Military Embedded Systems

We’ve all heard the phrase “the graying of the workforce,” especially when it refers to the engineering and defense industries. It’s a fact that the average age for electrical and electronics engineers – many of whom are engaged in the defense industry – is older compared to the median age of other American workers. The median age of employed electrical and electronics engineers in 2019 was 44 years old, according to the most recent information from the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

FARNBOROUGH, U.K. BAE Systems has won a contract with the U.S. Navy worth as much as $94 million to develop and supply engineering, test, and evaluation support for sensors that will reside on unmanned aerial systems (UASs) plus communication, control, and weapons systems for a number of manned and unmanned airborne platforms.

RESTON, Va. Engineering research company Leidos has won a contract worth $10.3 million from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) for what the AFRL calls the Pulsed and Continuous Wave Innovation for Integration and Effects Research (PACIFIER) project. 

ARLINGTON, Va. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded contracts to five entities to develop artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms enabling teams of manned and unmanned combat aircraft to conduct aerial dogfighting autonomously.

CAMBRIDGE, U.K. Radar-technology firm Cambridge Pixel has set up an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) in a move to put the award-winning radar technology firm into the hands of the team of people who work for it, thereby making them the direct beneficiaries of the company’s future success.

ASHBURN, Va. PacStar, a division of Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, announced that it has won a five-year contract to support U.S. Army network-modernization efforts that are being undertaken by Project Manager Tactical Network (PM TN).

GREENSBORO, N.C. Radio-frequency (RF) semiconductor maker Qorvo has won a contract from the U.S. government -- worth as much as $75 million -- to create a state-of-the-art heterogeneous integrated packaging (SHIP) RF production and prototyping center.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. A team headed by the U.S. Army Research Lab  (ARL) announced that it has made a new microwave-radiation sensor with 100,000 times higher sensitivity than currently available commercial sensors, a development that could enable improved thermal imaging, electronic warfare, radio communications, and radar.

HARRISBURG, Pa. TE Connectivity -- a $13 billion maker of sensors and connectors used in defense, data communications, medical, and other applications -- has acquired DRI Relays, which has operations in the U.S. and India.

ARLINGTON, Va. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has issued a report called "2020 Department of Defense Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy," which is basically a road map for the U.S. military to maintain freedom of action in the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) at the time, place, and parameters of its choosing.

RESTON, Va. General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT -- a business unit of General Dynamics) has won the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Southern Command's (SOUTHCOM) Cyber Information Technology Enterprise Services (SCITES) contract by the U.S. General Service Administration (GSA) Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM). The single award -- consisting of a seven-month base period with six one-year options -- holds a total estimated value of $761.6 million.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas. Texas A&M University's Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) has been granted a $20 million per year contract to found and run what it will call the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics (UCAH).

FARNBOROUGH, U.K. BAE Systems has won an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) -- worth as much as $400 million -- to compete to develop a digital design for a low-cost combat unmanned aerial system (UAS) that can team with piloted warplanes under the USAF's Skyborg program.

CHANTILLY, Va. Perspecta Labs -- the applied research arm of Perspecta Inc. -- received two awards on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Open, Programmable, Secure 5G (OPS-5G) program to perform work to improve the security of 5G networks.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. The U.S. Navy’s chief of acquisition James Geurts -- assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition -- announced during Britain’s Atlantic Future Forum that the U.S. and the U.K. have established what they call the "London Tech Bridge," the first such innovation center located outside the U.S. 

TAMPA. U.S. Special Operations Command has awarded three companies five-year contracts -- with the contracts worth as much as $780 million -- to furnish equipment and technical assistance for designated intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) activities.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue University is at the helm of a national initiative sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense that aims to address and resolve the urgent need for engineering graduates to develop defense technologies, particularly in the area of microelectronics.

COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. and DELEON SPRINGS, Fla. ERAPSCO -- a joint venture of Ultra Electronics and Sparton DLS -- has won a contract from the U.S. Navy valued at $71.8 million for the manufacture of sonobuoys. This latest contract is a modification of the contract signed in Fiscal Year 2019 in which the Navy ordered a number of AN/SSQ-125 sonobuoys for its U.S. fleet. 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. Abaco Systems has won orders from a major European technology company that will insert some of Abaco’s hardware platforms deployed at the center of a new helicopter cabin computer.

ARLINGTON, Va. FLIR Systems has won a $26 million contract modification in support of the Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle Sensor Suite Upgrade (NBCRV SSU) program for the U.S. Army; the agreement is a follow-on to a $48 million contract announced in April 2019.