EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Phase 3 of DARPA’s Operational Fires (OpFires) program began in earnest this month with government and contractor staff finalizing the system architecture approach, including a plan to use existing components from ground-launched missile systems, along with new booster technologies designed to support future hypersonic weapons.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and L3Harris Technologies completed the integration of the WESCAM MX-20 Electro-optical/Infrared (EO/IR) system onto a GA-ASI MQ-9 Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) to provide an advanced targeting solution.

LISA DAIGLE, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has embarked on a new program that it calls "Invisible Headlights," with the goal of developing sensors and algorithms to enable unmanned systems to navigate at night or underground.

LISA DAIGLE, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has won sole-source option awards for electronic system mission kits that will support U.S. unmanned aerial system (UAS) operations and follow-on production orders for RF subsystems for a major missile program.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Northrop Grumman won a $262.3 million deal for Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars on F-16 aircraft for the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Defense announced.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

BAE Systems Submarines, which is building four nuclear submarines for the Royal Navy, has awarded a contract to Thales U.K. for the development of the Dreadnought sonar system.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has ground tested its Airborne Laser Communication System (ALCoS) by establishing a link with a satellite in Geo-synchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). GA-ASI conducted the test with Tesat-Spacecom (TESAT), space-based laser communication (lasercom) company, using their GEO Laser Communication Terminal (LCT), the LCT 135.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Raytheon Company finished building the first radar antenna array for the U.S. Army's Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor (LTAMDS). According to Raytheon, the work was completed less than 120 days after the U.S. Army selected the company to build LTAMDS, a next-generation radar intended to defeat advanced threats like hypersonic weapons.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The U.S. Navy announced that it has installed a laser weapon system that allows ships to counter unmanned aerial systems (UAS). According to the Navy, the first Optical Dazzling Interdictor, Navy (ODIN) was installed on the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Dewey during the vessel's recently completed dry-docking restricted availability.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

RAFAEL’s Drone Dome counter-unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) system performed interceptions of multiple drones, including maneuvering targets, using its hard-kill laser beam director. The stages of the interceptions included target detection, identification, and interception with a high-power laser beam.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The U.S. Army awarded LONGBOW Limited Liability Company (LBL), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC) a five-year sustainment indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for up to $235.8 million to provide post-production support services for the AH-64 Apache helicopter AN/APG-78 LONGBOW Fire Control Radar (FCR) to international customers.

EMMA HELFRICH, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Elbit Systems announced that it was selected by the Federal Office for Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology, and In-Service Support to support the preliminary design of Airborne Electronic Warfare (EW) self-protection systems for the CH-53 GS/GE transport helicopters, as part of the platform upgrade program led by Airbus Helicopters.