The McHale Report Logo

August 2021

 
 
 
McHale-Img
The McHale Report, by militaryembedded.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.
 
 
Kontron
 
 
 
PODCAST
 
Rodger_Neal_320x200.jpg
In the second episode of On the Radar, Emma Helfrich and John McHale discuss the first three of six total highlights pulled from the Innovation and Modernization chapter of the FY 2022 budget request and explain how they may influence the trajectory of military electronics. Topics covered include funding for science and technology research, advanced capability enablers, and space-based systems. With an overall goal of maintaining technological superiority over adversaries, Helfrich and McHale chat about how the DoD is preparing to innovate.
 
 
TOP STORY
 
Shield AI, a defense technology company developing artificial intelligence (AI) and self-driving technologies for aircraft, announced it has raised $210 million in equity financing as part of a Series D fundraising round, increasing its valuation past the billion-dollar mark.
 
 
 
 
TOP STORY
 
img_185X240
United Electronic Industries (UEI) announced an integrated avionics solution stack aligned with The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) standard using the certified FACE-conformant Transport Services Segment (TSS) product from Real-Time Innovations (RTI).
 
 
SPECIAL REPORT
 
jmcahle_mchalerep_space.jpg
On the battlefield, time can be a dependable driver and a formidable adversary. For this reason, companies supplying military electronics are viewing the services’ all-encompassing decision-making processes through a data-powered lens in hopes of giving the military one thing: Actionable information in the shortest possible time frame.
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Quartz Model 5553 3U VPX board, based on the Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale+™ RFSoC Gen 3, provides full sub-6 GHz direct-RF I/O support and greater flexibility with more decimation and interpolation options. The Model 5553 is ideal for 5G and LTE wireless, SIGINT, EW, communications and radar applications. Complementing the RFSoC’s on-chip resources are the 5553’s sophisticated clocking section for single board and multiboard synchronization, a low-noise front end for RF input and output,16 GBytes of DDR4, a 10 GigE interface, a 40GigE interface, a gigabit serial optical interface capable of supporting dual100 GigE connections and general purpose serial and parallel signal paths to the FPGA.
Download Datasheet
 
 
 
 
 
MARKET RESEARCH
 
HeadshotEmma.jpg
Adoption of integrated sonar suites on technologically advanced surface ships and submarines is expected to propel the sonar segment to garner the largest share (49%) of global spending on underwater warfare systems (UWS) over the next decade, according to a recent study from GlobalData.
 
 
TOP STORY
 
The Missile Defense Agency has awarded Lockheed Martin a $157 million contract to augment the Command, Control, Battle Management & Communications' (C2BMC) engagement support capability for the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system that protects the U.S. from long-range ballistic missile attacks.
 
 
 
 
TOP STORY
 
Redwire has announced initial operational capability for its investment in a digital engineering environment, the Hyperion Operational Space Simulation Laboratory (HOSS).
 
AirBorn
 
 
 
TOP STORY
 
The U.S. Army - FACE and SOSA Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) is still on for September 14, 2021 at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama. This year's event will feature a Keynote Speaker and expert presentations on Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) related topics by a cross-section of the defense community, industry, and academia.
 
 
TOP STORY
 
The U.S. Air Force is investing in the Hermeus Corporation, a United States-based aerospace company, via a $60 million jointly funded contract intended to accelerate the development of hypersonic aircraft and propulsion systems.
 
 
 
 
UNIVERSITY UPDATE
 
doty_russell_100x115.jpg
The Texas A&M University – founded in 1876 in Brazos County, Texas, to concentrate on the teaching of agriculture and mechanical arts (the “A” and “M” in the university’s name) – continues its push for innovation with recent program launches in tandem with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
 
 
TOP STORY
 
BAE Systems has announced that its radiation-hardened RAD510 System on Chip (SoC) for space-based computing is entering fabrication. Manufactured by GlobalFoundries (GF), the RAD510 SoC will be the core of a single board computer (SBC) designed with twice the performance capability of the RAD750 microprocessor.
 
 
 
 
MIL TECH TRENDS
 
Military-display designers continue to face stringent size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) constraints while integrating commercial innovations like HD – and soon 4K – into systems that must work with legacy sensors and interfaces while also complying with a variety of open architectures and standards. Meanwhile, researchers plan for military augmented reality and immersive display solutions for warfighters.
 
Annapolis Micro Systems
 
 
 
GUEST BLOG
 
JKimage.jpeg
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) was already headed toward a completely perimeter-less security environment before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Now, the agency has gone full-fledged into a virtually wide-open landscape where physical constraints that used to exist have been largely eradicated, and new types of threats against its workforce, tools, supply chains, and operations abound.
 
 
TOP STORY
 
The UH-60V Black Hawk helicopter, enabled by the Northrop Grumman Corporation integrated avionics suite, has entered service with the Pennsylvania National Guard’s unit at Fort Indiantown Gap.
 
 
 
 
TOP STORY
 
Cubic Corporation announced its Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions (CMPS) business division won the Small Form Factor (SFF) Radio Phase 2 task order worth over $10 million under the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Data Links Enterprise (DLE) indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract.
 
 
TOP STORY
 
Sarcos Defense, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sarcos Robotics, and BAE Systems, announced that the companies are partnering to develop advanced perception and sensing capabilities for autonomous platforms for Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), to benefit Department of Defense (DoD) operations.
 
 
 
 
TOP STORY
 
Analog Devices, Inc. announced the completion of its previously announced acquisition of Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Maxim stockholders received 0.63 of a share of ADI common stock for each share of Maxim common stock. Maxim common stock will no longer be listed for trading on the NASDAQ stock market.
 
L3Harris
 
 
 
GUEST BLOG
 
JUNE2021ALDERMAN.jpeg
On 25 June 2021, the Director of National Intelligence (DDNI) released the much-anticipated UFO report. It’s only NINE pages long, and includes the status of 144 UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the new and improved name for UFOs) collected by the AATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) from 2004 through the first half of 2021. One of those UAPs was identified as a deflating weather balloon, and the remainder were designated as unknown. There is also a classified version of this report (17 pages long) submitted to congressional Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. I suspect those additional eight pages just contain secret sources and collection methods rather than additional facts. You can read the unclassified report on the web.
 
 
TOP STORY
 
Northrop Grumman Corporation’s RQ-4B Block 30 Global Hawk, with imagery and signals intelligence collection capabilities, was utilized by the U.S. Air Force during Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) exercises for the U.S. European Command.
 
 
 
 
TOP STORY
 
img_185X240
Schiebel Aircraft and Areté Associates showcased the CAMCOPTER S-100 unmanned aerial system (UAS) combined with Areté’s Pushbroom Imaging Lidar for Littoral Surveillance (PILLS) sensor to the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research (ONR).
 
 
TOP STORY
 
img_185X240
Unmanned-vehicle company Drone Nerds is showing its latest unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology at AUVSI Xponential -- held August 16-19 in Atlanta -- which includes the Parrot ANAFI Ai; Drone Nerds states that the UAV is the first 4G LTE-connected robotic drone.
 
 
 
 
SPONSORED WHITE PAPER
 
Analog Devices
Electronic warfare (EW) receivers must intercept and identify unknown enemy signals among a congested wideband spectrum of multiple interfering signals without the benefit of dynamic range and sensitivity improvement techniques employed in communications and radar receivers.
 
 
SPONSORED WHITE PAPER
 
Wind River
This paper outlines the principles behind avionics security and shows how Wind River® can help meet the objectives of DO-326A and DO-356A while maintaining strict compliance with DO-178C. The objective of a safe and secure platform is therefore achieved.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sponsored by: CoreAVI, Presagis, Abaco Systems
Date: September 8, 11:00 a.m.
REGISTER NOW
 
 
 
 
Facebook
 
Twitter
 
Linkedin