| Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine, September 2005 Articles |
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September 2005
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The evolution of UAV avionics
The military, once again, is the technology leader when it comes to the aviation electronics of unmanned aerial vehicles, which is growing in sophistication with each passing year and leading many experts to consider applying UAV avionics technologies even to manned aircraft.
Contractors balance speed and efficiency in digital signal processing
Systems integrators still grapple with issues that call for dedicated DSPs, high-end general-purpose processors, or field-programmable gate arrays in today’s signal- and data-intensive computing applications.
General Dynamics to build antennas for ALMA radio telescope
When defense contractors build optical instruments, they are usually designed for battlefield surveillance, yet some of the planet’s most powerful telescopes point away from Earth.
Pentagon continues its push on suppliers to use RFID
Pentagon leaders in July and August have issued a flurry of contracts for radio-frequency-identification (RFID) tags and technology.
Army pushes WIN-T network toward launch
Army planners have approved a preliminary form of the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program, the Army’s next-generation battlefield communications network.
Titan and Carlo Gavazzi provide rack-mount systems for NAVSSI program office
U.S. Navy officials are using components from Titan Advanced Products & Design Division (AP&D) in San Diego and Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions in Brockton, Mass., for an integrated shipboard navigation system.
LSI Logic returns to military market with RapidChip
After a decade-long hiatus, officials at LSI Logic in Milpitas, Calif., announced a return to the military integrated circuit market with their RapidChip Integrator and RapidChip Integrator2 families this past summer.
DARPA sets sights on improving analog-to-digital conversion
Scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Va., are asking industry to consider revolutionary new ways of digitizing analog signals.
Air Force eyes data-security architecture for satellite telemetry
U.S. Air Force officials are ready to approach industry with plans for a major new cryptographic modernization program for space telemetry, tracking, and control.
DARPA takes another look at improving machine learning
Scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., are approaching industry about a research project to advance the state of the art in computer learning.
Army wants ideas from industry on new avionics for manned and unmanned helicopters
U.S. Army aviation experts are asking industry for ideas on new avionics technologies for manned and unmanned helicopters.
In Brief
Magazine opens department of Product Intelligence
Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine has long been about matching readers’ design needs with technology solutions, and this objective is, and will remain, at the heart of our magazine’s set of core values.
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK: DRS set to build optoelectronic sensors for Arrowhead attack helicopter system
Engineers from the DRS Technologies Optronics unit in Palm Bay, Fla., are getting ready to produce optoelectronic sensor assemblies for the Apache Arrowhead Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) System for U.S. Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
Optoelectronics Briefs
KVH to supply fiber-optic gyros for DARPA’s robotic race across the Mojave
Robot designers from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh needed inertial guidance systems for their driverless Hummer vehicles, which will compete Oct. 8 in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Grand Challenge.
Pentagon eyes improved optoelectronic sensors for missile defense
U.S. missile-defense experts are trying to improve optoelectronic sensor technologies for ballistic missile defense.
Northrop Grumman to provide infrared countermeasures for Air Force C-130 aircraft
U.S. Air Force leaders are looking to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. in Rolling Meadows, Ill., to provide optoelectronic systems to defend utility aircraft from heat-seeking missiles.
Solving thermal-management challenges in military and aerospace applications
Will chassis designers be able to handle the new thermal-management challenges in military and aerospace systems? The “more functionality in less space” market force is not new, yet there are many new factors that affect the way the packaging enclosure company provides solutions.
Military and aerospace component manufacturers learn from the commercial market
Military and commercial component suppliers traditionally have done business in different ways.
The third dimension in obsolescence management
Technology advancements at the component level and changing marketing conditions reduce the effectiveness of our existing obsolescence methodology.
Physical security and wireless networks are driving today’s technology trends in rugged handheld computers and PDAs
Physical security, logistics, supply-chain management, and the proliferation of wireless networks are driving manufacturers of rugged handheld computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to add specialty capabilities and make their devices more rugged than ever before.
COTS: From CNN to the Army in the field
COTS is alive and well in Georgia.
Column on heat issues misses the most fundamental solution
Your recent editorial on the problem of chip heat was spot on, but you missed the most fundamental solution to the problem-don’t create the heat in the first place!
European military market shows steady growth
The European military market, while not nearly the size of the U.S. market, shows steady growth nonetheless.
BAE Systems names power supplier for Eurofighter Typhoon
Pilots of Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft will defend themselves with towed decoys that use power conditioning modules from the XCEL Power Systems Ltd. subsidiary of Emrise Corp.
Czech Army picks Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin missile
The Czech Republic Army will use the Javelin weapon system in future battles, according to an export agreement by the U.S. government.
L-3 Communications to support U.K.’s Project Helix
When British pilots take to the air on electronic reconnaissance missions, they rely on radar sensors in their Nimrod aircraft.
Dutch Navy names General Dynamics for C4I contract
General Dynamics U.K. Ltd. has signed a contract with the Royal Netherlands Navy to supply the New Integrated Marines Communications and Information System-NIMCIS-which has a program value of $113.6 million.
Integrity flies on Eurofighter Typhoon
Operating system is a critical component in the second stage of the Eurofighter program
Ada used for key systems on military aircraft
The EADS CASA Military Transport Aircraft Division’s (MTAD), advanced refueling boom system (ARBS) uses Ada software from AdaCore in New York City for its critical systems.
European land systems: Maintaining profitability in a shrinking market?
While ‘traditional procurement’ offers a tight market, the associated systems solutions provide a wealth of opportunity for second and third-tier players
Pentium-based VME-64 single-board computer
General Micro Systems (GMS) in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is offering the V169-FPIO, a VME 64 single-board computer based on the Pentium M microprocessor.
Conduction-cooled ATR enclosures for sealed or high-altitude applications
Elma Electronic Inc. in Fremont, Calif., is adding conduction-cooled models to its line of air-transport-rack (ATR) enclosures.
13U AdvancedTCA chassis with cooling and cable management
Elma Electronic Inc. in Fremont, Calif., is offering a 13U AdvancedTCA chassis with superior cooling performance optimized through thermal simulation, and a robust cable-management solution, company officials say.
Over-the-horizon troposcatter modem
Radyne Corp. in Phoenix and General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, Ariz., are introducing a troposcatter over-the-horizon modem called the TM-20 for long-distance data communications.
Rugged laptop computer with 15-inch screen
Getac Inc. in Lake Forest, Calif., is offering the M220-5 rugged laptop computer that features a 15-inch screen for harsh commercial and industrial applications.
Encryptor interface sends and receives secure data at 10 gigabits per second
General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, Ariz., is offering the OC-192 Fastlane ATM encryptor for asynchronous-transfer-mode encryption for high-bandwidth communications.
High-density memory board with 128 gigabytes of NAND flash
Aitech Defense Systems in Chatsworth, Calif., is offering its C212 series of rugged nonvolatile memory VMEbus board configurations that use NAND flash memory with supporting software drivers to provide hard-disk emulation for as much as 128 gigabytes of solid-state mass storage.
Data recorders expanded with CompactPCI
VMETRO in Houston is offering a new addition to its high-speed data-recorder family with the VORTEX CompactPCI, which brings 385 megabytes per second and flexibility to the CompactPCI form factor.
Next-generation Fibre Channel network access cards
Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is offering its FC-75100 series of FibreACCESS Fibre Channel network adapters.
AdvancedTCA InfiniBand Switch Blade
Diversified Technology Inc. (DTI) in Ridgeland, Miss., introduced its ATS2148 AdvancedTCA hub switch blade for a dual star-fabric-based ATCA shelf.
Dual-G5 VME system for avionics and military embedded applications
Thales Computers in Raleigh, N.C., is offering a dual-G5 VME system for cutting-edge avionics and military embedded applications called the EasyG5.
PMC carrier card enables use of several I/O mezzanine modules
Acromag Inc. in Wixom, Mich., is offering the APC-PMC that enables use of a PMC mezzanine I/O module in a standard PCI computer system in applications such as data acquisition, process control, test and measurement, motion control, and network data communications.
64-megabit flash memory module
Austin Semiconductor Inc. in Austin, Texas, is offering a 64-megabit 68-pin ceramic quad flat pack flash memory component called the AS8F2M32.
Quarter-micron rad-hard ASICs for satellites
Aeroflex Inc. in Colorado Springs, Colo., is offering radiation-hardened application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) in 0.25-micron technology for satellite applications.
RISC microprocessor multichip package for embedded applications
White Electronics Designs Corp. in Phoenix is offering its 755E RISC microprocessor HiTCE multichip package for embedded applications such as missiles, aircraft, flight computers, fire-control systems, and rugged critical systems.
GPS navigation tool for infantry soldiers
Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is offering its Dead Reckoning Augmented GPS Navigation System (DRAGN) that enables soldiers on foot to navigate in cities and dense foliage when Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) signals are weak or blocked.
MOSFET chip set enables efficient 336-watt converters
International Rectifier in El Segundo, Calif., is offering the DirectFET chipset that makes the most of DC bus-converter efficiency when used with the company’s IR2086S full-bridge bus-converter integrated circuit.
Signal processor combines DSP and multichannel communications
VMETRO in Houston is offering the 3CPF1 signal-processing engine that combines the Xilinx Virtex-II Pro field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a Freescale PowerPC central processor, and multichannel communications in a rugged 3U board.
InfiniBand driver for VxWorks real-time operating system
SBS Technologies Inc. in Albuquerque, N.M., is offering the IB4X-VXWORKS InfiniBand driver for the Wind River VxWorks real-time operating system with IPoIB and SDP protocols for InfiniBand.
Embedded C++ for DO-178B-compliant safety-critical operating system
Green Hills Software Inc. in Santa Barbara, Calif., is offering DO-178B Level A certifiable Embedded C++ (EC++) programming language for the company’s safety-critical Integrity 178B real-time operating system (RTOS).
Northrop Grumman picks Elma for Navy planes
Engineers at Northrop Grumman needed support components for a single-board computer (SBC) upgrade on the U.S. Navy Hawkeye carrier-based surveillance and early warning aircraft.
Navy builds portable network with Dataline unit
Network engineers in the U.S. Department of Defense needed remote communications units for mobile military forces.
Boeing picks Smiths computers for J-UCAS
Avionics engineers at the Boeing Co. needed flight computers to control the X-45C Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS).
Eurocopter picks Linux cluster to run design software
Engineers at Eurocopter in Kassel, Germany, needed a powerful computer to host helicopter-design software.
NASA stores satellite images on EtherDrive blades
Engineers at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) needed hard drives to store satellite data on Earth imagery.
IHI builds ships with UGS software
Naval engineers at IHI Marine United in Tokyo needed software tools to design ships for the Japanese navy.
Northrop Grumman plots UAV flights with MathWorks software
Engineers at Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems Sector, El Segundo, Calif., needed coding tools to build their real-time trajectory generation flight software.
Satellite manages sensors with Maxwell computer
Engineers with Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., needed a computer for a NASA satellite.
Boeing 787 will use engine control from FADEC
Engineers at GE Aircraft Engines in Johnson City, N.Y., needed an engine controller to manage their GEnx jet engine.
Arotech builds Marine Corps driving simulator
Marine Corps engineers needed a driving simulator. They found a solution with the MTVR from Arotech in New York.
Space Shuttle uses QNX software for camera
Engineers at NASA needed a real-time operating system for cameras to monitor the space shuttle’s Return to Flight mission.
NASA probe uses Express Logic software
NASA engineers needed a real-time operating system (RTOS) to control cameras on their Deep Impact Probe, the July 2005 mission that collided with a comet.
Honeywell chooses Green Hills operating system for 787
Engineers at Honeywell International, Morristown, N.J., needed an operating system to run flight-critical software on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial passenger jet.
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