Journal articles on the topic 'Military Armoured vehicles'

The article presents the analysis of the use of military vehicles in Polish military contingents fulfilling their mandated tasks in the Middle East and Former Yugoslavia. It encompasses the nature of operations con-ducted in these places and the resulting role of the vehicles used there. It also describes the history of their making and development, basic technical data and opinions about their use during the said tasks. The analysis comprised the following vehicles: Finnish Sisu XA-180, which is the prototype of KTO Rosomak and RG-31 Nyala vehicles originating from the Republic of South Africa and used by Polish military forces in the UNDOF mission. The group of machines which were part of the equipment used by contingents in missions in Former Yugoslavia is rep-resented by: Honker Tarpan off-road vehicle, AMZ Dzik 2 armoured vehicle, BRDM-2 reconnaissance patrol vehicle and BWP-1 infantry fighting vehicle.

Abstract The paper presents results of the analysis of emissivity of exhaust gases, based on tests special vehicles under difficult terrains conditions. There was tested Armoured Combat Vehicle “ROSOMAK”, what was designed as a modular vehicle to transport people and equipment as well as combat uses too. The research were carried out on both the new vehicles, as well as the already operated on two different military training fields in Poland (Siemianowice Śląskie, Sulejówek).

The article discusses topics related to the research of air transport susceptibility of military vehicles. This type of research is carried out in the Vehicle Research Laboratory at the Military Institute of Armoured and Automotive Technology in Sulejówek. The authors undertook a review of normative documents in the field of air transportability of military vehicles. On the basis of the review, an analysis of the current technical requirements in the aspect of the strength of transport nodes was made. The results of the analysis of documents are presented in the form of a transparent table. The article presents the problem of strength tests of transport nodes. The authors also presented the test method, which is accredited by the Military Centre for Standardization, Quality and Codification. The article presents the results of preliminary tests of transport hooks carried out for the Honker vehicle and the results of tests of transport catches of the Heavy Wheeled Evacuation and Technical Rescue Vehicle (CKPEiRT) developed at ROSOMAK SA CKPEiRT is an 8x8 vehicle with high payload, increased mobility, intended primarily for the evacuation of ROSOMAK wheeled armored personnel carriers. The CKPEiRT vehicle is characterized by an armoured cabin and the possibility of transporting four crew members. The results of the tests confirmed the fulfilment of requirements by the tested vehicle with respect to the strength of transport nodes.

The experience of military conflicts in recent decades shows changes in the nature of warfare performance, which differ significantly from those conditions for which existing types of armoured fighting vehicles were created. The conducted analysis of the works on the designing of advanced armoured fighting vehicles shows that these changes have not yet been sufficiently taken into account. It still focuses on the creation of high-value combat vehicles with high combat performance for direct (contact) actions. Given the limited economic opportunities of the most countries this inevitably leads to unreasonable expenses. This article presents a conceptual approach to design up to date of armoured fighting vehicles which is based on the asymmetrical principle of their development. Given that the practical implementation of the proposed approach is complex and high-cost, the results of simulation modelling of typical situations of combat use of the offered types of armoured fighting vehicles are given as evidence.

Abstract During the last decades, the military combat vehicles and trucks were equipped with various weapon systems and laser rangefinders, optical devices and sighting equipment. The military vehicles were thus upgraded, so they become a more attractive target for enemy fire. Since ballistic armour cannot and will never completely protect vehicles against kinetic or explosive ammunitions, various pyrotechnic countermeasure systems such as smoke screening, were designed and implemented. Generating smoke screens or flares in the desired area (around the combat armoured vehicles) is a concern of many manufacturers of pyrotechnic protection systems, aiming to protect against detection in the visual (VIS) and infrared (IR) spectrum. The goal of this article is to present a brief state-of-the-art regarding the development of pyrotechnic smoke camouflage systems and flares used to ensure countermeasures in the visible and infrared electromagnetic spectrum. Types of pyrotechnic systems and structures for the protection of military vehicles will be described briefly.

The article also tackles topics related to dynamic testing of vehicles equipped with massive wheel inserts. The subject matter was taken due to the modernization of the Polish Armed Forces. The majority of vehicles obtained for the army are equipped with wheels with massive inserts. With the introduction of this solution to the army, there was a need to check the correctness of the operation of wheels with massive inserts. The Military Vehicles Research Laboratory of the Institute of Armoured and Automotive Technology developed a research method, which the authors presented in the following article. Dynamic testing is carried out in a practical way by unsealing the tire. The results of dynamic tests carried out on a selected military special vehicle equipped with wheels with massive inserts, which allow the vehicle to move after the tire is unsealed, were also presented. This condition can be caused by various situations, such as: passing the vehicle through the spike strip or the shooting through the tire. Special vehicles, both military and police, are highly vulnerable to the above events and must be able to evacuate from the place of danger even in the case of an unsealed tire.

Exploitation of vehicles on the civil market requires the deprivation of utility features of vehicles intended for military or police purposes. The work presents an algorithm of operation to deprive combat vehicles of the utility features. As part of the work, an example of the analysis of the elements of vehicle construction and equipment which should be deprived of functional features is shown, in accordance with the list contained in the above regulations. The authors also provided a description of how to proceed in order to deprive the utility features of the designated construction elements or equipment of the selected combat vehicle.

Provision of proper protection against landmines is a major aim of modern military vehicle designs. The point of developing the methods and means of countermine protection is to identify the shock wave impact on a vehicle construction and its crew. Information on overload coming from landmine explosions on a person are strictly confidential or not detailed enough. The basis to obtain them is to carry out experimental and numerical tests. This article presents basic issues and threats to crews as a result of landmine, IED or EFP explosions carried out by terrorists. The literature published has helped the authors to identify the main parts of body prone to the impulse load of a shock wave explosion on a wheeled military vehicle. The methodology and sample results of experimental tests identifying the shock wave load on a vehicle and its crew in a characteristic anthropometrics points of body are presented as well. Injury criteria and crew threat levels resulting from explosive load under a vehicle and its close area are outlined. The aim of such a complex analysis of shock wave load over wheeled military vehicles and their crews is the development of modern and effective protection devices.

Abstract This paper presents a methodology to validate a virtual test procedure for vehicle gradeability performance. It is a test dedicated to both the civilian and military off-road vehicles, an 8 x 8 Armoured Personnel Carrier being selected for the purpose of the paper. TruckSim is the software used to implement the vehicle math model and the test procedure. The simulation results are compared with the experimental results for a 60 % gradient. The vehicle speed and the engine speed graphics, the statistical analyze, and the comparison between the simulation test animation and the experimental test movie are the methods applied to validate the virtual longitudinal slope test procedure.

In the United States and some other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) countries, the NATO Reference Mobility Model is currently used to evaluate military ground vehicle mobility. The module of the NATO Reference Mobility Model for predicting the cross-country performance of military vehicles is empirically based and was developed using test data collected decades ago. The NATO Reference Mobility Model has inherent limitations, such as the uncertainty whether its empirical relations can be extrapolated beyond the test conditions upon which they were derived or whether it can be used for evaluating new-generation military vehicles. This suggests that there is a need for the development of a physics-based model that takes into account the advancements in terramechanics and modelling/simulation techniques. This paper describes the results of a detailed evaluation of a physics-based model – the Nepean Tracked Vehicle Performance Model – for assessing military tracked vehicle cross-country performance. The performance of a notional tracked vehicle (an armoured personnel carrier) predicted by the latest version of the Nepean Tracked Vehicle Performance Model is compared with test data obtained on sandy terrain, muskeg and snow-covered terrain. The correlations between the predicted and measured performance are evaluated using the coefficient of correlation, coefficient of determination, root mean square deviation and coefficient of variation. The applications of the Nepean Tracked Vehicle Performance Model to predicting the maximum possible vehicle speed (speed-made-good) on a given terrain, the sensitivity of vehicle performance to variations in the values of terrain parameters and the mean maximum pressure are demonstrated. The results of this study indicate that the Nepean Tracked Vehicle Performance Model has potential to form the basis for the development of the next-generation cross-country performance assessment methodology for military tracked vehicles.

Mass properties such as the centre of gravity location, moments of inertia, and total mass are of great importance for vehicle stability studies and deployment. Certain parameters are required when these vehicles need to be arranged inside an aircraft for the carrier to achieve proper mass balance and stability during a flight. These parameters are also important for the design and modelling process of vehicle rollover crash studies. In this study, the mass properties of a military armoured vehicle were estimated using hoisting and pendulum method. The gross total weight, longitudinal and vertical measurements were recorded by lifting the vehicle using a mobile crane and the data were used to estimate the centre of gravity. The frequency of vehicle oscillation was measured by applying swing motion with a small angle of the vehicle as it is suspended on air. The centre of gravity and mass moment of inertia were calculated using the vector mechanics approach. The outcomes and limitations of the approach as discussed in details.

Many of the high-mobility wheeled vehicles used by the British Army employ permanent all-wheel drive transmission systems with just one transverse differential. Since all the wheels on each side of the vehicle rotate at the same angular velocity severe transmission wind-up can be developed on roads. The possibility of using viscous couplings to alleviate this problem has been investigated by computer simulation backed up by practical trials on a 4 × 4 armoured reconnaissance vehicle. The results suggest that with a suitable choice of coupling characteristic this solution can dramatically reduce the wind-up torque during low-speed manoeuvres with no significant effect on off-road mobility or handling on roads. It can reduce the wind-up caused by non-uniform tyre wear but not to the extent anticipated. To safeguard handling stability under heavy braking there may be a need to bias the brake effort distribution to the front.

Better terrain accessibility of military vehicle makes it possible to project force at desired points in a theatre of operation. The factors responsible for terrain accessibility are slope, obstacles and soil. Torque requirement for meeting vehicle speed and gradient requirement is understood and can be analytically arrived at. It can be met by appropriate choice of engine and transmission using. There is dearth of information as well as a common metric in quantification of terrain accessibility especially soft soil trafficability. Approach adopted in this study is that of characterisation of vehicle in terms of mobility characteristic and mobility limit parameters and comparing them with vehicle in-service worldwide. Simple empirical relation has been preferred over complex analytical approach for mobility prediction and gradient climbing capability in sand has been predicted and compared with other vehicles. parametric study for tyre sizes vis-a-vis mobility parameters have been obtained and results have been presented for chosen vehicle configuration. Second part of this study is obstacle crossing capability study for standard set of obstacles. Vehicle model has been built in multi-body environment and parameters of significance viz., wheel displacement to verify correctness of model and acceleration at CG for ride comfort and ground reactions for evaluation of dynamic loads on axles have been obtained. Vehicle drivetrain configuration to achieve desired terrain accessibility in terms of soft-soil trafficability and obstacle crossing has been demonstrated.

In a period of 2015-2020, Lithuanian Armed Forces (LAF) military spending increased twice, thus it enabled to initiate and to arrange significant critical projects that eventually allowed armed forces to upgrade military equipment and tactics. New artillery units, armoured personnel vehicles, air defence systems, anti-tank weapons, radars, anti-drone systems boosted military power of LAF. Tactics switched from anti green men to conventional tactics, where fire and manoeuvre dominates again. Meanwhile, in the same period of time in Kaliningrad the Russian armed forces boosted the number of military personnel, upgraded equipment (most of it to offensive one) and increased military exercises. In order to be prepared, LAF must look for the most efficient ways of defence towards a potential foe. In a near future LAF must decentralize a central military storage thus critical assets could be secured and used by battalions at any time. Moreover, LAF capabilities could be improved by cyber conscripts and non-conventional tactics which could bring extra dividends when a small state fights against technologically advanced adversary. Eventually, with an additional military spending LAF could obtain MLRS artillery, the coastal defence systems and unmanned combat aerial vehicles that could deal with enemy from a safer distance.

<p>The objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of various semi-active suspension control strategies for 8x8 multi-axle armoured vehicles in terms of comparative analysis of ride quality and mobility parameters during negotiation of typical military obstacles. Since the cost, complexity and time precludes realisation of actual system, co-simulation technique has been effectively implemented for this investigation. Co-simulation combines advanced virtual prototyping and control technology which offers a novel approach to investigate the dynamics of such complex system. The simulations for the integrated control system along with multi body model of the vehicle are carried out for the control strategies, viz. continuous sky hook control, cascade loop control and cascade loop with ride control and compared with passive suspension system. The vehicle with 8x8 configuration is run on the real world obstacle profiles, viz. step, trench, trapezoidal bump and corrugated road and the effect of control strategies on ride comfort, wheel displacement and ground reaction is presented. It is observed that cascade loop with ride control in semi-active mode offers better vehicle ride comfort while crossing the said obstacles. The improved performance parameters are achieved through stabilisation of heave, pitch and roll motions of the vehicle through outer loop and isolation of vehicle level uneven disturbances through the fuzzy logic controller employed in inner loop.</p>

A line-of-sight stabilised sighting system, capable of target tracking and video stabilisation is a prime requirement of any armoured fighting tank vehicle for military surveillance and weapon firing. Typically, such sighting systems have three prime electro-optical sensors i.e. day camera for viewing in day conditions, thermal camera for night viewing and eye-safe laser range finder for obtaining the target range. For laser guided missile firing, additional laser target designator may be a part of sighting system. This sighting system provides necessary parameters for the fire control computer to compute ballistic offsets to fire conventional ammunition or fire missile. System demands simultaneous interactions with electro-optical sensors, servo sensors, actuators, multi-function display for man-machine interface, fire control computer, logic controller and other sub-systems of tank. Therefore, a complex embedded electronics hardware is needed to respond in real time for such system. An efficient electronics embedded hardware architecture is presented here for the development of this type of sighting system. This hardware has been developed around SHARC 21369 processor and FPGA. A performance evaluation scheme is also presented for this sighting system based on the developed hardware.

Copper-based sintered friction materials are most suitable for heavy-duty off-road vehicles, trains, aircraft, and military applications. This present study aims to investigate the tribological performance, dominating wear mechanism of an existing copper-tin sintered friction material that is being used in armoured fighting vehicle. The brake pad was tested as per IS 2742 using the chase test machine. Especially fade cycle was carried out till 441℃ to analyze the frictional response of the material. Physical, mechanical, and tribological properties were evaluated as per industrial standards. Morphological analysis was carried out using field emission scanning electron microscopy, and wear debris analysis was carried out using scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X-ray analysis and X-ray diffraction analysis. The dominating wear mechanisms were found to be delamination and abrasive wear. The investigated results showed a less wear rate of 0.05 cm3/MJ. However, results seem to be better for high-energy applications by exhibiting excellent mechanical properties.

AbstractThe paper presents the analysis of the load of lower limbs of occupants in the armoured military vehicle, which has been destroyed by detonation of the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) charge under the vehicle. A simplified model of the human lower limb focused on upper ankle joint was developed in order to determine the reaction forces in joints and load in particular segments during the blast load. The model of upper ankle joint, include a tibia and an ankle bone with corresponding articular cartilage, has been developed. An analysis of the stress distribution under the influence of forces applied at different angles to the biomechanical axis of a limb has been performed. We analyzed the case of the lower limb of a sitting man leaning his feet on the floor. It has been shown that during a foot pronation induced by a knee outward deviation, the axial load on the foot causes significantly greater tension in the tibia. At the same time it has been shown that within the medial malleolus, tensile stresses occur on the surface of the bone which may lead to fracture of the medial malleolus. It is a common case of injuries caused by loads on foot of passengers in armored vehicles during a mine or IED load under the vehicle. It was shown that the outward deviation of the knee increases the risk of the foot injury within the ankle joint.

In the article are presented problems of measurements of physical parameters during vehicles blast tests. Introduction of the article describes standards in this area. There are described test devices and measurement systems and evaluation criteria are indicated. The next part of article describes methods of synchronizations of acquisition system and blast initiation, methods of fixing transducers, problems with safe distance signals transmission and analysis of received results. The practical solutions of these problems based on tests conducted by Department of Expert’s Opinions on Materials for Weapons and Equipment of Military Institute of Armoured and Automotive Technology. Basing on experience gained during tests with dummy (Anthropomorphic Measurement Device – Hybrid III) the most important practical remarks are described. The article indicates the areas which are the most problematic according to non-stationary conditions of test and indicates practical solutions of these problems.

<p class="Abstract">The development of a controller which can be used for engines used in armoured fighting vehicles is discussed. This involved choosing a state of the art reference common rail automotive Diesel engine and setting-up of a transient engine testing facility. The dynamometer through special real-time software was controlled to vary the engine speed and throttle position. The reference engine was first tested with its stock ECU and its bounds of operation were identified. Several software modules were developed in-house in stages and evaluated on special test benches before being integrated and tested on the reference engine. Complete engine control software was thus developed in Simulink and flashed on to an open engine controller which was then interfaced with the engine. The developed control software includes strategies for closed loop control of fuel rail pressure, boost pressure, idle speed, coolant temperature based engine de-rating, control of fuel injection timing, duration and number of injections per cycle based on engine speed and driver input. The developed control algorithms also facilitated online calibration of engine maps and manual over-ride and control of engine parameters whenever required. The software was further tuned under transient conditions on the actual engine for close control of various parameters including rail pressure, idling speed and boost pressure. Finally, the developed control strategies were successfully demonstrated and validated on the reference engine being loaded on customised transient cycles on the transient engine testing facility with inputs based on military driving conditions. The developed controller can be scaled up for armoured fighting vehicle engines.</p>

On-board information measurement and recording systems are designed to control the parameters of both systems and units of the prototype and the sample of automotive equipment and armored vehicles in general, to obtain qualitative and quantitative characteristics to assess their compliance with technical requirements of the request for proposal. The universal modular type on-board information-measuring system must provide acquisition, conversion and registration on the on-board drive of parametric (analog and digital), discrete, audio and video information from on- board systems of armament and military equipment (AME) sample during tests. A special place is occupied by data collection and processing systems during automotive equipment and armored vehicles tests. This is due to the need to obtain during experiments quantitative information about the characteristics of the sample and its systems on the basis of an unbiased evaluation of a significant number of values of physical quantities, which are determined experimentally. Despite the significant difference in the technical characteristics and methods of application of different types of armored vehicles, the information support of their tests has lots in common. From the technical point of view, tests of armored vehicles are a process of obtaining, converting, registering and processing of measuring information generated by on-board systems of AME test sample. The whole complex of engineering measurements instruments (ground measuring instruments, on-board measuring systems, trajectory measurement systems, telemetry systems) using common time equipment, means of acquisition and processing measuring information, control and communication is combined into a single information measuring and computing complex, which in turn allows giving an unbiased evaluation of the characteristics and features of the test object as a whole. In order to improve the quality of testing of new and upgraded sample of automotive equipment and armored vehicles, the need for a universal on-board information measurement and recording systems, its characteristics are analysed, proposals for the composition, as well as general requirements were introduced.

Before the beginning of the aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia had created, organized and armed a powerful military structure within the 2nd military area of the Yugoslav People’s Army, which was renamed into the Army of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in May of 1992. It had also never ceased to fill the ranks, arm, supply, train, equip and finance the Serb army which it had created in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Apart from that, abundant undeniable evidence exists which confirms the direct involvement of the Yugoslav Army as well as the special detachments of the Ministry of internal affairs of Serbia in the acts aimed against the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the whole duration of the war and in different parts of the country. In this work we shall present the motives, intentions, chronology and consequences of the participation of special detachments of the Yugoslav Army and the State Security Agency of Serbia in the attacks on Sarajevo during December 1993 and January 1994. On the eve of the conclusion of the Geneva peace talks on the basis of the Owen-Stoltenberg plan, the Serb political and military leadership, expecting further pressure directed towards the signing of the peace treaty and withdrawal from the territory that the Serb forces had taken, reached a decision to strenghen their positions during December 1993. As for the whole duration of the war, Sarajevo was considered to be the strategically most important area, so a military operation “PANCIR-2” was devised, prepared and executed with the aim of taking the key objects of Sarajevo’s defence, which would force the opposition to accept a partition of the city. The forces of the Sarajevo-Romanija corps, and a brigade each from the Hercegovački and 1st Krajiški corps of the Army of the Republic of Srpska were engaged in this operation. From the composition of the Yugoslav Army, parts of the Special detachment corps were involved, with the support of charge and transport helicopters. The operation was planned in two stages, whereby the first had the aim to establish control over the following objects: Žuč, Orlić, Hum and Mojmilo, while the second stage had to result with established control over Hrasnica and Butmir. Units from the composition of the Special detachment corps of the Yugoslav Army initiated the execution of their task from Belgrade on 16 December 1993. The striking part was made up from members of the 72nd Special Brigade, with parts of other special detachments: Guards Motorized Brigade, Armoured Brigade and 63. Paratroops Brigade from Niš. The combined composition of the special detachments of the Yugoslav Army of 320 men represented the core of the fighting group from the composition of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, numbering a total of 3,000 fighters, and representing the main part of the Serb forces within the “PANCIR-2” operation. Colonel Milorad Stupar, the commander of the 72nd Special Brigade of the Yugoslav Army, was named as commander of the fighting group. The attacks of Serb forces, with the participation of Special detachments of the Yugoslav Army and State Security Agency of Serbia, in their first phase lasted from 21 to 27 December 1993, when the 72nd Special Brigade suffered a heavy defeat in the battles on Betanija and Orahov Brijeg. Due to the suffered losses, this detachment was incapable of further military action and it was ordered to retreat to Belgrade. Instead of it, parts of the Guards Motorized Brigade were directed into Vogošća. During January, these units were engaged in battle activities of somewhat diminished intensity on the lines of Sarajevo’s defence, because in the meantime the focus of the fighting was again shifted towards the Olovo-Vareš battlefield. Active participation of the units of the Yugoslav Army in the “PANCIR-2” operation was discontinued by the end of January 1994. Their return to Belgrade was executed on 28 and 29 January in three marching columns with 45 vehicles, 3 tanks, 2 armoured vehicles, 2 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns PRAGA and one engineering machine.

The aim of this article is to present the results of experimental studies on protection systems of military vehicles against RPG type missiles. The paper presents the research methodology of rod armours and active protection system. On the basis of the presented methodology, both a rod armour and an active protection system were investigated. The effectiveness of these solutions reaches 70% in the rod armour and about 80% in the case of the active protection system.

Abstract In the paper a chosen model of the light armoured vehicle was tested in terms of blast loading. More precisely, the blast propagation and interaction with the tire behaviour and suspension system elements of the light-armoured vehicle (LAV) was simulated. The chosen military vehicle meets the requirements of levels 2A and 2B of STANAG 4569 standard. Based on the obtained results, two modifications were proposed for the strength and resistance improvement of the wheel. The first consisted of inserting the rubber runflat ring inside the tire, whereas in the second the honeycomb-like composite wheel was implemented. Non-linear dynamic simulations were carried out using the explicit LS-Dyna code, with multi-material Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation for simulation the blast process.

This paper presents the ballistic performance of the joining lightweight metal laminated panel consists of high strength steel and aluminium alloy for armoured vehicle application. Composite laminates trend in military industry present excellent performance in terms of lightweight material due to the improvement vehicle manoeuvrability, without sacrificing the performance and safety. The combination of aluminium plate and high strength steel offer the good potential for reducing the vehicle weight and improving the ballistic resistance. Ar500 and Al7075-T6 were chosen in designing laminated panel to achieve intended 20-30% weight reduction. Joining between these two materials have been investigated using both brazing method and adhesive bonding method. The adhesive bonding involved two types of material which is epoxy and polyurethane. Mechanical tests such as bending tests, drop weight tests and ballistic tests were performed to assess the strength of the laminated panel. Results showed that polyurethane bonded laminate panel through adhesion process exhibited 75% higher strength that that through the brazing process after performing impact test. Meanwhile, the penetration patterns found numerically are nearly similar to that from the ballistic tests and thus has validated the finite element models developed. The study on application of this laminated plate shall be extended using higher level of threat for hard armour vehicle panel.

Purpose This paper aims to provide an overview of robots presently in use by the military and an insight into some that are under development. Design/methodology/approach Following a short introduction, this paper first considers existing applications of robots in the military field, including details of Russian weaponised ground robots. It then highlights a range of military robot developments and concludes with a brief discussion. Findings Drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) and small unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are among the most widely used robots by the military. Russia is developing a growing armoury of heavily weaponised UGVs, some of which were recently deployed in Syria. Some topics of development include humanoid robots, powered exoskeletons, load-carrying robots, micro-air vehicles and autonomous land vehicles. Robots will play an ever-growing role in military actions, and while some developments offer longer-term prospects, others are expected to be deployed in the near future. Originality/value Robots are playing an increasingly important role in military conflicts, and this provides details of present-day and anticipated future uses of robots by the military.

The level of radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic field emitted from a military armoured vehicle antenna was investigated to identify possible adverse health effect on personnel, especially in the near field region. Both E-Field and H-Field radiations levels emitted from antenna were recorded by emphasising on the main areas of crew working station. To date, open literature on military vehicle and equipment RF radiation hazard safety assessment has limited numbers of discussion especially on RF source distance, location and mode of power transmission. In this investigation, RF levels from two radio antennas were measured, high frequency (HF) and very high frequency (VHF) with the low and high-power transmission. Measurements were taken in two distinct locations namely; commander and gunner respectively with three different conditions; open hatch, close hatch and open hatch with standing crews which representing the normal and combat situations. The measured E-Field and H-Field levels were then assessed for compliance with occupational reference levels of Military Standard 464C, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for Military Workplace standards and International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines. The occupational standard was exceeded on commander and gunner area at certain condition; nevertheless, the rest of the conditions complied within the occupational standard.

This article presents a review of engineering and design aspects relevant to the mechanical and structural integrity of military vehicular armour, including materials-related technologies. Theoretical, experimental and numerical techniques for assessment are discussed and evaluated. A number of prominent material constitutive models are comparatively assessed. The Johnson–Cook model is shown to be particularly consistent in terms of agreement with experimental data, identification of material constants and ease of application. The article also discusses different numerical codes used and their relevance over time. Finally, it is argued that there is a need for a materials design tool for military vehicular armour.

Abstract Background Information about pain and injury from equipment on a particular deployment is not disaggregated in the literature; thus, the nature of the issue is unclear. Aims To determine the prevalence of pain or injury during a particular deployment that military personnel attributed to equipment they used on this deployment; and to document the types of equipment they identified, the type of pain or injury and how they thought the pain or injury occurred. Methods This paper analyses data from a deployment and health survey of Australian Defence Force personnel. The participants are 8932 personnel who deployed to Iraq and 6534 who deployed to Afghanistan. Participants indicated whether they experienced pain or injury from equipment they used on deployment and detailed their experiences in response to an open-ended question (n = 563). Results Sixteen per cent of Iraq-deployed and 21% of Afghanistan-deployed participants reported pain or injury from equipment they used on deployment. Body armour was the most common equipment identified; however, a wide range of equipment was related to pain or injury. A new finding is that pain or injury related to armour was attributed to its wear in vehicles and during vehicle ingress or egress. Conclusions Knowledge of the nature of pain or injury related to equipment used on deployment may help inform improved designs and practices to reduce or prevent avoidable harm to serving personnel.

Comparative performance of vehicle suspension system using passive, and semi-active control (on-off and continuous) has been carried out for a multi-axle vehicle under the source of road disturbance. Modelling and prediction for stochastic inputs from random road surface profiles has been carried out. The road surface is considered as a stationary stochastic process in time domain assuming constant vehicle speed. The road surface elevations as a function of time have been generated using IFFT. Semi active suspension gives better ride comfort with consumption of fraction of power required for active suspension. A mathematical model has been developed and control algorithm has been verified with the purpose/objective of reducing the unwanted sprung mass motions such as heave, pitch and roll. However, the cost and complexity of the system increases with implementation of semi-active control, especially in military domain. In addition to fully passive and fully semi-active a comparison has been made with partial semi-active control for a multi-axle vehicle to obviate the constraints. The time domain response of the suspension system using various control logics are obtained and compared. Simulations for different class of roads as defined in ISO: 8608 have been run and the ride comfort is evaluated and compared in terms of rms acceleration at CG in vertical direction (Z), which is the major contributor for ORV (Overall Ride Value) Measurement.

AbstractAutomatic detection of a vehicle in an airborne thermal imagery is a challenging research topic in computer vision, especially the detection of military tanks in the field. Various methodologies for detection in forward-looking infrared imagery, which has higher spatial resolution, has been discussed by a number of researchers in literature. The algorithm we developed in the present study detects tanks not only in higher resolution but in lower resolution imagery as well. Detection algorithm is initiated by the segmentation of thermal image using mean shift, which provides possible targets present in the field other than the background. To reduce clutter and uneven illumination in a thermal image, a pre-processing morphological algorithm based on top-hat filtering has been implemented. After convolution of image window with Gabor filter banks, we extracted the energy feature of each image generated after convolution. The energy vector of such a target and the neighbouring background window has been calculated, and the similarity between the target and background using distance-measuring method has been measured. The minimum distance is used as the threshold to decide the target. A comparative study has been carried out between tanks and various targets/objects that appear similar to tanks in a thermal image. This validates our target detection algorithm. The false-positive rate and true-positive rate have been calculated for performance evaluation. Overall, this algorithm shows promising results for tank detection using single-band thermal imagery.

It is planned that expenditures borne in 2019-2025 for the French defence sector will increase to 2% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) yearly. According to the French Ministry of Defence the Upgrading Program for Armed Forces of the French Republic (Loi de Programmation Militaire - LPM) is aimed not only for strengthening the strategic autonomy of France but to build the inde-pendent European armed forces, as well. Contrary to former years the LPM preserves the schedule of orders and supplies of previ-ous programs, and the decisions arising from them. At the same time the upgrading of pri-oritized domains connected with execution of operational activities is accelerated. They include: the airplane for air tanking and stra-tegic transport (Multi Role Tanker Transport - MRTT, avion militaire de transport et de ravitaillement), patrolling ships, supplying ships, armoured vehicles. Moreover the continuation is allowed at extended volume for supplies under the prioritized programs such as SCORPION IT system for battle field, light reconnaissance airplanes ALSR and drones of different types. At the same time it facilitates the development work carried out together with the European partners, particularly over the combat airplanes, follower of the aircraft carrier or the combat tank of the future [1].

This research paper describes a technique for the enhancement of the fatigue strength of the chain link plate in the drive system of a military armoured vehicle. SAE 1541 steel link plates of chains were subjected to cyclical tensile stress due to repeated loading and un-loading conditions. The crack was getting originated from the pitch hole and growth perpendicular to the chain pulling load, due to fatigue mechanism. In general plate holes are manufactured using the conventional process. An additional novel technique called the slip ball burnishing (SBB) method is applied for improving the hole properties. The improvement is made by producing local plastic deformation, improving surface finish and compressive residual stress throughout in the pierced hole. Both the conventional process (CP) and the SBB technique have been evaluated by optical, profile, surface roughness and micro harness tests. Experimental fatigue test validations were done in both chain samples using the Johnson-Goodman method. SBB chains passed 3x106 cycles at the load of 17.61 kN and CP chains passed 3x106 cycles at the load of 13.92 kN. The conclusion was that SBB made a significant improvement of 26.51 per cent of fatigue strength compared to CP.

Armour steel is a high strength and hardness steel used to protect damage by an object, individual or vehicle from the direct pressure of projectile. This steel used for military and commercials equipment in Indonesia and produced out of hot rolled plate steel made by PT. Krakatau Steel (Persero) Cilegon, Banten, Indonesia. By using quench (with water sprayed) and temper heat treatment produced Quenched & Tempered Steels. The aim of the study to obtain optimum quenching and tempering parameter in hardness and impact energy of HRP Steel. Method of this study by optimizing austenite temperature; austenite holding time; temper temperatures; hardness and impact energy. The result of this study is austenite temperatures 900°C (held 45 minutes) and temper temperatures 125°C (held 45 minutes). Prediction of both hardness and impact energy is 569.96 HVN (536.00 BHN) and 30.50 J respectively.

Anti-vehicular (AV) mines are capable of disabling a heavy vehicle, or completely destroying a lighter vehicle. The most common form of AV mine is the blast mine, which uses a large amount of explosive to directly damage the target. In a conventional military setting, landmines are used as a defensive force-multiplier and to restrict the movements of the opposing force. They are relatively cheap to purchase and easy to acquire, hence landmines are also potent weapons in the insurgents’ armamentarium. The stand-off nature of its design has allowed insurgents to cause significant injuries to security forces in current conflicts with little personal risk. As a result, AV mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have become the most common cause of death and injury to Coalition and local security forces operation. A number of different strategies are required to mitigate the blast effects of an explosion. Primary blast effects can be reduced by increasing the standoff distance between the seat of the explosion and the crew compartment. Enhancement of armour on the base of the vehicle, as well as improvements in personal protection can prevent penetration of fragments. Mitigating tertiary effects can be achieved by altering the vehicle geometry and structure, increasing vehicle mass, as well as developing new strategies to reduce the transfer of the impulse through the vehicle to the occupants. Protection from thermal injury can be provided by incorporating fire resistant materials into the vehicle and in personal clothing. The challenge for the vehicle designer is the incorporation of these protective measures within an operationally effective platform.

Military vehicles are sometimes required to transit bridges owned and operated by civilian bridge authorities. Using available data regarding the gross vehicle weight and associated axle loads of military traffic, live load factors, calibrated to the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code, are proposed for bridge design and evaluation. This paper recommends live load factors for three categories military vehicles: (1) Wheeled-Transport vehicles; (2) Wheeled-Fighting vehicles; and (3) Tracked-Fighting vehicles. The values are derived for interior girders of a simply supported slab-on-girder bridges subjected to a single lane of traffic loading and are believed to be generally applicable for other structural elements and bridge types. Inherent differences between fighting vehicles, which are heavily armoured, and transport vehicles, which although armoured have high payloads, suggest that highway bridges should be evaluated separately for military fighting vehicles and military transport vehicles using distinct live load factors. Keywords: Bridge Evaluation, Code Calibration, Military Vehicles.

With the improvement of China’s military strength, military armoured vehicles are very effective in dealing with various harsh environments. The poisonous gas environment is very serious against the body of the military armoured vehicle. For this reason, the damage-resistant material for the car needs to be developed, and the corrosion resistance of the material is analysed. Metal and polymer damage resistant materials are selected as research objects. In the three environments of alkaline poison gas, industrial poison gas and acid gas, the outdoor exposure test is carried out, and the indoor accelerated test under the combined environmental factors is implemented to obtain the mechanism of corrosion and aging behaviour of the typical material of the vehicle. Experiments show that the damage resistant material can effectively enhances the corrosion resistance of the car body in a poisonous gas environment.

Armoured military vehicle is designed to withstand the stresses impact from bullets, missiles or any explosive shells. It is applied to the vehicle in order to protect the personnel inside from enemy fire and also to protect from any threats other than deliberate attack. However, an issue arises when it comes for track link shoes of the armoured vehicle which already became problems to the designers and users of tracked vehicles. The track link problems usually related to the problems that already existed because of its excessive weight, excessive noise and vibrations, overheating of rubber track elements and road wheels, etc. All of these existing problems could leads to the failure of pin and bushing, chunking of the pads and breaking of the track links itself. Instead of that, today’s tracks are much more expensive not only in terms of initial cost but also the replacement cost. Here, this paper reviews some of the failure cases and improvements of the armoured-vehicle itself. It also covers a real study on the failure assessment of the ADNAN (The Malaysian Armoured-Vehicle) Track Shoe.

Relevance of the article is based on participation of armed forces in various operations and exercises, where reliability of machinery is one of the most important factors. Transportation of soldiers as well as completion of variety of tasks is ensured by properly functioning technical equipment. Reliability of military vehicles – armoured SISU E13TP Finnish built and HMMWV M1025 USA built were selected as the object of the article. Impact of climatic conditions on reliability of the vehicles exploited in southwestern part of the Atlantic continental forest area is researched by a case study of the vehicles exploitation under conditions of the climate of Lithuania. Reliability of military vehicles depends on a number of factors such as properties of the vehicles and external conditions of their operation. Their systems and mechanisms are influenced by a number of factors that cause different failures. Climatic conditions represent one of the factors of operating load which is directly dependent on the climate zone. Therefore, assessment of the reliability is started with the analysis of climatic factors affecting operating conditions of the vehicles. Relationship between the impact of climatic factors and failure flow of the vehicles is presented and discussed.

IntroductionNoise-induced hearing loss is one of the most common health problems among military service personnel. Exposure to noise in military vehicles constitutes a large proportion of total noise exposure. This pilot study aimed to evaluate in-vehicle noise levels depending on the type of vehicle, riding compartment and road surface.MethodNoise levels were measured in armoured personnel carriers and heavy all-terrain trucks, in the cab and rear passenger compartment, while driving on paved or off-road surfaces. The results were compared with national LLV and allowed noise exposure times were calculated per vehicle and surface.ResultsThe equivalent noise levels in the cab of SISU XA-188 (p=0.001) and peak noise levels in MAN 4620 (p=0.0001) and DAF 4440 (p=0.0047) were higher on paved road, compared with off-road. The equivalent noise levels in the canvas covered rear compartment of MAN 4620 were significantly higher than in the cab on both paved (p=0.004) and off-road (p=0.0003). Peak noise levels in the cab of DAF 4440 exceeded the parameters measured in the canvas covered rear compartment on both paved (p=0.002) and off-road (p=0.0002). In most cases, peak noise levels were below the LLV (p=0.02–0.0001). The maximum noise exposure to passengers in the canvas covered rear compartment of MAN 4620 despite road surface was calculated 0.6 hours per working day.ConclusionA high risk of noise-induced hearing loss among military personnel occurs during long distance transportation with vehicles showing noise levels higher than allowed LLV.

Humanitarian and physiological restrictions prevent the optimal execution and use of the corresponding technical achievement in various situations. For example, working simultaneously while driving in vehicle under vibration, noise, confinement and heat often leads to dizziness, nausea and finally even vomiting-all symptoms which significantly limit human performance. This phenomenon is one of the oldest protective reaction of the human organism and has been deeply investigated e.g. under the name simulator sickness or motion sickness. Unfortunately, new mobility concepts as autonomous driving vehicle always include the vision of parallel working activities while driving. For working crew members in military land vehicles, the situation is even worse due to the restricted outside view and body motion of protected all-terrain vehicle. In earlier projects the dependency of mechanical vibration and motion sickness was investigated. This paper now explains the determination of acoustic properties and threshold values for vehicle that enable ergonomic working at mobile workplaces without negatively influencing the human performance. The purpose of this first phase of the project was to create and validate an experimental setup, in which a sound exposure of test person with frequencies up to the infrasound range could be realized with help of an appropriate acoustic equipment. Psychological tests have been performed in parallel, so the cognitive performance of the test person was evaluated during exposition with sound. Based on field tests statistically found threshold values for a maximum exposure with low-frequency noise in vehicles with parallel working activities will be derived.

The protection of critical infrastructure, including government buildings, airports, religious buildings, military buildings and military vehicles, which are at risk to blast loads, has become important due to increasing terrorist activities in recent years. Sacrificial cladding systems based on negative Poisson’s ratio core topologies have recently received more attention as a protective technology due to its excellent energy absorption capability. In this study, field blast tests were performed on metallic re-entrant honeycomb-cored sacrificial cladding systems as protective structures for steel plate structures. This study focused on the near-field blast loading conditions where liquid Nitromethane (NM) spherical charges were detonated in close proximity to the main structure. Two 6 mm thick mild steel plates and two steel plates protected with re-entrant honeycomb-cored sacrificial cladding systems were among the specimens tested. The proposed auxetic cladding system was fabricated from aluminium sheets using a novel in-house built folding machine. Numerical simulations were conducted utilising LS-DYNA software and the Blast Impact Impulse Model (BIIM). The results obtained from the numerical simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results. It was found that the deformation pattern of the sacrificial auxetic cladding system varies with the intensity of the blast loading, and there is a limit at which the proposed protective system ceases to effectively absorb the applied blast loading. The variation of negative Poisson’s ratio of the system with blast loading was studied. It was found that the auxetic cladding system could become a solid projectile leading to damage amplification for very close-range blast loads due to rapid densification of the auxetic core. The proposed cladding systems with narrow re-entrant angles performed well under blast loads due to relatively low stiffness of the panels. Finally, the optimisation study was performed for the protective system. Overall, the experimental and numerical results assure that auxetic-based cladding systems are suitable for applications requiring blast protection such as armoured vehicles and critical physical infrastructure but need to be carefully designed for the given blast threat to prevent overloading of the protected structures.

Rolled Homogeneous Armour (RHA) steel is known as protective steel and it is utilized in a military vehicle, For example tanks, howitzers, heavily clad battle vehicles just as developments in armament. Weld quality straight forwardly decides the entire mechanical properties of the protective steel in vehicle body structures. Hybrid Optical Maser Arc welding (HOMAW) has a decent mechanical property and focal point of this exploration is considered to recover more energy than laser and Metal Active Gas Welding (MAGW) process. Manual Metal Arc Welding (MMAW) with low hydrogen ferritic filler (LHF) which performs better weldability on Armour steels with comparing MMAW with Austenitic stainless steel (ASS), and Flux cored arc welding (FCAW) with ASS/LHF. MMAW procedure is considered to reduce the expense through LHF consumable in workplace. The examination of MAGW method, a welding fringe of 54o V-narrow cut geometry has better mechanical property for tensile strength and also the welding narrow cut point of 48o X-trench cut geometry has better solution for compression strength of butt-joint Armour steel. This survey was embraced to grant a top-level view of the various categories of welding process and mechanical properties in welding of RHA steels.

The Threats to public security and premises security are on the rise because of increasing terrorism and violence. Safety of individual is a matter of concern, hence there is need to develop bullet resistant solutions for soldiers, tanks, and other military vehicles. This case study is concerned with designing the plates which are made up of different materials and structures and finding the ballistic limit velocity (BLV) by analyzing and comparing them. In this work, the ballistic limit velocity of Al 7075-T6, Al 5083H116, Titanium, Kevlar 149 materials were investigated numerically. Initially single layer plates made of Al 5083H116, Al 7075-T6 and Titanium were analyzed individually and it was found that Titanium plate yielded better ballistic limit velocity value than the other two materials. The numerical work was further extended with sandwich structures with / without honeycomb core. Al 7075-T6 material was considered for the front and rear face of the sandwich armour. And for the core portion Kevlar 149 (without honeycomb) and Al 7075-T6 (with honeycomb) were considered. Commercial software Ansys-workbench was used through the analysis. The result of the case study indicated that Al 7075-T6 with honeycomb structure yields greater ballistic limit velocity and it has 22.58% more BLV value than the solid single layer Al 7075-T6.

IntroductionModern military combat helmets vary in their shapes and features, but all are designed to protect the head from traumatic brain injury. Recent recommendations for protection against energised projectiles that are characteristic of secondary blast injury is to ensure coverage of both the brain and brainstem.MethodGraphical representations of essential coverage of the head (cerebral hemispheres, cerebellum and brainstem) within an anthropometrically sized model were superimposed over two standard coverage helmets (VIRTUS helmet, Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH)) and two ‘high-cut’ helmets (a Dismounted Combat Helmet (DCH)) and Combat Vehicle Crewman (CVC) helmet), both of which are designed to be worn with communications devices. Objective shotline coverage from representative directions of projectile travel (−30 to +30 degrees) was determined using the Coverage of Armour Tool (COAT).ResultsVIRTUS and ACH demonstrated similar overall coverage (68.7% and 69.5%, respectively), reflecting their similar shell shapes. ACH has improved coverage from below compared with VIRTUS (23.3% vs 21.7%) due to its decreased standoff from the scalp. The ‘high-cut’ helmets (DCH and CVC) had reduced overall coverage (57.9% and 52.1%), which was most pronounced from the side.ConclusionsBoth the VIRTUS and ACH helmets provide excellent overall coverage of the brain and brainstem against ballistic threats. Coverage of both would be improved at the rear by using a nape protector and the front using a visor. This is demonstrated with the analysis of the addition of the nape protector in the VIRTUS system. High-cut helmets provide significantly reduced coverage from the side of the head, as the communication devices they are worn with are not designed to provide protection from ballistic threats. Unless absolutely necessary, it is therefore recommended that high-cut helmets be worn only by those users with defined specific requirements, or where the risk of injury from secondary blast is low.

On the morning of Thursday, 4 May 2006, the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence held an open hearing entitled “Terrorist Use of the Internet.” The Intelligence committee meeting was scheduled to take place in Room 1302 of the Longworth Office Building, a Depression-era structure with a neoclassical façade. Because of a dysfunctional elevator, some of the congressional representatives were late to the meeting. During the testimony about the newest political applications for cutting-edge digital technology, the microphones periodically malfunctioned, and witnesses complained of “technical problems” several times. By the end of the day it seemed that what was to be remembered about the hearing was the shocking revelation that terrorists were using videogames to recruit young jihadists. The Associated Press wrote a short, restrained article about the hearing that only mentioned “computer games and recruitment videos” in passing. Eager to have their version of the news item picked up, Reuters made videogames the focus of their coverage with a headline that announced, “Islamists Using US Videogames in Youth Appeal.” Like a game of telephone, as the Reuters videogame story was quickly re-run by several Internet news services, each iteration of the title seemed less true to the exact language of the original. One Internet news service changed the headline to “Islamic militants recruit using U.S. video games.” Fox News re-titled the story again to emphasise that this alert about technological manipulation was coming from recognised specialists in the anti-terrorism surveillance field: “Experts: Islamic Militants Customizing Violent Video Games.” As the story circulated, the body of the article remained largely unchanged, in which the Reuters reporter described the digital materials from Islamic extremists that were shown at the congressional hearing. During the segment that apparently most captured the attention of the wire service reporters, eerie music played as an English-speaking narrator condemned the “infidel” and declared that he had “put a jihad” on them, as aerial shots moved over 3D computer-generated images of flaming oil facilities and mosques covered with geometric designs. Suddenly, this menacing voice-over was interrupted by an explosion, as a virtual rocket was launched into a simulated military helicopter. The Reuters reporter shared this dystopian vision from cyberspace with Western audiences by quoting directly from the chilling commentary and describing a dissonant montage of images and remixed sound. “I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters,” a narrator’s voice said as the screen flashed between images of street-level gunfights, explosions and helicopter assaults. Then came a recording of President George W. Bush’s September 16, 2001, statement: “This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while.” It was edited to repeat the word “crusade,” which Muslims often define as an attack on Islam by Christianity. According to the news reports, the key piece of evidence before Congress seemed to be a film by “SonicJihad” of recorded videogame play, which – according to the experts – was widely distributed online. Much of the clip takes place from the point of view of a first-person shooter, seen as if through the eyes of an armed insurgent, but the viewer also periodically sees third-person action in which the player appears as a running figure wearing a red-and-white checked keffiyeh, who dashes toward the screen with a rocket launcher balanced on his shoulder. Significantly, another of the player’s hand-held weapons is a detonator that triggers remote blasts. As jaunty music plays, helicopters, tanks, and armoured vehicles burst into smoke and flame. Finally, at the triumphant ending of the video, a green and white flag bearing a crescent is hoisted aloft into the sky to signify victory by Islamic forces. To explain the existence of this digital alternative history in which jihadists could be conquerors, the Reuters story described the deviousness of the country’s terrorist opponents, who were now apparently modifying popular videogames through their wizardry and inserting anti-American, pro-insurgency content into U.S.-made consumer technology. One of the latest video games modified by militants is the popular “Battlefield 2” from leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc of Redwood City, California. Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, said enthusiasts often write software modifications, known as “mods,” to video games. “Millions of people create mods on games around the world,” he said. “We have absolutely no control over them. It’s like drawing a mustache on a picture.” Although the Electronic Arts executive dismissed the activities of modders as a “mustache on a picture” that could only be considered little more than childish vandalism of their off-the-shelf corporate product, others saw a more serious form of criminality at work. Testifying experts and the legislators listening on the committee used the video to call for greater Internet surveillance efforts and electronic counter-measures. Within twenty-four hours of the sensationalistic news breaking, however, a group of Battlefield 2 fans was crowing about the idiocy of reporters. The game play footage wasn’t from a high-tech modification of the software by Islamic extremists; it had been posted on a Planet Battlefield forum the previous December of 2005 by a game fan who had cut together regular game play with a Bush remix and a parody snippet of the soundtrack from the 2004 hit comedy film Team America. The voice describing the Black Hawk helicopters was the voice of Trey Parker of South Park cartoon fame, and – much to Parker’s amusement – even the mention of “goats screaming” did not clue spectators in to the fact of a comic source. Ironically, the moment in the movie from which the sound clip is excerpted is one about intelligence gathering. As an agent of Team America, a fictional elite U.S. commando squad, the hero of the film’s all-puppet cast, Gary Johnston, is impersonating a jihadist radical inside a hostile Egyptian tavern that is modelled on the cantina scene from Star Wars. Additional laughs come from the fact that agent Johnston is accepted by the menacing terrorist cell as “Hakmed,” despite the fact that he utters a series of improbable clichés made up of incoherent stereotypes about life in the Middle East while dressed up in a disguise made up of shoe polish and a turban from a bathroom towel. The man behind the “SonicJihad” pseudonym turned out to be a twenty-five-year-old hospital administrator named Samir, and what reporters and representatives saw was nothing more exotic than game play from an add-on expansion pack of Battlefield 2, which – like other versions of the game – allows first-person shooter play from the position of the opponent as a standard feature. While SonicJihad initially joined his fellow gamers in ridiculing the mainstream media, he also expressed astonishment and outrage about a larger politics of reception. In one interview he argued that the media illiteracy of Reuters potentially enabled a whole series of category errors, in which harmless gamers could be demonised as terrorists. It wasn’t intended for the purpose what it was portrayed to be by the media. So no I don’t regret making a funny video . . . why should I? The only thing I regret is thinking that news from Reuters was objective and always right. The least they could do is some online research before publishing this. If they label me al-Qaeda just for making this silly video, that makes you think, what is this al-Qaeda? And is everything al-Qaeda? Although Sonic Jihad dismissed his own work as “silly” or “funny,” he expected considerably more from a credible news agency like Reuters: “objective” reporting, “online research,” and fact-checking before “publishing.” Within the week, almost all of the salient details in the Reuters story were revealed to be incorrect. SonicJihad’s film was not made by terrorists or for terrorists: it was not created by “Islamic militants” for “Muslim youths.” The videogame it depicted had not been modified by a “tech-savvy militant” with advanced programming skills. Of course, what is most extraordinary about this story isn’t just that Reuters merely got its facts wrong; it is that a self-identified “parody” video was shown to the august House Intelligence Committee by a team of well-paid “experts” from the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a major contractor with the federal government, as key evidence of terrorist recruitment techniques and abuse of digital networks. Moreover, this story of media illiteracy unfolded in the context of a fundamental Constitutional debate about domestic surveillance via communications technology and the further regulation of digital content by lawmakers. Furthermore, the transcripts of the actual hearing showed that much more than simple gullibility or technological ignorance was in play. Based on their exchanges in the public record, elected representatives and government experts appear to be keenly aware that the digital discourses of an emerging information culture might be challenging their authority and that of the longstanding institutions of knowledge and power with which they are affiliated. These hearings can be seen as representative of a larger historical moment in which emphatic declarations about prohibiting specific practices in digital culture have come to occupy a prominent place at the podium, news desk, or official Web portal. This environment of cultural reaction can be used to explain why policy makers’ reaction to terrorists’ use of networked communication and digital media actually tells us more about our own American ideologies about technology and rhetoric in a contemporary information environment. When the experts come forward at the Sonic Jihad hearing to “walk us through the media and some of the products,” they present digital artefacts of an information economy that mirrors many of the features of our own consumption of objects of electronic discourse, which seem dangerously easy to copy and distribute and thus also create confusion about their intended meanings, audiences, and purposes. From this one hearing we can see how the reception of many new digital genres plays out in the public sphere of legislative discourse. Web pages, videogames, and Weblogs are mentioned specifically in the transcript. The main architecture of the witnesses’ presentation to the committee is organised according to the rhetorical conventions of a PowerPoint presentation. Moreover, the arguments made by expert witnesses about the relationship of orality to literacy or of public to private communications in new media are highly relevant to how we might understand other important digital genres, such as electronic mail or text messaging. The hearing also invites consideration of privacy, intellectual property, and digital “rights,” because moral values about freedom and ownership are alluded to by many of the elected representatives present, albeit often through the looking glass of user behaviours imagined as radically Other. For example, terrorists are described as “modders” and “hackers” who subvert those who properly create, own, legitimate, and regulate intellectual property. To explain embarrassing leaks of infinitely replicable digital files, witness Ron Roughead says, “We’re not even sure that they don’t even hack into the kinds of spaces that hold photographs in order to get pictures that our forces have taken.” Another witness, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy and International Affairs, Peter Rodman claims that “any video game that comes out, as soon as the code is released, they will modify it and change the game for their needs.” Thus, the implication of these witnesses’ testimony is that the release of code into the public domain can contribute to political subversion, much as covert intrusion into computer networks by stealthy hackers can. However, the witnesses from the Pentagon and from the government contractor SAIC often present a contradictory image of the supposed terrorists in the hearing transcripts. Sometimes the enemy is depicted as an organisation of technological masterminds, capable of manipulating the computer code of unwitting Americans and snatching their rightful intellectual property away; sometimes those from the opposing forces are depicted as pre-modern and even sub-literate political innocents. In contrast, the congressional representatives seem to focus on similarities when comparing the work of “terrorists” to the everyday digital practices of their constituents and even of themselves. According to the transcripts of this open hearing, legislators on both sides of the aisle express anxiety about domestic patterns of Internet reception. Even the legislators’ own Web pages are potentially disruptive electronic artefacts, particularly when the demands of digital labour interfere with their duties as lawmakers. Although the subject of the hearing is ostensibly terrorist Websites, Representative Anna Eshoo (D-California) bemoans the difficulty of maintaining her own official congressional site. As she observes, “So we are – as members, I think we’re very sensitive about what’s on our Website, and if I retained what I had on my Website three years ago, I’d be out of business. So we know that they have to be renewed. They go up, they go down, they’re rebuilt, they’re – you know, the message is targeted to the future.” In their questions, lawmakers identify Weblogs (blogs) as a particular area of concern as a destabilising alternative to authoritative print sources of information from established institutions. Representative Alcee Hastings (D-Florida) compares the polluting power of insurgent bloggers to that of influential online muckrakers from the American political Right. Hastings complains of “garbage on our regular mainstream news that comes from blog sites.” Representative Heather Wilson (R-New Mexico) attempts to project a media-savvy persona by bringing up the “phenomenon of blogging” in conjunction with her questions about jihadist Websites in which she notes how Internet traffic can be magnified by cooperative ventures among groups of ideologically like-minded content-providers: “These Websites, and particularly the most active ones, are they cross-linked? And do they have kind of hot links to your other favorite sites on them?” At one point Representative Wilson asks witness Rodman if he knows “of your 100 hottest sites where the Webmasters are educated? What nationality they are? Where they’re getting their money from?” In her questions, Wilson implicitly acknowledges that Web work reflects influences from pedagogical communities, economic networks of the exchange of capital, and even potentially the specific ideologies of nation-states. It is perhaps indicative of the government contractors’ anachronistic worldview that the witness is unable to answer Wilson’s question. He explains that his agency focuses on the physical location of the server or ISP rather than the social backgrounds of the individuals who might be manufacturing objectionable digital texts. The premise behind the contractors’ working method – surveilling the technical apparatus not the social network – may be related to other beliefs expressed by government witnesses, such as the supposition that jihadist Websites are collectively produced and spontaneously emerge from the indigenous, traditional, tribal culture, instead of assuming that Iraqi insurgents have analogous beliefs, practices, and technological awareness to those in first-world countries. The residual subtexts in the witnesses’ conjectures about competing cultures of orality and literacy may tell us something about a reactionary rhetoric around videogames and digital culture more generally. According to the experts before Congress, the Middle Eastern audience for these videogames and Websites is limited by its membership in a pre-literate society that is only capable of abortive cultural production without access to knowledge that is archived in printed codices. Sometimes the witnesses before Congress seem to be unintentionally channelling the ideas of the late literacy theorist Walter Ong about the “secondary orality” associated with talky electronic media such as television, radio, audio recording, or telephone communication. Later followers of Ong extend this concept of secondary orality to hypertext, hypermedia, e-mail, and blogs, because they similarly share features of both speech and written discourse. Although Ong’s disciples celebrate this vibrant reconnection to a mythic, communal past of what Kathleen Welch calls “electric rhetoric,” the defence industry consultants express their profound state of alarm at the potentially dangerous and subversive character of this hybrid form of communication. The concept of an “oral tradition” is first introduced by the expert witnesses in the context of modern marketing and product distribution: “The Internet is used for a variety of things – command and control,” one witness states. “One of the things that’s missed frequently is how and – how effective the adversary is at using the Internet to distribute product. They’re using that distribution network as a modern form of oral tradition, if you will.” Thus, although the Internet can be deployed for hierarchical “command and control” activities, it also functions as a highly efficient peer-to-peer distributed network for disseminating the commodity of information. Throughout the hearings, the witnesses imply that unregulated lateral communication among social actors who are not authorised to speak for nation-states or to produce legitimated expert discourses is potentially destabilising to political order. Witness Eric Michael describes the “oral tradition” and the conventions of communal life in the Middle East to emphasise the primacy of speech in the collective discursive practices of this alien population: “I’d like to point your attention to the media types and the fact that the oral tradition is listed as most important. The other media listed support that. And the significance of the oral tradition is more than just – it’s the medium by which, once it comes off the Internet, it is transferred.” The experts go on to claim that this “oral tradition” can contaminate other media because it functions as “rumor,” the traditional bane of the stately discourse of military leaders since the classical era. The oral tradition now also has an aspect of rumor. A[n] event takes place. There is an explosion in a city. Rumor is that the United States Air Force dropped a bomb and is doing indiscriminate killing. This ends up being discussed on the street. It ends up showing up in a Friday sermon in a mosque or in another religious institution. It then gets recycled into written materials. Media picks up the story and broadcasts it, at which point it’s now a fact. In this particular case that we were telling you about, it showed up on a network television, and their propaganda continues to go back to this false initial report on network television and continue to reiterate that it’s a fact, even though the United States government has proven that it was not a fact, even though the network has since recanted the broadcast. In this example, many-to-many discussion on the “street” is formalised into a one-to many “sermon” and then further stylised using technology in a one-to-many broadcast on “network television” in which “propaganda” that is “false” can no longer be disputed. This “oral tradition” is like digital media, because elements of discourse can be infinitely copied or “recycled,” and it is designed to “reiterate” content. In this hearing, the word “rhetoric” is associated with destructive counter-cultural forces by the witnesses who reiterate cultural truisms dating back to Plato and the Gorgias. For example, witness Eric Michael initially presents “rhetoric” as the use of culturally specific and hence untranslatable figures of speech, but he quickly moves to an outright castigation of the entire communicative mode. “Rhetoric,” he tells us, is designed to “distort the truth,” because it is a “selective” assembly or a “distortion.” Rhetoric is also at odds with reason, because it appeals to “emotion” and a romanticised Weltanschauung oriented around discourses of “struggle.” The film by SonicJihad is chosen as the final clip by the witnesses before Congress, because it allegedly combines many different types of emotional appeal, and thus it conveniently ties together all of the themes that the witnesses present to the legislators about unreliable oral or rhetorical sources in the Middle East: And there you see how all these products are linked together. And you can see where the games are set to psychologically condition you to go kill coalition forces. You can see how they use humor. You can see how the entire campaign is carefully crafted to first evoke an emotion and then to evoke a response and to direct that response in the direction that they want. Jihadist digital products, especially videogames, are effective means of manipulation, the witnesses argue, because they employ multiple channels of persuasion and carefully sequenced and integrated subliminal messages. To understand the larger cultural conversation of the hearing, it is important to keep in mind that the related argument that “games” can “psychologically condition” players to be predisposed to violence is one that was important in other congressional hearings of the period, as well one that played a role in bills and resolutions that were passed by the full body of the legislative branch. In the witness’s testimony an appeal to anti-game sympathies at home is combined with a critique of a closed anti-democratic system abroad in which the circuits of rhetorical production and their composite metonymic chains are described as those that command specific, unvarying, robotic responses. This sharp criticism of the artful use of a presentation style that is “crafted” is ironic, given that the witnesses’ “compilation” of jihadist digital material is staged in the form of a carefully structured PowerPoint presentation, one that is paced to a well-rehearsed rhythm of “slide, please” or “next slide” in the transcript. The transcript also reveals that the members of the House Intelligence Committee were not the original audience for the witnesses’ PowerPoint presentation. Rather, when it was first created by SAIC, this “expert” presentation was designed for training purposes for the troops on the ground, who would be facing the challenges of deployment in hostile terrain. According to the witnesses, having the slide show showcased before Congress was something of an afterthought. Nonetheless, Congressman Tiahrt (R-KN) is so impressed with the rhetorical mastery of the consultants that he tries to appropriate it. As Tiarht puts it, “I’d like to get a copy of that slide sometime.” From the hearing we also learn that the terrorists’ Websites are threatening precisely because they manifest a polymorphously perverse geometry of expansion. For example, one SAIC witness before the House Committee compares the replication and elaboration of digital material online to a “spiderweb.” Like Representative Eshoo’s site, he also notes that the terrorists’ sites go “up” and “down,” but the consultant is left to speculate about whether or not there is any “central coordination” to serve as an organising principle and to explain the persistence and consistency of messages despite the apparent lack of a single authorial ethos to offer a stable, humanised, point of reference. In the hearing, the oft-cited solution to the problem created by the hybridity and iterability of digital rhetoric appears to be “public diplomacy.” Both consultants and lawmakers seem to agree that the damaging messages of the insurgents must be countered with U.S. sanctioned information, and thus the phrase “public diplomacy” appears in the hearing seven times. However, witness Roughhead complains that the protean “oral tradition” and what Henry Jenkins has called the “transmedia” character of digital culture, which often crosses several platforms of traditional print, projection, or broadcast media, stymies their best rhetorical efforts: “I think the point that we’ve tried to make in the briefing is that wherever there’s Internet availability at all, they can then download these – these programs and put them onto compact discs, DVDs, or post them into posters, and provide them to a greater range of people in the oral tradition that they’ve grown up in. And so they only need a few Internet sites in order to distribute and disseminate the message.” Of course, to maintain their share of the government market, the Science Applications International Corporation also employs practices of publicity and promotion through the Internet and digital media. They use HTML Web pages for these purposes, as well as PowerPoint presentations and online video. The rhetoric of the Website of SAIC emphasises their motto “From Science to Solutions.” After a short Flash film about how SAIC scientists and engineers solve “complex technical problems,” the visitor is taken to the home page of the firm that re-emphasises their central message about expertise. The maps, uniforms, and specialised tools and equipment that are depicted in these opening Web pages reinforce an ethos of professional specialisation that is able to respond to multiple threats posed by the “global war on terror.” By 26 June 2006, the incident finally was being described as a “Pentagon Snafu” by ABC News. From the opening of reporter Jake Tapper’s investigative Webcast, established government institutions were put on the spot: “So, how much does the Pentagon know about videogames? Well, when it came to a recent appearance before Congress, apparently not enough.” Indeed, the very language about “experts” that was highlighted in the earlier coverage is repeated by Tapper in mockery, with the significant exception of “independent expert” Ian Bogost of the Georgia Institute of Technology. If the Pentagon and SAIC deride the legitimacy of rhetoric as a cultural practice, Bogost occupies himself with its defence. In his recent book Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames, Bogost draws upon the authority of the “2,500 year history of rhetoric” to argue that videogames represent a significant development in that cultural narrative. Given that Bogost and his Watercooler Games Weblog co-editor Gonzalo Frasca were actively involved in the detective work that exposed the depth of professional incompetence involved in the government’s line-up of witnesses, it is appropriate that Bogost is given the final words in the ABC exposé. As Bogost says, “We should be deeply bothered by this. We should really be questioning the kind of advice that Congress is getting.” Bogost may be right that Congress received terrible counsel on that day, but a close reading of the transcript reveals that elected officials were much more than passive listeners: in fact they were lively participants in a cultural conversation about regulating digital media. After looking at the actual language of these exchanges, it seems that the persuasiveness of the misinformation from the Pentagon and SAIC had as much to do with lawmakers’ preconceived anxieties about practices of computer-mediated communication close to home as it did with the contradictory stereotypes that were presented to them about Internet practices abroad. In other words, lawmakers found themselves looking into a fun house mirror that distorted what should have been familiar artefacts of American popular culture because it was precisely what they wanted to see. 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Tapper, Jake, and Audery Taylor. “Terrorist Video Game or Pentagon Snafu?” ABC News Nightline 21 June 2006. 30 June 2006 http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/Technology/story?id=2105128&page=1>. U.S. Congressional Record. Panel I of the Hearing of the House Select Intelligence Committee, Subject: “Terrorist Use of the Internet for Communications.” Federal News Service. 4 May 2006. Welch, Kathleen E. Electric Rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric, Oralism, and the New Literacy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Losh, Elizabeth. "Artificial Intelligence: Media Illiteracy and the SonicJihad Debacle in Congress." M/C Journal 10.5 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0710/08-losh.php>. APA Style Losh, E. (Oct. 2007) "Artificial Intelligence: Media Illiteracy and the SonicJihad Debacle in Congress," M/C Journal, 10(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0710/08-losh.php>.