Smart minefield sought for anti-armor defense: network of weapons, sensors could help tactical commanders secure battlefield.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.

The Army is soliciting bids from contractors for a high-tech grid of weapons, sensors and command stations that would enable soldiers to lay clusters of anti-tank munitions in the forward areas of the battlefield, leave them unattended and control them remotely from the rear.

This is the basic idea behind a program called Raptor, an "intelligent" combat outpost consisting of a suite of munitions, sensors, a communication system and a control station. The munition for Raptor would be an upgraded version of the Hornet, also known as the wide-area munition. Hornet is a smart weapon that detects, classifies, tracks and engages ground armored vehicles.

In the future, the system could be adapted to accommodate other anti-rank munitions, nonlethal weapons or demolition obstacles, said Lt. Col. James Childress, division chief at the Army's program office for mines, countermine and demolitions, at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

Several functions are envisioned for Raptor--to guard flanks or screen a unit's front, as an outpost or a listening post for combat intelligence gathering, as a forward observer, cueing and directing fires.

The munitions would be hand emplaced--about 50 kilometers forward of the brigade's tactical operations center. Subsequent upgrades of Raptor will provide for other forms of delivery, via artillery or aircraft, Childress said in an interview.

The requirement for Raptor originated at the Army's Engineer School, about a decade ago. Combat engineers were interested in an intelligent minefield that could be controlled by the brigade commander at the tactical operations center.

But Raptor is more than just a minefield that can be remotely controlled, Childress explained. The system would have command-and-control nodes programmed with a set of instructions, based on what the sensors report. The munitions would be programmed to execute instructions autonomously, based on what the sensor perceives, or to take orders from the operator. If any nodes are destroyed or disabled, the network triggers a "self-healing" mechanism.

The Army issued a draft solicitation for Raptor last year and hosted an "industry day" in December 2001. Doreen Chaplin, project officer for Raptor, said that the Army will award two contracts in late 2002 for initial concept designs and component development. That phase will last about 30 months, at the end of which one contractor will be selected to continue the development work. If the program is successful, Raptor...