Industry News

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.

Radar/EW

Royal Danish air force to equip F-16s with advanced targeting pods - News

March 15, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems Northrop Grumman

FALLS CHURCH, Va. Northrop Grumman has won a contract to provide the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) with its LITENING multisensor targeting and surveillance for installation on the RDAF's F-16 aircraft.

Radar/EW

Australian navy's first Aegis-equipped Hobart-class destroyer concludes sea trial - News

March 15, 2017

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems

ADELAIDE, Australia. Australia's navy and a team of industry partners recently completed five weeks of sea acceptance trials aboard the future HMAS Hobart, the first of Australia?s three new Aegis-equipped air warfare destroyers.

Cyber

DARPA selects BAE Systems to develop tech that restores electrical power after cyberattacks - News

March 14, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) BAE Systems

NASHUA, N.H. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) officials selected BAE Systems to develop technology designed to quickly restore power to the U.S. electric grid after failure caused by a cyberattack. The $8.6 million contract is part DARPA?s Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation, and Characterization Systems (RADICS) program.

Cyber

Leidos selected to expand emerging open systems architecture standards in ARFL program - News

March 14, 2017

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems Leidos

RESTON, Va. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) tasked Leidos to provide research and development (R&D) under an initial task order for the Mission Systems Open Architecture Science and Technology (MOAST) Program. The contract has a seven-year performance period and has a total shared ceiling value of approximately $48 million.

Avionics

Lockheed Martin's Airborne Multi-INT Lab gets new capabilities - News

March 14, 2017

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

BETHESDA, Md. Lockheed Martin has upgraded its manned airborne testbed, the Airborne Multi-INT Lab (AML), in a bid to expedite the craft's ability to deliver real-time intelligence. Lockheed and partners use the AML to experiment with combinations of sensors, systems, and technologies to help customers develop ways to support a diverse range of contingency operations.