EAST GRANBY, Conn., 16 April 2012. Military optical fiber specialist Nufern in East Granby, Conn., has received several contracts on competitively-bid programs to build 46 compact fiber amplifiers with power stronger than one kilowatt for several government weapons-grade laser projects, Nufern officials say.

MANCHESTER, N.H., 13 April 2012. BAE will be providing U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) forces with the SkeetIR thermal monocular in a $11 million contract.

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala., 10 April 2012. U.S. Army officials are working with Hellfire Systems LLC in Orlando, Fla., to prepare for production of one of the latest versions of the Hellfire missile, which is launched from helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), ground vehicles, and fixed sites against armored combat vehicles and other high-value targets.

PANAMA CITY, Fla., 8 April 2012. U.S. Navy undersea warfare experts are working together with designers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems segment in Melbourne, Fla., to move an important laser-based mine-detection system to its final developmental phase before full-scale production.

TUCSON, Ariz., 6 April 2012. Raytheon Co.'s (NYSE: RTN) Small Tactical Munition Phase II scored a direct hit on a target during the weapon's first guided flight test.

SAN DIEGO, 5 April 2012. High-speed camera specialist Photron Inc. in San Diego is introducing the Fastcam SA-X that shoots photos as quickly as 12,500 frames per second at 1,024-by-1,024-pixel resolution, for defense and aerospace research, ballistics imaging, combustion research, shock waves and detonation applications, and other activities that require visualization of complex high speed phenomena.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va., 5 April 2012. Officials at the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (CERDEC) have selected six prime contractors to provide engineering support and technology assistance under the Night Vision and Electronics Sensors Directorate (NVESD) Warrior Enabling Broad Sensor (WEBS) support contract.

THE MIL & AERO VIDEO BLOG, 4 April 2012. The U.S. Army and Boeing are working together to fit the AH-64D Apache attack helicopter with the WeaponWatch ground-fire-detection system, which senses muzzle flashes from pistols and rifles, and instantly points the Apache's missiles, rockets, and machine gun on the offending shooter, which will make the modern Apache even more lethal, as John Keller reports this week in the Mil & Aero Video Blog.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 4 April 2012. U.S. Navy aviation officials are awarding the Raytheon Co. Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Ariz., a $97.1 million contract modification for air-to-air missiles and missile training equipment for the governments of Korea and Saudi Arabia.

ROANOKE, Va., 4 April 2012. ITT Exelis (NYSE:XLS) won a $33 million Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract to provide the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence (MOD) with its Generation 3 night-vision technology for soldiers in training and combat. The company will provide the Head Mounted Night Vision System (HMNVS), a variant of the U.S. military AN/PVS-14 monocular, with deliveries to begin in the second quarter of 2012 and be completed by 2016.

CARLSBAD, Calif., 3 April 2012. Officials of the U.S. Army National Guard needed RF downlink technology for the Guard's fleet of Eurocopter UH-72 Lakota helicopters. They found their solution from the Cobham plc Tactical Communications and Surveillance segment in Carlsbad, Calif.

Officials of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) are planning serious cuts in military lasers and directed-energy weapons work next year, with the Pentagon's proposed spending for directed-energy and laser weapons of $244.28 million.

FORT EUSTIS, Va., 1 April 2012. U.S. Army helicopter aviation experts are moving ahead with a program to fit special infrared sensors aboard the Boeing AH-64D Apache attach helicopter that detect and pinpoint enemy ground fire from rifles, pistols, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and other infantry weapons and quickly train the Apache's weapons on sources of the hostile fire.

WARREN, Mich., 30 March 2012. U.S. Army vetronics researchers are canvassing industry to see which companies might be able to provide glasses-free 3D display technology, or autostereoscopic displays, and to determine if the time is right for a formal solicitation to acquire glasses-free 3D display technology for future armored combat vehicles or unmanned vehicle control stations.

SAN JOSE, Calif., 30 March 2012. Vision Systems International (VSI), maker of advanced helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) for tactical aircraft, won a $19.8 million contract to deliver and provide engineering support for Night Vision Cueing Display (NVCD) systems. VSI personnel are expected to deliver 100 NVCD systems by Nov. 2013 under this NVCD low-rate initial production lot two (LRIP-2) contract. VSI engineers are also modifying the HMD test set to accommodate additional NVCD capability.

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J., 24 March 2012. U.S. Navy shipboard air traffic control experts needed flat-panel displays for the AN/TPX-42A(V) shipboard air traffic control system aboard naval amphibious assault ships. They found their solution from Barco Inc. in Duluth, Ga.

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J., 22 March 2012. U.S. Navy officials are buying seven tethered airships for the U.S. Army's Persistent Ground Surveillance Systems (PGSS) program from aerostat producer TCOM LLP in Columbia, Md., under terms of a $13.4 million contract awarded Wednesday from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.

NORCROSS, Ga., 19 March 2012. Officials at Photo Science, a geospatial services firm in Lexington, K.Y., have purchased a Leica ALS70-HP airborne laser scanner from Leica Geosystems Inc. Photo Science, now with a total of four Leica LiDAR systems owned, has also contracted Leica to upgrade one of its existing ALS60 sensors later this year.

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala., 18 March 2012. Military helicopter experts at the Boeing Co. Defense, Space & Security segment in Mesa, Ariz., are moving forward with the Apache Block III attack helicopter program with a $187 million contract Friday from the U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., for development, integration and testing requirements on the Apache Block III program.