Noel Sharkey
Joined: 11 Apr 2008
Posts: 12
Location: United Kingdom
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 Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 7:49 pm Post subject: When does a bomb become an autonomous robot? |
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When does a bomb become an autonomous robot?
When it has sensors that guide its movement through a control system.
When the BLU-108 sensor fused weapon is dropped from a plane and nears the ground it spins back up again and releases four skeet warheads. Each skeet has infrared sensors to find hot bodied vehicles and strike them with a penetrating charge.
I mentioned in a previous posting that this weapon was almost like a robot. Well now the US Air Force wants to go one step further with a new sensor-fused weapon that can re-acquire its targets, if they are moving, and pursue them for up to five kilometres.
Let me rephrase my original question: What do you call a weapon that pursues vehicles for up to five kilometers using sensors and then targets and fires at them without a human in the loop?
Yup! you’ve guessed it.
The USAF have issued a call for proposals for the development of such weapons (see below). See Paul Marks’ article in New Scientist for a full report.
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/mg19926756.400
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Proposals Accepted: August 25, 2008 - September 24, 2008
Program: Small Businees Innovation Research
Topic Number: AF083-093 (AirForce)
Title: Guided Smart Submunitions
Research & Technical Areas: Weapons
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Objective: This topic would develop guided submunition concepts to increase accuracy and reduce collateral damage for area weapons or submunitions dispensed from Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) or powered rockets.
Description: The Air Force is looking at concepts to engage multiple targets with a single munition platform. This concept requires a CBU (Cluster Bomb Unit) munition or UAV capable of deploying guided smart submunitions that have the ability to engage and neutralize any targets of interest. The goals for the submunitions is very challenging, when considering the mission of addressing mobile and fixed targets of interest. The submunition has to be able to reacquire the target of interest it is intended to engage. The following parameters are top level goals for the submunition that would provide some understanding of the technology challenges. The submunition should weight less than 20 pounds, and have a diameter less than or equal to 6 inches. The power on the submunition should provide for operating time of 5 minutes, with power no greater than 200 watts. The smart submunition requires a seeker capable of handling mobile targets and targets of opportunity that are of interest. The seeker should have the required information from the target to provide reasonable ATR performance. The submunition seeker should be able to operate in adverse weather, and have the ability to process target ATR data extracted from the seeker. The seeker should be able to have enough aperture to allow for target detection and track at a distance of 5 kilometers for the submunition to set the trajectory and terminal engagement to address mobile targets. The seeker should have enough resolution to classify the target and select the aimpoint for delivering the effects that would neutralize the target. The size of the seeker is critical and the power of the seeker should be less than 50 percent of the submunition power listed above, and weight should also be considered very important to be minimized. The processing requirements for the seeker are very challenging due to the functionality and mission required of the submunition. These requirements are important to assure that many submunitions can be carried by the CBU munition or UAVs that would deployed them. The need is very challenging and the Air Force is looking for innovative ideas for the submunition seeker that can address these challenging requirements.
PHASE I: Seeker concept will be defined and analysis will be conducted in determining the type of seeker and respective operating spectrum. The analysis should also be conducted to determine the parameters and trades for addressing the requirements stated in the description.
PHASE II: 1) Define the objective submunition aperture and seeker design that would address the requirements. Conduct trades and analysis on expected performance of the submunition seeker. 2) Develop and fabricate innovative aperture with respective instrumentation that would support limited testing on the performance of the aperture to address the requirements above. Address the over all seeker design to meet the requirements of size weight and power.
PHASE III / DUAL USE: Military application: May include submunitions seeker, micro unmanned air vehicle sensors, and wireless communications. This technology has an industrial use in sensor and information communications. Commercial application: Could include low cost collision avoidance sensor for UAVs, automobiles and general aviation.
References: 1. Hovanessian,S.A. Modern Radar Technology, Lecture Notes, UCLA Extension, September 19, 1983.
2. Raymond S. Balcerak,”Uncooled IR Imaging: Technology for the next Generation,” SPIE 3698, Infrared Technology and Applications XXV,110 (1999).
Keywords: submuntion guidance systems, minaturized sensors, smart precise submunitions
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Noel Sharkey
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