Military Embedded Systems

COLUMBUS, Ohio. Real-time location system (RTLS) provider Ubihere reports that it won a $150,000 contract from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous navigation for unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and electric vertical takeoff and landing (EVTOL) vehicles.

U.S. ARMY YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. U.S. military forces "took another step toward achieving a military Internet of Things" -- according to a news release from the U.S. Air Force -- when tests run with fifth-generation aircraft overcame longstanding connectivity issues to share actionable operational data in their native secure digital “languages” with and through multiple sources for the first time. This early-December 2020 test was the latest demonstration run with the open architecture underpinning the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).

U.S. ARMY DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that in recent tests, a number of X-61A Gremlins unmanned aerial systems (UASs) failed to link up in flight with a recovery system installed on a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, but that they were actually close to success on multiple occasions.

TRAVIS AFB, Calif. The 60th Air Mobility Wing, 60th Security Forces Squadron, has teamed with Easy Aerial (Brooklyn, New York), a commercial provider of autonomous drone-based monitoring solutions, to develop and deploy the first first automated drone-based monitoring and perimeter security system to be used at a U.S. Air Force (USAF) installation.

ROCHELLE PARK, N.J. Internet of Things (IoT) provider ORBCOMM has won a single-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract totaling as much as $45.6 million with the U.S. Army for its Next Generation Tag (NGT) program, which will implement a common, integrated structure for logistics tracking, location, and monitoring of government assets.

WASHINGTON, D.C. and CARLSBAD, Calif. Even as the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) makes changes to improve its communications technologies, a new study -- conducted by the Government Business Council, the research division of Government Executive Media Group and communications company Viasat -- reveals that a number of challenges remain in the military's quest to deploy a successful military communications technology strategy for the multidomain battlefield. 

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) maker AeroVironment has agreed to acquire Telerob (Ostfildern, Germany), a maker of ground robotic solutions or unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), for approximately $45.4 million (37.5 million euros) in cash and a payoff of about $9.4 million (7.8 million euros) of Telerob’s debt at closing.

LONDON. The global military-simulator systems market is anticipated to grow by 55% in 2030, as compared to the current year’s market value, according to a new study from GlobalData, "The Global Military Simulator Systems Market 2020-2030."

ARLINGTON, Va. FLIR Systems has acquired Altavian (Gainsville, Florida), a privately-held manufacturer of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for defense and public-safety customers.

LINKÖPING, Sweden. Saab reports signing a contract with the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration to provide an integrated sensor and command-and-control system for use with ground-based air defense.

ASHBURN, Va. PacStar, a division of Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, has won a $25 million contract to upgrade a portion of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Data Network (CDN) that the company says will enable the Marine Corps to extend the benefits of advanced network communications to tactical environments.

NASHUA, N.H. BAE Systems announced that it received a $60 million contract from Lockheed Martin to make and deliver additional advanced missile seekers for the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) used by the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy.

LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, EL SEGUNDO, Calif. The Space and Missile Systems Center’s Production Corps reports the successful transfer of satellite-control authority of the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) Space Vehicle 6 to the Space Operations Command, under whose auspices operational acceptance of the AEHF-6 is expected to occur before the end of 2020 once operational testing has successfully concluded.

ANDOVER, Mass. Mercury Systems has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Physical Optics Corp. of Torrance, California, a company that designs, develops, and integrates advanced technologies that are focused mainly on avionics and mission subsystems for the defense market.

CAMARILLO, Calif. and BELLEVUE, Wash. Analog and mixed-signal semiconductor maker Semtech has joined forces with internet protocol (IP) networking company Ripl Networks to deploy an IP mesh, 3D tracking solution for foreign guest and fleet assets at naval ports under a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). 

ARLINGTON, Va and REDWOOD CITY, Calif. Raytheon Intelligence & Space (a Raytheon Technologies business unit) and enterprise AI [artificial intelligence] software provider C3.ai have joined forces to develop AI solutions for defense and aerospace missions for government customers, including the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. intelligence community.

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) enacted on December 1, 2020 what it calls the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), a series of requirements that will become part of all DoD Requests for Information; the ability of contractors to bid on certain types of work with the DoD will depend on their CMMC status going forward.  

NORTHBROOK, Ill. The military satellite communications (SATCOM) systems segment is expected to hold the largest share of the military communications market between 2020 and 2025, according to a new study by MarketsandMarkets, "Military Communications Market -- Global Forecast to 2025."

TAMPA, Fla. Core Avionics & Industrial (CoreAVI) has launched what it calls its "Safe AI and Computer Vision solution" that uses its newest product, VkCoreVX SC, a safety-critical implementation of the Khronos Group's OpenVX1.3 API.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. Collins Aerospace Systems (a unit of Raytheon Technologies) has received several orders for its updated visual display system (VDS), the Griffin-2, from two undisclosed fast-jet programs in the Asia-Pacific region.