PRODUCT INTELLIGENCE | Reliability, small size, and fast performance drive rugged military handheld devices
Designers of rugged handheld devices for military systems, such as tablets, want the features that top every military engineer’s high-performance technology wish lists—lower size, weight, and power (SWaP)—but what they really need is something that can survive and perform consistently in a harsh battlefield environment. “Military tablet customers have many of the same wants as desktop customers—faster processor, light weight, long battery life, low cost—however, the most important capability that our customers look for is mission-critical reliability,” says Bill Guyan, vice president of programs and strategy at DRS Tactical Systems in Melbourne, Fla. “Initially, computers were introduced to the battlefield and treated as nice-to-have systems. Today, in the networked era, computers are the entry point to the network for soldiers and leaders—and they must be demanded upon to work.
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HOT TOPICS IN THE MIL & AERO VLOG, BLOG | | Occupy Wall Street protests drive home the value of supporting or nation's military forces
A chance encounter last week with the Occupy Wall Street protests in Washington during the AUSA show helps make clear why the defense industry is so passionate about supporting the nation's military forces, as John Keller reports in this week's edition of the Mil & Aero Video Blog.
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Share: | | An open letter to GPGPU-based embedded computing providers
Posted by John Keller
I've noticed a very strange and perplexing thing going on lately in the embedded computing industry concerning products based on general-purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs). Everyone wants to be the first...well, no matter what it is--first for this, first to provide that, first, first, first. I know of at least three companies out there involved in nasty sniping matches over who was the first to do some sort or other with the GPGPU, and it's getting old, quite frankly.
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Share: | | Imagine that: COTS component lifecycle support that sees integrators through design and production
Posted by John Keller
Rapid obsolescence and a perceived lack of support continue to give commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)c omponents and subsystems a black eye, and over time have led to a lack of faith in COTS products among prime aerospace and defense contractors. And who could blame the contractors for their skeptical attitude toward COTS? No wonder many of them still want to design and manufacture their own components rather than patronizing COTS suppliers. The primes have to develop and maintain military systems over long lifecycles sometimes lasting decades, while component suppliers typically are concerned with moving on the next generation of technology.
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Share: | | Notable NASA news dominates desktop
Color me impressed. (What color is that, anyway?) I am a space nerd, who loves all things space-oriented. I, like many others, recoiled in fear and mild horror last year when it was revealed that some NASA programs would be cancelled and government-funded human space exploration would be put on “the back burner,” to put it mildly. Yet, today, NASA-related news dominates my desktop.
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CONTRACT WINS | ITT to provide night-vision systems to Norwegian Armed Forces
ITT Corporation (NYSE: ITT) announced that it has received a $27 million contract from the Norwegian Defence Logistics Organisation to further equip the Norwegian Armed Forces with Generation 3 night vision systems. The contract is composed of ITT’s latest technology regarding monocular night vision devices and related accessories, it also includes options for future procurements.
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Share: | | Lockheed Martin awarded role on contract to support Army training ranges
The U.S. Army selected Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] to install and support live-fire training ranges around the globe for its five-year Army Targetry Systems II (ATS II) program. Lockheed Martin will begin integration support at the U.S. Army’s training range at Fort Devens, Mass., under an initial $680,000 task order award. As one of five prime contractors selected for the program, the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract has a ceiling value of $475 million over five years.
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Share: | | General Dynamics awarded $429 million by U.S. Navy for nuclear-submarine support
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $429 million contract modification to General Dynamics Electric Boat to provide planning yard work, engineering and technical support for nuclear submarines. Electric Boat is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). Under the terms of this award Electric Boat will provide design, engineering, material and logistics support, and research and development activities for active U.S. submarines and submersibles.
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Share: | Raytheon awarded $42 million to provide lightweight torpedoes
Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has been awarded a $42.6 million U.S. Navy contract to provide MK54 lightweight torpedo hardware. Under the contract, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) will deliver a total of 100 MK54 kits for U.S. fleet inventory and in support of foreign military sales.
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INDUSTRY INSIGHTS | General Dynamics Information Technology to hire 80 employees, provide information assurance, cyber security services to Defense Intelligence Agency
General Dynamics Information Technology (IT), a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), won a $86 million task order under the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA’s) Solutions for the Information Technology Enterprise (SITE) contract to provide information assurance and cyber security services. General Dynamics IT engineers will help ensure the security, authenticity, integrity, and confidentiality of DIA information, as well as provide computer network defense of DIA enterprise-level assets, networks, security domains and data resources globally, through May 2016, if all options are exercised.
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Share: | | Next step in infrared countermeasures development will involve protecting UAVs from missile attack
Missile-defense experts at the Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Ariz., are offering their Common Infrared Counter Measures (CIRCM) system for a U.S. Army competition to protect combat helicopters and other aircraft by jamming the infrared guidance systems of heat-seeking missiles and diverting the missiles away from the aircraft. Raytheon officials also are proposing their CIRCM system for protecting unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), because the Raytheon CIRCM weighs 15 pounds--which is small enough for many medium- and large-sized military UAVs such as the Predator and Global Hawk UAVs.
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Share: | | NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations undersea mission launches
Aquanauts will both the test equipment and operations required for exploration of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) during the 15th NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations undersea mission known as NEEMO 15 between Oct. 17 and 29. As part of the NEEMO project, NASA employees and contractors live in the Aquarius Reef Base undersea research lab, owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in Key Largo, Fla., for up to three weeks at a time. The 2011 NEEMO mission will be the first to simulate humans visiting an asteroid. A six-member crew led by Walker will spend 13 days beneath the surface in the Aquarius habitat, testing concepts and techniques for asteroid exploration.
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Share: | Harris Corp. to modernize U.S. Army's satellite communications, missile defense systems
Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, has received a $51.5 million delivery order for advanced satellite terminals under the U.S. Army's Modernization of Enterprise Terminals (MET) program. The military satellite communications terminals will provide the worldwide backbone for high-priority military communications and missile defense systems.
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PRODUCTS OF THE WEEK | | Rugged PC/104-Plus DC-DC power solution for military, railway, and industrial automation introduced by Tri-M
Tri-M Technologies Inc. in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, is introducing the TPSi1075 PC/104-Plus DC-DC power solution for military, aerospace, railway, and industrial automation embedded computing applications in rugged environments. The TPSi1075 is designed to meet MIL standards for shock and vibration, transient suppression, and extended temperatures. The TPSi1075 offers in input and output protection, DC-DC conversion, and system reliability. The power electronics device has as much as 94 percent galvanic isolation, wide input voltage range, and quick-disconnect terminal plugs.
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Share: | | Multichannel data converter for communications and radar processing introduced by Pentek
Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., is introducing the model 71651 multichannel data converter for communications and radar-processing applications. The 71651, based on the Pentek Cobalt family of Express Mezzanine Cards (XMC), is based on the Xilinx Virtex-6 field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and has digital down and up converters. The 71651 has two channels each of 12-bit, 500 MHz A/D and 16-bit, 800 MHz D/A. The FPGA is preconfigured with data acquisition and playback IP to give the module turn-key functionality, with user customization available. The model 71651 embedded computing digital signal processor has two input and two output RF channels, transformer-coupled to connect to HF or IF radio stages. The input channels have 12-bit, 500 MHz A/Ds that feed data into the FPGA.
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Share: | | Rugged military circular connectors designed to block flame and spark offered by API Spectrum Control
API Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:ATNY) in Orlando, Fla., is introducing Firewall military circular connectors, which are designed to prevent fire or spark from penetrating through sealed bulkheads on high performance aircraft, aircraft engines, and military ships. The API Firewall connectors, which are part of the company's Spectrum Control line of military circular connectors, operate in temperatures as hot as 260 degrees Celsius, and meet MIL-DTL-38999, MIL-DTL-83723, and MIL-DTL-5015.
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