BW Online | April 9, 2003 | War, Technology's Proving Ground

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APRIL 9, 2003

WAR IN IRAQ

War, Technology's Proving Ground
Pint-size surveillance drones, underwater robots, precision-guidance sensors, rugged laptops -- they're all being tried and tested in Iraq

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Remember that run on duct tape? No, not the one after Homeland Security Chief Thomas Ridge urged Americans to stock up on the versatile adhesive as a precaution against terrorist attacks. Duct tape actually became a staple after World War II, when U.S. military bought miles of it to keep the moisture out of ammunition cases. The troops quickly discovered that the product, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ), could also hold together broken parts. After the war, technicians started using it to join heating- and air-conditioning ducts. An industry, whose revenues now reach $100 million a year, was born.

Wars have always had a way of introducing new products into the commercial mainstream. Night-vision binoculars debuted in Vietnam. Today, movie studios' security guards use them to watch for movie-pirating during screenings. Global positioning system (GPS) technology, which pinpoints a user's exact location via satellites, allowed troops to navigate in sandstorms and at night during the first Gulf War. Now, GPS is a $16 billion market, according to Allied Business Intelligence, an Oyster Bay (N.Y.) think tank.

ATITUDE ADJUSTMENT. The same phenomenon may already be at work in Gulf War II, although most technology experts believe the U.S. military no longer enjoys the leading tech edge vs. the private sector that it once enjoyed (see BW, 4/7/03, "Beating Plowshares into Swords"). Still, the military could once again set the pace for innovation. The defense budget has ballooned since September 11, as the U.S. has now waged wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Meanwhile, many industries, such as airlines, have been badly hurt in the economic downturn and can no longer afford to try out as much new technology.

As companies cut costs, they increasingly find that adapting devices developed by the military can be cheaper than developing it in-house, says John Dennis, technology manager at Montana State University's TechLink Center, which facilitates technology exchanges between the Defense Dept. and the private sector. Says Dennis: "It's a big change in attitude."

A big attraction in adapting technology created by the military is that it has already passed the most demanding tests. "You learn a lot during war situations, and a lot of it applies to the commercial market," says Scott Starrett, vice-president and general manager for defense and space at Honeywell (HON ).

What's being tested on Iraq's battlefields? Let's take a look.

FLEXIBLE FLYERS. Portable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), remote-controlled drones the size of model airplanes, could prove the biggest commercial hit, says Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future, a Menlo Park (Calif.) forecaster of technology trends. While UAVs have been around for decades, portable UAVs, which can fit into a briefcase and be snapped together in five minutes, are this war's first-timers.

They cost only $50,000 to $100,000, vs. millions of dollars for a regular-sized UAV. Each mini unit, whose battery lasts an hour, can survive up to 100 landings before needing to be refurbished, says Bob Curtin, a vice-president at AeroVironment in Monrovia, Calif., believed to be the only mini UAV maker whose products are being used in the Iraq war.

The UAVs, carrying cameras and chemical-agent detectors, have come in handy for surveillance of urban areas: Since they're small, they aren't as conspicuous as a pilot-navigated surveillance planes or larger UAVs, which can be shot down with small-arms fire. And privately held AeroVironment believes the devices can be used for surveillance by the police and oil companies to check pipelines for leaks, perhaps eliminating the need to send out crews.

In three years to four years, news organizations could be launching their own portable UAVs to get sweeping vistas of sports events or battles, says Saffo. And paparazzi could even use them to hunt down celebrities. The market for portable UAVs, already at tens of millions of dollars, should grow to several hundred million dollars in a few years, says Curtin.

CREEPING PRESENCE. Remote-controlled robots could be part of another revolution. Hastily assembled prototypes were used to search for survivors in the rubble of the World Trade Center disaster, and have been used to explore caves in Afghanistan in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his Taliban allies. Soldiers lash chemical-agent detectors onto robots called PackBots. These devices were developed by iRobot, a Burlington, Mass., outfit founded by three colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Artificial Intelligence Lab.

iRobot hit mass-production with PackBots several weeks ago, says President Helen Greiner. The new, 40-pound crawlers feature better sensors and an Ethernet hub, allowing them to relay intelligence to the local command center. Recently, a radio-controlled PackBot crawled through the Agricultural Institute building in Iraq, looking for signs of ambush. Already, says Greiner, police in Los Angeles and several other cities are trying out PackBots for use in hostage situations.

Privately held Foster-Miller in Waltham, Mass., has recently launched its Talon robots, which cost $30,000 apiece and are capable of operating in up to 90 feet of water, says Arnis Mangolds, a Foster-Miller vice-president. Mangolds foresees applications ranging from checking underwater pipelines to helping clean up after toxic spills. After completing their work, a simple rinsing would decontaminate the waterproof units.

ROBOT ON BOARD. "This may be the decade of the robot," says Scott Thayer, an expert at Carnegie Mellon University. Scientists at CMU are working on one that could steer a vehicle without human help from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in under 10 hours. It's part of a competition for a $1 million prize from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). One day, such robots could drive trucks in convoys, harvest grain, or mine coal, says Thayer. "It's impossible -- until you do it," he says. "The military pushes the vanguard for these technologies."

Precision-guidance technology used in the smart bombs over Baghdad could soon find a way into planes and cars, some experts believe. The weapons are now so accurate that they can take out the front door on a house with pinpoint accuracy. Such precision should eventually allow pilots of commercial airliners to better guide their planes, improving air-traffic control. And, when integrated with mechanical systems, the sensors used in the bombs could, one day, bring your car to a stop when a deer jumps onto the road -� before you recognize the need to hit the brake.

The military is already three years ahead of the commercial sector in integrating different technologies, such as wireless communications, sensors, and robots, says Jim Lewis, director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a security-and-defense think tank in Washington, D.C. U.S. troops in Iraq are using rugged GoBook II laptops, equipped with latest wireless technologies, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, as well as Pentium IV processors.

TRACKING TELECOMMUTERS. U.S. commanders in Iraq benefit from the integration of GPS -- tracking support trucks, troops, UAVs, and tanks -- with intelligence data from different agencies and maps and tactical data. The system also allows for secure wireless data updates, e-mailing, and text messaging, according to military experts. Such integration would come in handy at U.S. corporations for tracking their mobile employees.

Some analysts say the military will have a tough time reestablishing leadership in technology innovation. Still, if the defense budget continues growing, anything is possible. The innovations demonstrated in the Iraq war show that the Pentagon may be regaining a role already.

By Olga Kharif in Portland, Ore.
Edited by Douglas Harbrecht

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