| Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine, September 2006 Articles |
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September 2006
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Wheeled wonders and road warriors
Major defense industry vendors and contractors are contributing to the advancement and success of combat vehicles designed to take advantage of the best technologies available now and in the future.
Advanced I/O means Ethernet
Military designers are excited about the I/O capabilities that 10-Gigabit Ethernet promises to bring to the table.
Northrop Grumman proposes high-energy ground laser to defend commercial aircraft
Northrop Grumman Corp. proposed a ground-based, high-energy laser system called Skyguard as part of a layered airport defense to protect commercial jetliners from terrorists firing shoulder-fired missiles.
Coast Guard adopts F4W and Crystal Group solution for Hurricane Katrina relief effort
The U.S. Coast Guard, just two days after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the South, called on F4W to solve a critical communications problem at the Joint Naval Air Station in Belle Chase, La., which was designated as the operation center for USCG search-and-rescue efforts.
BAE Systems adopts Nokia commercial equipment to service military customers
BAE Systems engineers and executives tapped the latest commercial communications and networking technologies from Nokia of Irving, Texas, in developing the BAE Systems mobile area communications (MAC) trailer, resident at its Merrimack, N.H., facility.
DARPA asks Raytheon to develop football-field-size radar for future surveillance airship
Engineers at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) are developing a radar antenna as long as a football field that would weigh less than the 22 players in action during a game.
Universal Display to provide portable flexible communications device to Navy
The U.S. Navy awarded Universal Display Corp. in Ewing, N.J., a contract to provide a prototype communications device based on a full-color, active-matrix organic-light-emitting-diode (OLED) prototype built on metallic foil.
In brief
Army I-GNAT ER UAS achieves 10,000 combat flight hours in record two years
Officials at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA ASI), in San Diego announced that their Army I-GNAT ER unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has reached a record 10,000 combat flight hours on a total of 858 combat missions.
Aftermarket parts a promising business for rad-hard suppliers
Prospects for a softening market for large military and aerospace programs such as the Army Future Combat System and Joint Strike Fighter are on a lot of minds these days.
kSARIA wins Navy research contract to develop cleaning device for fiber optics
kSARIA Corp. in Lawrence, Mass., won a U.S. Naval Air Systems Command Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II contract to help accelerate the Navy’s migration to fiber-optic technology in mission-critical aeronautical applications.
Northrop Grumman flight tests new electro-optical surveillance and detection system
Northrop Grumman Corp. experts in Rolling Meadows, Ill., are flight testing a the new electro-optical surveillance and detection system (EOSDS) for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence’s Nimrod MRA-4 aircraft.
Electro-optics briefs
Realizing the potential of digital flight-data recording
Digital technology has the potential to enhance the accuracy and manageability of flight data recording while lowering the cost.
Oscilloscopes for military and aerospace applications enter the digital age with improved capabilities
Oscilloscopes, devices that measure and display voltage over time, have entered the digital age with new features such as Windows-based software, removable disk drives, and most especially the capability of easy and standardized remote operation over the Internet.
WIN-T program is building on the success of JNN
William W. Weiss is vice president of Tactical Networks at General Dynamics C4 Systems in Taunton, Mass.
Lead-free solder regulation unfairly given a bad name for military applications
I read your Trends column in the July 2006 issue of Military & Aerospace Electronics entitled “Could RoHS mean the end of COTS as we know it?”-which is in itself a trend representing the prevailing attitude of “I do not like that darned lead-free stuff for military hardware.
Market in transition: North American ATM equipment revenues to drop over next decade
Revenues from North American sales of air-traffic management equipment are expected to drop by 46.7 percent during the decade from 2005 to 2014, according to analysts at market researcher Frost & Sullivan in London.
MEMS in mobile handsets to become billion-dollar market by 2010
Consumption of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) in mobile handsets reached $157 million in 2005, and will exceed $1 billion by 2010, consumption, reports market researcher In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Asian consumption of semiconductors expected to exceed $200 billion by 2010
Annual semiconductor consumption in the booming Asian market will jump from $136.5 billion in 2005 to $203 billion in 2010, reports market researcher In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Condor Engineering announces updated AFDX test and analysis tool
Condor Engineering, a GE Fanuc company in Santa Barbara, Calif., is updating its Windows-based, Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX)/ARINC 664 bus analyzer tool.
Multiprotocol USB interface to MIL-STD-1553 or ARINC 429
Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y., is offering the BU-65590UX multiprotocol USB device for systems interfacing to a MIL-STD-1553 or ARINC 429 databus.
High-Speed A-D I/O card with four high-performance wideband A-Ds
BittWare Inc. in Concord, N.H., is offering the Tetra-PMC+ analog-to-digital (A-D) I/O card.
VXS processor mesh chassis with 12 slots for 9U to 12U heights
Elma Electronic Inc. in Fremont, Calif., is offering a VXS processor mesh chassis with 12 slots that comes in 9U to 12U heights in various configurations.
Chip-on-flex filter connector withstands thermal shock and vibration
The ITT Industries Electronic Components segment in Santa Ana, Calif., is offering the Cannon Chip on Flex (CoF) filter technology that reduces stress from thermal shock and vibration while protecting sensitive electronics in a lightweight package.
Flash-disk PMC or XMC with as much as 64 gigabytes of memory
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing in Leesburg, Va., is offering the PBOD Flash-disk PCI mezzanine card or Express mezzanine card that offers as much as 64 gigabytes of high-speed storage.
Digital data recorder supports PXI-Express applications
Conduant Corp. in Longmont, Colo., is offering the StreamStor PXIe-416 high-speed real-time data-recording system that supports the PXI Express environment.
Dual-processor VXS 4.3 single-board computer
General Micro Systems Inc., (GMS) in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is offering a dual-processor single-board computer for aerospace and military applications that incorporates a dual independent processor architecture.
Input DC/DC controller drives N-channel MOSFETs and delivers as much as 20 amps
Linear Technology Corp. in Milpitas, Calif., is offering the LTC3822, a 2.75-to-4.5-volt input synchronous step-down DC/DC controller that drives N-channel MOSFETs without requiring an external supply for gate drive.
Radiation-hardened high-speed PWM controller
Aeroflex Plainview in Plainview, N.Y., is offering a radiation-hardened pulse-width-modulation (PWM) controller. The PWM5032 high-speed, low-power controller, developed in partnership with Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab and the Technology Applications Group for the Mars Technology program, is for at the military and commercial satellites.
Reconfigurable computer Solution cuts signal-processing footprint in half
Mercury Computer Systems Inc. of Chelmsford, Mass., is offering a reconfigurable computing variant of the Mercury PowerStream 7000 multicomputer, called the PowerStream 7000 FCN (FPGA Compute Node).
Tightly integrated advanced RTOS and secure networking protocols
Express Logic Inc. in San Diego and Interpeak Inc. in Leesburg, Va., have integrated Express Logic’s ThreadX real-time operating system (RTOS) and Interpeak’s TCP/IP stacks, which enables ThreadX customers to incorporate Interpeak’s advanced security and networking applications into their high-performance and small-footprint embedded devices.
Ada integrated development environment
AdaCore has introduced a new version of its GNAT Programming Studio (GPS) software-development environment for the Ada programming language.
Compilers available to Wind River Workbench developers targeting VxWorks 6.3
DDC-I in Phoenix is offering its SCORE compilers for the Wind River Workbench, an eclipse-based development suite, and Wind River’s VxWorks real-time operating system.
Tool to support software integration testing
Vector Software in North Kingstown, R.I., is offering VectorCAST version 4.0 to support software integration testing so that designers can test an entire subsystem or application using the same techniques used for unit testing.
Subminiature pushbutton and ET rocker and toggle switches
Officials of ITT Electronic Components in Newton, Mass., are offering the C&K EP pushbutton and ET rocker and toggle switches in SA1 termination to provide circuit designers with a space-saving right-angle board-mount configuration for subminiature switches.
U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force tap AGI technology for experiment
The U.S. Army and Air Force embarked on a joint project, called Combat SkySat, which was featured in a network-centric demonstration at the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) 2006 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
Boeing contracts Smiths Aerospace to supply RIUs for the V-22 aircraft
The Boeing Co. in Chicago has selected Smiths Aerospace of Grand Rapids, Mich., to supply remote interface units (RIU) for the U.S. Navy’s V-22 tiltrotor aircraft.
U.S. Air Force selects Telephonics all-mode IFF interrogator
The U.S. Air Force Electronics Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., awarded a $6 million contract to Telephonics Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Griffon Corp. in Farmingdale, N.Y., to supply the AN/UPX-40 Mark XIIA/Mode S Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) common module interrogator for Air Force Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) surveillance aircraft.
Lockheed Martin awards data-recording contract to VMETRO
Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., required a data-recording solution for its work with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (Aegis BMD) weapon system.
Endwave’s 44 GHz multiplier powers Milstar satellite communications
Endwave Defense Systems, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based maker of RF subsystems and components for defense and homeland security applications, will provide its 44 GHz frequency multiplier subsystem for uplink applications in the U.S. Military Strategic, Tactical, and Relay (MILSTAR) satellite communications program.
DARPA selects Raytheon to develop secure enterprise network
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., requires a secure, state-of-the art network for its classified information and communications.
L-3 Communications chooses ViaSpace software for HS program
L-3 Communications Security and Detection Systems of Woburn, Mass., sought a software solution to aid in its security goals in developing an Advanced Container Security Device (ACSD) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Northrop Grumman awards Raytheon $218 million subcontracts
Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (NGSS) in Pascagoula, Miss., in working toward the Navy’s vision for a common capabilities architecture across its arsenal of ships, sought out a partner with a issued a $218 million subcontract to Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) of Tewksbury, Mass.
Boeing uses Dow-Key microwave switches in 787 Dreamliner
Chicago-based Boeing Co. has used microwave RF switches from Dow-Key of Ventura, Calif., within its collision avoidance and landing systems for roughly two decades. Now Boeing has contracted Dow-Key to provide switches for the mid-size 787 Dreamliner slated to be released for service in 2008.
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