Military Embedded Systems

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA. Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) report completion of the first high-speed taxi test of its Loyal Wingman unmanned aerial system (UAS) in preparation for its first flight; Boeing says that the company's test personnel monitored the uncrewed aircraft’s performance and instrumentation from a ground-control station to verify the functionality while the vehicle reached accelerated speeds.

ANDOVER, Mass. Mercury Systems has received a $14 million order from a leading defense prime contractor for digital-signal-processing modules that are intended for deployment in a multimode tactical radar application. 

ARLINGTON, Va. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently finished field testing of a network-technology program that demonstrated successful use of new software that can bridge multiple disparate radio networks to enable communication between incompatible tactical radio data links, even if an adversary is trying to jam them.  

BETHESDA, Md. Lockheed Martin has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire aerospace and defense engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings for $56 per share in cash, expected to be reduced to $51 per share after the payment of a preclosing special dividend; the deal will operate on a postdividend equity value of $4.6 billion and a total transaction value of $4.4 billion, including the assumption of net cash.

WASHINGTON. The Center for Public Policy Innovation (CPPI) and the Homeland Security and Defense Forum (HSDF) -- which held a virtual symposium in October 2020 it called "Artificial Intelligence: Transforming the Government Mission" -- released its report on the symposium, in which the participants conclude that the most critical aspect of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by the U.S. federal government is creating a secure supply chain and ensuring that security is built in from the beginning into the government’s IT infrastructure, including in agencies' hardware, software, and cloud services.

LONDON. The best way for countries to secure their military and civilian cyber capabilities is through cooperation with other states: This is one of the findings of a recent market study from GlobalData, "Cybersecurity in Defense -- Thematic Research."

WASHINGTON. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) -- a department within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) -- has notified the U.S. Congress that it has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the government of Italy regarding two Gulfstream G550 aircraft with airborne intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare (AISREW) mission systems and related equipment for an estimated cost of $500 million. 

FARNBOROUGH, U.K. The BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration facility (Greenlawn, New York) has won an $18 milion indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract from the U.S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command for the production, test, and delivery of identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) transponders for military aircraft.

HAIFA, Israel. Elbit Systems has won a follow-on contract worth approximately $50 million ffrom the Dutch Ministry of Defense (MOD) to supply the Royal Netherlands Army (RNLA) with additional digital soldier and vehicular systems, as the RNLA expands its soldier-modernization program.

COLUMBUS, Ohio. Real-time location system (RTLS) provider Ubihere reports that it won a $150,000 contract from the U.S. Air Force (USAF) to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous navigation for unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and electric vertical takeoff and landing (EVTOL) vehicles.

U.S. ARMY YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz. U.S. military forces "took another step toward achieving a military Internet of Things" -- according to a news release from the U.S. Air Force -- when tests run with fifth-generation aircraft overcame longstanding connectivity issues to share actionable operational data in their native secure digital “languages” with and through multiple sources for the first time. This early-December 2020 test was the latest demonstration run with the open architecture underpinning the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).

U.S. ARMY DUGWAY PROVING GROUND, Utah. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced that in recent tests, a number of X-61A Gremlins unmanned aerial systems (UASs) failed to link up in flight with a recovery system installed on a C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft, but that they were actually close to success on multiple occasions.

TRAVIS AFB, Calif. The 60th Air Mobility Wing, 60th Security Forces Squadron, has teamed with Easy Aerial (Brooklyn, New York), a commercial provider of autonomous drone-based monitoring solutions, to develop and deploy the first first automated drone-based monitoring and perimeter security system to be used at a U.S. Air Force (USAF) installation.

ROCHELLE PARK, N.J. Internet of Things (IoT) provider ORBCOMM has won a single-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract totaling as much as $45.6 million with the U.S. Army for its Next Generation Tag (NGT) program, which will implement a common, integrated structure for logistics tracking, location, and monitoring of government assets.

WASHINGTON, D.C. and CARLSBAD, Calif. Even as the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) makes changes to improve its communications technologies, a new study -- conducted by the Government Business Council, the research division of Government Executive Media Group and communications company Viasat -- reveals that a number of challenges remain in the military's quest to deploy a successful military communications technology strategy for the multidomain battlefield. 

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) maker AeroVironment has agreed to acquire Telerob (Ostfildern, Germany), a maker of ground robotic solutions or unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), for approximately $45.4 million (37.5 million euros) in cash and a payoff of about $9.4 million (7.8 million euros) of Telerob’s debt at closing.

LONDON. The global military-simulator systems market is anticipated to grow by 55% in 2030, as compared to the current year’s market value, according to a new study from GlobalData, "The Global Military Simulator Systems Market 2020-2030."

ARLINGTON, Va. FLIR Systems has acquired Altavian (Gainsville, Florida), a privately-held manufacturer of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) for defense and public-safety customers.

LINKÖPING, Sweden. Saab reports signing a contract with the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration to provide an integrated sensor and command-and-control system for use with ground-based air defense.

ASHBURN, Va. PacStar, a division of Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, has won a $25 million contract to upgrade a portion of the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Data Network (CDN) that the company says will enable the Marine Corps to extend the benefits of advanced network communications to tactical environments.