Military Embedded Systems

One impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a decrease in mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the defense industry – and to some respect others – at least in the beginning of it all, when everyone was shutting down and didn’t know what to expect from the crisis. Folks were sheltering in place and in lockdown across the globe, not exactly an environment conducive to multimillion and multibillion-dollar acquisitions. Deals like that so often rely on face-to-face interaction.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. As military radar, signals intelligence (SIGINT) and electronic warfare systems get more complex so does the associated signal integrity challenges. These signal integrity concerns didn't even exist 10-15 years ago. As signal density for connectors continues to get tighter as footprints get smaller problems such as crosstalk and geometry of launch greatly affect backplane performance. This webcast titled, "Signal Integrity in Military Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems," to be held on Thursday, October 8, at 2 pm Est., will address these challenges and how VITA standards and open architecture solutions are helping solve them.

Decades-old military platforms like the Aegis weapon system and the Patriot missile defense systems, as well as key systems for fighter jets like the F-16, continue to go through modernizations and embrace open architecture designs, but critical integrated circuits (ICs) used in these systems have not changed since they were originally designed in the 1970s and 1980s. The U.S. military relies on aftermarket suppliers such as Lansdale Semiconductor to design these components exactly as they were first built by various semiconductor companies decades ago.

In this Q&A with Dale Lillard, president of Lansdale Semiconductor (Phoenix, Arizona), he shares how the military IC aftermarket performs compared to the rest of the defense electronics market, how this market segment is impacted by the global pandemic, and the vagaries of counterfeit-part mitigation. He also provides updated insights into several controversies he called attention to in the government IC-procurement process over the years. Edited excerpts follow.

Welcome to our 2020 September Resource Guide, which is more than 100 pages for the eighth straight year. Shows you that print is not dead yet – not here – and definitely not in the military-electronics arena. So thank you to our loyal readers and advertisers for continuing to support our flagship publication. Thanks for supporting our print and online channels, but also for your support of and respect toward our warfighters and the sacrifices they make every day.

GUELPH, Ontario, Canada. HEICO Corp. acquired Connect Tech, a producer of embedded computing and NVIDIA GPU solutions for military applications such as unmanned systems, communications, ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), and more various form factors such as COM Express and PC104. As a subsidiary of HEICO Corporation, Connect Tech will continue to serve its global customer base.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio. Officials at the Open Group announced the Technical Standard for SOSA Reference Architecture, Snapshot 3 is now available for download. According to the Open Group, the document is a Snapshot of what will, after maturation, become the Technical Standard for SOSA (Sensor Open Systems Architecture) Reference Architecture, Edition 1.0. 

SOLOMONS, Maryland. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic officials at the Open Group and the consortia they manage - the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) - announced that the The Open Group FACE and SOSA Consortia Expo & TIM, originally scheduled for September 22, 2020 at the Holiday Inn Solomons Conference Center & Marina in Solomons, Maryland, the event will now be held Tuesday, March 23 at the same venue.

Information overload: another way of saying big data challenge.

Small satellites and their reduced size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) requirements are challenging microelectronics suppliers to deliver the performance of commercial technology while also maintaining reliability. I discussed these trends in a McHale Report podcast with Tom Smelker, vice president and general manager for Mercury Systems Custom Microelectronic Solutions in Phoenix, Arizona. We also covered sensor processing tends and how artificial intelligence will impact future space applications. Smelker also discussed what he calls the end of Moore’s law and its potential impact on the military electronics market. Edited excerpts follow.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. Our new website and new URL: MilitaryEmbedded.com are now live. We are very excited. A big thank you to our development team, production team, and editorial staff for bringing our new online home together. Check out some highlights and key categories below and then browse away.

Contested space, where nations compete for military dominance outside Earth’s atmosphere, is driving many military space platforms, but commercial space and small satellites continue to change the way the military suppliers of space electronics approach radiation-hardened component design from testing to deployment.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. Elements of the Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA) technical standard are leveraging standards developed by the VITA Standards Organization, specifically VITA 65, also known as OpenVPX. VITA has also become a participating member of the SOSA Consortium along with the Air Force, Army, and Navy. This harmonization between the services, industry, and industry standardization bodies helps drive the SOSA initiative’s strong momentum within the defense community. This webcast titled, "SOSA and VITA: Enabling Open Standards for Improved Capability," to be held on Wednesday, June 24, at 2 pm Est., will cover how the SOSA Consortium is working with VITA to enable standardization of VITA-based standards within the SOSA Technical Standard.

SOLOMONS, Maryland. Officials at the Open Group and the consortia they manage - the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) - are organizing the The Open Group FACE and SOSA Consortia Expo & TIM, to be held September 22, 2020 at the Holiday Inn Solomons Conference Center & Marina in Solomons, Maryland. FACE and SOSA Consortia Meetings will be held September will follow the expo at the same location from Sept. 23-25, 2020.