As part of a $74 million contract, Danbury-based Kimchuk Inc. is manufacturing more than 8,000 devices to help soldiers pinpoint the location of enemy snipers.
BBN Technologies Inc., an acoustics-engineering lab in Cambridge, Mass., awarded the subcontract to Kimchuk. The company”™s Boomerang system uses multiple microphones to zero in on the direction, range, and elevation of an enemy shooter, providing the information on an LED display in under a second and allowing soldier”™s immediately to return fire.
The system is programmed to pick up the acoustic signals of weapons known to be used by enemy insurgents, as well as to filter out other staccato noises such as vehicle backfires and door slams.
The Boomerang has proven so effective, according to BBN, that insurgents have termed it the “death octopus” in reference to its microphone appendages that stick out in all directions.
The companies took just over two months in 2004 to develop a prototype and rush it to Iraq, under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency”™s Rapid Reaction Initiative. Some 1,000 are in use in the theater today, and Kimchuk President James Marquis told a meeting of the Lions Club of Danbury last summer that the Boomerang has been so effective the Army has installed 2,000 “dummy” versions on vehicles to discourage sniper fire.
Since first developing the system, BBN has worked to integrate the Boomerang with various sensor and weapons systems, while “hardening” the system for rugged conditions in Iraq.
Currently designed for use on either ground vehicles or at fixed locations, BBN is now developing the Boomerang both for portable use by ground troops and by helicopters, such as the Black Hawk utility helicopter produced by Stratford-based Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
“Our soldiers are required to make split-second decisions, based on established rules of engagement, when confronted with hostile sniper fire,” said Lt. Colonel Terrence Howard, manager for the U.S. Army”™s robotics and unmanned sensors program. “They deserve a capability that will tell them two things: Was a shot fired, and was it fired at me?”
While several other companies are developing systems for a similar purpose, the Pentagon appears to be convinced that the Boomerang system is the best combat-ready technology today for the money.
Kimchuk makes over 350 products for various industries, including “smart card” readers and a medical-waste disposal system called the Demolizer it fabricates for Bethel-based Thermal Waste Technologies.
BBN is best known as the inventor of the first Internet routers.
