Hi On target: defence career guide for graduate engineers.

Hi On target: defence career guide for graduate engineers.

Defense  - which brings in one of the widest ranges of engineering disciplines of any sector - offers graduates a host of opportunities at the cutting edge of technology

Why work in defense?

The UK defence sector is about as cutting edge as it gets. Pictured: the Taranis UAV.

The UK defence sector sits at the cutting edge of technology and needs high-calibre engineers from a myriad of disciplines to help uphold operations in-theatre (that’s military speak for on the battlefield) manufacture and maintain new and existing platforms, and design the weapons for tomorrow’s battlespace.

UK Defence spending remains high:

Depite well-publicised recession-era cut-backs the UK has the biggest defence budget in Europe and plans to spend £164bn on equipment and equipment support over the next ten years. Furthermore, the nation still spends over two per cent of its income on defence and defence exports are a vital component of the British economy.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies notes that Britain’s 2013 defense expenditure ranks it fifth in the world behind the USA, Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia. The industry as a whole has an annual turnover of £22bn and defence export sales stood at £9.8bn in 2013, an 11.4 per cent increase on 2012.  
  


The sector is a major employer:

Technologies like BAE’s QWarrior system are helping to usher in the soldier of the future.

Over 160,000 people are employed in the defence industry, and 10 per cent of UK manufacturers serve it too. 
The CBI (Confederation of British Industry) notes that there are more small to medium-sized companies (SMEs) operating in the UK’s defence manufacturing sector than France, Italy, Germany, and Spain combined, and Britain is currently the world’s second largest defence exporter. 

You’ll have responsibility from day one:

The defence industry requires its recruits to adapt quickly and many of the larger companies offering graduate training schemes are keen for their recruits to be exposed to a number of relevant business units where they can expect their problem solving skills, team working skills and stakeholder management skills to be tested at an early stage in preparation for the career that lays ahead of them. 

What does the sector do?

The defense industry supports Britain’s national security and that of the sovereign nations it exports related products and services to.  

It is building major platforms for air, land and 

sea defense:

Big ticket projects like the aircraft carrier remain a major source of jobs.

The RAF’s Typhoon fleet is to be modernised to give it air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. The government has also given assurances that by the 2020s the RAF will be equipped with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the world’s most advanced multi-role combat jet (more on that below) plus a fleet of Unmanned Air Vehicles for use in combat and reconnaissance missions.   
   


The second Royal Navy aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is currently under construction with the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) in Scotland, whilst in Barrow-in-Furness ACA member BAE Systems is building seven Astute-class hunter-killer submarines and is increasing work on the Successor programme in preparation to replace Vanguard class nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines. It looks very likely also that the government will place an order for 13 Type 26 frigates for the navy, which will take work at BAE’s Glasgow sites into the 2030s.

The army isn’t missing out either. The Ministry of Defence recently placed an order with General Dynamics UK worth £3.5bn for 589 SCOUT Specialist Vehicles for the British Army. The government has also committed itself to programmes that will see enhanced communications equipment and new strategic lift aircraft supplied to the army.

It is taking a lead in the world’s largest defence project:

Assembly of the F35.

The F-35 Lightning programme is currently the largest defence programme in the world with around 11 defence forces expected to take delivery of the fifth generation fighter jet. 

Over 500 UK companies are involved in the 40 year programme with Cobham designing and manufacturing the refuelling probe for the F-35B short take-off/vertical landing and the F-35C carrier variant; Rolls-Royce providing the lift system for the F-35B STOVL, which consists of the lift fan, the three-bearing swivel module, the roll post modules and the lift fan vane box; Ultra Electronics producing the aircraft’s suspension release equipment; and MBDA producing the Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile, which can be installed within the weapons bay and on external wing stations of the aircraft. MBDA is also working with Lockheed Martin and the MoD to integrate the Meteor missile into a future upgrade of the UK’s F-35 fleet. 

It thrives on collaboration:

The Eurofighter Typhoon program is a great example of a collaborative project

A common facet of the modern defence industry is the requirement to work collaboratively with different companies, often across separate territories, to produce a platform and maintain it throughout its lifetime.

This is a common requirement and ACA serves as a fine example, joining together companies including BAE Systems, Thales UK and Babcock who make up three quarters of ACA, the forth member being the MoD.

Taking collaboration further is the Eurofighter Typhoon programme, a European collaboration that has Britain’s BAE Systems, Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi, and Airbus Defence & Space in Germany and Spain managing industry suppliers employing over 100,000 people across the supply chain.

What kinds of jobs are on offer?

A soldier launching the Black Hornet Nano Unmanned Air Vehicle.

What really sets the defence industry apart from others competing for engineering graduates is the sheer range of disciplines required to build and provide through life support for platforms and related systems used by the world’s armed forces. These disciplines include: aerospace/aeronautical, automotive, chemical, civil/structural, electrical, electronics, environmental, manufacturing, maritime, materials, mathematics, mechanical, physics and software. 

‘If you look at our website there’s probably over 50 engineering disciplines and roles that you could go into across the company and across the industry there are probably more opportunities than that,’ commented Ayesha Godigamuwe – early career advisor at BAE Systems. 

Qinetiq, a Farnborough-based company that employs over 6,000 staff across sites in Europe, Australia and the US, provides a range of defence security services on land, air and at sea has requirements for design, structural, maritime, mechanical, safety, electrical, communications, electronics, plus software and systems engineers. 

BAE, with a headcount of around 88,000 staff worldwide, has a current requirement for engineers specialising in safety, electrical engineering, naval architecture, plus systems and mechanical engineering. 

Entry standards are high and so is early remuneration:

The Striker II helmet, designed and developed by BAE SYSTEMS, worn by Chief Test Pilot Mark Bowman in the cockpit of a Eurofighter Typhoon at Warton, Lancashire.

The industry is competing for high-calibre graduates - usually security cleared and with a 2:1 - from all engineering disciplines to fill challenging but well-remunerated roles in the public and private sector.  

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), an organisation with a remit to supply sensitive and specialist science and technology services to the MoD and wider government, offers its graduates approximately £22,167 on starting; whilst in the private sector BAE Systems offers its graduates between £24,000 and £28,000 on joining. MBDA Missile Systems offers £25,000 plus a £2,000 joining bonus when graduates join its two-year scheme. 
  


Good salaries come as standard in the defence industry, although average starting salaries at SMEs drop to between £18,000 and £25,000. 

Where are the jobs?

The large OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) including BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin UK, Boeing UK and Northrop Grumman, operate from a number of sites across the UK with clusters of defence companies in general to be found in the West Midlands, south east, south west, and north west England.

Defence companies are similarly scattered throughout Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The locations - home and abroad - are varied, as are the opportunities that the defence industry offers. 

‘There’s such a variety of projects to get involved in across air, land and sea that you’ll be occupied and challenged as an engineer,’ said Godigamuwe.

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Hi A Dark Side of Solar Power!!!

Hi A Dark Side of Solar Power!!!

The harshest criticism for fossil fuels has always been the horrible effect they have on the environment. Not only does retrieving the resource (coal, petroleum, natural gas) do irreparable damage to landscapes and ecosystems, but transporting it can be quite dangerous. And once the fuel has been spent, harmful byproducts clog the atmosphere and have far-reaching effects that scientists have only recently begun to quantify.

You know this, and I know this. And I know that you know that we all know this. This isn't going to be a recital of facts we know, ya know? But what about the negative environmental impacts our cultural shift to renewable energies, namely solar power, produce? There is a side to solar (PV) power that's rarely considered and not well understood.

Energy Payback Time (EPBT):

EPBT is the amount of time it takes a solar panel to collect the same value of energy that was expended in the panel's creation. It used to be that panels virtually never recaptured the amount of energy which was needed to create them, but that belief faded in the 1990s as the technology improved.

A significant amount of energy is spent producing, processing, and purifying materials for PV panels, as well as for the manufacture, transportation, and installation of the panel. The mathematical formula (.pdf) for determining the EPBT looks like this:

Rather than break down figures for areas with my limited text space, I'll just spoil the conclusion: the effectiveness of solar panels is severely affected by material efficiency and the location of the panel. In most of the United States, it takes almost two years before the panels begin to reduce emissions. At what latitude do solar panels stop making sense?

Environmental Waste:

Not surprisingly, China has been the leading manufacturer of PV panels worldwide by nearly fourfold. Despite this robust production rate, they're only second in PV power production (18,400 mW compared to Germany's 36k mW). What gives?

Frankly, China doesn't care about its environment and has little oversight on how companies dispose of industrial waste. And in consideration of the profit the industry is making, what regulations do exist are overlooked. U.S.-based PV panel manufacturers have a hard time disposing of toxic materials used in the production process. Chinese companies don't have the same difficulty, choosing to bury chemicals or flush them in public waterways. The result is a panel which was cheaper to produce and ship abroad.

Really, we're just burying the problem someplace else, hoping that a super-solution from future geniuses materializes in the meantime.

Wildlife Impacts:

The Ivanpah solar plant in utilizes 174,000 heliostats to reflect sunlight onto a centralized solar tower. The tower collects the sunlight, transfers it to heat, and boils water to begin the electricity production process. The plant is located in the Mojave Desert, away from population centers.

Human population centers, at least. While the imagery of a desert solar plant probably conjures images of dust and tumbleweeds, the area where the plant lives is much more lush than you might expect. When the plant was first announced, it incited considerable backlash because it was building on habitat that belonged to the endangered desert tortoise. The plant's construction was ultimately changed to help curtail its effects.

Now that the plant is up and running, an unforeseen consequence has occurred: an excessive number of bird deaths. Birds are lured to the area by insects or migration patterns, but once in the vicinity of the plant they're almost assured a hellish death. Estimates of up to 28,000 bird deaths a year have been attributed to the concentrated solar arrays, which blind and even ignite birds midflight. Officials are considering how to proceed with a megawatt and mega-money facility that may drive the extinction of entire species on its own.

The point isn't that solar power is harming our environment. Without a doubt, nearly any energy harvest strategy will conclude with negative environmental effects. But it shows that a long, long road of development must be traveled before our technology creates the sustainable utopia we envision. For now, we should probably maximize the efficiencies of the energy sources we have.

Hi Standards Leave Their Mark on Engineering.

Hi Standards Leave Their Mark on Engineering.

World Standards Week takes place the week of October 20, and it presents an opportunity to reflect on how standards are used in engineering and impact almost every facet of modern life.

For example, standards make it possible for the Internet to exist and for Engineering360 to be shared seamlessly worldwide. Likewise, banking institutions function on a set of standard protocols that enable global trade to take place.

As this article’s main photo suggests, the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2011 published a revised biometric standard that vastly expands the type and amount of information that forensic scientists can share across international networks to identify victims or solve crimes.

But even something as simple as a screw has thousands of standards associated with it. These ensure that the manufactured product is usable everywhere, says Robert Russotti, senior director for online marketing at theAmerican National Standards Institute (ANSI).

Standards cover testing, performance, quality and procedures, Russotti says. They help a specifying engineer determine, for example, how many times a door hinge will open and close before it’s likely to fail, or if a particular metal is suitable for grinding.

A more ( shall we say) standard definition from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IECA) defines a standard as a document, established by consensus that provides rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results.

ISO says that it does not decide when to develop a new standard. Instead, ISO responds to a request from industry or other stakeholders. Typically, an industry sector or group communicates the need for a standard to its national member (such as ANSI in the U.S.) who then contacts ISO. 

ISO standards are developed by groups of experts from all over the world, that are part of larger groups called technical committees. These experts negotiate all aspects of the standard, including its scope, key definitions and content.

Developing ISO standards is a consensus-based approach and comments from stakeholders are taken into account. So-called Draft International Standards are circulated among ISO members who have three months to comment and vote on the draft. ANSI coordinates the U.S. voluntary consensus standards system. In that role it provides a neutral forum for the development of policies on standards issues and serves as a watchdog for standards development and conformity assessment programs and processes.

ANSI also accredits qualified organizations, whose standards development process meets all of ANSI’s requirements, to develop American National Standards. However, ANSI itself does not develop standards. In addition, ANSI represents U.S. interests in regional and international standardization activities while overseeing conformity assessment activities that promote the global acceptance of U.S. products, services, systems and personnel.

In the U.S., standards are voluntary and consensus based, which means that product designers and manufacturers can decide whether or not to follow them. The marketplace helps decide whether or not a non-standard product achieves success. In other countries, standards carry the force of law. Standards also may be used as a defense in a legal challenge. A product that fails may be defensible if it can be proved that it conformed to specific standards, Russotti says.

American National Standards (ANSs) are essential tools used in every industry. Today, there are some 9,500 ANSs that have been developed and approved in accordance with ANSI essential requirements. American National Standards are voluntary and serve U.S. interests well because all materially affected stakeholders have the opportunity to work together to create them. ANSI-approved standards only become mandatory when, and if, they are adopted or referenced by the government or when market forces make them imperative.

ANSI says that globally relevant standards make it easier for many companies to get their products certified and on the shelves in countries around the world, allowing them to take part in global value chains, benefit from technology transfer and compete on a more equal footing. Similarly, nations that incorporate international standards into their policies and regulations can allow their citizens access to a wider selection of high-quality goods, while also providing protection against dangerous or faulty products and services.

Hi International Shipping Goes Green:

Hi International Shipping Goes Green:

The world's economy continues to be buoyed by its oceans. Approximately 90 percent of all international trade is exchanged by vessels, and between tankers and intermodal container transport ships, they represent 65 of the 68 largest ships in operation.

Of course, the negative environmental effects of huge shipping vessels are well documented. International Maritime Organization predicts that carbon dioxide emissions from shipping would constitute 72 percent of human-made emissions by the year 2020. Considering cargo weight and transport distance, shipping via sea is the most efficient and economical, but annual increases in the amount of tonnage traded and distances traveled mean most efficiency gains are offset by increased usage.

A variety of engineering solutions have been implemented to keep mega-ships financially afloat.

Wind power returns:

In 2007, German shipping company Beluga Group launched MS Baluga Skysails, a 433 ft. long container ship. Notably, the ship receives auxiliary power from a paraglider attached to the front of the ship that reduces fuel consumption between 20 and 30 percent. The largest of the paragliders, up to 6,500 ft.², can exert as much towing power as a 6,800 hp engine. A pod-based logic controller system links the canopy and the towline to determine the optimal flying height (up to 1,600 ft.), wind direction, and speed.

Overall, Skysails have been slow to catch on, though the company says 40,000 container ships can be retrofitted with the system.

Dual props, slower speeds:

International shipping operator Maersk operates the current largest ships in the world, their Triple E class of container ships, of which there are 20. The handful of vessels larger than their Triple E Class have all been retired and dismantled because they weren't sustainable enough. So when Maersk launched their first Triple E in 2013, they knew that many operational changes were necessary in order to keep the ships viable.

Despite being the largest ships ever, Maersk claims there is a 20 percent improvement in operational efficiency over their second largest fleet of ships, the E class. This savings comes primarily from reduced throttle speeds. Most of Triple E transit is conducted at 19 knots, and the ship have maximum speed of 23 knots. This is considerably slower than other container ships (up to 28 knots), but it is considered the optimum operating speed which reduces power consumption. This adds 2-6 days to each journey.

Efficiency also stems from a unique twin propeller arrangement. Most container ships utilize just a single propeller, as they're more efficient because the dueling draughts of two propellers often result in parasitic drag. But the Triple E class has two 9.8 m four-bladed screw propellers, compared to the single 9.9 m six-bladed screw propellers, contributing 4 percent better efficiency and better pressure distribution. In this instance, the significantly larger disc area of the propellers compensates for conflicting vortices. The ship is also fitted with an innovative, $10 million waste heat recovery system, and Maersk is considering adding exhaust treatment systems as well.

LNG tankers run via boil-off:

While the Triple E is the largest container ship, the Q-max is the largest liquefied natural gas tanker, as it's 80 percent larger than most LNG carriers. Just as LNG trade has increased, LNG carriers have become more prominent. But it would be an oxymoron for a ship that provides for essential services for a booming green industry to also be an emissions giant. As such, the ship uses two low power diesel engines to power a dual propeller arrangement. Since the natural gas needs to be supercooled, the vessel maintains an internal membrane which waffles or compresses to minimize thermal effects on the vessel hull. Naturally, some of the gas transitions to vapor, where a system captures it and returns it to a liquefied state. Most LNG carriers recapture LNG at rates of 99 percent or more.

But the tankers can also run on the boil-off gas from its recapture system. The company that owns the 14 Q-maxs has initiated conversion on its fleet, so the diesel engines can also run via recaptured LNG. The result is a tanker that has a significant reduction in emissions, engines that require less periodic maintenance, fuel supply flexibility, and ultimately risk reduction.

Like many industries, international shipping businesses are adjusting to new environmental regulations that determine in which nations they can do business. Efficiency equals increased profitability, so it's ultimately a business decision to create a new generation of shipping vessels. Until a true bridge-over-the-ocean engineering project comes true, even more efficient ships are needed to offset the increasingly global marketplace.

!!!Hi GREEN DISCLOSURE!!!

Hi UPDATE 2-Egypt pays $1.5 bln to foreign energy companies - oil ministry.

Hi UPDATE 2-Egypt pays $1.5 bln to foreign energy companies - oil ministry.

(Updates to include financing details)

Oct 2 (Reuters) - Egypt has paid $1.5 billion of its debt to foreign energy companies, the oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Egypt has delayed payments to oil and gas firms since a popular uprising ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and brought on almost three years of instability. Some of the debts were incurred before the revolt.

The Arab world's most populous country faces its worst energy crisis in decades. It still owes foreign energy firms $4.9 billion after this latest payment, which was financed by a loan from Egyptian banks, according to the statement.

"The government aims to reduce the debt owed to partners in the oil sector to an appropriate level to motivate them to intensify research and exploration," said Oil Minister Sherif Ismail.

Egypt's last payment to foreign energy companies was $1.5 billion made at the end of last December to oil majors including BP and BG Group. At the time, BG Group was owed the most. It is unclear which companies will benefit from today's payment.

The oil ministry's figures indicate that Egypt's debt was at $6.4 billion immediately before this payment, up from the $5.9 billion reported at the end of April. That indicates Egypt has accumulated $500 million in fresh debt over the past five months.

Today's $1.5 billion payment was financed through a 10 billion Egyptian pound loan from the National Bank of Egypt.

"We moved 10 billion pounds to the account of (state oil company) EGPC, which included $550 million dollars," Mahmoud Montasser, vice-president at the commercial bank, said in a telephone interview, saying it was the biggest such loan ever made in Egypt.

The oil minister said on Tuesday that Egypt would begin seeking a similar loan from international banks after next week's Eid holiday.

Gas production is steadily declining in Egypt while consumption keeps rising but firms are reluctant to increase investment after the government fell behind on payments. (Reporting By Ehab Farouk, Adel Abdel Rahman and Shadi Bushra; Editing by Larry King/Ruth Pitchford).

Hi Researchers use HIVE to test latest building methods.

Hi Researchers use HIVE to test latest building methods.

A new research facility in Wiltshire is set to 

advance the development of sustainable 

construction materials and systems.

Funded by EPSRC, the £1m HIVE facility will allow construction companies and researchers to conduct realistic, full-scale testing of their facade designs in open-air conditions.

HIVE, located at Bath University’s Building Research Park in Swindon, consists of eight cells that are insulated from one another, each with a single face left exposed to the external environment.

The cells themselves will let researchers analyse the environmental impact of construction materials including their energy efficiency, flood resilience, structural capability and internal air quality.

‘People are interested in looking at the latest iteration of their products and trying to compare them with previous iterations or with competitive products to see whether or not the performance is something to shout about,’ said Dr Mike Lawrence, director of the Building Research Park.

He cautioned, however, that related projects are beset with issues surrounding finding a suitable location to build, gaining planning permission and installing the infrastructure to carry projects out.

Dr Lawrence said: ‘[HIVE is] plug-and-play…we’ve already got the data loggers, all the infrastructure, weather stations, communications [etc.].

‘They can, on day one, start their programme, which saves between six months to a year of time.

‘At the other end when you’ve finished your programme, you often have to deconstruct your building and put everything back to where it started. Again, we’ve got processes where the whole thing can happen much more quickly and effectively.’

Sixteen platforms will be available alongside HIVE for researchers to construct pods of up to 125m³ enabling flexible testing of construction systems and performance.

‘We can whack [buildings] up very quickly because the foundations are already there and when the experiment’s finished take it down and put something else up straight away – all of the infrastructure is there,’ said Dr Lawrence.

Carbon footprint:

The construction industry is widely acknowledged as having a considerable carbon footprint, a situation that Dr Lawrence is keen to redress.

‘The construction industry is responsible for half of global emissions, that’s an enormous amount and big target to hit,’ he said. ‘Let’s try and hit it, let’s both improve its on-going performance but also…make a building with a lower carbon footprint actually embedded into it.

‘So instead of putting in lots of steel and concrete, let’s put in materials which have much lower environmental impact, or indeed where the energy input into building [a structure] is less than the energy stored within the fabric of that building if you convert it into carbon dioxide.’

 Inside the HIVE:

• a hygrothermal cell to evaluate movement of heat and moisture through buildings, energy efficiency, air tightness and acoustic efficiency;
• a double-height and width cell that can be used for flexible construction design, testing façades, internal walls and floors, together with a strong roof, allowing for load testing;
• a flood cell that can be used for testing the resistance of construction materials to high water levels or for testing technologies that resolve the effects of flood damage;
• a bladder cell that enables the testing of construction panels against horizontal loading such as wind load and geotechnical forces.