Reducing the Logistics Burden for the Army After Next Doing More with Less (1999) / Chapter Skim
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6 Engagement
6 Engagement
Pages 87-109
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From page 87... ...
, and directed energy systems. Technologies and systems are assessed in terms of their potential for reducing logistics burdens for an AAN battle force.
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From page 88... ...
At present, precision guided, or "smart," munitions are relatively expensive and are reserved primarily for high-value targets. Highly reliable, miniaturized, integrated systems for sensing and guidance control that can be produced inexpensively and in large quantities will be essential for an AAN battle force that relies on precision munitions for all of its indirect-fire close support.
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From page 89... ...
First, simply maintaining and upgrading the interconnecting hardware and software systems will be a daunting challenge for the Army, as it is for commercial organizations that have only a fraction of the Army's workforce and installed technology base. Second, much of the enabling information processing technology (i.e., "computers")
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From page 90... ...
In several instances, the committee uses current system concepts to illustrate the significant factors that can increase or decrease logistics demands and that will be needed in AAN battle force engagement systems. Gun Systems Alternative gun propulsion technologies with significant implications for logistics burdens include the electrothermal chemical (ETC)
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From page 91... ...
Army demonstrations of the ETC gun concept have proved that it can augment the chemical energy from gun propellants. The Army objective for this concept is 18 MJ muzzle energy (i.e., combined chemical and plasma energy)
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From page 92... ...
EM gun technology is not subject to the same limitations on increasing the kinetic energy of a projectile that apply to conventional chemical propellants. Constraints on projectile velocity begin to appear only at much higher muzzle velocities.
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From page 93... ...
A more likely application of EM gun technology to the AAN battlefield would be as a long-range artillery weapon, which could support battle force operations from as far away as 500 km, perhaps from the staging area. Fuel supply logistics would be substantially simplified, and the principal technological obstacle would be a terminal guidance system to ensure long-range accuracy.
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From page 94... ...
From a logistics standpoint, missiles have an important advantage in precision guidance, which the committee believes is the most important technological route to reducing the logistics burden of ammunition weight and volume. Gun tubes have the traditional advantages of direct-fire and high-fire-rate weapons, as well as a lower acquisition cost per round and munition weight per round.
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From page 95... ...
General Purpose Indirect-Fire Weapons The AAN battle force will need one or more lightweight, precision-guided indirect-fire weapons. This requirement meshes well with the intent of the DARPA AFSS program, which is exploring conceptual weapons systems that combine weight reductions and ease of deployment with enhanced fire support.
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From page 96... ...
A similar system to accompany an AAN battle force could provide significant logistics savings in ammunition, crew, and transport for both, compared with traditional crew-served mortar and cannon artillery systems. Precision Guided Munitions Whatever launch technology is used, the critical element for hitting the target with every indirect-fired round is precision guidance of the projectile to its aim point.
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From page 97... ...
submunition to illustrate how the components of precision guidance are assembled in a present day "smart munition." The committee believes that the development of BAT, which began in the early 1980s, is an excellent example of how technology can be used to provide highly reliable, inexpensive, and compact munitions that could cut the logistics burden of ammunition to a fraction of today's requirements. It also illustrates how lengthy the process from conception to fielding is likely to be for AAN systems.
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From page 98... ...
may also be used to produce "less sensitive" munitions.2 Less sensitive munitions reduce logistics burdens by reducing the packaging weight and volume necessary for safe handling and storage. More can be transported in a given volume, because distances between rounds (the magazine separation)
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From page 99... ...
For an AAN battle force in particular (but also for follow-on Army forces) , missile systems with stealth and agility must be launched from small vehicles next-generation scout or utility vehicles, as well as AAN combat vehicles.
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From page 100... ...
with a ramjet combustor to attain subsonic to supersonic speeds, while maintaining throttle control. For high-speed systems, ramjet engines could upgrade existing missile systems for a fraction of the cost of a new weapons development program and substantially improve performance.
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From page 101... ...
Less Sensitive Munitions Decreasing the sensitivity of energetic materials and formulations is a difficult technical challenge because increasing the performance of a material as an energetic has historically tended to increase its sensitivity. However, if artillery rounds, warhead explosives, and missile propellants were less sensitive to impact and thermal exposure, they would not only be safer to handle, but they would also reduce logistics burdens.
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From page 102... ...
in which no insensitive munitions were involved were compared with the center's estimates if the best existing technologies (at that fume) for reduced sensitivity had been in use.
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From page 103... ...
The chances of transportation or handling accidents would be reduced, as well as the logistics and operations planning margins, and the safety of Arrny personnel would be increased. If the AAN process forces the Army to design for the best systems solutions for achieving diverse performance goals, including substantial reductions in the logistics burdens of ammunition and lethal systems, the Army will have a golden opportunity to make decreased munitions sensitivity a serious cost trade-off.
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From page 104... ...
Which alternative has the least logistics burden for an implementation that could be in the field by 2025? Would a general switch to liquid propellants meet AAN engagement needs while reducing logistics burdens?
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From page 105... ...
From the standpoint of reducing logistics burdens for an AAN battle force, however, tactical directed energy weapons would complement and supplement projectile weapon systems, not replace them. Therefore, they represent a separate and additional class of logistics burdens.
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From page 106... ...
Microwave Devices Smart weapons that depend on electronic components for precision guidance are vulnerable to high-power electromagnetic energy that overheats these components to the point of breakdown. Therefore, directed energy weapons are prime candidates for defensive applications.
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From page 107... ...
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES TO REDUCE LOGISTICS BURDENS OF ENGAGEMENT SYSTEMS Based on the preceding analyses of the logistics burdens assoc iated with engagement system options for AAN battle force operations and the technological opportunities for reducing these burdens, the committee concluded that the Army should pursue the following areas of scientific research and technology development. The order of the numbered items under a heading reflects a rough order of priority.
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From page 108... ...
The precision guidance of projectiles (or other weapons effects, such as directed energy or LTE weapons) is the primary means of reducing the ammunition logistics burden.
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From page 109... ...
The logistics implications of these weapons-in terms of system weight and energy requirementsalso preclude their consideration as weapons for an AAN battle force. However, tactical directed-energy weapons that can attack sensors, guidance subsystems, and electronic components are likely to be ready and useful for AAN operations.
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