Product Application Design Solutions

Nov. 1, 2000
Lockheed Martin to supply aircraft electronics test sets for U.S. Navy, Silicon Graphics teams with Air Force to develop imaging technologies, MORE...

Test and measurement equipment
Lockheed Martin to supply aircraft electronics test sets for U.S. Navy

Experts at the Lockheed Martin Corp. Information Systems division in Orlando, Fla., are providing computers and software to the U.S. Navy to help test avionics, radar, and electronic warfare systems on combat aircraft.

Lockheed Martin test sets will work with the Navy's standard CASS equipment.
Click here to enlarge image

Lockheed Martin experts will replace 545 test program sets for use with the Consolidated Automated Support System (CASS), the Navy's standard test system.

More than 450 CASS systems are in use in aviation intermediate maintenance departments at shore installations and aboard aircraft carriers and marine aviation logistics squadrons throughout the U.S. and allied nations, company officials say.

Lockheed Martin will do the work under terms of a contract worth as much as $180 million awarded from the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md.

Navy technicians use these test sets to detect and isolate faults in electronic assemblies on aircraft systems. Technicians currently must use several different unique old testers, Lockheed Martin officials say.

The new test kits are compatible with the Navy's new Reconfigurable Transportable Consolidated Automated Support System (RTCASS), designed to provide a portable system that delivers the support capability of the standard CASS station with a smaller footprint.

"Clearly, Lockheed Martin's proposal emphasized superior product performance for our sailors and marines relying on the CASS system to maintain aircraft readiness ashore and afloat," says Marie Greening, program manager for aviation support equipment at Naval Air Systems Command.

"This award is a testimony to the long-standing partnership formed between Lockheed Martin Information Systems and the Navy and is a tribute to Lockheed Martin's resolve to provide our war-fighters with the avionics test industry's best technology and hardware," she says.

The CASS program is a U.S. Department of Defense standard test system providing general-purpose analog, digital, extremely high frequency stimulus and measurement capabilities and electro-optical test functions. The first RTCASS application is for the V-22 aircraft.

Lockheed Martin Information Systems was recently awarded the final CASS production Lots 10 to 13, providing the Navy upwards of 700 CASS test systems. Naval aircraft included in the avionics, radar and electronic warfare systems testing include: E-2C, EA-6B, F-14, F/A-18, AV-8B, S-3, and SH-60. — J.K.

For more information contact Lockheed Martin Information Systems by phone at 407-306-1000, by fax at 407-306-1147, by post at 12506 Lake Underhill Road, Orlando, Fla. 32825, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.lmco.com/lmis/.

Components
Silicon Graphics teams with Air Force to develop imaging technologies

Officials of the Silicon Graphics Inc. federal systems division in Mountain View, Calif., are working together with the U.S. Air Force to develop flight training image-generation technologies, database development and image processing.

Silicon Graphics entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to create affordable technologies for aircrew training under the U.S. Air Force's Distributed Mission Training (DMT) initiative. AFRL's Warfighter Training Research Division (HEA), in Mesa, Ariz., develops technologies for the DMT program.

The CRADA calls for Silicon Graphics and Air Force officials to develop and integrate into the DMT testbed the capability to acquire, download, and ingest space imagery in real time to feed into aircraft cockpit information processing systems and displays.

The government and industry engineers will develop this capability to update databases permanently on high-end generators, either in a post-ingestion process or in real time, using formats such as a clip map created as a part of the data conversion to imagery.

In addition Silicon Graphics and the Air Force will develop the capability to download Predator unmanned aerial vehicle-type video in real time, display that imagery in the DMT testbed, and infuse the video into aircraft simulator cockpit displays.

Using this capability, they will develop a process to alter the visual database "on-the-fly" to display the incoming imagery in a high-fidelity virtual simulator for mission preview or mission rehearsal.

"SGI is a world leader in the training simulation, defense imaging, high-performance computing, and visualization markets," says Col. Jerald Straw, chief, AFRL's Warfighting Training Research Division. "AFRL/ HEA will benefit from this CRADA by gaining an advantageous position with respect to developed technologies and through the transfer of laboratory-developed technologies to industry."

The Silicon Graphics federal systems division was created in April 2000 to further strengthen SGI's commitment to U.S. federal government customers. The subsidiary is headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., with offices nationwide. —J.K.

For more information contact Silicon Graphics by phone at 650-960-1980, by fax at 650-961-0595, by post at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, Calif. 94043, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.sgi.com/

Computers
Terra Soft supercomputer to help develop image-analysis tools

Engineers at MIICRO Inc. in Chicago needed a parallel-processing supercomputer to help them develop image-analysis tools and screen central nervous system compounds.

They found their solution in a parallel computing cluster based on PowerPC microprocessors from Terra Soft Solutions Inc. in Loveland, Colo. Parallel processing speeds software execution by dividing the program into several different fragments that run simultaneously on different computers.

"Our ability to rapidly analyze our CNS drug effect profiles in various ways, in conjunction with other analyses and other modalities, from a single point, will provide valuable new insights as well as better bio-measurement tools for CNS drug development," says Declan Cooper, vice president of technology for MIICRO.

Terra Soft develops Linux solutions for PowerPC microprocessors. The company recently announced the offering of "Lab Rack," which is based on eight iMac logic boards acting as one supercomputer. It is portable, and has Terra Soft's Black Lab Linux operating system installed and configured for parallel software development.

"We recognized the need for a powerful, light weight, Black Lab Linux cluster that could literally be wheeled from room to room in a laboratory, school, or code development environment," says Kai Staats, chief executive officer of Terra Soft Solutions.

"Parallel code development can be a bit tricky, and it is often comforting to have the entire cluster next to your desk. Our clusters will help developers get their feet wet with PowerPC Linux clusters," Staats says.

"Linux continues to have a vital role in the development of MIICRO's commercial services and intellectual property," says MIICRO's Cooper. "Lab Rack will play an important part in advancing and broadening the scope of our product offerings."

MIICRO is an imaging technology company that concentrates on OMEI PET, which uses positron emission tomography to evaluate drug effects on the brain's metabolism of glucose.

Terra Soft develops technologies for PowerPC Linux. Black Lab Linux provides an advanced Linux distribution for development, parallel computing, and embedded systems. — J.K.

For more information use the World Wide Web to contact Terra Soft at http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/, or MIICRO at http://www.miicro.com/

Design and development tools
BAE Systems uses VAPS and FLSIM for human factors research

Engineers at the Sowerby Advanced Technology Centre at BAE Systems in Farnborough, England, are using development tools from Virtual Prototypes for their Advanced Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Modeling Environment.

The environment focuses on the development and assessment of cognitive models for human decision making, automation, and training. The environment workbench will be developed as a research tool during 2000.

"The decision made to purchase Virtual Prototypes' software was based equally on compatibility and reliability," says Paul Emmerson, leader of the HCI and Cognitive Studies Group in the Advanced Technology Centre.

The Cognitive Modeling Environment comprises a network of PC's, with Virtual's FLSIM, VAPS and Cognitive Models running on separate machines. By the term cognitive models (sometimes called cognitive agents), what is meant is the representation in software of human mental processes, such as decision making, reasoning and planning.

In a typical application, aircraft parameters from FLSIM are passed to cognitive agent software through VAPS communication libraries. The data is processed by the cognitive modeling software and the results can be displayed in the form of advisories (for example, the best divert airport to choose in the event of subsystem failure). Because the emphasis is on research, the environment is configured to enable evaluation of human performance, via a sophisticated suite of psychological and behavioral measurement tools (mental workload, situation awareness, eye movements, heart rate, etc.). The result is a flexible human factors research tool, which can be applied to a range of issues, such as command and control decision-making, allocation of function between operator and machine, and training, Virtual officials say.

VAPS is a suite of tools for specifying, testing, simulating and deploying visual, real-time, interactive 2D graphical user interfaces. It automates all phases of the development and deployment of real-time, data-driven and event-driven graphical applications.

FLSIM is a reconfigurable, low-cost, DIS-compliant flight simulation software for fixed-wing aircraft available today

as a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product, Virtual officials say. FLSIM enables non-expert users to create flexible flight model for any type of fixed wing aircraft. The high-fidelity flight dynamics are modeled with six degrees of freedom. — J.M.

For more information on Virtual Prototypes contact Jackie Gugliotti by phone at 514-341-3874, by email at [email protected], or on the World Wide Web at http: www.virtualprototypes.ca.

Software
Boeing chooses Link Simulation for combat aircraft trainers

Officials of the Boeing Co. needed three new training simulators for the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter-bomber. They found their solution from the L-3 Communications Link Simulation and Training division in Arlington, Texas.

Boeing officials awarded a $36.5 million contract to Link Simulation to build and upgrade flight simulators as part of the F/A-18 Super Hornet Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) program.

The program calls for Link to build and deliver three new F/A-18F Tactical Operational Flight Trainers (TOFT), in addition to upgrading previously delivered versions of the F/A-18F TOFT and F/A-18F Weapons Tactics Trainer (WTT) to the latest F/A-18F aircraft configuration.

Deliveries will be in 2001 and early 2002. Upgrades to the existing trainers will be in early 2002.

The two-seat F/A-18F TOFT, integrated with Link's innovative SimuSphere five-facet dodecahedron display, will provide aircrews with out-the-window visual scenes over a 300-degree horizontal by 70-degree vertical field-of-view. The F/A-18F WTT, which is integrated with a 40-foot dome display, offers aircrews a 360 degree field-of-view. Both the TOFT and WTT devices also support pilot training in the single-seat F/A-18E configuration.

The F/A-18F trainers, which will be at Lemoore Naval Air Station, Calif., will enable Navy aircrews to hone their air-to-air combat skills by interacting with a wide variety of simulated adversaries.

To enhance their air-to-ground mission skills, aircrews will be able to use the trainers to counter simulated surface-to-air missiles, antiaircraft artillery and early warning radar sites. The trainers also will enable aircrews to practice simulated precision weapons delivery on a variety of land and sea-based structures, including buildings, bridges, trucks, trains, and ships.

The simulators will also help pilots practice field and carrier takeoffs and landings, low altitude flight, emergency procedures, and operate radar imagery and targeting forward looking infrared displays.

For more information contact Link Simulation's Karen Rice by phone at 817-619-3718, by fax at 817-619-3777, by post at Link Simulation & Training, P.O. Box 6171, Arlington, Texas 76005-6171, by e-mail at http://www.link.com/mail-rice.html, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.link.com/.

Computers
Compaq set to build powerful new supercomputer

Federal researchers need one of the fastest supercomputers ever built to help them simulate complex phenomena such as nuclear explosions. They are turning to Compaq Computer Corp. in Houston to help them achieve this task.

Compaq designers are building a supercomputer code-named "Q" for the U.S. Department of Energy at Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., that will operate faster than 30 trillion operations per second, company officials say.

The $200 million project comes under supervision of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) of the Energy Department's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

The supercomputer will go in the new Strategic Computing Complex at the NNSA's Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Q supercomputer will have about 12,000 Alpha microprocessors running in excess of 1,250 MHz on Compaq's Tru64 Unix operating system. Connecting parts of the supercomputer will be more than 6,000 fiber and copper cables. Overall, the supercomputer will cover more than 21,000 square feet — or the size of five basketball courts.

"ASCI Q will increase our capability to maintain and assess the safety and performance of the nuclear weapons stockpile while moving us toward new scientific frontiers in the simulation of complex systems," says John Browne, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

"The Nation's security mission historically has required the fastest computers available and now has, once again, accelerated the evolution of technical computing. Our new partnership with Compaq will give us an exceptionally powerful system for developing the simulation capability needed for Stockpile Stewardship. The ASCI simulation milestones recently achieved also show what dramatic advances in simulation capability can be achieved by skilled and dedicated teams using terascale computers," echoes NNSA Administrator John Gordon.

In August officials of the National Science Foundation in Washington chose Compaq and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to build and manage the world's largest supercomputer (2,728 Alpha processors running Tru64 UNIX at six TeraOPS, and StorageWorks

storage) for non-military, scientific applications such as the structure and dynamics of proteins useful in drug design, storm-scale weather forecasting, and the modeling of earthquakes and global climate change.

For more information contact Compaq by phone at 281-370-0670, by fax at 281-514-1740, by post at P.O. Box 69200, Houston, Texas 77269, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.compaq.com.

Communication equipment
Motorola to build secure network for Canadian Defence Department

Officials at the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND) has selected the Motorola Military Message Handling System (MMHS) to provide secure information networking services.

Motorola will provide the secure communications technology, large-scale systems integration and lead a team of partners to build the $26 million network.

The Canadian DND will be able to keep pace with the latest advances in Information Technology (IT) and realize a significant cost reduction in terms of the overhead required to operate the system, by deploying this commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based solution, Motorola officials claim.

The Motorola MMHS is a secure e-mail system that will replace several legacy systems with newer, open-standard protocols enabling the interconnection of multiple domains at various security levels. The MMHS provides full military messaging capabilities and

will enable Canadian defense forces to communicate between secret and protected domains.

To migrate the Canadian DND's secure message traffic from the current legacy systems to the advanced MMHS solution, Motorola will perform the systems integration through a multi-phased, interactive approach. This migration strategy is designed to provide customers with continuous communications throughout the network deployment phase.

Motorola will deliver the MMHS to the Canadian DND with contributions from other partners that include: ADGA Group Consultants Inc., of Ottawa, Ontario; ALBION Group-Canada Inc., of Manotick, Ontario; Desert Sky Software, of Phoenix; EMCON Emanation Control Limited, of Ottawa; HVR-Canada Inc., of Ottawa; Lexi-Tech International, of Moncton, New Brunswick; NEXOR LTD, of Nottingham, United Kingdom; Northrop Grumman, California Microwave Systems, of Woodland Hills, Calif.; and Wang Government Services Inc., of McLean, Va. — J.M.

For more information on the MMHS contact Motorola on the World Wide Web at http://www.motorola.com.

Communications equipment
AeroAstro to provide tiny transponders for nanosatellite constellation

Satellite designers at the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Greenbelt, Md., needed tiny transponders for the Space Technology 5 (ST5) Nanosatellite Constellation Trailblazer mission.

They found their solution in miniaturized X-band transponders from AeroAstro Inc. of Herndon, Va.

NASA Goddard officials awarded a $1.6 million contract to AeroAstro to build miniaturized X-band nanosatellite transponders, which AeroAstro engineers are building by using technology from cell phones, very small aperture terminals, and direct-broadcast satellite television, company officials say.

"The ST5 mission is a pathfinder for future nano-sate constellation missions and the miniature transponder being developed by AeroAstro is a critical piece of that future," says Doug McLennan, ST5 project manager at NASA Goddard.

ST5 will fly three identical nanosatellites in formation in elliptical Earth orbit as a pathfinder for nanosatellite missions involving dozens or hundreds of spacecraft.

Each of AeroAstro's transponders measures 2 by 2 by 3 inches — about the size of an inkjet printer cartridge. Company officials say the devices are 12 times lighter and nine times smaller than previous-generation satellite transponders and require only one-forth the voltage of older technology, experts say.

The transponders will communicate directly with ground stations and weigh less than 11 ounces. — J.K.

For more information contact AeroAstro by phone at 703-709-2240, by fax at 703-709-0790, by post at 520W Huntmar Park Dr., Herndon, Va. 20170, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.aeroastro.com/.

Software
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center deploys Axent security products

Experts at the that the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Charleston Detachment in Washington are using Axent Technologies Raptor Firewall and PowerVPN tool to safeguard important financial information worldwide.

The Financial Management Office of the Navy transmits government data from remote sites via the Internet and is using Axent's products to secure data and Internet connections.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center's job is to research, purchase, and install security technology that will enable government agencies like the Financial Management Office to transmit critical data without the worry of an unauthorized user accessing sensitive information.

The 350-employee Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Charleston Detachment secures the Microsoft Windows NT systems of such government agencies as the Navy and the Department of Defense.

"A few years ago we had a lot of people transitioning from Lotus's cc: mail and Novell to Microsoft exchange mail and Microsoft Windows NT networks," says Mark Bienz, branch head for the Network Engineering, Implementation and Operations Branch in the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center's Engineering and Implementation Division. "Because most of them had no UNIX experience they asked us to find them a security solution that ran on NT-one that was easy to operate but effective.

"Immediately we began scouting around and found Axent's Raptor Firewall and PowerVPN," Bienz continues. "It's easy to configure, administer, and install. After three years of working with AXENT and using their firewall I can honestly say they offer the best firewall out there."

The Financial Management Office of the Navy receives important financial data from numerous remote sites around the world on a daily basis. From payroll or privacy act data, Naval employees who travel around the world or those who operate outside the Financial Management Office's network, need to access critical but sensitive documentation without leaving holes that will allow outside hackers to obtain sensitive information. — J.M.

For more information on Axent security products contact the company by phone at 301-258-5043, by fax at 301-670-3583, by mail at 2400 Research Blvd., Suite 200, Rockville, Md. 20850, by email at [email protected], or on the World Wide Web at http://www.axent.com.

Computer peripherals
Raytheon chooses DRS deployable flight recorders for Air Force surveillance aircraft

Engineers from Raytheon Co. Aircraft Integration segment in Greenville, Texas, needed aircraft flight recorders for electronic surveillance aircraft they are preparing for the U.S. Air Force.

The Deployable Flight Incident Recorder Sets (DFIRS) from the DRS Flight Safety and Communications unit in Carleton Place, Ontario, met Raytheon's needs.

DRS officials are providing the recorders and related ground-support equipment for the surveillance aircraft that are military versions of the Boeing 707 jetliner under terms of a $1.6 million Raytheon contract. DRS engineers designed the recorders to meet civil certification criteria for commercial aircraft.

"Our DFIRS systems separate from the aircraft at the time of an incident and even float indefinitely on water," says Mark Newman, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of DRS Technologies.

The DRS DFIRS also is going aboard the U.S. Navy's F/A-18C/D/E/F fighter-bomber, and the German air force and navy Tornado jet aircraft.

Recovered data provide information of the events during an incident for accident investigators. — J.K.

For more information contact DRS by phone at 973-898-1500, by fax at 973-898-4730, by post at 5 Sylvan Way, Parsippany, N.J. 07054, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.drs.com/.

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