Industry News

Comms

Boeing WGS satellite aims to improve military comms for U.S., allies - News

March 20, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems Boeing

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. A Boeing Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellite was launched into orbit on March 18. This WGS-9 satellite, launched using a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket, is aimed at enabling the United States and six allied nations to increase military communications capabilities to prevent, protect against, and respond to attacks.

Avionics

NAVAIR division to receive test and evaluation support from DCS - News

March 20, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

LEXINGTON PARK, Md. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) officials selected DCS Corp. to provide test and evaluation engineering services to the NAVAIR?s Air Vehicle Test & Evaluation Division (AIR- 5.1.6) within the Integrated System Evaluation Experimentation & Test (ISEET) Department.

Comms

Air Force invites industry to participate in light attack platform experiment - News

March 20, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio. U.S. Air Force officials are inviting the industry to evaluate the military utility of light attack platforms in future force structure. The Invitation to Participate is part of a broader Air Force effort to explore cost-effective attack platform options.

Comms

Army JRTC awards $42 million contract to continue mission support services - News

March 17, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems Cubic

SAN DIEGO. Cubic Global Defense, a business unit of Cubic Corp., has received a contract award worth more than $42 million from the U.S. Army Contracting Command to support live, virtual, and constructive (LVC) training services for the Joint Readiness Training Center?s (JRTC) Operations Group at Fort Polk, Louisiana. Cubic will support rotational and predeployment training exercise requirements from April 1 to August 24, with Phase Out requirements from August 25 to October 23, 2017.

Cyber

DoD cyber crime center to receive support from Lockheed Martin in contract extension - News

March 17, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Lockheed Martin

LINTHICUM, Md. The General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) tasked Lockheed Martin to continue its role to support the Department of Defense?s (DoD) efforts against cyber criminals.

Cyber

CALIBRE systems to support Army in move to commercial cloud services - News

March 17, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Calibre Systems

ALEXANDRIA, VA. U.S. Army officials selected CALIBRE Systems as one of the awardees for the Army Cloud Computing Enterprise Transformation (ACCENT) Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA). The award spans over the next three years and has an estimated value of $250 million.

Avionics

U.S Army purchases Boeing's AH-64E Apache helicopters in $3.4 billion contract - News

March 17, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Boeing

MESA, Ariz. U.S. Government officials and Boeing signed a five-year contract, through which the U.S. Army and a customer outside the U.S. will acquire the Apache attack helicopter. The contract is worth an estimated $3.4 billion.

Unmanned

DARPA working on program to enable airborne UAS launch-and-recovery system - News

March 17, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Dynetics General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

ARLINGTON, Va. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently completed Phase 1 of its Gremlins program, which has as its goal fielding volleys of low-cost, reusable unmanned aerial systems (UASs) that would be launched and later retrieved in midair. Moving on to the next stage, DARPA has now awarded Phase 2 contracts to two teams, one led by Dynetics (Huntsville, Alabama) and the other led by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (San Diego, California).

Radar/EW

Lockheed Martin designs, tests 60 kW laser weapon - News

March 17, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems Lockheed Martin

BETHESDA, Md. Lockheed Martin has completed the design, development, and demonstration of a 60 kW-class beam combined fiber laser for the U.S. Army. In a recent test near its Bothell, Washington, facility, Lockheed's laser produced a single beam of 58 kW, which the company says represents a world record for a laser of this type. The Lockheed Martin team is preparing to ship the laser to the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command in Huntsville, Alabama.

Comms

ONR sponsors crowdsourcing collaboration focusing on 'Singularity' - News

March 16, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

ARLINGTON, Va. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) will sponsor the launch of a multiplayer online war game. The goal is to recruit a community of more than one thousand players to collaborate on solving real-world problems that the U.S. Navy faces. Officials say, "Think of military-themed multiplayer games, and first-person shooter successes like 'Call of Duty' or 'Halo' likely come to mind."

Unmanned

NASA reveals work on tiny folding robots for exploring extreme terrains - News

March 16, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems NASA

PASADENA, Calif. NASA and several partners are working on what the space agency calls an "origami-inspired" small robot that can fold itself to become as small as a smartphone but is rugged enough to handle harsh terrain on Mars and beyond.

Comms

Georgia Tech pairs with firm to build military jetpack - News

March 16, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems JetPack Aviation

VAN NUYS, Calif. JetPack Aviation (JPA) -- a technology company that demonstrated its initial progress with a public jetpack flight around the Statue of Liberty in 2015 -- has entered into a development agreement with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) to design and build a soldier vertical mobility system (SVMS) for military applications.

Comms

Defense sector tasks Rockwell Collins to provide a cross-platform datalink capability for mobile devices - News

March 15, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Rockwell Collins

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) selected Rockwell Collins for the Digitally Aided Close Air Support (DACAS) agreement to provide the Department of Defense (DoD) an open source aggregation framework to enable cross-platform data link communications on mobile devices for Windows and Android.

Radar/EW

ONR awards Raytheon $11.8 million contract for work on sensor interconnectivity - News

March 15, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems Raytheon Company

TEWKSBURY, Mass. The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded Raytheon a contract worth $11.8 million to develop networking technologies that will enable enhanced sensor interconnectivity and improved integrated-fires capabilities for naval operations.

Comms

NSA certifies Harris manpack for secure radio transmission - News

March 15, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems Harris Corporation

ROCHESTER, N.Y. Harris Corp. has obtained National Security Agency (NSA) Type-1 certification for its Falcon III RF-300H wideband high-frequency (HF) manpack radio system. With the Type-1 NSA certification, Harris is allowed to perform transmission of classified images, maps, and other large data files from beyond-line-of-sight environments with the Falcon III.