Emerging Technologies

Vulcan destroys bombs harmlessly - A small family company based in England has earned a Queen's Award for Innovation for a device called Vulcan that destroys unexploded bombs and landmines in a controlled manner.

Vulcan uses an explosive shaped charge to fire a powerful jet of burning magnesium particles that can penetrate the thick steel casing of a shell or bomb. This causes the explosive fill to decompose so quickly that the internal pressure generated is enough to burst the case open but too low to cause the munition to detonate.

The Vulcan is now Alford Technologies' best-selling product and is used successfully on former battlefields across the world. It has, for example, got rid of more than 100 large aircraft bombs dropped during the Vietnam war in rural areas of Laos.

After Vulcan, their next biggest-selling product is a range of tools for tackling bombs in vehicles. These include a device called "Boot Banger" that focuses a jet of water so powerfully that it can tear through the bottom of a vehicle and rip apart and eject the bomb before it can explode. "I have heard that the White House is equipped with our tools for dealing with vehicle bombs," said the founder, Dr Sydney Alford.

Another product is "Gatecrasher", deployed to help rescue hostages being held inside a building. It uses explosive tamped by water and blows a hole in the wall of the building without injuring the people inside, enabling the hostages to get out unharmed.

"During the Iraq war, Gatecrashers were successfully used by British Royal Engineer Commandos to rescue people taken hostage by a sniper who was firing on the soldiers," added Dr Alford.

Vulcan is being deployed by armed forces including those of the UK and US in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also being used by various charities, especially the Mines Advisory Group to help dispose of the millions of unexploded bombs that litter the fields of Laos and Vietnam and kill and injure many civilians every year.

Army cross-trains in S'pore - Soldiers from the Incident Response Regiment (IRR) participated in chemical-biological-radiological (CBR) response training in Singapore as part of Exercise Black Orchid 2004. The exercise, conducted between 11-21 November 2004 involved the use of protective equipment in responding to a simulated contaminated environment.

The IRR exercised with units from the Singaporean Armed Forces, to develop interoperability and enhance both nations response procedures to this type of threat.

"The Singapore Armed Forces have a well-established capability in this area, and training opportunities like Exercise Black Orchid 2004 are the result of Government initiatives for closer defence ties with regional forces," said 1 IRR' CO, LTCOL Nick Rowntree. "We also get an additional challenge by conducting this training in a tro
The exercise tested the IRR members in a variety of scenarios, based around fictitious terrorist activity in the exercise area. It addressed many capabilities in the unit's skillsets, including decontamination, CBR medicine, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, communications and High Risk Search. Singaporean units also participated in similar training scenarios, and worked directly with their Australian counterparts.

Exercise Black Orchid was the first of an annual activity between Australia and Singapore, with each nation hosting a deployment for the other in alternating years.

PA for 'Frisco - Acoustic Technology Inc. (ATI) of Boston, Massachusetts has received a contract from The City of San Francisco to replace WWII-era mechanical warning sirens with a new state of the art wireless, digital system with public address capability. Funding for the outdoor warning system replacement project was provided as part of a federal Homeland Security grant.

The new units are lighter, battery-powered and weather resistant. They include a public address feature, which will allow public safety officials to make emergency announcements from one or more of the units.

ATI has designed and developed a system that will provide fail-proof emergency communications for the city. The new system includes various siren-warning tones, pre-recorded and live voice messages. A key feature of this new application allows the city?s compliance with the new FEMA guidelines CPG 1-17, which requires Public Address capability in Warning Systems. Terrorist attacks, weather-related emergencies or industry-caused disasters are events that require instant live voice notification and instructions to the public.

Next-generation flak jackets on the way - American company Armor Holdings' Aerospace & Defense Group has signed a cooperative research and development agreement with the Florida Advanced Center for Composite Technologies (FAC2T) at Florida State University enabling the two organizations to jointly develop advanced materials and composites in an effort to improve soldier protection and survivability.

Armor Holdings will combine its expertise in ballistics and personal protective systems development with the research and technical capabilities of FAC2T to develop new technologies and test and deploy new products that provide protection to the non-torso area of a soldier's body, with particular focus on the head, neck, shoulder and arm areas.

The multi-phase partnership, entitled, "Development of Advanced Materials and Processes for Soldier Extremity Protection," will include financial underwriting from Armor Holdings, data and technology sharing and joint research activities. The research will pursue two paths; one focused on product development with novel composite processes with high performance materials, and the other focused on materials performance enhancements via nanotube-toughened polymers.

FAC2T is one of the nation's leading composite technology research laboratories. Its researchers work closely with the Army Research Lab, the Air Force Research Lab, the Office of Naval Research, and major aerospace companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin on new materials and manufacturing processes to help enhance national security and defense.

It's an ill wind... - One year ago, American college student Shane Messer released a WMD riddle book and global treasure hunt to pay for his college tuition and help teach others more about the facts on the Iraq war. Within a few days, buzz from the game spread around the world to and Messer had not only succeeded in paying for law school, but he had created a cult-like following of gamers as well.

Now, his new Bin Laden follow-up treasure hunt points the focus to finger to Afghanistan and questions why we haven't found the evasive Laden.

The prize was grand: a $5,000 solid gold trophy, a barrel of oil, and a bag of cash. All a person had to do was comb through thousands of real life documents and piece together a devilishly difficult riddle centred around the real life hunt for weapons of mass destruction. Nine months, and a thousand gamers later, a winner emerged in Colorado--ironically, a democrat who decided to send the gold to Bush. The then-28 year old Messer had not only succeeded in paying off his entire law school bill, but he had created a cult-like following of gamers as well.

The new Bin Laden game focuses entirely on the country of Afghanistan and the terrorist himself. It consists of an "agent letter", copy of an intercepted letter between Laden and one of his lieutenants, and various maps and country demographics.

"The new game will prove a bit more difficult than the last one," Messer claims. "This game is much, much more complicated and will require some serious thinking outside of the box to solve. In this game, you have to go as far as figuring out what you aren't given in order to solve it."

Information about the Bin Laden game can be located online at http://www.thebinladengame.com.