Target Lock

Glossary

Boghammer. Generic name for a light, high-speed motor gunboat. Generally an open 30-to-40 foot fiberglass hull propelled by powerful outboard motors and armed with an assortment of machine guns and shoulder-fired rocket launchers. The name originates from the Swedish boat-building firm that manufactured a large number of the craft used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard during the Persian Gulf tanker war of the late 1980s.

Cipher UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Another of the rapidly growing family of Remotely Piloted Vehicles proposed for use by the United States Armed Forces. A small vertical-takeoff and — landing drone aircraft, the Cipher uses a set of ducted fans for lift and flight power. Literally a “flying saucer,” the Cipher offers great potential as a very compact, very stealthy reconnaissance and special-missions platform.

Eagle Eye UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). Built by Boeing Textron, the Eagle Eye reconnaissance drone uses the same Tilt Rotor technology developed by Boeing for the V-22 Osprey Vertical Take Off and Landing transport aircraft, permitting it either to maneuver as a conventional aircraft or hover like a helicopter. With a 300-mile radius of operation, the Eagle Eye’s dual-mode flight capacity has rendered it of great interest to the Navy, permitting comparatively small surface warships to have an aerial search and surveillance capacity.

ELINT (Electronic Intelligence). The collection of battlefield intelligence (target location, systems type, nationality, force strength, etc.) via the analysis of emissions produced by radars and other electronic systems.

GPU (Global Positioning Unit). A mobile navigation system that utilizes radio impulses beamed down from an orbital network of satellites. Simple, compact, and extremely accurate, this technology is finding hundreds of uses in both the civil and military arena — so much so that serious consideration was once given to building a GPU into the stock of every rifle issued by the US Armed Forces.

Hellfire. U.S.-designed heavy antitank missile. A powerful and accurate surface- and air-launched weapon, utilizing either laser or radar guidance. The Hellfire is rapidly finding a second mission with the United States Navy as an anti-small-craft missile.

Hydra 70. A 2.75-inch folding-fin war rocket. Originally designed as an aircraft-launched air-to-surface weapon, it is also carried as a weapons option by the Queen of the West-class Sea Fighter. An unguided projectile, the Hydra is usually fired in salvos from a cluster of launching tubes. Effective and simple, it can be modified in the field to carry any one of a number of different warheads: antipersonnel, antiarmor, incendiary, and high explosive.

LPD (Landing Platform Dock). A large amphibious-warfare vessel with a floodable “well deck” in its stern, permitting it to load, launch, and recover conventional displacement landing craft, hovercraft, and amphibious armored vehicles.

LPDs also have a large helipad flight deck and servicing facilities, permitting them to act as seaborne bases for a large number of Marine and Navy helicopter types.

Current U.S. amphibious-warfare doctrine calls for its amphibious forces to stand well offshore, shuttling their Marines, equipment, and supplies to the beach via landing craft and helicopter, improving the amphibious group’s survivability against modern weapons.

LSM (Landings Ship Medium). A small, lightly-armed amphibious warfare vessel used to deliver motorized transport and armored fighting vehicles to an invasion beachhead. Carrying the bulk of its payload in a large vehicle deck within its hull, the LSM’s hull is designed to permit the ship to run its bow up onto a beach without doing damage to itself. Once beached, a pair of watertight doors open in the bow and a ramp is extended, permitting the vehicles stowed on the vehicle deck to be driven ashore.

Still found in many Second and Third World navies, LSM- and the larger LST (Landings Ship Tank)-type vessels are now obsolete within current U.S. Navy amphibious warfare doctrine.

M-4 Modular Weapons System. The new firearm of choice for the U.S. military special-warfare units. Essentially a short-barreled carbine version of the 5.56mm M-16A2 assault rifle, it comes equipped with a telescoping shoulder stock and the Picatinny Arsenal’s “Grab-Tight” rail mounting system.

This latter permits the weapon to be modified to suit the mission requirements and personal preferences of the user. Various handgrips and carrying handles can be installed, and either a 12-gauge riot gun or an M-203 40mm grenade launcher can be mounted beneath the barrel in an over-and-under configuration to augment firepower. It can be equipped with a variety of targeting systems ranging from simple iron and telescopic sights to laser, nite-brite optics, and thermographic imaging.

Marine SOC (Special Operations Capable). A U.S. Marine combat element that has undergone a rigorous enhanced-training program, giving it the capacity to function both as a commando-style Special Forces unit and as a conventional infantry assault force.

Since the Korean conflict, the United States military has fielded a growing number of small elite units to deal with the problems of counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, and Special Warfare. The Army has its Green Berets, its Delta Force, and its Ranger regiment. The Navy has its SEAL (Sea-Air-Land) teams, and even the Air Force has its Air Commando squadrons. To date, the United States Marines have bucked this trend, flatly stating that, since the entire Marine Corps is an elite formation, such specialized units are redundant.

MOLLE (Modular Lightweight Load-carriage Equipment). New-gen combination backpack and load-bearing harness issued to U.S. ground forces.

NAVSPECFORCE (United States Naval Special Forces). Existent in the year 2006, NAVSPECFORCE is an evolved Fleet-level follow-on to the current-day Naval Special Warfare Command (SPECWARCOM).

A component of the U.S. Military’s Joint Special Operations Command (SOCOM), NAVSPECFORCE places all USN special operations and “silver bullet” assets and their supporting elements under a single, independent headquarters, similar in concept to the United States Army’s Special Forces Command.

Included in its table of organization are the Navy’s SEAL teams, Patrol Craft and Special Boat and Submersible Squadrons, SOC (Special Operations Capable) aviation and submarine elements, and the Sea Fighter Task Force. Selected United States Marine Corps Force Recon and SOC Raider elements are also “chopped” to NAVSPECFORCE.

NAVSPECFORCE coordinates all U.S. Navy special operations worldwide from its headquarters complex at the Pearl Harbor Fleet Base, Hawaii.

SINCGARS (Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System). Developed by the U.S. Army and also coming into service with the other American Armed Forces, SINCGARS is an integrated family of man- and vehicle-carried radio systems for tactical battlefield communications. SINCGARS is an “anti-Siglnt” technology, encrypting voice and data-link transmissions via digital scrambling and using “frequency hopping” to render them difficult to jam or locate via the use of radio direction finding.

Siglnt (Signal Intelligence). The collection of battlefield intelligence via the interception and decryption of enemy radio and land-line communications.

UH-1Y.The latest incarnation of one of the world’s truly legendary air craft, the Bell UH-1 Iroquois Assault helicopter. Introduced in the early 1960s, the “Huey” was the mainstay of American airmobile operations during the Vietnam conflict. Four decades later, it continues to operate in military and civil service around the world.

The UH-1Y “Super Huey” will be a rebuilt variant of the twin-turbined UH-1N currently in Marine service, incorporating improved avionics, uprated engines, and a common rotor and drive system with the Marine AH-1W “Whiskey Cobra” gunship, greatly increasing its range and lift capacity.

So modified, the Huey is projected to soldier on for another twenty years, and likely beyond.