The standards currently being defined by the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium will deliver many clear benefits to system integrators designing embedded sensor-processing systems. The SOSA Technical Standard will define common pinouts that foster and ease interoperability. Greater system flexibility will come from the ability to place a variety of module types into the same system slot, while convergence on common interconnect technologies (such as backplane Ethernet) will ease the integration of modular systems.

Threats facing the U.S. military are evolving fast – hypersonically fast. At speeds of MACH 5 and greater, hypersonic weapons are becoming increasingly challenging to detect, deter, and destroy. Military-technology manufacturers, however, are refusing to let these light-speed advancements become the Achilles heel for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The methods through which companies in the hypersonic sector plan to ensure domestic confidence in this arena are said to be dependent on innovations like early detection, robust sensor systems, and a better understanding of what exactly makes a hypersonic weapon so lethal.

The clamor for more bandwidth for military use grows louder all the time, especially as 5G [fifth-generation wireless] networks promise to boost access to mission-critical communications, improve virtual reality/augmented reality tools for troops, and better support autonomous vehicles. In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), in its May 2020 report outlining the government’s 5G strategy, called 5G broadband a “critical strategic technology” that the U.S. telecommunications industry must master so as to gain “long-term economic and military advantage.”

Today’s sensor-based systems often fail to perform at their full potential due to loss of fidelity in data processing or discarding data due to analog bandwidth limitations from the performance trade-offs required to meet size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints. In addition, the most effective radar and electronic warfare (EW) response techniques demand extremely low latency as the signal transitions from analog RF to digital and back to RF.

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With ever-improving user mobile devices, network infrastructure must also be improved and developed at a similar rate. Every generation of communication standards has improved data throughput and latency, and 5G is no different. This new standard will pave the way for new applications and increase data throughput of cellular networks tenfold. 5G for the military is expected to – among other uses – improve intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems and processing; enable new methods of command and control (C2); and streamline logistics systems for increased efficiency.

To address emerging electronic warfare (EW) threats, which are becoming increasingly more agile and moving up the spectrum, radio frequency (RF) and microwave component designs are also evolving.