BEDFORD, Mass., 29 July 2010. The U.S. Army is ordering 94 small unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) from a team of iRobot Corp. in Bedford, Mass., and the Boeing Co. in Huntsville, Ala., for missions such as explosive ordnance disposal, route clearance, and reconnaissance. The Army is ordering the 29-pound backpackable tracked battlefield robots from the iRobot/Boeing team under terms of a $14.6 million contract announced this week. The iRobot [NASDAQ: IRBT] and Boeing [NYSE: BA] team will provide the Army with the model 310 Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV), plus spare parts.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., 28 July 2010. Aviation electronics specialists at GE Aviation in Grand Rapids, Mich., are developing solid-state primary power distribution technology using Silicon Carbide (SiC) power switches for U.S. Air Force aircraft under terms of a $7 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. An electrical distribution unit (EDU) is the first or primary power distribution point on an aircraft after the generators create the electrical power. More electric aircraft need fast, intelligent switching at the primary distribution point to manage peak power and regenerative energy absorption, as well as to protect the system, if necessary, as quickly as one millisecond

DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, 27 July 2010. Officials of the Royal Netherlands Navy in The Hague, the Netherlands, needed sonar equipment for the Dutch navy's M-class frigates. They found their solution from the Ultra Electronics Maritime Systems segment in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Ultra Electronics won a $24.3 million contract for a QUAD receive array and projector including the handling equipment of the Multi-static Active and Passive Sonar (MAPS) systems for Dutch M-class frigates.

PORT HUENEME, Calif., 26 July 2010. U.S. Navy and industry laser weapons experts are moving high-power lasers a step closer to deployment aboard Navy surface warships after completing tests demonstrating the ability of a prototype shipboard high-energy laser to track small boats at long ranges under maritime conditions. These tests were part of the Navy's Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD) system, which high-power laser experts at the Directed Energy Systems segment of the Northrop Grumman Corp Aerospace Division in Redondo Beach, Calif., are developing under supervision of the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Va.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., 25 July 2010. Targeting and communications software specialist Stauder Technologies in Saint Peters, Mo., needed provide avionics chassis and electronic components for the company's AVT StrikeLink Airborne solution (StrikeLink/A). They found their solutions from Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc. in Charlotte, N.C. StrikeLink/A provides turnkey interoperability with StrikeLink, the material ground solution for the target location, designation and hand-off system (TLHDS) program for the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, by re-hosting digital communications technologies in legacy aircraft. The contract is worth $3.2 million.

ROCHESTER, N.Y, 24 July 2010. Harris Corp. (NYSE:HRS) won a $17.6 million order from the U.S. Department of Defense for Falcon III AN/PRC-152(C) multiband handheld radio systems and accessories. The order was awarded by the Joint Program Executive Office of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) on behalf of the U.S. Army.

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif., 29 July 2010. Teledyne MEC in Rancho Cordova, Calif., which specializes in broadband metal ceramic traveling wave tubes (TWTs) for airborne and shipboard electronic warfare, radar, and communications applications, is acquiring Labtech Microwave in Presteigne, England, to expand Teledyne's presence in Europe and to bolster the company's custom high-performance microwave components for military, space, and communications applications.

ST. LOUIS, 28 July 2010. Rocket designers from the United Launch Alliance (ULA) LLC in Littleton, Colo., needed complex wiring harnesses for the Atlas V single-use rocket, which is designed to launch satellites into orbit. They found their solution from LaBarge Inc. in St. Louis. ULA awarded LaBarge a $4.9 million contract Tuesday to continue to produce complex wiring harnesses for the Atlas V expendable launch vehicle. ULA is a joint venture of The Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. that builds rockets for launching satellites. The Atlas V uses a Russian RD-180 engine in its first stage, and an American RL10 engine in its upper stage. Some use Aerojet strap-on boosters.

BANNOCKBURN, Ill., 27 July 2010.BANNOCKBURN, Ill., 27 July 2010 U.S. and Canadian industry shipments of rigid printed circuit boards (PCBs) and flexible circuits in June 2010 increased 24.4 percent from June 2009, as orders booked increased 27.8 percent from June 2009, report analysts at IPC, the Association Connecting Electronics Industries, in Bannockburn, Ill. Year to date, combined North American industry shipments of rigid PCBs and flexible circuits were up 17.6 percent and bookings were up 33.4 percent, IPC officials reported this week in the June findings from their monthly North American Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Statistical program.

SAN JOSE, Calif., 29 July 2010. ADLINK Technology Inc. in San Jose, Calif., is offering the NuPRO-E330 PICMG 1.3 full-sized system host board (SHB) for applications that need high-performance computing, data security, and maximum data access bandwidth such as industrial control, automation, and industrial vision. The NuPRO-E330 embedded computing board products support next generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processors at clocks speeds as fast as 3.33 GHz and as much as eight gigabytes of dual-channel DDR3 1066/1333 MHz memory in two DIMM slots.

UPPER SADDLE RIVER, N.J., 29 July 2010. Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., is introducing the user-configurable Model 7191 programmable clock synthesizer PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) module for radar, communications, and other applications using A/D converters and D/A converters that need a precise clock source. The Model 7191 gives designers working with A/Ds and D/As not only a clock source, but also custom frequency generation under simple software control. "Multichannel A/D and D/A systems for most radar and communication applications require synchronized sampling using precision clocks," says Rodger Hosking, vice president of Pentek.

MANSFIELD, Mass., 29 July 2010. Murata Power Solutions Inc. in Mansfield, Mass., is introducing the HPQ-12/25-D48 300-Watt high power quarter-brick isolated DC-DC converter with 12-volt output for applications ranging from industrial and instrumentation to computers and office equipment. Ripple and noise specifications for the power electronics device assure compatibility with circuits using CPUs, ASICs, programmable logic and FPGAs. For battery-powered and telecommunications equipment, applications for the HPQ-12/25-D48 include small instruments, area-limited microcontrollers, data communications equipment, remote sensor systems, vehicle and portable electronics.