SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. The most popular stories on MilitaryEmbedded.com throughout 2020 covered subjects such as NASA's Artemis mission, radar for tracking hypersonics, certifying COTS software, big data challenges, and more. Check them out below.

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems has received a $48.77 million modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract to produce, test, and deliver fully integrated Navy multiband terminals (NMT), which are multiband capable satellite communications terminals that enable protected and wideband communications.  

SPAIN. Indra and Thales, two defense technology companies, have signed an agreement to work in partnership to offer a next-generation tactical communications system to Spain’s Armed Forces. The new communications system will aim to enhance interoperability during international missions, and ensure Spain’s full sovereignty and technical autonomy over strategic military communications.

SWITZERLAND. Elbit Systems Ltd. announced that it has won an approximately $338 million contract by the Swiss Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport, to provide the Swiss Armed Forces with an army-wide tactical mobile Software Defined Radio (SDR) network solution under the Telecommunications Armed Forces (TK A) digitization program, Ersa mob Komm. The contract will be performed over a period of six years.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA. Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) report completion of the first high-speed taxi test of its Loyal Wingman unmanned aerial system (UAS) in preparation for its first flight; Boeing says that the company's test personnel monitored the uncrewed aircraft’s performance and instrumentation from a ground-control station to verify the functionality while the vehicle reached accelerated speeds.

ANDOVER, Mass. Mercury Systems has received a $14 million order from a leading defense prime contractor for digital-signal-processing modules that are intended for deployment in a multimode tactical radar application. 

ARLINGTON, Va. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently finished field testing of a network-technology program that demonstrated successful use of new software that can bridge multiple disparate radio networks to enable communication between incompatible tactical radio data links, even if an adversary is trying to jam them.  

GERMANY. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and HENSOLDT have signed a joint strategic cooperation agreement outlining how the two companies will jointly manufacture radar systems for ballistic missile defense and participate in air and space surveillance projects.

BETHESDA, Md. Lockheed Martin has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire aerospace and defense engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings for $56 per share in cash, expected to be reduced to $51 per share after the payment of a preclosing special dividend; the deal will operate on a postdividend equity value of $4.6 billion and a total transaction value of $4.4 billion, including the assumption of net cash.

WASHINGTON. The Center for Public Policy Innovation (CPPI) and the Homeland Security and Defense Forum (HSDF) -- which held a virtual symposium in October 2020 it called "Artificial Intelligence: Transforming the Government Mission" -- released its report on the symposium, in which the participants conclude that the most critical aspect of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the U.S. federal government is creating a secure supply chain and ensuring that security is built in from the beginning into the government’s IT infrastructure, including in agencies' hardware, software, and cloud services.

LONDON. The best way for countries to secure their military and civilian cyber capabilities is through cooperation with other states: This is one of the findings of a recent market study from GlobalData, "Cybersecurity in Defense -- Thematic Research."

WASHINGTON. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) -- a department within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) -- has notified the U.S. Congress that it has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the government of Italy regarding two Gulfstream G550 aircraft with airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare (AISREW) mission systems and related equipment for an estimated cost of $500 million. 

FARNBOROUGH, U.K. The BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration facility (Greenlawn, New York) has won an $18 milion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract from the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command for the production, test, and delivery of identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) transponders for military aircraft.

HERNDON, Va. HawkEye 360 Inc., company specializing in formation flying satellites to create a new class of radio frequency (RF) data and data analytics, announced it has shipped its second cluster of satellites to the launch site at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

WASHINGTON. The U.S. Air Force announced that it has conducted test flight with artificial intelligence (AI) as a working aircrew member onboard a military aircraft for the first time. The AI algorithm, known as ARTUµ, flew with the pilot on a U-2 Dragon Lady assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base.