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June 20, 2006
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Note: Jim Stamboni retired from Textron Systems and the Advanced Solution Center in April 2006. John Boness has assumed acting leadership of the Center.
Textron Systems’ Advanced Solutions Center (ASC) is committed to identifying and understanding capability gaps that are of critical importance to the warfighter by providing quick, cost-effective ways to fill them. Whether this means improving or adapting current products and systems for expanded applications, or developing new solutions to emerging and future capability gaps, time and flexibility are of the essence.
“Battlefields aren’t at all today what they were even ten years ago,” says ASC senior vice president Jim Stamboni. “The traditional battlefield is complicated by the fact that we are now fighting within cities among buildings where friends and foes are co-mingled.”
“In today’s competitive environment, you have to be proactive, flexible, innovative and very responsive to your customers.”
–Jim Stamboni
It’s specific answers to specific problems such as this that make ASC’s work so vital.
“Our ability to proactively understand these capability gaps - sometimes even before our customers realize them - and develop innovative, cost effective systems solutions before our competitors is critical to our success. In today’s competitive environment, you have to be proactive, flexible, innovative and very responsive to your customers,” says Stamboni.
One key element of ASC’s strategy is built on the fact that ASC is a systems and product developer and producer, not a “technology sandbox.” That means that all research and development is directly focused on providing a solution, not just exploring new technology.
ASC’s solutions come from working with customers to understand their requirements, by identifying team members with the right skills for the job, and by engineering a solution tailored to the customer. Sometimes that means partnering with another company or research center to find the right solution. “We’re not irrevocably wed to our own technologies,” says Stamboni.
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The Armored Security Vehicle and its planned product improvements will provide the warfighter excellent capability in many of these areas.
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To fully serve the customer’s needs, future land combat vehicles must be multi-mission capable, support a remote connection for communication devices like the internet, function well in city environments, transport troops across a wide variety of terrains and through water, carry sufficient ammunition for missions, and use very precise weapons.
The Armored Security Vehicle and its planned product improvements will provide the warfighter excellent capability in many of these areas.
Next generation land combat vehicles must consider additional capabilities such as real-time solutions for keeping passengers safe; the capability to defend against improvised explosive devices; 360 degree local situational understanding (tools that allow passengers to understand their surroundings); digital infrastructure; hybrid electric power; compact, high speed remote turrets; automatic vehicle health management systems and drinking water generation.
The ASC teams at TMLS (Textron Marine & Land Systems), HR Textron, and Wilmington are collaborating to bring this vision of the next generation land combat vehicles to reality.
Winning the Information War is a cornerstone of the future warfighting strategy for the US Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD envisions that in the future, every soldier, land vehicle, marine vessel, and aircraft system will be a node in the Global Information Grid (GIG), a network that would facilitate communication across many widespread locations.
The GIG will provide a holistic picture to warfighters at the local, tactical, theater, and strategic levels in real time. This will enable significantly improved reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting and precision engagement of high value and highly mobile threats, both in open terrain as well as in highly urban and populated scenarios which are becoming more prevalent.
ASC-Wilmington is currently exploring solutions in these areas through miniaturization and power reduction using Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technology, highly integrated electronics, and power management strategies.
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ASC-Wilmington is working to develop a 100kW solid state laser.
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ASC-Wilmington is working hard to develop vehicle and aircraft integrated directed energy weapons (DEW) based on their innovative solid state Thin-Zag® laser technology.
Textron Systems was awarded a contract in February 2006 by U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command to develop and demonstrate high-power solid-state laser technology for use in U.S. military applications. The contract supports the Joint Technology Office's Joint High Power Solid State Laser Program (J-HPSSL) Phase III activity to develop a laboratory-demonstrated 100 kW solid-state laser within a three-year period.
As the world makes greater use of wireless radio frequency, aircraft must address the potential impact of electronic countermeasure (ECM) threats such as high power electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and other sources of electromagnetic interference (EMI). Interference such as this is capable of causing catastrophic aircraft malfunctions and significant loss of life.
To protect against this, ASC-HR Textron and ASC-Wilmington are working together to develop a highly innovative fiber optic-based approach to replace current electronic wiring designs. The fiber optic design not only provides protection against EMP, but also offers significant packaging and weight reduction over current technology.
Lycoming’s ASC team, with support from ASC-Wilmington, is developing the next generation of engines for fixed-wing and rotary-wing applications that will include integrated electronic controls, Avgas and Diesel fuel consumption, and automatic health management systems.
The most important mission for the ASC is to look ahead to customers’ evolving needs. Whether exploring applications for current technology, or researching possibilities for emerging technology, the ASC has a lot of work to do. “We have to help our customers evaluate a situation even as it evolves,” says Stamboni. “We need to deliver a successful and cost-effective solution when the customer needs it. That’s how we succeed. And that’s how our customers succeed.”
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