MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking high-performing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) designed to meet stringent size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints. One solution is to pack the vehicles with components. The problem? The lower the SWaP and the smaller the UAV gets, the more performance suffers.

MIKE HACKERT, NAVAIR & BEN PEDDICORD, CERDEC & DR. ILYA LIPKIN, AFLCMC

Something exciting is happening in the service representative community. Representatives from three different programs, one from each of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) services, have come together with a common objective to solve their respective acquisition problems with an agreed-upon, open architecture standard. Here is Part 2 of a 3-part article covering the SOSA [Sensor Open System Architecture] Consortium’s efforts. Read Part 1 in the March 2019 issue of Military Embedded Systems.

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

U.S. Navy officials selected Harris Corp. for a $212 million contract modification to supply the next production lot of electronic jammers to protect U.S. Navy and Foreign Military Sales F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft against electronic threats.

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

U.S. Army officials received the first Northrop Grumman-built production-representative engagement operations center (EOC) for the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System (IBCS).

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

State Department officials approved a possible Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to Bahrain of various Patriot missile systems and related support and equipment for an estimated cost of $2.478 billion.

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) sailers, alongside the Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS), completed the first live-fire engagement with the new AEGIS Virtual Twin system, a prototype of the AEGIS Virtual Combat Management System.

RODGER HOSKING, PENTEK, INC.

Wideband recorders draw upon diverse disciplines of new technology to keep pace with the explosion of the number of information traffic channels and increased bandwidth. Fortunately, many of these technologies are driven by large worldwide market forces, which feed off our planet’s insatiable need for connectivity and storage. 

LISA DAIGLE, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR

L3 Technologies has entered into an agreement with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to deliver four aircraft with next-generation airborne electronic warfare (EW) capability. The prime contract has an estimated value of more than $1 billion.

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

U.S. Navy officials selected Lockheed Martin for engineering and technical services for the AN/BLQ-10 Electronic Warfare System Technology Insertion (TI)-20, TI-22 and TI-24. The contract is worth approximately $20 million.

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

U.S. General Dynamics officials selected Saab's Sea Giraffe AMB naval radar, designated AN/SPS-77, for installation on the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ships LCS 36 and LCS 38.

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

U.S. Navy officials selected CACI International Inc. for a multiple-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) Cyber Mission Engineering contract, with a shared ceiling value of $898 million ($962 million total if all options are exercised), to provide cyber engineering and electronic warfare solutions to the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic.

MARIANA IRIARTE, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Officials at the U.S. Air Force, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) selected Alion Science and Technology for a $21 million task order under the One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) Pool 3 contract. This task order has a 12-month base plus three option years period of performance.

CURTISS-WRIGHT DEFENSE SOLUTIONS

The proliferation of video sources on-board today’s tactical ground vehicles has resulted in the need for modern video equipment to ensure the video’s usability and availability. Increasing demand for cost-effective, size, weight, and power (SWaP) optimized video management and rugged display solutions is driven by video system upgrades or new video system architectures required to maximize video source usefulness.