Military Embedded Systems
Op-Eds
Avionics
Aircraft carriers are just big fat targets - Blog
April 28, 2017
WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: During World War II in the Pacific, aircraft carriers were primarily used to defeat enemy carriers and battleships at sea. The whole point of island-hopping was to gain airstrips on land, to launch bomber attacks on the enemy troops on other islands. That was the plan until the Doolittle Raid in 1942, where the USS Hornet launched sixteen long range B-25 bombers to hit Tokyo.
Radar/EW
Radar cross section: The measure of stealth - Blog
March 31, 2017
WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: The primary measure of stealth, or low observability (LO), is the radar cross section (RCS) of the target, whether it?s aircraft, missiles, or ships. The radar pulse goes out from the transmitter, hits the target, and bounces back. The radar receiver measures the energy in the return signal in decibel (db) units, but that?s a hard way for normal people to visualize the size of a target. So, we must convert db to square meters (m2) to get the picture.
Avionics
Generations of fighter aircraft and the F-35 vs F/A-18 arguments - Blog
February 28, 2017
WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: When some writer talks about 4th, 5th, or 6th generation fighter aircraft, what do they mean? Like the previous articles in this series on the generations of warfare, there are multiple definitions by multiple authors. For fighter aircraft generations, there?s Hallion (1990), Aerospaceweb (2004), Air Force Magazine (2009), Jim Winchester (2011), and Air Power Development Center (Royal Australian Air Force, 2012).
Radar/EW
VME Live or Let Die - Blog
February 28, 2017
The Embedded Tech Trends (ETT) conference, organized by the VITA standards organization and held last month in New Orleans ? a city which folklore says has the reputation for dark powers, Voodoo rituals, and magic. It was also a filming location for the James Bond movie ?Live and Let Die? and one of the fun parts of these Bond movies is the new gadgets given to Bond to help his fight against evil. So, New Orleans seemed an appropriate location for the some of the world?s leading providers to the embedded markets to mingle and promote their latest magical innovative technologies for tomorrow?s applications.
Comms
The key to preparing vehicles for A-PNT - Blog
February 27, 2017
A-PNT, or assured position, navigation, and timing, is a relatively new buzz phrase in military navigation systems. It enhances existing selective availability anti-spoofing module (SAASM) GPS navigational technologies (which are already immune to spoofing) with other PNT methods that are not susceptible to signal loss, jamming or satellite destruction. A-PNT?s lofty goal is to give soldiers the ability to identify and communicate accurate location, course, and time without countermeasure interference.
Radar/EW
COTS technologies: major benefits for the consumer, new challenges for the manufacturer - Blog
February 27, 2017
The switch to commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products can be beneficial for the consumer and manufacturer with new military environmental testing methods.
Unmanned
Can you trust that drone? - Blog
January 31, 2017
The recent activities in the South China Sea of the seizure and subsequent return by China of a U.S. unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) ? also known as an ?ocean glider drone? - has once again brought drone security into the spotlight. Securing data collected as part of Internet of Things (IoT) environments is top of mind, and never more so than in military applications.
Comms
Domains of warfare and strategic offsets - Blog
January 31, 2017
WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG:It?s 2017, and I?m back. After enduring uncomfortably-deep probing and evaluation of my literary skills and technical analysis capabilities, along with a comprehensive DNA test, my masters here at OpenSystems Media have decided to keep me on as a writer, to ply you with another year of fascinating and intriguing next-generation warfare articles. For 2017 I will write with an emphasis on present capabilities of the U.S. and our enemies, as well as new platforms and strategies under development.
Comms
War in space - Blog
December 20, 2016
WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: Speculating a war in space is a perplexing subject, so let?s wade into it with a heathy level of trepidation, looking at treaties, space courts, and potential battle scenarios.
Cyber
How much and what kind of coverage analysis is enough? - Blog
November 21, 2016
CODE QUALITY BLOG: The discussion of coverage analysis can bring up a number of different assumptions that do not always agree. Does it mean checking that all the code has been executed? Does it mean that all requirements have been exercised and tested? Does it bring up some number other than 100 percent that can be relied upon for functioning code? What we want to do is to assure ourselves that a program has been thoroughly tested to the point it can be relied upon, even in life-threatening situations. How do we achieve this and what aspect of ?coverage? will allow us to rest easy?
A.I.
Facilitating deep learning techniques with HPEC - Blog
October 31, 2016
The long-sought era of machine learning in finally at hand. The potential benefit to the warfighter of deep learning techniques both enormous and profound. With defense systems trending towards greater application autonomy, deep learning techniques too complex to implement with more traditional processing technologies can now help to significantly drive advancements in on-platform processing of streaming signal or image data. These techniques are proving useful for pattern recognition tasks such as natural language processing and image feature detection, producing highly reliable autonomous decisions based on huge data sets.
Cyber
In a cyberwar - Blog
October 30, 2016
WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: This is another broad, sticky, and complex topic, much like the previous article on cryptology. So, let?s get started by offering some definitions.
Cyber
Nail down software security with dynamic analysis - Blog
October 30, 2016
CODE QUALITY BLOG: You?ve secured your Internet of Things (IoT)-connected system with components for authentication such as password, retina scan, physical key, plus encryption/decryption and more. But building these things in is not enough. You?ve got to be certain that they all work together properly and that the code doesn?t contain any flaws that could grant access to hackers. Security needs to be built in at the very start of the project by using secure protocols and continuing on up to functional elements in the application. One powerful tool for gaining this assurance is dynamic analysis.
Comms
Next generation wireless R&D: the rise of the multi-functional engineer - Blog
September 29, 2016
The next generation of wireless communications systems is driving a new level of technology integration. Higher data rates, massive connectivity for systems like the Internet of Things (IoT), lower power consumption, and other ambitious goals can only be achieved by combining advanced digital, RF, and antenna technologies. Traditionally, each of these components has been designed separately, only to be integrated, tested, and debugged after the first hardware prototype is built. The days of this approach, with domain experts working separately, using separate tools, are numbered.
Comms
Overcoming four key IoT secure messaging challenges - Blog
September 29, 2016
THE OPEN SOURCE WAY BLOG. Secure, real-time communication technology is an essential requirement for military Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. There are numerous protocols for communication between IoT devices, and between the devices and back-end systems. Messaging solutions should be able to to support these various protocols across heterogeneous, physically distributed systems while enabling the security and integrity of information flows. They should also be highly scalable, able to accommodate potentially hundreds of millions of devices. And since delay or loss of data is not an option, they should feature strict availability and reliability requirements.
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Flight computer and software pact signed by Palladyne AI for CUAS use
June 30, 2026
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Airborne command aircraft delivered to U.S. Air Force by L3Harris
June 22, 2026
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Low-germanium thermal-imaging lens introduced by MKS
June 16, 2026
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SYSGO will support SAETA II program with European safety-critical software
June 15, 2026
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Counter-UAS munition unveiled by Helix Defense
June 26, 2026
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Crewed-uncrewed aircraft teaming tested by Leonardo, Baykar
June 23, 2026
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PRODUCT OF THE WEEK: Systel’s Hawk AI Strike rugged edge AI compute platform
June 22, 2026
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Unmanned underwater vehicles supported during mine countermeasures exercise by HII
June 19, 2026
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Airborne ISR market projected to reach $21.40 billion by 2031, study says
June 26, 2026
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GUEST BLOG: Space-based sensing -- The backbone of Golden Dome’s next era of homeland defense
June 26, 2026
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Raytheon closes $1.1 billion AIM-9X missile contract with U.S. Navy
June 26, 2026
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Radar production and test capacity to be expanded in the Netherlands by Thales
June 23, 2026
A.I.
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Edge AI platform stages demo for U.S. Air Force
June 30, 2026
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Simulation and sensor-modeling technology firm acquired by Shield AI
June 23, 2026
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The military’s real AI revolution is happening in the dirt
June 16, 2026
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Artificial intelligence tools to be integrated into HENSOLDT MDOcore platform
June 10, 2026