The McHale Report Logo

March 2020

  
 
 
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The McHale Report, by mil-embedded.com Editorial Director John McHale, covers technology and procurement trends in the defense and aerospace electronics community.

View our archive of recent and past issues of the McHale Report e-mail newsletter.
 
 
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PODCAST
 
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The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard, created to enable reuse of software components across multiple avionics platforms, enables avionics systems designers to greatly reduce the cost of software development over the platform’s life cycle. This will save hundreds of millions of tax payer dollars in the long run. In this podcast, Jeffry Howington of Collins Aerospace – also vice chairman of the FACE Consortium Steering Committee for nine years, discusses with me the impact of FACE on the military avionics community, the involvement of the user community, the benefits of FACE Technical Standard 3.0, and other topics.

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TOP STORY
 
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An initial contract has been awarded to Plymouth-based MSubs Ltd to build a test submarine that will be used to explore the potential capabilities of larger un-crewed, underwater vehicles in the future. According to officials, this extra-large autonomous submarine measuring about 30m in length is larger than autonomous submarines used for beach reconnaissance, allowing it to operate at a range of 3,000 nautical miles.

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FLIR Systems has launched the Ranger HDC MR, a new high-definition midrange high-definition thermal-imaging surveillance system that uses embedded analytics and image-processing algorithms to reduce the cognitive workload, enabling operators to distinguish quickly between true threats and false alarms, even in degraded weather conditions.

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SPECIAL REPORT
 
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Basic physics still dictates much of what makes helicopter flight successful, but military airborne platforms are constantly faced with environments civilian rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft simply don’t encounter: Degraded visual environments, a need for reduced workload, and improved pilot-vehicle interface drive military helicopter avionics upgrades and remain at the top of customer design requirements. In response to these military-user needs, companies are attempting to uncomplicate helicopter cockpit designs while using the most advanced electronics available.

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The RTX 2684 combines the power of a Pentek Talon Recording System with a 26 GHz RF tuner and Pentek's Sentinel intelligent signal scanning software, packaged in an extremely rugged, small form factor (SFF) 1/2 ATR chassis.
 
 
 
 
 
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The U.S. Space Force announced its first offensive weapon, a ground-based communications jammer to block satellite transmissions. The Space Force announced that Counter Communication System Block 10.2 achieved Initial Operating Capability earlier this month. It was transferred from the Los Angeles AFB to Peterson AFB, Colo., after being declared operational by the Air Force Space and Missile Center's special programs directorate.

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The U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, under supervision of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), jointly tested a hypersonic glide body at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii this week, according to the Department of Defense (DoD). According to the Pentagon, the MDA monitored and gathered tracking data from the flight experiment that will inform its ongoing development of systems designed to defend against adversary hypersonic systems.

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As part of the U.S. military’s effort to modernize the Global Positioning System (GPS), the U.S. Space Force has been upgrading its existing GPS Ground Operational Control System (OCS). The Space Force recently announced Operational Acceptance of the GPS Contingency Operations (COps) upgrade, developed by Lockheed Martin. COps enabled control of the operational GPS constellation, now containing 21 M-Code capable GPS satellites.

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Boeing announced a two-week shutdown of its Seattle-area plants on Monday, stopping production of KC-46 refueling and P-8 surveillance military planes. The manufacturing suspension will last until March 25, the company said in a statement. The shutdown comes as Washington state is under a state of emergency because of the spread of COVID-19, and several Boeing employees have tested positive for the virus.

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GUEST BLOG
 
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As the military-electronics industry continues to transition toward commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, established standards, and modular designs, the need for tailored solutions remains – there is a middle ground. In this, Part 1 of a two-part blog series, the benefits and drawbacks of custom parts are discussed.
 
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The first national security launch for the U.S. Space Force and the final satellite to build out the protected communications constellation is now connected.

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Liteye Systems, Inc., counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) developer, announced the receipt of an add-on specialty production order for $3 million. The contract will ensure delivery of hardware for U.S. Government urgent requirements during this unprecedented time dealing with COVID-19.

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Raytheon Company has developed, manufactured, and delivered the 3rd GEN Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) sensor system under a U.S. Army contract awarded in 2016. FLIR system is designed to give soldiers four fields of view and the ability to see across long- and mid-wave IR bands simultaneously with a stabilized line of sight.

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MARKET RESEARCH
 
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The market for command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) could total as much as $135.80 billion by 2027, according to a new study by Transparency Market Research, "C4ISR Market (Platform: Airborne, Naval, and Land; Components: Surveillance & Reconnaissance, Computer, Tactical Communication, Electronic Warfare, Command and Control, and Others) -- Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2019 – 2027."

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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
 
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The board of United Technologies Corp. (UTC) has approved the spinoff of the company’s Carrier heating and cooling and Otis elevator subsidiaries, keeping its planned merger with Raytheon on track.

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GIVING BACK
 
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Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. This issue we are highlighting Skate for the 22 Foundation, an East Coast-based (and growing) organization that forms and runs hockey leagues for veterans who may be grappling with post-military service civilian reentry issues. The group gets its name from the statistic that each day, 22 U.S. veterans are lost to suicide.

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COLUMN
 
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The U.S. military is developing new types of facial-recognition technologies – systems vitally important for the safety of soldiers in the field – to train artificial intelligence (AI) systems to perform identity verification and threat detection, but these advances can also come with some cybersecurity issues.

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MARKET RESEARCH
 
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The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is expected to spend an estimated $481 billion between 2018 and 2024 to identify and develop new technologies for advanced weapon systems, giving rise to numerous revenue opportunities in this space, according to a recent study by Frost & Sullivan, "U.S. Defense Science and Technology Research Market, Forecast to 2024."

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Personnel from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) joined industry and military partners at Northern Arizona University (NAU) Feb. 25 to discuss a multimillion-dollar cybersecurity project headed by Professor Bertrand Cambou.
 
 
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has embarked on a new program that it calls "Invisible Headlights," with the goal of developing sensors and algorithms to enable unmanned systems to navigate at night or underground.
 
 
 
 
GUEST BLOG
 
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The best way to start this essay is with a simple formula that shows how the kill web manipulates time and space, and then explain how it works: t= (d/s)/i. Time (t) is equal to distance (d) divided by speed (s), divided by intelligence (i). The more intelligence we have about the enemy, the more we can manipulate time and space.
 
 
GUEST BLOG
 
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Despite not being able to proceed with Aerospace Tech Week this month in France we do at least now at last have some positive news. The event is now officially confirmed as being postponed to 24-26th March 2021 in Toulouse again at the same venue. We are therefore delaying the return to Munich until 2022.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Date: April 1, 2:00 p.m. ET
Sponsored by: AdaCore, Lynx Software, RTI
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