Military Embedded Systems

Counter-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems are pivotal players on the electromagnetic spectrum. In this podcast, Emma Helfrich, guest host and associate editor with Military Embedded Systems, talks with Ryan Hurt, vice president of business development at Liteye Systems, to discuss the C-UAV systems that equip the U.S. Army. Helfrich and Hurt cover the Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities, like radar and sensors, that power C-UAV systems and further the idea that innovation is dependent on data processing and intelligent algorithms to reduce the sensor-to-shooter timeline and protect the Army from aerial threats.

Electronic warfare (EW) not only plays a dominant role in worldwide defense capabilities, but it also must evolve rapidly to counter new threats and take advantage of new technology. Each advance must take into account the ever-changing system design landscape.

Modern battlefields present many complex challenges for Army soldiers, one of which is how to operate in GPS-denied environment. In this podcast, George Hsu, CTO, founder, and board member of PNI Sensor Corp., discusses the challenges in designing sensor solutions for warfighters in these environments like sensor stabilization for moving soldiers and power efficiencies as wel as how PNI leverages artificial intelligence (AI) for their sensor designs. He also describes the perfect magnetic sensor — that will provide longitude and latitude in any environment.  

AUSA NOW Virtual Conference 2020. Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division announced at the AUSA NOW virtual conference its comprehensive strategy for system solutions designed in compliance with the U.S. Army CCDC C5ISR Center’s C4ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) and aligned with standards currently being defined by The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium. 

By Richard Jaenicke and Steve Edwards

Security-critical applications, such as cross-domain solutions (CDS), require a secure, trusted platform on which to execute, spanning software, firmware, and hardware. The lowest layer that the application interacts with directly is a trusted operating system (OS). Trust in the OS is dependent on two factors: its robustness from a security perspective, and assurance that the OS was both loaded and configured correctly and never tampered with. OS trust also depends partly on trusted pre-OS functionality, such as secure boot firmware that executes before the OS.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.— September 15, 2020 Abaco Systems today announced the SBC6511, a rugged sixth generation 6U single board computer aligned with The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture, or SOSA, technical standard that integrates the newest embedded CPU and FPGA technologies for rugged compute-intensive, heavy-throughput applications and gives users a technology insertion at the data plane, expansion plane, and control plane levels. It demonstrates Abaco’s commitment to continuing innovation with the latest technology and performance standards, while aligning with relevant industry standards.

CHATSWORTH, Calif. Aitech Systems, provider of rugged board and system level solutions for military, aerospace, and space applications, has joined The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium. With the goal of creating a common framework for transitioning sensor systems to an open systems architecture, the SOSA Consortium is based on key interfaces and open standards established by an industry-government consensus. 

DALLAS, Texas. Jacobs completed a flight campaign with the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for certification of Jacobs' newest version of its proprietary KeyRadar product in an aerial system pod called AgilePod. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center certified the airworthiness of the pod for flight testing on commercially operated aircraft under FAA airworthiness criteria, a first for this pod.

Pixus Technologies, a provider of embedded computing and enclosure solutions, now offers versatile backplane/chassis configurations geared for 3U and 6U OpenVPX and SOSA development.  

Customization of power supplies provides a distinct yet obvious advantage to the design engineer to meet performance specifications. Whether it be saving a card slot in a chassis, reducing the number of power supplies required, or addressing a unique EMC requirement, customization can reduce total system cost and technical risk to put increased capabilities rapidly into the hands of the warfighter. It also provides a pathway to support the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) open-architecture standards. When approached strategically, customization can be a cost-effective and low-risk approach to address requirements.