ARLINGTON, Va., 2 Dec. 2012. Reconnaissance and surveillance experts at the Raytheon Co. Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Ariz., are helping a U.S. military effort to provide useful persistent-surveillance imagery on-demand to the lowest-echelon warfighter in the field from small low-cost satellites.

The U.S. Marine Corps is asking four military electro-optics companies to develop handheld tactical laser rangefinders small enough for one infantryman to carry that would help deployed Marines detect, identify, and pinpoint targets during the day, at night, and in bad weather.

Quarterly growth in global sales of optoelectronics, sensors, actuators, and discrete semiconductors has slowed to nearly zero, and will post growth of only 2 percent in 2012.

Greenbelt, MD--NASA researcher Jonathan Pellish, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, is working on a computing technology of yesteryear -- analog, rather than digital, data processing -- as an approach to more-quickly calculate fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) for optical wavefront sensing and control, among other applications.

NASHUA, N.H., 30 Nov. 2012. The Naval Air Systems Command has played an order with BAE Systems Inofrmation and Electronics in Nashua, N.H. for 1,476 APKWS II WGU-59/B Guidance sections, shipping and storage containers, and support data.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., 28 Nov. 2012. Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has demonstrated a portable, ground-based military laser system in a series of tests against representative airborne targets.

ARLINGTON, Va., 27 Nov. 2012. Military radar experts at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., will brief industry in two weeks on an upcoming project to develop a new kind of synthetic aperture radar that can detect and track moving targets through clouds with the same ability that current infrared targeting systems have in clear weather.

CHELMSFORD, Mass., 25 Nov. 2012. The largest and most complex missile-defense flight test ever attempted, which last month engaged five ballistic and cruise missiles at the same time, used OpenVPX-based radar processing subsystems from Mercury Systems in Chelmsford, Mass.

WASHINGTON, 21 Nov. 2012. Pentagon leaders are considering boosting the anti-armor power of the governments of Indonesia and Oman with a proposed deal to transfer 580 Javelin missiles to the two countries worth a cumulative $156 million.

Newton, NJ and Andover, MA--Thorlabs acquired Maxion Technologies, developer of mid-infrared (mid-IR) turnkey semiconductor lasers, from Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI).

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio, 16 Nov. 2012. U.S. Air Force researchers plan to establish a center of excellence for guided-wave infrared sources to conduct and catalog research in infrared waveguides and fibers for low-loss optical transmission, lasers, nonlinear conversion devices, and beam-control devices.

Washington, DC--A new report from the National Research Council identifies research priorities and grand challenges to fill gaps in the optics and photonics fields in the United States.

Innsbruck, Austria--Researchers Kathrin Sandner and Helmut Ritsch at the University of Innsbruck have predicted via a model that a quantum-cascade laser (QCL) could be created that would be directly powered by a temperature gradient between the laser's pump and gain regions -- in other words, by heat.

QUANTICO, Va., 8 Nov. 2012. The U.S. Marine Corps. is asking four electro-optics companies to develop handheld tactical laser rangefinders small enough for one infantryman to carry that would help deployed Marines detect, identify, and pinpoint targets during the day, at night, and in bad weather.

ARLINGTON, Va., 7 Nov. 2012. Electro-optics scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., are asking industry to develop a small multispectral camera to help infantrymen and small combat units detect, recognize, and identify battlefield threats in daylight, at night, in bad weather, or in smoke and dust.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., 6 Nov. 2012. Quarterly growth in global sales of optoelectronics, sensors, actuators, and discrete semiconductors has slowed to nearly zero, and will post growth of only 2 percent in 2012, which is down from previous estimates, predict market researchers at IC Insights Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz.

PORTLAND, Ore., 5 Nov. 2012. U.S. Army officials needed electronics and electro-optics technologies with which to better detect and respond to domestic threats. They found their solution at FLIR Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:FLIR) in Portland, Ore.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio, 2 Nov. 2012. Multispectral sensors designers at the Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems segment in McKinney, Texas, will move ahead with developing a new sensor for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) able to see objects on the ground not visible to the human eye, such as hidden roadside bombs or illicit opium crops by detecting their spectral signatures.

Laser weapons experts at the Boeing Co. will continue developing a truck-mounted directed-energy system to improve warfighters' ability to counter rockets, artillery, mortars and unmanned aerial threats under a follow-on contract from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC).