Industry leaders and military officials forge ahead in the battle to install ever more innovative electronics in ground combat vehicles.
Technology Focus
High-speed serial switch fabric networking for high-performance embedded parallel processing architectures is benefitting from industry standards and the OpenVPX Multiplane Architecture to take their places in demanding aerospace and defense applications like radar, signals intelligence, and electronic warfare.
Product Intelligence
Designers of rugged radios for the military focus on improving the network for the warfighter, while at the same time creating technologies that are more efficient in terms of size, weight, and power.
News
Trends
We stand on the doorstep of the next generation in serial data switch fabric networking, which will see vast speed increases from today's data processing.
News
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is setting new standards for combat aircraft avionics with its 8-by-20-inch panoramic cockpit display.
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 laser weapon to track small boats at long ranges under maritime conditions.
Think of an extra-large black pizza box. Now put twin tails on it, a couple of magnetic-detachable electric-powered tiltrotor propellers, and a six-inch hollow nose for half a pound of cameras and other sensor payloads.
U.S. Marine Corps is choosing the Integrator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Insitu Inc. in Bingen, Wash., to meet the service's Small Tactical Unmanned Air System (STUAS)/Tier II requirements.
VITA, the open-systems embedded computing trade association in Scottsdale, Ariz., is launching the VXS Marketing Alliance to promote the adoption and development of ANSI/VITA 41 VME switched serial fabric products and applications.
Rugged computer specialist General Dynamics Itronix in Sunrise, Fla., is introducing the GD300 wearable computer that combines satellite navigation, data communications, and battlefield-rugged computing to enhance situational awareness for the foot soldier.
The U.S. Navy is moving ahead with a project to improve the capability of U.S. air-to-ground missiles designed to suppress enemy air defenses to pinpoint and destroy enemy radar systems even if those radars have been switched off or deploy missile countermeasures.
In Brief
Boeing and its subsidiary Insitu Inc. demonstrated a high-performance narrowband relay communications system aboard a ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, Fla., won a $1.1 million contract from the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center for test and evaluation of its next-generation HULC advanced robotic exoskeleton, designed to augment soldiers' strength and endurance, as well as reduce load carriage injuries.
Raytheon won a $23 million U.S. Army contract extension to provide mission support and system sustainment for the Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment (RAID) systems that protect U.S. and coalition forces deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
United Launch Alliance selected Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix to provide primary avionics components for guidance and navigation of the Atlas V rocket in a follow-on contract worth as much as $90 million over the life of the long-term contract.
Engineers at BAE Systems released their next-generation Headborne Energy Analysis and Diagnostic System (HEADS) helmet sensor.
Boeing signed a memorandum of understanding with Aeronautics Ltd. in Yavne, Israel to market the DA42 Dominator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
L-3 Link Simulation & Training in Arlington, Texas, won $39.2 million in production contracts from Boeing to build 12 F-22 Full Mission Trainers (FMTs).
Electro-Optics Watch
Optical communications experts at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., will design and demonstrate a hybrid, free-space optical communications and radio-frequency data modem to provide a reliable, fast communications link among spacecraft, aircraft, military vehicles, ground installations, and ships at sea.
The pursuit of network-centric warfare and the digital battlefield is fueling attempts to re-invent the analog image intensifier tube common to night-vision goggles (NVG) and other kinds of night-fighting equipment to enable this low-light sensor to produce digital imagery that can be shared over tactical networks and viewed on digital displays.
U.S. Army officials are awarding an $8.2 million contract for night-vision equipment to Night Optics USA Inc. in Huntington Beach, Calif. The contract involves a variety of night-vision goggles, night-vision scopes, and training.
Clear Align in Eagleville, Pa., is introducing the INSPIRE line of lightweight, high-performance shortwave infrared (SWIR) lenses for short-wavelength infrared detection in applications such as unmanned vehicles, military night vision, search and rescue, and infrared tracking.
Military laser weapons researchers are asking two major U.S. defense contractors to develop electrically driven high-power laser technology for future generations of laser weapon systems.
Product Applications
U.S. Marine Corps officials needed infrared missile warning systems to protect their fleets of medium- and heavy-lift helicopters from heat-seeking missiles–particularly from shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles.
Targeting and communications software specialist Stauder Technologies in Saint Peters, Mo., needed avionics chassis and electronic components for the company's AVT StrikeLink Airborne solution (StrikeLink/A).
The MediaWall image display system from RGB Spectrum in Alameda, Calif., took part in the capping of the Deepwater Horizon Well in the Gulf of Mexico to stop the oil spill creating a huge oil slick that may take months or years to clean up. Handling the work to cap the well were deepwater remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) controlled aboard ships by an integrated control system using RGB Spectrum MediaWall displays.
Leaders of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command in Huntsville, Ala., are choosing Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) in San Diego, and L-3 Communications Government Services segment in Chantilly, Va., to develop critical technologies for modeling and simulation of space and missile defense systems.
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.
French military Tiger helicopter pilots in Afghanistan needed night vision and targeting capability. They found their solution in the TopOwl helmet-mounted sight and display system (HMSD) from Thales Aerospace in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
New Products
Murata Power Solutions Inc. in Mansfield, Mass., is introducing the HPQ-12/25-D48, a 300-watt, high-power, quarter-brick isolated DC-DC converter with 12-volt output.
Pentek Inc. in Upper Saddle River, N.J., is introducing the user-configurable Model 7191 programmable clock synthesizer PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) module.
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.
Emerson Network Power in Carlsbad, Calif., is introducing the DS460S-3 bulk front-end AC-DC power supply for applications that use distributed power architectures, such as computers, data storage, networking, data communications, as well as test and measurement.
The Microsemi Corp. RF Integrated Solutions (RFIS) segment in Sunnyvale, Calif., is introducing the model 0405SC-2200M silicon carbide (SiC) transistor with 2,200 watts of peak RF power for high-power UHF band pulsed radar applications.
Kaman Precision Products-Measuring in Middletown, Conn., is introducing high-precision position sensors and systems for non-contact displacement and position feedback in harsh environments.
Rugged computer specialist Stealth.com Inc. in Woodbridge, Ontario, is introducing the model LPC-100 mini PC computer for applications that require powerful solutions in small spaces, such as embedded control, digital signs, kiosks, mobile navigation, thin-clients, POS, human/machine interfaces, and embedded computing.
A series of 18 compact, low-profile circular wire rope isolators from Advanced Antivibration Components (AAC) feature multiaxial shock and vibration protection, corrosion-resistance, maintenance-free operation.
Aries Electronics Inc. in Bristol, Pa., is introducing fine pitch bump adapters that accommodate boards with pitches down to 0.4 millimeters to enable embedded systems designers to use high-pitch devices on small-pitch boards.
