Military Embedded Systems

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. The Directed Energy Directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) recently held a collaborative wargame with its sister AFRL unit -- the Munitions Directorate -- in a set of experiments designed to explore synergies between directed energy (DE) and kinetic energy (KE) in the battlespace of the future. 

BETHESDA, Md. Lockheed Martin has terminated its agreement to acquire aerospace and defense company Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, following the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawsuit filed during January seeking a preliminary injunction to block the acquisition on antitrust grounds.

Syracuse, NY.  SRC, Inc. has won a contract from technology contractor Advanced Technology Systems Company (ATSC -- McLean, Virginia) to manufacture and deliver the SRC SR Hawk ground-surveillance radar system to support the mobile surveillance sensor security aystem (MS3) for the country of Egypt. 

NAVAL AIR STATION PATUXENT RIVER, Md. The U.S. Navy reported that Northrop Grumman has delivered the first production example of the IFC-4 Triton, an upgraded MQ-4C unmanned aerial system (UAS) that uses sensors to intercept, detect, and decipher signals-intelligence information from an adversary. 

SANTA CLARA, Calif. AMD announced that it has received approval from all necessary authorities to proceed with the acquisition of Xilinx. AMD initially announced that it intended to acquire Xilinx in an all-stock transaction on October 27, 2020.

U.S. ARMY FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS) program reported its first-ever flight of a UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter without no one onboard. 

Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day.

The summer of 2021 saw the U.S. Army embark on a service-wide migration to Army 365, which provides soldiers and Army civilians with a cloud-based collaboration capability; final email and platforms integration is expected sometime later in 2022.

RESTON, Va. Leidos has won a $22.62 million contract (cost-plus-fixed-fee) with the U.S. Navy for the C4ISR [command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] Mission Planning Aids Rev. A for Navy carrier-strike groups and assigned/attached units.

WATERLOO, Ontario, Canada. Pixus Technologies offers a new 6U tall 19-inch rackmount chassis for 3U OpenVPX and SOSA aligned boards; the chassis is designed specifically to meet the high-power requirements of solutions that are aligned to the SOSA Technical Standard.

AMSTERDAM. The global market for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) software -- which had a market value of $3.48 billion in the year 2021 -- is projected to experience a combined annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% in the next several years, according to a new market study by Market Forecast, "UAV Software -- Market and Technology Forecast to 2029." 

DALLAS. Communications company Astrapi Corp. has won a second Phase II SBIR [Small Business Innovation Research] contract from the United States Air Force (USAF) AFWERX program: This contract calls for Astrapi to deliver a software-defined radio (SDR) prototype that will leverage Astrapi's "spiral modulation" communications capability to ease congested or contested communications channels by using less signal power.

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced its new Robust Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) program, which seeks to create low size, weight, and power (SWaP) optical atomic clocks that yield timing accuracy and holdover better than GPS atomic clocks and that can be used outside a laboratory.

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected 10 industry and university research teams for its Enhanced Night Vision in Eyeglass Form (ENVision) program, which will endeavor to develop night vision systems for the military that take advantage of recent advances in planar optics and transduction materials.

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. Lt. Gen. Shaun Q. Morris, the commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), told listeners during the recent annual “State of the Center” address about the Center's digital transformation efforts, emphasizing that the Center must incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data analytics into daily operations in order to use “speed with discipline” to respond to evolving threats from near-peer adversaries.

HAIFA, Israel. Elbit Systems Sweden has won a contract with Sweden's Defense Material Administration to equip the Royal Swedish navy with Elbit's Albatross Combat Management Systems (CMS). 

DUBLIN. Mobility-technology company Aptiv has agreed to acquire mission-critical software provider Wind River (Alameda, California) from private-equity firm TPG Capital for $4.3 billion in cash.

CHANTILLY, Va. Engineering firm VTG has won a $20 million task order from the U.S. Navy to modernize the Aegis Combat System through its Technical Insertion 16 (TI16) Sustainment, Installation, Procurement, and Engineering Services contract with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Port Hueneme Division, a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command. 

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. Collins Aerospace recently performed a demonstration of possible applications of its resilient networking, intelligent sensing, and secure autonomous processing capabilities for the U.S. Army and joint services that could potentially support Army modernization and CJADC2 (Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control) initiatives. 

BARNEVELD, Wis. Vortex Optics has won a contract with the U.S. Army to provide as many as 250,000 XM157 Next Generation Squad Weapons -- Fire Control (NGSW-FC) systems, under the terms of a 10-year firm-fixed-price agreement that has an agreed minimum of $20 million and a maximum ceiling value of $2.7 billion.