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U.S. military vehicles like this Army Stryker, shown clearing the remains of a car bomb in Mosul, Iraq, could soon be equipped with a system that is designed to stop rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs.
A rocket-propelled grenade is neutralized during |
By MICHAEL ZITZ
There's a new sheriff in town.
And it did some pretty impressive "RoboCop" shooting Friday at Dahlgren.
A super-fast shield designed to protect American troops from rocket-propelled grenades that's becoming part of a platform nicknamed "Project Sheriff" succeeded in its first live-fire test as 140 VIPs and members of the media looked on.
The prototype demonstration of what's being called "whiz bang" tech by some was conducted at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division on the heels of similar Israeli experiments in late February.
Officially known as the Trophy Active Protection System and manufactured by General Dynamics, the device detected and tracked an inert RPG fired at a modified Army Stryker combat vehicle that was on the move.
In less time than the blink of an eye, the system read and reacted to the threat, using a "countermeasure" interceptor rocket to shoot the RPG down about 10 yards away from the vehicle, with no damage and virtually no collateral effect. It also allowed an RPG fired almost simultaneously that was a "miss" to pass by harmlessly.
The U.S. military was testing Trophy for integration into its Full Spectrum Effects Platform, an evolving package being developed to protect troops in the Middle East and create fast but measured responses to threats.
The platform is likely to have many applications, from light armored Army and Marine Corps vehicles including the Stryker, to Navy ships--and deployment is expected to begin this summer.
The media demonstration at Dahlgren was held at the request of the secretary of defense's Office of Threat Transformation.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has been criticized for the vulnerability of U.S. forces to cheap, low-tech RPGs and simply made remote-control roadside bombs called "improvised explosive devices" or IEDs.
The fast-moving technological innovation of Trophy and Project Sheriff comes at a time when Rumsfeld is under more criticism. He has come under fire from some, including retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, who on Sunday called for Rumsfeld to be replaced and specifically mentioned U.S. problems in dealing with basic weaponry like shoulder-fired RPGs.
"We're not fighting the Waffen-SS here," Zinni said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in criticizing Rumsfeld's planning and conduct of the Iraq War. "You know, we're fighting a bunch of ragtag people with AK-47s and IEDs and RPGs."
Whether or not it defends Rumsfeld, Project Sheriff could save American lives in a Middle Eastern conflict that shows no signs of nearing an end.
The Trophy technology penetrates the housing of RPGs and enemy rockets and disables them--often without detonation.
The system is said to be ready for deployment on coalition vehicles and ships to defend against high explosive antitank-type threats, with the idea to provide more options to deal with the chaos of urban combat.
Rumsfeld's Office of Force Transformation is working with with the U.S. Army's Futures Center to develop, test and integrate the new system and deploy it quickly.
Government officials and reporters--mostly from specialized publications covering the defense industry--watched the demonstration from a safe distance on live streaming video. They were then were bused to the site to examine the vehicle and the RPG, which had been pierced and broken into sections by countermeasures. Observers then watched repeated super-slow-motion replays showing the RPG being neutralized.
Marine Corps Col. Wade Hall, a strategist at the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation, said that instead of going to heavier and heavier armor, the Department of Defense "now has at its disposal technology that allows U.S. forces to defeat both the archer and the arrow."
The Project Sheriff/Trophy countermeasure process engages only if the RPG or missile is about to hit the vehicle. If it's tracked as a miss, the projectile is not engaged.
The system can currently stop up to three RPGs or missiles on each side of a vehicle without having to be serviced and reloaded.
Shoulder-fired RPGs can be used effectively by even inexperienced insurgents at a range of 150 yards to 300 yards--and an experienced enemy can use them to destroy a target as far as 500 yards away.
They have been used in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Chechnya. The Israelis had to deal with many RPG attacks in the 1982 war in Lebanon and in confrontations with Palestinian militants in the occupied territories.
Supporters of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein are believed to have escaped to Syria with enough of the ex-dictator's cash to buy RPGs there and smuggle them back home for use by insurgents.
That threat is helping to speed up the development of U.S. technology with much broader applications.
Hall said "Project Sheriff" could mark the beginning of a wave of military technology that will help U.S. forces analyze threats within milliseconds and respond with appropriate levels of force.
"We like to take out entire ZIP codes," Hall said. "We do it well."
Weapons like cruise missiles, he said, can deliver great destructive power while programmed to fly into a window.
But Hall said the development of Project Sheriff-type technology is helping to tailor new, precise, measured and more politically palatable responses to threats to troops in urban battlefield situations while minimizing collateral damage.
That's important in the Middle East, Hall said, where a young boy might pick up a gun that belongs to his grandfather and fire it into the air without intending the act to be a threat.
The understandably edgy reaction of American troops might leave that child dead. But advancing technology could help reduce the incidence of human error in such cases, Hall said.
The Project Sheriff package reportedly includes "active denial" technology developed by Raytheon that delivers a "pain ray"; a "Long Range Acoustic Device" that hurts a crowd's ears, causing it to disperse, developed by American Technology Corporation; and the "Lazzer Dazzler" developed by the Army's night vision lab to spot gun scopes in darkness.
Project Sheriff's arsenal also includes an Office of Naval Research and NSWC Dahlgren-developed counterfire system called "Gunslinger" that uses acoustic and infrared sensors to identify the location of hostile small arms fire and cues a gun mount to quickly locate the shooter and return fire.
"The partnership of our engineers with warfighters, industry and DoD systems experts to test Trophy APS integrated on Project Sheriff vehicles will make a difference in our military's ability to fight, win and come home safely," said NSWC Dahlgren Division Commander Capt. Joseph McGettigan. "This active protection system, in addition to Project Sheriff's lethal and nonlethal technologies, will bring a set of capabilities to the warfighter that he's never had before all in one spot."
"The technologies are ready," said NSWC's Bob Dibble, who is managing the project's integration. "We're doing the integration at Dahlgren and are working with multiple labs from all the services."
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ:
Email: mikez@freelancestar.com
