18 Silicon chip Australia’s electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au
The missile uses an infrared imager to
identify targets, but the new seeker will
add an ability to track targets based on
their RF signature as well.
The missile weighs 370kg with a
120kg warhead, uses an inertial guid-
ance system, a laser gyroscope and GPS
for navigation, has a range of greater
than 150 nautical miles (277km); is
3.7m long and is powered by a solid
rocket booster and a Microturbo TRI-
40 turbojet.
See the videos titled “NEW AD-
VANCED MISSILE for F-35 Joint
Strike Missile JSM to defeat S-500”
via siliconchip.com.au/link/aaos and
“NSM - JSM Naval Strike Missile &
Joint Strike Missile” via siliconchip.
com.au/link/aaot
Australian Space Agency
The recently formed (1st July 2018)
Australian Space Agency (siliconchip.
com.au/link/aaou) was present to pub-
licise their role. The agency defines its
role as follows:
“Providing national policy and stra-
tegic advice on the civil space sector;
coordinating Australia’s domestic civil
space sector activities; supporting the
growth of Australia’s space industry
and the use of space across the broad-
er economy; leading international civil
space engagement; administering space
activities legislation and delivering on
our international obligations; inspiring
the Australian community and the next
generation of space entrepreneurs.”
SILICON CHIP readers will recall that
Australia’s first satellite, WRESAT, was
launched in 1967. This space agency
has now finally been formed, over half
a century later! See the article on WRE-
SAT in SILICON CHIP, October 2017 for
more details (siliconchip.com.au/Ar-
ticle/10822).Amazon Bot
Amazon Bot was an experimen-
tal hexapod robot developed by the
CSIRO, designed to traverse terrain
with its six legs that a wheeled robot
could not (see Fig.18). It was also de-
signed to be field-deployable and easily
transported by one person; a rarity for
most robots. It was tested in the Ama-
zon as part of an international biodi-
versity project.
It used a laser-scanning system and
camera to “see” and to create a detailed
map of its environment. It was lost in
transit back from the Amazon but work
is underway to create new, more ad-
vanced robots that work with others,to explore underground environments
such as caves.
See the video titled “Data61 in
the Amazon - a highlights reel” via
siliconchip.com.au/link/aaovRafael Drone Dome
Playing on the name of the high-
ly successful Iron Dome, Israel’s Ra-
fael (www.rafael.co.il) has developed
Drone Dome to counter enemy or ter-
rorist drones, especially weaponised
consumer drones (see Fig.19).
Terrorists have been known to use
commercially-available consumer
drones such as the DJI Phantom, and
this system can neutralise those by ei-
ther a “soft kill” or a “hard kill”.
A soft kill is where the communica-
tion link to the operator, and possibly
the GPS navigation signal, is jammed.
If the drone is autonomous and this
is not possible, then a hard kill is re-
quired, and this is effected by a power-
ful, weapons-grade laser (Fig.20).
The system detects the hostile drone
with a radar and camera and can detect
a target as small as 0.002m^2 at a dis-
tance of 3.5km. The system operator
determines whether to destroy a hostile
drone by soft or hard kill techniques.
The entire system can be mounted on aFig.17: a model of the intermediate-range Joint Strike Missile,
two of which fit in the F-35A’s internal weapons bays.
Fig.18: the Amazon Bot in its natural habitat, the Amazon
jungle.Fig.19 (left): Rafael’s Drone Dome
system can detect a drone up to 3.5km
away. The system’s radar does not
rotate, but up to four radars can be
combined for 360° coverage. It also has
an optical sensor, a passive RF sensor
and a jammer unit, plus a laser and a
control centre with a single operator.Fig.20 (right): Drone Dome’s laser
system for “hard kills”.