Overview of current programs; Cost management tools; Low cost manufacturing; and, Government perspectives. Bibliographic and abstract details are available in HTML format. A table of contents, and the full text of the document can be accessed online in PDF format. The document is contained in the RTO's Full Text Publication Library. Subjective Probability Distribution Elicitation in Cost Risk Analysis. A Review This technical report (TR-410-AF) was produced by The RAND Corporation in 2007 and was written by Lionel A. Galway. A cost estimate for a project such as the acquisition of a new aircraft or satellite system carries with it an inherent probability that the actual cost will exceed the estimate — that changes in requirements, technology, the economic environment, and a multitude of other factors that may occur over the life of the project will change the final cost. One major approach to cost risk analysis — the evaluating and quantifying of the uncertainty of a cost estimate — has been probabilistic: expressing the uncertainty in a cost estimate as a probability distribution over a range of potential costs. Cost analysts in industry and government and researchers in statistics and management have often proposed that, to get probability distributions for platforms using new and untried technologies, expert judgment should be tapped and subjective probability distributions elicited from the experts to represent cost uncertainty. This technical report reviews procedures for eliciting subjective probability distributions in cost risk analysis, both in the cost risk field and in other disciplines in which elicitation has been a topic of research — primarily, statistics and psychology. Because of a lack of empirical work in elicitation, especially in cost risk, the author also interviewed a number of senior people in the cost risk community, who gave insight into the practices of the field. This report should be of interest to cost analysis professionals who wish to quantify uncertainty when using expert opinions in cost risk analysis. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Swedish Defence Research Agency The Agency (Totalf?arets forskningsinstitut - FOI) was formed on 1 January 2001 through an amalgamation of the Swedish Defence Research Establishment (FOA) and the Aeronautical Research Institute (FFA). The site provides an overview of the organisational structure, including the Division of Aeronautics, FFA, which is made up of the core of the former Aeronautical Research Institute. There is a searchable and browsable database of FOI reports. For browsing purposes the reports are sorted by department. The text of the reports are avialable in PDF format. Systems Concepts for Integrated Air Defense of Multinational Mobile Crisis Reaction Forces Research and Technology Organization Meeting Proceedings, RTO-MP-063, 22-24 May 2000, Valencia Spain. It contains proceedings from the Systems Concepts for Integrated Air Defence of Multinational Mobile Crisis Reaction Forces Symposium sponsored by the RTO Systems Concepts and Integration (SCI) Panel. Subjects covered include sensors, sensor fusion, information processing, system architecture, man-machine interfaces, weapon systems, battlefield management and interoperability of systems design. Testing of Defense Systems in an Evolutionary Acquisition Environment This is a full text book made available by National Academies Press and published in 2006. Evolutionary acquisition is a Department of Defense (DoD) process for defense system development in which a system is developed in stages as part of a single acquisition program. The different stages can be additional hardware and software capabilities or performance gains due to advances in technological maturity and reliability growth. DoD has presented evolutionary acquisition as the preferred option for development of key complex defense systems, a leading example being the Army’s Future Combat System. While it is quite common to modify a defense system after fielding, the intention in evolutionary acquisition is that these improvements are planned for and accommodated by the choice of system architectures and overall system design, to the extent possible. A further underlying motivation is that some costs and development delays (e.g., due to redesign and retrofitting) that might arise from a single-stage development process could be reduced by (a) giving greater priority to the identification of failure modes early in system development, (b) introducing new technologies only when they are mature, and (c) limiting the introduction of too many new components or subsystems simultaneously. It is argued that this process will shorten the overall system development time, allow rapid insertion of new capability-enhancing technologies, and reduce life-cycle costs. In evolutionary acquisition, system capabilities are developed and acquired in stages. Hence there is a need for careful reexamination of current testing and evaluation policies and processes, which were designed for single-stage developments. At the request of DoD, a committee of the National Academies planned and conducted a workshop to discuss the role of testing and evaluation in an evolutionary acquisition environment and to make appropriate conclusions and recommendations. The specific questions addressed include: What are the appropriate roles and objectives for testing in an evolutionary environment? Can a systematic, disciplined process be developed for testing and evaluation in such a fluid and flexible environment? How can information from the earlier stages of the evolutionary acquisition process be used effectively in developing test designs for subsequent stages? Are there methodologies, either in the academic literature (statistics, operations research, management science, etc.) or best practices in industry that can be adapted for use in the evolutionary acquisition environment in DoD? Are there advantages to data archiving and documenting results from past stages of development? Is there adequate technical expertise within the acquisition community to fully exploit data gathered from previous stages and to effectively combine information from various sources for test design and analysis? While discussing these questions, it became apparent that there are several broader, contextual issues that must also be addressed if the recommendations on test design are to be effective. Among these issues, the following were considered in the report: Is the meaning and intent of evolutionary acquisition sufficiently clear in DoD, or is there a need for clarity and consistency in the terminology and a need for enforcement of policies and procedures? Can the culture and organization of defense test and acquisition fully support the effective implementation of evolutionary acquisition? If not, what changes are needed in the DoD environment, the acquisition process, and incentives to ensure that the full benefits of testing in the evolutionary environment can be realized? Is the current level of cooperation among the program manager, contractors, and the developmental and operational testing communities adequate for supporting evolutionary acquisition? While these broader issues are somewhat beyond the study’s original scope, the committee concluded that they must be discussed, even if only briefly. The committee draws some conclusions and makes some recommendations on these broader issues. However, the committee could not recommend how to address these problems fully due to the limited scope of this study. [Taken from abstract]. The full text of the report can be read in open book format from the website of the National Academies Press. The Verification Research, Training and Information Centre VERTIC is a London based independent research organisation established in 1986. VERTIC's work is concerned with the verification and monitoring of international agreements and the site gives details of research projects taking place in the areas of arms control and disarmament, peace agreements and the environment. Some of VERTIC's publications can be viewed online in PDF format including copies of the annual Verification Yearbook and the bi-monthly newsletter, Trust and Verify. Other reports are freely available online and cover topics such as a guide to verifying environmental agreements, national laws enforcing the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and a handbook on verification and compliance. There are also databases of national legislation implementing the BWC and Iraqi weapons inspections. The Weapons Mix Problem : A Math Model to Quantify the Effects of Internetting of Fires to the Objective Force This technical report (TR-170-A) was published by The RAND Corporation in 2005 and was written by Christopher Pernin and Louis R. Moore. For the Armys future force, what is the appropriate mix of weapons to provide a given outcome, and how might these weapons be employed? This research offers some initial observations into the internetting of fires process, the ability to engage a particular target using any number of potential firers who are able to engage due to being on the network which provides targeting information, along with a foundation for understanding its relationship to combat outcome. [Taken from abstract]. This is a PDF file, so Adobe Acrobat software will be required in order to read it. Trinity Atomic Web Site This site gives a history of nuclear weapons, through historical archives (documents, photos and video). A large body of US Government information was used to create the site. Information is available about the Trinity atomic tests, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and nuclear weapon physics & technology. Details are also given on the effects of nuclear weapons and nuclear war, atmospheric testing, civil defence and criticality & radiation accidents. There is a gallery of test photos and Los Alamos National Laboratory Publications On-line. Links are also available to other related onlne sources, plus an annotated bibliography. UBIQUE: Artillery Links UBIQUE is the artillery worldwide links page, which hopes to bring together gunners from around the globe. This site provides news, a history of artillery, a guestbook and general information about artillery. Links are provided to US, Canadian and worldwide artillery units. United States Weapon Systems Provided by the Federation of American Scientists and part of the military analysis network, this site contains detailed information on United States weapon systems, providing specifications and links to further information. It includes smart weapons, dumb bombs, missiles, nuclear systems, and space, aircraft, land and ship systems. There is also a section for systems around the world and links to further related sites. Weapons of Strategic Effect : How Important is Technology? This is an Air War College, Center for Strategy and Technology Occasional Paper No.21 written by Colin Gray and dated January 2001. am grateful to Grant T. Hammond, Director of CSAT, for the opportunity to serve as a Visiting Fellow in 2000-2001 and to contribute this Occasional Paper. Given the technical focus of most of the Papers, I though it would be useful, by way of some contrast, to offer a wide ranging exploration of the relationship between technology and war. The paper draws upon several research efforts which have yet to see the light of day in published form. Most especially, the paper draws upon the theory and historical case studies developed in my forthcoming book, Strategy for Chaos: RMA Theory and the Evidence of History. Also, I have drawn upon my contribution ("Fuller's Folly: Technology, Strategic Effectiveness, and the Quest for Dominant Weapons") to an as yet unpublished collection of essays, A.J. Bacevich and B.R. Sullivan, eds., The Limits of Technology in Modern War. The central organizing idea behind this paper is that technology and war (or, indeed, peace) are linked by the consequence that we understand as strategic effectiveness. Technology in weapon systems, and in other military machines as well as in relevant a civilian systems, delivers its payoff in the effectiveness secured by the threat or use of force for the purposes of high policy. The playing field is strategic behavior and technology is just one, albeit a necessary one, among the players that collectively deliver the result. [taken from abstract]. The full text is available in PDF format and is provided by the Air University ResearchWeb site. WorldSecurity-index.com Provides a database of manufacturers, products and services related to defence and security. Product categories include; security, law enforcement and counter-terrorism, personnel systems and equipment, technology, medical, aircraft, and sub-systems and equipment. The database is searchable by company, country or product. |
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