
April 2019

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The McHale Report, by mil-embedded.com Editorial Director John McHale, covers technology and procurement trends in the defense and aerospace electronics community.

View our archive of recent and past issues of the McHale Report e-mail newsletter.

Kontron

STANDARDS UPDATE

Development of the next-generation OpenVPX-based embedded system standard – A tri-service convergence of approaches: Part 2 of 3

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.

SPECIAL REPORT

Counter-drone technologies are evolving to "counter" countermeasures

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Counter-unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technologies are focusing on a multilayered defense. They’re also being tasked with providing a “counter” to countermeasures. Drone technologies are evolving rapidly and, not surprisingly, counter-drone technologies are as well. The U.S. military is currently embracing multilayered counter-drone approaches to deal with the threat drones pose, but no silver bullet approach exists yet that can detect and mitigate every threat.

New Digital I/O XMC Module Now Available

The Model 71810 routes 38 pairs of LVDS connections from the FPGA to an 80-pin connector on the front panel. When mounted on a compatible single board computer or other XMC carrier, the Model 71810 provides a fully customizable I/O signal status and control interface. With the Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale FPGA, LVDS digital I/O and gigabit serial I/O, the Model 71810 becomes an excellent high performance off-load co-processor to fit a wide assortment of processing needs in the most demanding of applications.

STOP STORY

Collins Aerospace to serve as mission systems integrator for Army FVL project

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Collins Aerospace has won a spot as one of three mission systems integrators for the U.S. Army's Joint Multi Role (JMR) Mission Systems Architecture Demonstration (MSAD) program. The JMR MSAD program was set up to feed critical information to the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)...

MIL TECH INSIDER

Trends in COTS embedded networks

Designers of rugged military and aerospace systems continue to look to the commercial world for networking technology – leveraging available Ethernet switch chips to connect between processing modules and PHY devices to link systems over fiber-optic or copper cables.

GUEST BLOG

Vendor backing grows for the emerging FACE standard

Avionics vendors – hardware and software – share an enthusiasm for the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard, which promotes a common operating environment with reuse of software capabilities across multiple Department of Defense (DoD) avionics systems. This enthusiasm continues to grow as does participation within the FACE consortium – run by the Open Group – as the version 3.0 of the standard is soon to be released.

VPT Inc.

TOP STORY

Secure UAS data, video, encryption solutions from Mobilicom to debut at AUVSI Xponential

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Mobilicom, a provider of critical communications solutions, will present its SkyHopper end-to-end solutions for smart unmanned aerial systems (UASs) and robotics at the AUVSI Xponential 2019 trade show at the end of April.

MARKET/BUSINESS DEALS

Next-gen airborne EW aircraft from L3 ordered by Australia's royal air force

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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.

MARKET/BUSINESS DEALS

General Dynamics Mission Systems wins spot on $980 million Army cyber, EW contract

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General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) has been awarded a spot on the U.S. Army’s so-called R4 cyberwarfare contract; GDMS will provide electronic and cyber capabilities to the Army Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, and Sensors.

TOP STORY

NASA study aims to facilitate Free Space Optic satellite networks

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NASA officials selected PathFinder Digital to study the feasibility of developing a transportable research and test platform to facilitate the design of Free Space Optic (FSO) satellite networks. The study focuses on the development of Optical Ground Stations (OGS) and their interoperability to Optical Space Terminals (OST).

EDITOR'S PERSPECTIVE

Unmanned systems trends

Welcome to our annual Unmanned Systems issue, our yearly look at the embedded computing trends in military unmanned platforms – air, ground, and sea. We bring the Unmanned Systems issue to you every year prior to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Xponential show, as this magazine and its editorial staff attend the conference sessions and roam the exhibition floor during the show, which is held this year in Chicago.

United Electronics Industries

TOP STORY

Hydrogen fuel cell for UAVs from Intelligent Energy to debut at AUVSI Xponential

Fuel-cell engineering company Intelligent Energy is set to launch a new 2.4 kilowatt (kW) fuel-cell drone module for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at the AUVSI Xponential 2019 show held at the end of April 2019.

TOP STORY

Drone delivery company, Wing Aviation, receives first FAA air carrier certification

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials granted the first air carrier certification to a drone delivery company, Wing Aviation, U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Secretary Elaine L. Chao announced in a press release.

TOP STORY

Lockheed Martin to deliver engineering, technical services to Navy's AN/BLQ-10 EW system

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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.

Annapolis Micro Systems

TOP STORY

Army taps Leonardo DRS for its vehicle-based infrared sensors

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U.S Army officials selected Leonardo DRS Inc. for a $67 million contract to deliver vehicle-based infrared sensors for surveillance and fire control systems for a variety of ground combat vehicles.

TOP STORY

In-flight health monitoring system from UEI chosen for USAF aircraft

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United Electronic Industries (UEI) announced that its UEI-HUMS1 in-flight health monitoring system has been released for production delivery to Tyonek Global Services, and subsequent installation onto United States Air Force (USAF) aircraft.

Leveraging Open Standards and C4ISR for Multi-domain Challenges in Modern Warfare

Sponsored by: Elma Electronic, Pentek
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SEA-AIR-SPACE

Marketer’s guide to Sea-Air-Space 2019

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Sea-Air-Space taking place May 6th-8th at the Gaylord National Convention Center in Maryland, is the largest maritime exposition in the United States. More than 300 exhibitors are planning their 2019 booth strategies, giveaways, presentations, and new product launches to drive awareness, exposure, and eventually, sales. Here are a few tips as you prepare for Sea-Air-Space to drive maximum exposure and return on investment.

Omnetics Connector

TOP STORY

F/A-18 Hornet fleet to be equipped with Harris' electronic jammers

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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.

TOP STORY

Raytheon, Lockheed Martin team up to pursue contract win under multiagency SENSR program

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Lockheed Martin and Raytheon officials are teaming up to pursue the Spectrum Efficient National Surveillance Radar (SENSR) contract that will consolidate and modernize America's aging surveillance and air traffic control radars.

MARKET/BUSINESS DEALS

Space robotics market will surpass $3.5 billion by 2025, study says

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The market for space robotics will grow from $2 billion in 2018 to approximately $3.5 billion by 2025, according to a 2019 Global Market Insights, Inc. report, "Space Robotics Market Size By Solution (Product [Rovers / Landers, Probes, Arms / Manipulator Systems], Software, Services)...

TOP STORY

Army program aims to field small UAV weighing less than 5 pounds

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Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) officials selected Altavian for the Short Range Reconnaissance Prototype (SRR) contract as a part of the Army's effort to field a next generation unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) weighing less than 5 pounds flown by a single operator.

TECHNOLOGY UDPATE

Small businesses reshaping future Army tech

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The U.S. Army is aggressively seeking next-generation technologies by reaching out to the heart of the American economy: Small businesses. To that end, officials kicked off the second Expeditionary Technology Search 2.0 (XTechSearch 2.0) at the beginning of 2019; the program aims to be a catalyst in changing the way the Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition process occurs in the small-business sector.

Mercury Systems

TOP STORY

FACE-conformant Arm architecture announced for RTOS by Green Hills Software

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Green Hills Software has completed the certification of conformance for its INTEGRITY-178 Time-Variant Unified Multi Processing (tuMP) real-time operating system (RTOS) for Arm architectures to the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard edition 3.0.

MARKET/BUSINESS DEALS

Syntonic Microwave, The Athena Group acquired by Mercury Systems

Officials at Mercury Systems, Inc. announced the acquisitions of The Athena Group, Inc. (Athena) and Syntonic Microwave LLC (Syntonic) for an all-cash price valued at $46 million in total. Both transactions are subject to net working capital and net debt adjustments. The acquisitions were funded through Mercury’s existing revolving credit facility, and are not expected to have a material impact on Mercury’s financial results for the fourth quarter or full fiscal year 2019.