Military Embedded Systems

POWAY, Calif. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has won a $12.1 million contract to upgrade MQ-9 Block 1 and Block 5 remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) and Block 25 Dual Control Module Ground Control Station (DCMGCS) and Block 30 Ground Control Station (GCS) for the Air National Guard (ANG). 

ROCHESTER, N.Y. Orolia Defense and Security has won a contract from the U.S. military to furnish the Orolia BroadSim advanced GPS simulator systems as the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) moves to upgrade testing facilities and field test assets. 

PHOENIX, Ariz. Mission-critical software provider DDC-I has been chosen to provide its Deos safety-critical real-time operating system (RTOS) for use in a communications subsystem destined for the Dream Chaser Cargo System, which Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is building for NASA.

HAYWARD, Calif. Ampex Data Systems -- a Delta Information Systems company -- has won a firm-fixed-price contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division (NAWCWD) at China Lake to produce the Ampex TuffCORD ruggedized network attached storage (NAS) device. 

ANDOVER, Mass. Mercury Systems has received a $49 million order from a leading defense prime contractor to furnish high-performance signal processing and RF solutions for a missile defense program. 

TAUFKIRCHEN, Germany. Sensor-systems maker HENSOLDT reports that it is pleased about the decision by the German Bundestag to develop the new active electronic scanning array (AESA) radar for the entire German Eurofighter fleet; company officials hail the government's move as a positive signal for Germany as a technology base and for successful European cooperation in the defense sector.

NORTHBROOK, Ill. The global market for tactical optics is projected to grow from $9.7 billion in 2020 to #13.0 billion by 2025, -- a CAGR of 6.1% -- according to a new report from MarketsandMarkets, "Tactical Optics Market by Product (Weapon Scopes & Sights, Handheld Sighting Devices, Cameras & Displays), Platform, Application (ISR, Target Acquisition & Identification, Border & Coastal Patrol), End Use, Range, and Region - Global Forecast to 2025." 

Trained animals – including birds of prey and even dogs – may play a role in helping military forces manage mobile networks on the battlefield and in risky areas, according to a team of researchers at the U.S. Navy’s Naval Postgraduate School (NPS – Monterey, California).

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

ESCONDIDO, Calif. Edge-computing specialist One Stop Systems (OSS) has won contracts for more than $1 million in prototype orders for a military airborne artificial intelligence (AI) threat detection system from a U.S. Navy prime contractor; under the contracts, more than $676,000 in orders have now shipped, with a purchase order for $350,00 in additional engineering work underway.

GERMANTOWN, Md. Hughes Network Systems reports a recent successful in-flight demonstration of its HeloSat satellite communications (SATCOM) system from a Black Hawk helicopter; company officials say that the HeloSat transmitted consistent, real-time, full-motion video to a live global audience from the Black Hawk as it surveilled the landscape below. 

ARLINGTON, Va. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded contracts worth a combined $30.4 million to build payloads and platforms for DARPA's Blackjack program, a project that aims toprove the military utility of low-Earth orbit constellations and mesh networks of low-cost satellites. 

ANNAPOLIS, Md. Artificial intelligence (AI) research and development firm GMATEK has been tapped by the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Program Executive Office – Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO-USC) to perform research and development in multisensor fusion and analytics to detect, mitigate, and compensate for sensor degradation onboard unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs). 

STOUFFVILLE, Ontario. Wolf Advanced Technology (WOLF) has agreed to supply to Herrick Technology Laboratories (HTL) a newly designed SOSA-aligned module, the VPX3U-RTX5000-SWITCH, for integration into new Herrick adaptive waveform processing applications.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. Defense spending during and post the COVID-19 pandemic under three scenarios -- gradual containment, severe pandemic, and global emergency -- will either stagnate or decline as governments around the world allocate funds to contain the pandemic and reactivate the economy, according to a new study from Frost & Sullivan, "Post-pandemic Growth Opportunity Analysis of the Defense Industry." 

JOHNSTOWN, Penn. Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) has agreed to a contract modification worth $2.75 million with the U.S. Marine Corps Installations Command (MCICOM) to continue to provide functional and technical programmatic support for securing the Marine Corps’ Facility Related Control Systems (FRCS). The most recent accord is the second of two option periods on the original contract -- awarded in March 2018 -- and runs through March 2021. 

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico. Applied Technology Associates (ATA) has won a contract as part of the U.S. Army Directed Energy Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (DE-MSHORAD) prototyping initiative to supply the Independent Target Acquisition and Tracking System (ITATS) for the future system.

WASHINGTON, DC. The United States Air Force (USAF) has awarded development contracts to 28 vendors for its Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) that could be worth $950 million over five years. 

MERRIMACK, N.H. BAE Systems' FAST Labs research and development organization won a contract worth $3.5 million from Lockheed Martin to provide Mission Intelligence for Tactical Systems (MITS) advanced sensor fusion, artificial intelligence, and autonomy capabilities for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Squad X program.

FREMONT, Calif. The global market for directed-energy weapons systems will reach $4.02 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 18.15%, according to a new market study from BIS Research, "Global Directed Energy Weapon Systems Market − Analysis and Forecast 2020-2030."