WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio, 6 Feb. 2013. Three U.S. research firms are joining a project 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.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio, 5 Feb. 2013. Navigation and guidance experts at SAIC Inc. in McLean, Va., are developing a prototype 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.

DAHLGREN, Va., 4 Feb. 2013. U.S. Navy researchers needed a rugged high-resolution shortwave infrared (SWIR) camera with snapshot exposure for advanced weapons research. They found their solution from the UTC Aerospace Systems Sensors Unlimited Products segment in Princeton, N.J.

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., 2 Feb, 2013. Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has delivered the first of eight Common Infrared Countermeasures (CIRCM) missile defense systems to the U.S. Army two months ahead of schedule.

Rolling Meadows, IL--The first of eight common IR countermeasures (CIRCM) missile defense systems for the U.S. Army were delivered ahead of schedule by Northrop Grumman.

U.S. Navy electro-optics researchers plan to ask industry to develop charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras and simulators as part of a future Earth-observation satellite called Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) that will study the variability of Earth's ionosphere, which can interfere with communications and geopositioning signals.

Laser specialist Coherent Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., has acquired Lumera Laser GmbH in Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Moscow, Russia--UPI reports that Russian astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have transferred data using a laser communication channel for the first time.

SAN DIEGO, 31 Jan. 2013. Data storage specialist Phoenix International Systems Inc. in Orange, Calif., introduced the rugged RPC24 4000 information storage system for bandwidth-intensive data recording applications, such as high resolution imagery, video recording, and radar data acquisition.

Washington, DC--The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will be buying a second 150 kW military laser from General Atomics--Aeronautical Systems Incorporated (GA-ASI; San Diego, CA); the laser is intended for use by the U.S. Navy.

Newton, MA--The US Air Force Research Lab has awarded Bodkin Design & Engineering a $150,000 contract to develop a high-spatial-resolution hyperspectral sensor operating in the longwave-infrared (LWIR) spectral band.

Greenbelt, MD--NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientists beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) a distance of 240,000 miles.

THE MIL & AERO VIDEO BLOG, 22 Jan. 2013. The DARPA Upward Falling Payloads program, or UFP, envisions non-lethal weapons like distracting light strobes, blinding lasers, and electronic warfare jammers that are forward-deployed beneath the ocean and launched into the middle of an adversary's naval battle group to cause surprise, confusion, and more, as John Keller reports this week in the Mil & Aero Video Blog.

ARLINGTON, Va., 22 Jan. 2013. Laser experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. will move forward with flight tests of a futuristic laser weapon system designed to protect combat aircraft against attacks from the rear under terms of $9.5 million contract modification awarded this month from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va.

LONG BEACH, Calif., 21 Jan. 2013. The connector market for embedded computing is forecast to reach $168.5 million in 2013, up 4.2 percent year over year from 2012, said Bob Hult, director of product technology at Bishop & Associates Inc., today at the VITA Embedded Tech Trends conference in Long Beach, Calif.

LONG BEACH, Calif., 21 Jan. 2013. The market for military electronic is being driven by sensor technology, and it's time for sensor-processing systems designers to do something about it, says Ray Alderman, executive director of the VITA embedded computing trade organization.

ARLINGTON, Va., 21 Jan. 2014. U.S. government researchers will brief industry 8 Feb. on enhancing future capability to reuse apertures, antennas, and other components from decommissioned satellites in high-Earth orbit and build new satellites robotically in orbit to reduce the costs of replacing failed satellites.

ARLINGTON, Va., 17 Jan. 2013. Underwater munitions experts at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., will brief industry about a new program to pre-deploy sensors or non-lethal weapons on the ocean floor that can rise to the surface at a moment's notice to surprise naval adversaries from 8 a.m. to noon on 25 Jan. 2013 at the DARPA Conference Center, Room 01-200, 675 N. Randolph St., in Arlington Va.

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., 16 Jan. 2013. U.S. Air Force test experts are surveying industry for companies able to provide unmanned marine vehicles (UMVs) and sensor payloads to help monitor and recover air-delivered test weapons and provide other support to the Air Force 96th Test Wing and its ocean test range near Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.