in brief

Lockheed Martin and TRW to build of Milstar communications satellite replacementSatellite designers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Sunnyvale, Calif., and TRW Space & Electronics in Redondo Beach, Calif., are starting to develop a secure military communications spacecraft called the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (Advanced EHF) satellite. U.S. Air Force leaders awarded the Lockheed Martin/TRW team a potential $2.7 million contract to begin the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase of Advanced EHF program. The Advanced EHF Program is the next generation of global, highly secure, survivable communications system for warfighters within all U.S. military services. The SDD phase will deploy two Advanced EHF satellites and the Advanced EHF mission control segment, company officials say. Lockheed Martin, as prime contractor, will provide the spacecraft bus and mission control segment, while TRW will build the payload integrator, payload processors, nulling antennas, crosslink, RF antenna equipment, and up-link phased array. The first of the Advanced EHF satellites will launch in 2006 as the follow-on to Milstar. A Milstar II satellite was recently shipped to Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., where it was to launch in January. The last Milstar will launch in 2002.Kopin to build color version of tiny display for helmet-mounted applicationsDisplay designers at Kopin Corp. in Taunton, Mass., are developing a full-color version of their tiny high-resolution CyberDisplay 1280, a screen that is smaller than 1 inch diagonal that they built originally for applications such as helmet-mounted displays. U.S. Army officials awarded Kopin a $3.5 million contract for a color version of the CyberDisplay 1280 active-matrix liquid crystal display, a 0.96-inch-diagonal display with 1,280-by-1,024-pixel resolution. Kopin previously developed a monochrome CyberDisplay 1280, which is part of the helmet-mounted display systems for the U.S. Army RAH-66 Comanche helicopter. The CyberDisplay 1280 enables military forces to see high-resolution sensor imagery during day and nighttime operations. A full-color version of the CyberDisplay 1280 could capture detailed images, as well as display color maps, color symbology, and sensor-fused imagery, Kopin officials say. For more information contact Kopin by phone at 508-824-6696, by fax at 508-822-1381, by post at 695 Myles Standish Blvd., Taunton, Mass. 02780-1042, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.kopin.com.L3 to supply interior voice communications switching on LPD 17-class warshipsShipboard systems designers from the Raytheon Co. Electronic Systems division in San Diego needed a voice communications switching system for the future U.S. Navy amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD 17). They found their solution from the L-3 Communications Systems-East division in Camden, N.J. L3 won a $7.6 million contract from Raytheon to provide the MarCom 2000 Integrated Voice Communication System (IVCS) for the San Antonio, L3 officials announced. Raytheon is the ship integration subcontractor for the Avondale Operations of Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, which is building the San Antonio. The 12 planned San Antonio-class ships will replace four old amphibious ship classes, including the LPD 4 Austin class. For more information contact L3 Communications Systems-East by phone at 856-338-3000, by fax at 856-338-6014, by post at 1 Federal St., Camden, N.J. 08103, or on the World Wide Web at http:// www.L-3Com.com.Defense Department buys fiber optic gyros from KVH IndustriesKVH Industries of Middletown, R.I., won a potential $3.9 million contract to build the company's TACNAV fiber-optic gyro (FOG)-based tactical navigation and targeting system for use aboard U.S. military land vehicles. A KVH spokesman would not disclose the prime contractor from which KVH won the contract, nor would the spokesman reveal the specific vehicles that the TACNAV systems will go aboard. TACNAV FOG offers capabilities to heavy forces such as global positioning system (GPS) backup and enhancement, vehicle position, hull and turret azimuth, steer-to/cross-track error displays, and far target location. In addition, the system includes a FOG that points north and improves GPS accuracy by as much as 60 percent, company officials say. For more information contact KVH by phone at 401-847-3327, by fax at 401-849-0045, by post at 50 Enterprise Center, Middletown, R.I. 02842, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.kvh.com.Lockheed Martin team wins Korean mobile radar contractLockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Radar Systems recently won a contract to provide three mobile radar systems to the Republic of Korea air force (ROKAF). The TPS-117 transportable radar systems — along with integrated air operations, communications and logistics support — will be delivered by the end of the first quarter of 2004, Lockheed Martin officials say. The Lockheed Martin radar was selected over the Northrop Grumman TPS-70SS, Lockheed Martin officials claim. TPS-117 L-band, tactical radars provide continuous 3-D coverage data on aircraft targets as far out as 250 nautical miles. The ROKAF also will use TPS-117s to carry out en route surveillance of commercial air traffic within Korean air space. The TPS-117 shares more than 90 percent component commonality with its larger cousin, the FPS-117, which is one of the world's most successful radar designs. For more information on Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Radar Systems contact the company on the World Wide Web at http://www.lockheedmartin.com.Navitrak introduces ruggedized handheld GPS unit for military, law enforcementLeaders of Navitrak International Corp. of Halifax, Nova Scotia, are unveiling their Digital Navigation Assistant rugged handheld, global positioning system (GPS)-based, moving map display unit for military, search and rescue, government, and law enforcement applications. The Digital Navigation Assistant offers protection against rain and extreme temperatures, continuous GPS reception under heavy cover, and combines with sunlight readability and water buoyancy, company officials say. It also has as much as 128 megabytes of removable secure memory, displays raster and vector data, include an electronic compass, audible alarms, and field data entry capability for geographic information system applications. For more information contact Navitrak by phone at 902-429-1438, by fax at 902-429-1582, by post at 1660 Hollis St., Suite 904, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 1V7, Canada, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.navitrak.com.Harris teams with Cisco to create secure wireless SecNet-11 local area networkDesigners at the Harris Corp. Government Communications Systems Division (GCSD) in Palm Bay, Fla., are unveiling a secure wireless network for government applications that has endorsements from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA). The product is called the SecNet-11 Secure Wireless Local Area Network (SWLAN). SecNet-11 combines with the Cisco Aironet 350 series of Wi-Fi wireless local area networking products to create secure wireless networks, Harris officials say. SecNet-11, which is part of the NSA's Commercial COMSEC Endorsement Program, is a secure LAN interface card with the Harris Sierra Encryption Module and the PRISM II chip set from Intersil Corp. of Irvine, Calif. Using the Cisco Aironet 350 Access Point architecture, the Harris-developed Type 1 radio encryption card will plug directly into the SecNet-11 Access Point (AP) and Wireless Bridge (WB), which serve as the communications hub for wireless clients and provides connectivity to a wired LAN. For more information contact Harris by phone at 321-727-6963, by fax at 321-727-4500, by post at 2400 Palm Bay Road, N.E., Palm Bay, Fla. 32905, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.harris.com.