Darpa Takes Battle to the Streets

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 05:20:10 -0800
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>

Darpa Takes Battle to the Streets By Noah Shachtman

Story location: <http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,62614,00.html>

02:00 AM Mar. 11, 2004 PT

ANAHEIM, California -- Darpa, the Pentagon's way-out research arm, is known 
for projects that border on science fiction. But Tuesday, at the start of 
its three-day, 2,200-person conference, agency officials were sounding 
downright practical. In addition to their usual pie-in-the-sky fare -- 
satellites that build themselves, jets that change shape on command -- they 
introduced a new thrust: helping soldiers in urban combat zones such as 
Tikrit and Baghdad.

 Repeatedly invoking the conflict in Iraq -- and the name of Pvt. Jessica 
Lynch -- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program managers rolled 
out a series of efforts designed to defend against the sniper attacks, 
roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades insurgents are using in the 
Iraqi streets.


 But the Darpa officials did more than suggest short-term fixes for 
today's threats. They laid out a vision in which U.S. forces dominate in 
unconventional, urban wars -- just like they do in fights on traditional 
battlefields.

 "When we're fighting in the open, the Air Force makes sure we own the air 
and the Army makes sure we own the ground," said Gary Graham, deputy 
director of Darpa's Tactical Technology Office. "We need to own the cities."

 But first, the U.S. military needs to figure out how to keep snipers from 
picking off its soldiers. After a breakneck, two-month development project, 
Darpa has come up with "Boomerang" -- a Humvee-mounted sensor suite 
designed to figure out approximately where a sniper is firing from. Fifty 
of the antenna-esque devices are now on their way to Iraq.

 Here's how they work: five acoustic monitors, bunched together, listen 
for the shockwave created by gunfire, as well as for the muzzle blast from 
a rifle. Comparing the two noises -- the shockwave is supersonic, while the 
blast travels at the speed of sound -- allows Boomerang to broadly 
determine a gunshot's origin. A handheld device, with a set of lights 
replicating the numbers on a clock, gives the soldier a basic direction.

 The next step is to network the Boomerang sensor arrays across a convoy 
of Humvees. The additional sets of ears should be able to pinpoint more 
accurately a sniper or an insurgent firing a rocket-propelled grenade. 
Boomerang can figure out which building a shot came from. This new effort 
-- code-named "Crosshairs" -- could determine which window the sniper has 
made his perch. Darpa should be formally announcing the Crosshairs project 
next month.

 Other research projects announced at the DarpaTech confab -- held in a 
set of hangar-sized ballrooms at the Anaheim Marriott -- clearly had Iraq 
in mind, too.

 Officials proposed a plan to network American snipers' scopes, so they 
can focus on a single guerrilla together. And they discussed temporary 
barriers, made of rapidly expanding, quick-hardening foam, which could be 
used to cordon off city streets.

 "You can't watch the news these days without noticing that the art of war 
has changed. It is no longer fought on a traditional battlefield with 
large, open spaces," said Paul Benda, with Darpa's Special Projects Office. 
"Unless we can develop new solutions to the challenges posed by urban 
environments, the United States will not maintain (its) strategic advantage."

 But some of the challenges clearly have Darpa stumped, for now. Spotting 
suicide bombers before they strike is still extremely tough. Benda had some 
ideas on how to tackle the problem -- low-powered microwaves, to spot a 
shrapnel-packed explosive belt, maybe. But he begged the crowd of defense 
contractors, government researchers and university scientists for their input.

 "Can you think of a way to identify bombs?" he asked.

 The fact that Darpa is asking these questions at all comes as a 
refreshing change to John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org.

 Darpa is "more focused on current operations than at any time since the 
Vietnam War, which is not surprising," he wrote in an e-mail. "This is the 
first time since Vietnam that we have been involved in a protracted conflict.

 "This is what they must do," Pike added. "They've been fighting the war 
of the cities for the last year, and they don't like it. It hurts."

 But Darpa is still looking at the far-out, as well as the agency's new, 
near-term duties.

 Soldiers are more easily ambushed in urban canyons and inside buildings. 
Darpa, using penetrating radio frequencies, wants to create detailed maps 
of a building's interior -- without entering it. Insurgents can blend in 
with locals; the agency is looking at citywide surveillance systems, 
mounted on gargantuan blimps perched at 70,000 feet. Snipers can attack 
U.S. troops from rooftops, so Darpa is working on exoskeletons and 
gecko-like adhesive pads to let troops climb up buildings, not just rappel 
down them.

 "I want to be able to go quickly up the side of the building just like 
Spider-Man does," Graham said. "If any of you has sticky webs in your back 
pocket, I'd like to hear about it."

Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>

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