ARLINGTON, Va., 3 April 2013. U.S. Navy researchers are taking the first steps toward a tactical laser weapon mounted on a humvee-like maneuverable combat vehicle to protect moving U.S. Marine Corps task forces from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles, and other weapons that are difficult to pick up on radar.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 2 April 2013. Combat helicopter designers at Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, are making preparations to build 25 new combat helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps under terms of a $13.1 million contract announced Monday.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 2 April 2013. U.S. Navy officials are edging closer to a final decision on choosing a contractor to build a next-generation carrier-based unmanned surveillance and fighting aircraft.

Avionics designers at Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. in Stans, Switzerland, needed open-architecture mission computer subsystems for the avionics suite of the Pilatus PC-21 high-performance turboprop military trainer aircraft.

Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington needed mixed-signal digital receivers for prototype EW for aircraft and surface ships. They found their solution from Mercury Systems in Chelmsford, Mass.

U.S. government researchers are trying to develop a medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for long-term maritime surveillance that can launch and recover from small ships to provide airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike mobile targets anywhere, around the clock.

A hydrogen-powered unman-ned drone built by the Boeing Co. Defense, Space & Security segment in St. Louis completed its second test flight in late February during which the twin-engine propeller-driven unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrated capabilities that will enable it to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions for up to four days without refueling, Boeing officials say.

U.S. Army researchers are surveying industry to find companies able to design airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that uses radio frequencies between 25 and 88 MHz to detect hidden wires, weapons caches, and other components of improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

U.S. Navy officials are carrying out a plan to upgrade the mission systems computer (MSC) for the U.S. Marine Corps Boeing AV-8B Harrier II attack jet with industry-standard interfaces that meet the guidelines of the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE).

Undersea surveillance experts at two U.S. defense researchers are developing technology for an extremely deep-operating, anti-submarine warfare (ASW) system to help protect U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and their support vessels from quiet enemy attack submarines.

GE Intelligent Platforms in Huntsville, Ala., is introducing the RAR15- XMC multi-protocol embeddable avionics module.

ARLINGTON, Va., 1 April 2013. Military researchers have released a formal solicitation for an effort to develop a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for long-term maritime surveillance that can launch and recover from relatively small ships to provide airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike mobile targets anywhere, around the clock.

Holt Integrated Circuits in Mission Viejo, Calif., is introducing the HI-8435 3.3-volt, 32-channel, discrete-to-digital sensing integrated circuit (IC) for aviation sensor applications, such as "hatch open" and "wheels up" indicators.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio, 31 March 2013. Aircraft and avionics experts from the U.S. Air Force and the Boeing Co. have performed the first test flight of a completely updated version of the F-15 Eagle jet fighter with 21st century avionics and flight-control systems.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., 31 March 2013. Embedded computing expert GE Intelligent Platforms in Huntsville, Ala., is joining the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Consortium, which is in place to develop open standards for avionics systems of the future.

BEAVERTON, Ore., 29 March 2013. Tektronix Component Solutions in Beaverton, Ore., is introducing the TDAC-25 10-bit commercial digital-to-analog converter (D/A converter), which at 25 gigasamples per second is what company officials claim is the world's fastest D/A converter.

MIDDLETON, Wis., 28 March 2013. Extreme Engineering Solutions Inc. (X-ES) in Middleton, Wis., is introducing the XPand6103 fanless embedded box PC using the Intel Core i7 processor for small, rugged applications like unmanned vehicles.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio, 27 March 2013. Northrop Grumman Corp. is joining a U.S. military research effort to develop a prototype sensor fusion system for land, sea, and airborne applications that can accept inputs from several kinds of navigation sensors so that warfighters can maintain navigation capability with or without Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite navigation.

NORMAN, Okla., 27 March 2013. The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Summit in Norman, Oklahoma, closed with a panel of experts from the University of Oklahoma discussing UAS privacy and social implications.