Jena, Germany--The Jenoptik Defense & Civil Systems division has received an order worth $7.3 million from Rheinmetall for 62 thermal imaging target acquisition systems and more than 300 laser rangefinders.

FORT EUSTIS, Va., 12 June 2013. U.S. Army helicopter avionics experts say they plan to ask Sierra Nevada Corp. in Sparks, Nev., to integrated and test a prototype synthetic-vision system on a Sikorsky UH-60 helicopter that is designed to help helicopter pilots land safely in zero-visibility conditions.

WASHINGTON, 11 June 2013. U.S. Navy expeditionary warfare experts will brief industry on 25 June 2013 on upcoming contracting opportunities to help Navy and Marine Corps warfighters operate more effectively in operations between sea and shore that involve stealthy troop insertion by submarine.

The 2013 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Awards program honors the most timely, groundbreaking products in the field of photonics and laser science.

The recent, highly successful LASER World of Photonics tradeshow in Munich makes very clear the international nature of photonics products and applications, and the success of related businesses.

RIDGECREST, Calif., 7 June 2013. U.S. Navy aerial weapons experts are looking to five electronics distributors to complete for the opportunity to supply a wide variety of high-reliability electronic components for aerial weapons deployment, research, and development.

WASHINGTON, 4 June 2013. U.S. government researchers are preparing to asking industry to develop advanced facial-recognition technology able to identify people not only using incomplete, erroneous, and ambiguous data, but also that accounts for aging, pose, illumination, and expression.

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., 4 June 2013. U.S. Air Force weapons experts will brief industry June 25 and 26 on fuze technology research efforts for specific applications available for near-term transition, as well as on research programs in the mid- and far-terms.

U.S. Navy researchers are taking the first steps toward a tactical laser weapon mounted on a humvee-like maneuverable combat vehicle to protect moving U.S. Marine Corps task forces from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), cruise missiles, and other weapons that are difficult to pick up on radar.

DILAS in Mainz, Germany, developed a fiber-coupled laser diode module that meets a critical military-application goal: less than 1 kilogram of weight per kilowatt of power while maintaining nearly 50 percent efficiency.

Electro-optics engineers at the Northrop Grumman Corp. Electronic Systems developed a new-generation infrared sensor to improve resolution in export versions of the MIM-23 Hawk medium range surface-to-air missile.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 30 May 2013. U.S. Navy aircraft specialists are looking to the Honeywell Inc. Defense & Space Electronic Systems segment in Albuquerque, N.M., for several sizes of advanced multi-purpose displays (AMPD) for the avionics systems of the Navy F/A-18F jet fighter-bomber and EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft.

GARNER, N.C., 30 May 2013. CONEC in Garner, N.C., is introducing the LC series rugged ODVA-compliant, IP67-rated connector for cellular tower and base station fiber distribution cabinets that combine data and power connectivity.

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md., 29 May 2013. U.S. military officials say they plan to buy as many as 2,800 obsolescent Xilinx Virtex-II field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for infrared sensor signal processing in a variety of surveillance, reconnaissance, and fire-control systems.

Redondo Beach, CA--The U.S. Navy has selected Northrop Grumman for the initial phase of the Solid State Laser Technology Maturation (SSL-TM) program.

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 28 May 2013. In the same day that unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) experts at Northrop Grumman Corp. completed the first flight of the new Navy MQ-4C Triton maritime patrol UAV, Navy experts are making plans to upgrade the UAV's software.

WASHINGTON, 24 May 2013. U.S. Navy researchers need to develop as many as five new-generation unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) for research programs in anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and mine countermeasure (MCM) missions. They are finding their solution from Bluefin Robotics Corp. in Quincy, Mass.

WATERLOO, Ontario, 24 May 2013. Aeryon Labs Inc. in Waterloo, Ontario, is introducing the SkyRanger small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV) for military, public safety, and commercial applications.

Nashua, NH--The National Photonics Initiative (NPI) has been launched to raise awareness of photonics, increase national coordination, and drive funding and investment in areas critical to US competitiveness and security.