CRANE, Ind., 5 Sept. 2010. U.S. Navy special forces weapons experts needed combat lighting and target-designation capability to help .50 caliber machine gun crews with target detection, recognition, and identification in low-light and low-observation conditions. They found their solution from laser and illumination specialist Sure Fire LLC in Fountain Valley, Calif.

CHARLOTTE, N.C., 4 Sept. 2010. The U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Patuxent River, Md., awarded General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products a $9.8 million contract to produce the M61A2 20mm Gatling gun system for the F/A-18E/F aircraft. Production work will be performed at the General Dynamics facility in Saco, Maine, and the program will be managed at General Dynamics' Burlington Technology Center in Vermont. Work is expected to be completed in September 2012.

MELBOURNE, Fla., 3 Sept. 2010. Harris Corp., an international communications and information technology company, won a 2.5-year, $18 million contract to produce telemetry modules supporting the U.S. Air Force Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). The AIM-120 AMRAAM takes advantage of the accurate target detection capabilities offered by the advanced radar systems of modern-day warplanes. This follow-on contract brings the overall value of the program for Harris to $154 million since 1991.

HOUSTON, 2 Sept. 2010. BAE Systems won a $629 million contract from the U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) Joint Program Office (JPO) to upgrade 1,700 Caiman MRAP vehicles. The upgraded vehicle, called the Caiman Multi-Terrain Vehicle (MTV), integrates a refurbished and improved armored capsule from an existing Caiman with a new high-power automotive power train, chassis, and independent suspension.

LEXINGTON, Mass., 1 Sept. 2010. U.S. Army officials needed thermal weapon sights for rifles, machine guns, and mounted weapon systems for infantry soldiers in combat. They found their solution from the BAE Systems Electronic Solutions segment in Lexington, Mass. BAE Systems won a $123 million Army contract to continue production of thermal weapon sights that improve situational awareness and survivability for infantry soldiers, company officials announced today. The order increases the BAE Systems total thermal weapon sight contract value to more than $1 billion since 2004, company officials say.

MONROVIA, Calif., 1 Sept. 2010. AeroVironment Inc. (AV) won a contract delivery order valued at $35,265,662 for digital Puma All Environment (AE) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), spares, and training services. The equipment and services were procured under the existing USSOCOM All Environment Capable Variant (AECV) indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract. Puma systems, which are capable of performing multiple surveillance and reconnaissance missions over water or land, will be used to protect troops and vehicles in combat areas.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., 31 Aug. 2010. Officials at SGT Inc. in Greenbelt, Md., sought a partner capable of providing technical support for high-end computing systems, including high-performance hardware and software, for the company’s work on a NASA contract. They found the needed partner at Craig Technologies in Cape Canaveral, Fla. As subcontractor to SGT, Craig Technologies will provide technical support for high-end systems used by Mission and Mission-support staff at LaRC, necessary for such operations as high-performance computing, geometry modeling, grid generation, data visualization, image processing, computational analysis, and airspace and traffic operations simulation.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, 30 Aug. 2010. Rapid Electric Vehicles (REV), a GreenAngel Energy Corp. investee company, won a contract for its bi-directional charging technology for micro-grids. Through a contract with Honeywell, REV will participate in the U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development Engineering Center (TARDEC) Micro-Grid project at Wheeler Air Base, Hawaii.

ARLINGTON, Va., 29 Aug. 2010. Video analysis experts at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., are asking Kitware Inc. in Clifton Park, N.Y., to develop software tools that will help make radical improvements to the analysis of huge volumes of overhead video data gathered from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), manned aircraft, and other video surveillance platforms.

DENVER, 28 Aug. 2010. Rockwell Collins and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) conducted several flight tests of an unmanned F/A-18 subscale model air vehicle while dramatically increasing levels of damage on the aircraft. As part of the same DARPA effort Rockwell Collins also had a UAV fly aerobatics with position tracking. The results were discussed during a news briefing at AUVSI's Unmanned Systems North America 2010 showin Denver.

DENVER, 28 Aug. 2010. The Multi-Purpose Long-Endurance (MPLE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) concept from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, Calif., was shown at the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) show in Denver. The UAV would provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) communications and limited strike missions flying as high as 40,000 feet above sea level with 250 knot dash-speed.

DENVER, 28 Aug. 2010. The NightEagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from Insitu Inc. in Bingen, Wash., is now fully integrated into combat operations after completing fielding of an upgraded mid-wave infrared (MWIR) imager payload. The upgrade was implemented into the end-user's existing in-theater NightEagle fleet and flew within a few days before the required date. The new configuration consists of upgrades to ground support equipment and new software. Implementation includes specialized in-field training.

DENVER, 27 Aug. 2010. Engineers at Harris in Melbourne Fla., are developing an explosives ordinance disposal (EOD) kit for unmanned ground vehicles and are displaying their latest version at the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) in Denver this week. The kit would enable EOD technicians to inspect explosive devices without having to directly touch the device by using robotic manipulators armed with sensors that give direct feedback wirelessly.

DENVER, 27 Aug. 2010. Northrop Grumman engineers are in the process of creating for the U.S. Army a persistent surveillance unmanned airship that can stay aloft for three weeks  -- and they are producing it in 18 months. Delivery of the Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) is scheduled for December of 2012, the contract was awarded this summer.

NEW YORK, 27 Aug. 2010. L-3 Communications’ GCS subsidiary (L-3 GCS) won a contract from the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) for its Panther Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) manpack satellite communications systems and associated equipment. The systems will be used in support of USSOCOM’s Special Operations Forces Deployable Node-Lite (SDN-Lite) program, which will provide worldwide satellite communications connectivity to Special Operations Forces field personnel.The contract is valued at up to $170 million over the next five years.

DENVER, 26 Aug. 2010. Engineers at ITT Electronic Systems in Van Nuys, Calif., designed a thin-tile array radar system for sense and avoid capability in the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), produced by Northrop Grumman. The radar will be located in the nose of the UAV.

DENVER, 26 Aug. 2010. Much like rugged radios for warfighters the trend among command and control radios is toward miniaturization, especially for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications says Ken Granader, vice president of sales at FreeWave Technologies in Boulder, Colo.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., 26 Aug. 2010. Boeing won a contract from Intelsat S.A. to provide a second ultra-high-frequency (UHF) hosted payload on another of the four communications satellites that Intelsat ordered from Boeing last year. The second UHF hosted payload will be installed on the IS-27 satellite. The payload will offer 20 25-KHz UHF channels capable of serving the U.S. government and other Intelsat General clients around the world. The second payload will be identical to the UHF payload for the Australian Defence Force that will be hosted on the IS-22 satellite and launched in 2012.

DENVER, 25 Aug. 2010. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA?ASI) announced that it demonstrated a new Maritime Wide Area Search (MWAS) mode planned for the proven Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar/Ground Moving Target Indicator (SAR/GMTI) for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

NEWTON, N.C., 25 Aug. 2010. Satellite technology experts from Harris Corp. in Melbourne, Fla., needed 16- and 9-meter satellite communications antennas for upgrades to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-R weather satellite program. They found their solution from General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies in Newton, N.C. Harris awarded an $80 million contract to General Dynamics SATCOM to build and install six 16-meter antennas and upgrade four 9-meter satellite communications antennas enable critical command, control, telemetry, and sensor data communications between GOES-R satellites and ground stations.