ISRAEL. Elbit Systems announced the unveiling of the ARCAS, a built-in computerized artificial intelligence (AI) powered system that interfaces with the rifle’s electro-optical (EO) sight, with a helmet mounted eyepiece and with the rifle’s assemblies, to provide soldiers with real-time intuitive actionable combat information.

WASHINGTON. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded a contract to BAE Systems to design a full scale demonstrator concept with Active Flow Control at its core. The aircraft’s ability to maneuver in flight without conventional flight control surfaces could enable improved performance, maintainability, and survivability.

MADISON, Miss. Vertex Aerospace announced that it has agreed to acquire the Raytheon Technologies Defense Training, Professional Services, Mission-Critical Solutions, and Modernization and Sustainment business lines, a major provider of training and sustainment services and products to the defense and commercial aerospace industries.

MELBOURNE, Fla. L3Harris Technologies has launched its new Hawkeye 4 (H4) Lite Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), which is designed to connect warfighters virtually anywhere in the world.

LANCASTER, Pa. NASA has awarded Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) a $3.7 million contract to finalize the design and fabricate the flight thermal control system for the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER).

FALLS CHURCH, Va. Northrop Grumman Corporation demonstrated a data link for connecting aircraft in highly contested airspace for long-range command and control through an open architecture network. This experiment is a milestone in the evolution of a distributed multi-domain battle management command and control architecture such as Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. Green Hills Software announced the selection of the INTEGRITY-178 tuMP real-time operating system (RTOS) by Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) for their offering of the Military Global Positioning System User Equipment (MGUE) Increment (Inc) 2 Miniature Serial Interface (MSI) with Next-Generation Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).

DSEI LONDON. FN Herstal, designer and manufacturer of small caliber weapons and integrated weapon systems, will showcase its new FN Airborne Extended Digital Suite at the DSEI international trade show, London, from September 14-17 2021.

HOUSTON, Texas. KBR announced the completion of the Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense (DE M-SHORAD) Combat Shoot-Off (CSO), which culminated with U.S. Army Soldiers executing a series of vignettes demonstrating the capabilities of a laser-equipped Stryker against representative threats in a realistic environment.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. Collins Aerospace has won an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) sustainment contract for the U.S. Air Force (USAF) U-2 reconnaissance aircraft program with a ceiling value of $493 million to support the USAF’s installed U-2 electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensors.

ARLINGTON, Va. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected eight industry and university research teams to support its newly developed Science of Atomic Vapors for New Technologies (SAVaNT) program. 

POWAY, Calif. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) continues to advance new levels of autonomous control for unmanned aircraft, completing an airborne manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) demonstration pairing a company-owned MQ-20 Avenger with a modified King Air 200 as a surrogate for 4th- and 5th-generation tactical fighters.

WASHINGTON. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) made progress on the joint U.S.-Australia effort to develop an air-breathing hypersonic cruise missile, with the USAF issuing round-two contract options to Boeing and Lockheed Martin as the next step of the so-called Southern Cross Integrated Flight Research Experiment (SCIFiRE), and an additional separate contract with Raytheon.

DAYTON, Ohio. Infoscitex (IST), a DCS company, has won a contract to provide research, discovery, and development support to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under the Redefining the Basic Analytical and Simulation Environment (REBASE) program. The multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract has a shared cost ceiling of $48 million over a four-year period of performance.

ITALY. Leonardo’s new Multi Aperture Infrared (MAIR) threat warning system has gone into series production, with manufacturing underway on an initial batch of dozens of units for installation on helicopters including the Italian Army’s Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), based on the AW169M.