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The clear focus of military spending in 2011 is the individual soldier in the field and the vehicles he or she uses, writes Harvey Preston, vice-president and general manager at TT Electronics’ connector division.
In the context of governments’ cutbacks around the globe, programmes that can enhance the effectiveness or improve the protection of troops, and/or reduce the burden they carry, stand an excellent chance of being signed off.
Weight is a particularly important consideration for dismounted soldiers, typically carrying their own body mass in equipment.
It is also increasingly important in the design of unmanned vehicles, fighting vehicles, aircraft and naval systems.
Programmes like the US DoD’s “Nett Warrior”, “Soldato Futuro” in Italy, Finland’s “Finnish Warrior” and Australia’s “Land 125”, all involve using electronics to help soldiers know where they are, communicate better with their comrades and commanders, identify hazards and locate and neutralise the enemy.
Component manufacturers play a major role in ensuring that defence equipment OEMs meet the ever-increasing performance demands of these programmes, while reducing the weight, size and cost of their systems.
In consequence, consumer electronics’ obsession with size, weight and power has become firmly established in the defence electronics industry. The difference, to put it bluntly, is that smartphones don’t need to withstand battlefield conditions. The challenge for us is to reconcile space and weight savings with extreme ruggedness and durability.
Connectors are a case in point. The devices carried by a soldier or on a vehicle need to be interconnected - and ideally powered from a common source. Miniaturised connectors need the same performance and standards as their larger military-standard counterparts, but reducing the size can affect performance.
As a result product design and development is focusing on high-density terminations offered by lightweight military connector systems. A key area of development focus is the thickness of the metal connector shell and the search for new alloys and materials to square the circle of rugged yet lightweight construction.
Interestingly, these smaller, lighter, components are finding applications beyond the military. For example, mass transit and motorsport OEMs equally need to reduce size and weight in a context of rugged construction with high reliability and extreme environmental capability.
Technological systems are making the front line soldier better connected, better informed, better protected and more effective than ever before.
The challenge that the electronics systems firms and components manufacturers face going into the DSEi 2011 exhibition in London (13-16 September) is to deliver this capability while reducing the weight burden our troops carry into battle.
DSEi 2011