GERMANTOWN, Md. Hughes Network Systems reports a recent successful in-flight demonstration of its HeloSat satellite communications (SATCOM) system from a Black Hawk helicopter; company officials say that the HeloSat transmitted consistent, real-time, full-motion video to a live global audience from the Black Hawk as it surveilled the landscape below. 

ANDOVER, Mass. Mercury Systems, Inc., company specializing in secure mission-critical technologies for aerospace and defense, unveiled the new GSC6204 OpenVPX 6U NVIDIA Turing architecture-based graphics processing unit (GPU) co-processing engine, aiming to provide accelerated high-performance computing capabilities to commercial aerospace and defense applications.

GERMANY. HENSOLDT’s newly developed airborne multi-mission surveillance radar PrecISR1000 has completed its maiden flight. In a one-week flight campaign together with H3 Mission Systems GmbH based in Tussenhausen-Mattsies, Germany, the radar proved its value in terms of integration and performance, according to officials.

ARLINGTON, Va. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded contracts worth a combined $30.4 million to build payloads and platforms for DARPA's Blackjack program, a project that aims toprove the military utility of low-Earth orbit constellations and mesh networks of low-cost satellites. 

ANNAPOLIS, Md. Artificial intelligence (AI) research and development firm GMATEK has been tapped by the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Program Executive Office – Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO-USC) to perform research and development in multisensor fusion and analytics to detect, mitigate, and compensate for sensor degradation onboard unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs). 

NEW YORK CITY, N.Y. Persistent Systems, LLC, comapny specializing in mobile ad hoc network (MANET) solutions, announced that it has been awarded a $950 million ceiling indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for the maturation, demonstration, and proliferation of capability across platforms and domains, leveraging open systems design, modern software, and algorithm development in order to enable Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2).

SANTA CLARA, Calif. Defense spending during and post the COVID-19 pandemic under three scenarios -- gradual containment, severe pandemic, and global emergency -- will either stagnate or decline as governments around the world allocate funds to contain the pandemic and reactivate the economy, according to a new study from Frost & Sullivan, "Post-pandemic Growth Opportunity Analysis of the Defense Industry." 

MCLEAN, Va. Booz Allen Hamilton announced that the company has won a five-year, $800 million contract by the GSA’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) and the Department of Defense to provide artificial intelligence (AI) services to support the Joint AI Center (JAIC).

WILSONVILLE, Ore. FLIR Systems, Inc. announced that the United States Army and Navy have ordered in total more than 160 of the company’s Centaur unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), plus related spares and accessories. The two contracts, totaling $23.5 million, are being sourced through the Army’s Man Transportable Robotic System Increment II (MTRS Inc II) program.

STOCKHOLM. GomSpace, manufacturer and supplier of nanosatellites for customers in the academic, government, and commercial markets, signed a contract to develop and deliver a nanosatellite to the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI). The contract is worth $2.06 million (19 MSEK).

JOHNSTOWN, Penn. Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) has agreed to a contract modification worth $2.75 million with the U.S. Marine Corps Installations Command (MCICOM) to continue to provide functional and technical programmatic support for securing the Marine Corps’ Facility Related Control Systems (FRCS). The most recent accord is the second of two option periods on the original contract -- awarded in March 2018 -- and runs through March 2021. 

CANADA. GeoSpectrum Technologies (GeoSpectrum) announced that it was selected to deliver its Long-Range Acoustic Messaging (LRAM) system to another Western customer. This follows a recent delivery of LRAM equipment to the Canadian Government.

BELGRADE, Mont. Ascent Vision Technologies (AVT) has won over $16 million in contracts by a non-disclosed U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) customer to deliver its innovative ground-based imaging systems.

DENVER, Colo. York Space Systems, an aerospace company specializing in complete space segment customer solutions and the manufacturer of standardized spacecraft platforms, announced that the company has been chosen as a strategic partner & subcontractor by LatConnect 60, who is currently developing a small satellite constellation intended to provide greater access and control to critical Earth observation data required by the Australian government and a wide range of commercial clients across the world.

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico. Applied Technology Associates (ATA) has won a contract as part of the U.S. Army Directed Energy Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (DE-MSHORAD) prototyping initiative to supply the Independent Target Acquisition and Tracking System (ITATS) for the future system.