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.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. Northrop Grumman Corporation and Martin UAV (a Shield AI company) have completed flight testing of a V-BAT unmanned aircraft system (UAS) with new features including GPS-denied navigation and target designation capabilities.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Collins Aerospace launched the world’s first Military Underwater Navigation System with M-Code (MUNS-M), a handheld diver navigation system that is designed to provide the diver with precise position and includes secure anti-jamming capabilities during deep sea missions.

FORT HUACHUCA, Ariz. Raytheon Missiles & Defense reports that it successfully ran its first flight test of an air-launched effects (ALE) unmanned aerial system (UAS) -- based on the Raytheon Coyote uncrewed aircraft system design -- that it says satisfies the U.S. Army’s defined specifications for size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements for the Future Vertical Lift program.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT, a business unit of General Dynamics) announces a four-year, $136.5 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract to modernize and consolidate existing IT help desks for the U.S. Navy.

FALLS CHIRCH, Va. Northrop Grumman announced it has delivered the Arrays at Commercial Timescales Integration and Validation (ACT-IV) system to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. Collins Aerospace, a Raytheon Technologies business, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held FlightAware, a digital aviation company providing global flight tracking solutions, predictive technology, analytics, and decision-making tools.

MANASSAS, Va. Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing Company, was selected to continue to Phase 1 of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program.

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. IMSAR has announced the release of the NSP-7 Block II synthetic aperture radar (SAR)/Moving Target Indication (MTI) radar. The Block II variant is designed to increase the range of the original NSP-7 by over 50% with no increase in the size, weight, and power (SWaP). 

WILMINGTON, Maa. Analog Devices, Inc. announced the completion of its previously announced acquisition of Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Maxim stockholders received 0.63 of a share of ADI common stock for each share of Maxim common stock. Maxim common stock will no longer be listed for trading on the NASDAQ stock market.

UNITED KINGDOM. PPM Systems is returning to the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) trade show in September to present its concept-proven, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) radio frequency (RF) over fiber equipment.

DALLAS, Texas and SAN DIEGO, Calif. COMSovereign Holding Corp., a U.S.-based developer of 4G LTE Advanced and 5G Communication Systems and Solutions, announced that its Innovation Digital LLC unit and IQ-Analog, developer of wideband transceiver products targeting military communications and technology, entered into a strategic development alliance targeted at "beyond 5G" wireless communication.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama. The U.S. Army - FACE and SOSA Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) is still on for September 14, 2021 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This year's event will feature a Keynote Speaker and expert presentations on Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) related topics by a cross-section of the defense community, industry, and academia.