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Daily News
By Gail Helmer

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Tuesday October 22, 2002

PC News
IGI 2: Covert Strike - Stealth video
Codemasters has release a new, IGI 2: Covert Strike, stealth video. IGI 2: Covert Strike, Codemasters' first-person shooter, due for release in February 2003 for PC. Whether it's all-out base assaults, covert surveillance, infiltration, thefts or escapes, see how stealth can be used to an advantage in the new IGI 2: Covert Strike video

Platoon Movie
There is a new movie trailer of Platoon: The 1st Airborne Cavalry Division in Vietnam, the 3D tactical strategy game being created at Digital Reality. The movie runs for a whopping six minutes and offers a cinematic intro and plenty of gameplay footage. Download from Gamershell.com.

New Screens: IL-2 Forgotten Battles
Ubi Soft has released more screens from the upcoming IL-2 Sturmovik add-on, Forgotten Battles. Forgotten Battles will include two new maps for Finland and Hungary, expanding the battlefield for both single and multiplayer modes. It will also feature more than 20 new single player missions and ten cooperative multiplayer missions. Forgotten Battles is expected to ship to retail stores worldwide in November 2002.

New Screens: R63 Raven Shield
We have 4 new screenshots from Rainbow Six: Raven Shield, the latest in squad-based tactical shooter series. Developed by Ubi Soft's Montreal studio, in close collaboration with Red Storm Entertainment, Rainbow Six: Raven Shield features a brand new Tom Clancy storyline in which Team RAINBOW is led all over the world in a string of dramatic operations. The game will utilize graphics technology provided by the next-generation Unreal engine to power 15 new single-player missions that include the discovery of a cache of biological weapons and stopping an armed gang from terrorizing a London bank. Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield has been delayed until February 2003 and the multiplayer demo will be released in mid-November. For more on Raven Shield, check COMBATSIM.COM's interview with the development team.

New Screens: Platoon
We have 10 new screens from the Vietnam RTS, Platoon, based on the 1986 Oliver Stone film. For more information on Platoon, check out our interview with the development team.

Military News
Raytheon, U.S. Navy Sign Phalanx 1B Order
Raytheon Company is being awarded a $46.5 million contract to remanufacture 16 Phalanx Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) to the Block 1B configuration and produce four additional Phalanx Block 1B upgrade kits for the U.S. Navy. This represents the largest dollar contract to date for the Phalanx surface-mode upgrade. All work is to be performed in Louisville, Ky., and will be complete by May 2004.

Phalanx is a rapid-fire, computer-controlled radar and 20-mm gun system that automatically acquires, tracks and destroys enemy threats that have penetrated all other ship defense systems. More than 850 systems have been built and deployed in the navies of 21 nations. Most recently, Phalanx Block 1B was installed aboard the USS Howard (DDG-83) and the USS Bulkeley (DDG-84), among the U.S. Navy's newest Arleigh Burke-class Aegis destroyers.



"The Block 1B surface mode provides both a radar and a thermal image for identification and rapid tactical actions in the cluttered near-shore, littoral environments," said Lang. "This system protects ships and their crews against an increased number of threats including standard and guided artillery; helicopters; floating mines and a variety of shore-launched, anti- ship missiles. It is especially effective against the swarming attacks of small, fast gunboats."

Boeing Announces Strategic Partners for UCAR Program
Boeing has announced its strategic partners for Phase I of the Unmanned Combat Armed Rotorcraft, or UCAR, program. The team, which will focus on everything from collaborative operations and robotics to en route mission auto routers, has started detailed work on this transformational program. The strategic partners include the following companies and research facilities:



  • ALPHATECH (Burlington, Mass.) - Distributed autonomous cooperative control
  • Axiom (Norfolk, Va.) - Objective Force and joint operations warfighting concepts
  • BAE Systems (San Diego) - Mission planning, automatic re-planner, router
  • Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh) - Collaborative robotics, distributed intelligence, stereo vision technology
  • Harris Corporation (Melbourne, Fla.) - Advanced communication, data links, command and control
  • New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, N.M.) - Artificial Intelligence
  • Rockwell Scientific (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) - Advanced sensors, tactical radar and technology assessment
The Boeing Phantom Works and Integrated Defense Systems Unmanned Systems organization are developing UCAR which will be a worldwide rapid response, highly autonomous, survivable and lethal unmanned system fully integrated into the Army's Objective Force combat maneuver force structure. The extremely agile system, which enables ground maneuver force superiority, will be capable of collaborating with multiple UCARs and other manned and unmanned systems. Unlike other unmanned aerial vehicles, however, UCAR will not have a dedicated ground station. Instead, the system will integrate into existing command and control platforms. Capable of autonomous mission planning while in flight, the UCAR will request guidance from a human operator only when necessary.

In May, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, and the U.S. Army selected Boeing as one of four teams for the initial 12-month concept development and system trades phase of the UCAR program.

During Phase I, Boeing will conduct mission effectiveness and affordability trade studies to develop and optimize an objective system design. After the concept development studies are complete, DARPA will choose two contractors for a nine-month preliminary design phase, followed by a system development phase that will yield two demonstrator vehicles. In the final phase, ending in 2009, the Army will take ownership of the winning platform and begin its system design and development, leading to fielding the system sometime around 2014.

First Sale of the Mk 45 Mod 4 Naval Gun to Europe
United Defense Industries, Inc. received a contract from the Royal Danish Navy (RDN) for two Mk 45 Mod 4, 5-inch 62-caliber naval guns and associated logistical support. The contract with RDN's Naval Materiel Command calls for delivery of the first gun in late 2003 with the second gun due to Denmark in 2004.

The Mk 45 Mod 4 guns will be installed aboard ships of the RDN's Flexible Support Ship (FSS) Program. Flexible support ships are designed and constructed by the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark. This first European installation of the Mod 4 version of the venerable Mk 45 naval gun will fully support the FSS wide range of duties focused on joint and multinational operations around the world.



"This is the initial introduction of the Mk 45 Mod 4, the world's premier medium caliber naval gun system, into Europe," said Keith Howe, Vice President and General Manager of United Defense's Armament Systems Division. "I look forward to a promising and productive relationship with the Royal Danish Navy, and the continued acceptance of the Mk 45 Mod 4 naval gun in other European navies in the future."

The Mk 45 Mod 4 will fire advanced munitions being developed by the U.S. Navy, including the Extended Range Guided Munition as well as all other U.S. Navy and NATO standard 5-inch ammunition.

Rear Admiral Niels Mejdal, Chief of Naval Materiel Command, emphasized the vital importance of this program within the Danish Armed Forces. "It is an excellent example where joint requirements override single service priority, and we are proud to be among the leaders of this kind of jointness. Based on partnership with the U. S. Navy and United Defense, the RDN will offer a unique capability to NATO within a few years."

BAT Scores Direct Hits From Hunter UAV
The U.S. Army's Bat submunition, supplied by Northrop Grumman Corporation, scored four hits in four attempts against an array of moving armored targets following dispense from a Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle in tests conducted Oct. 9 and 11.

Co-sponsored by the Army's Precision Fires Rocket and Missile Systems and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems Project Office, the drops were performed at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. They were intended to demonstrate operational capability of the integrated Hunter and baseline Bat systems. This version of Bat, currently in production at Northrop Grumman's Land Combat Systems facility at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala., is an autonomous munition that uses a combination of passive acoustic and IR sensors to seek, identify and destroy moving targets deep in enemy territory.



For the Oct. 9 test, two Bats were fitted with flight data recorders and deployed against a moving array of eight armored targets. From tactical altitude, the Hunter successfully released the two Bat ejection tubes, which in turn ejected the submunitions according to plan. Both Bats executed their predicted flight patterns, and both impacted targets -- a BMP combat vehicle and a T-72 tank -- in highly vulnerable areas.

On Oct. 11, the procedure was repeated, this time using two fully tactical Bats with warheads against an array of seven armored vehicles. Both submunitions again flew their predicted patterns and scored hits on a BMP and a T-72 respectively.


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