Industry News

Unmanned

Air Force Research Laboratory invites new approaches to tech in 2016 - News

January 06, 2016

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio. Air Force Research Laboratory officials held four different engagements in 2015 to establish long-term vision, shared government and industry objectives, and invite new approaches to solving technology challenges. This year officials plan to reach out to more industry partners to equip U.S. military forces in the future.

Comms

CACI engineers continue IT support to DIA under $6 billion contract - News

January 06, 2016

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems CACI

ARLINGTON, Va. Engineers at CACI International Inc. will continue to provide information technology support for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) on the Enhanced Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise (E-SITE) contract vehicle. The multiple-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ), five-year contract has an estimated $6 billion ceiling value.

Radar/EW

Harris officials order Cobham's RF microelectronics for EW program - News

January 05, 2016

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Cobham

SAN JOSE, Calif. Harris Corp. officials ordered RF microelectronics from Cobham to support an electronic warfare (EW) program, which is valued at an estimated $35 million.

Radar/EW

Spanawave purchases multiple product lines from Giga-tronics - News

January 04, 2016

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Giga-tronics

SAN RAMON, Calif. Spanawave Corp. acquired Giga-tronics’ power meter, ampli-fiers, sensors, and legacy signal generator product lines. The product lines will transfer in phases beginning with certain sensor and amplifiers immediately and the final product line will transfer sometime in July 2016. Purchase of the product lines totals an estimated $1.5 million, and half of the payment is expected between June and July 2016.

Avionics

DoD to procure 78 C-130J Super Hercules under multiyear contract - News

January 04, 2016

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems Lockheed Martin

MARIETTA, Georgia. U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) officials announced that more than $1 billion in funding for the first 32 aircraft under a a C-130J Multiyear II contract. The overall contract, valued at about $5.3 billion, provides 78 Super Hercules aircraft to the U.S. Air Force (30 MC-130Js, 13 HC-130Js and 29 C-130J-30s) and the U.S. Marine Corps (six KC-130Js). The U.S. Coast Guard will also have an option to acquire five HC-130Js under the contract.

Comms

Assembling atom-sized pieces for micromachines goal of DARPA A2P program - News

December 31, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

ARLINGTON, Virginia. DARPA officials are looking to develop technologies and processes to build nanometer-scale pieces whose dimensions are near the size of atoms—into systems, components, or materials that are at least millimeter-scale in size. The big hurdle to this goal is that many common materials, when fabricated at nanometer-scale, exhibit unique and attractive “atomic-scale” behaviors but lose them when they are built at product scale dimensions such as a few centimeters. So DARPA launched the Atoms to Product (A2P) program and chose ten groups to go and solve this challenge.

Radar/EW

Tactical ISTAR contract won by Elbit Systems for Asia-Pacific nation - News

December 30, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems Elbit Systems

HAIFA, Israel. Elbit Systems Ltd. won a contract to provide an airborne, intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) solution to an unnamed Asia-Pacific country.

Unmanned

DARPA unmanned VTOL aircraft program for small ships won by Northrop Grumman - News

December 29, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems Northrop Grumman

ARLINGTON, Virginia. A team lead by Northrop Grumman Corp. won phase 3 of the DARPA Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program, which will enable small-deck ships such as destroyers and frigates to have their own unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) to run intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions around the clock.

Avionics

Boeing gets second crew mission to International Space Station - News

December 29, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems Boeing

HOUSTON. NASA officials ordered its second post-certification mission from Boeing Space Exploration as part of an effort to establish regular crew missions to launch from the United States to the International Space Station (ISS).

Radar/EW

Intel's acquisition of FPGA-maker Altera completed - News

December 28, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems Intel Corporation Altera

SANTA CLARA, California. Intel Corp. officials announced today that the company completed its acquisition of FPGA-maker Altera Corp., which will now operate as an Intel business unit dubbed the Programmable Solutions Group (PSG). Altera's FPGAs are used by military systems designers in electronic warfare, radar, and other signal-processing intensive applications.

Radar/EW

Air Force radar support program won by BAE Systems - News

December 28, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems BAE Systems

WASHINGTON. BAE Systems won a U.S. Air Force Instrumentation Radar Support Program (IRSP) contract to give multiple agencies a wide range of radar support services. IRSP provides services across the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Energy, NASA, and at least seven foreign governments.

Unmanned

NASA selects Cobham's actuators for Mars 2020 mission - News

December 24, 2015

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Cobham

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. NASA officials have selected Cobham’s actuators to drive rover wheels and provide steering motion, move the high-gain antenna, and perform remote sensing mast deployment for the Mars 2020 mission.

Cyber

ManTech wins cybersecurity R&D multiple-award contract - News

December 23, 2015

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems ManTech

FAIRFAX, Va. The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) officials selected ManTech International Corp. for the Cyber Security and Information Systems Technical Area Tasks (CS TAT) contract.

Unmanned

Navy Shipboard Laser Weapon System Demonstrator contract won by Northrop Grumman - News

December 23, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems Northrop Grumman

REDONDO BEACH, California. Northrop Grumman won a contract from the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) U.S. Navy to design, produce, integrate, and support shipboard testing of a 150-kilowatt-class solid state (electric) laser weapon system. The contract, dubbed Laser Weapon System Demonstrator (LWSD), will have three phases.

Comms

DoD C4ISR market revenue to benefit from COTS and IoT systems - News

December 22, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems Frost & Sullivan

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. Analysts at Frost & Sullivan say they expect U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) spending to be flat through 2020 due to force structure reductions. However, activity and revenues should increase for the application of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)-based computing, security, storage, networking, and collaboration tools. Internet of Things (IoT) systems along with cloud and big data technologies will be necessary to complement the adoption of COTS-based smart phones, tablets, wireless networks and productivity applications of all kinds.