Military & Aerospace
Gore Announces Partnership with A. E. Petsche for JSF Program
September 15, 2010 6:33 am | News | CommentsW. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., has entered into a strategic partnership with A. E. Petsche Company to provide GORE FireWire Cable Products for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35 Lightning program, the Department of Defense’s next-generation strike aircraft system for the Navy, Air Force, and Marines.
Boeing and Space Adventures to Offer Commercial Spaceflight Opportunities
September 15, 2010 4:55 am | News | CommentsThe Boeing Company and Space Adventures, Ltd. have established a memorandum of agreement regarding the marketing of anticipated transportation services to destinations in low Earth orbit (LEO) on Boeing commercial crew spacecraft.
OLED Pushbutton Switch Family Doubles Its Display Life
September 10, 2010 8:26 am | Product Releases | CommentsNKK Swiches announced it has doubled the display life of its OLED SmartSwitch pushbutton switches and reduced the devices’ low power consumption by 30 percent. The display has increased to
Cyber Task Force passes mission to Cyber Command
September 9, 2010 7:07 am | News | CommentsAfter spending the better part of the past decade defending the Defense Department's computer networks, the Joint Task Force Global Network Operations command cased its colors. The task force was deactivated in a ceremony Sept. 7 here at the Defense Information Systems Agency.
“Grey Eagle” UAS to deploy to Afghanistan
September 8, 2010 7:58 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsWeaponized versions of the MQ-1C “Grey Eagle” Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) will begin deploying to Afghanistan in the fall. Formerly known as the Sky Warrior, Grey Eagle is the Army’s answer to the Predator. In recent tests at the National Training Center, the Grey Eagle’s on-board laser designator performed flawlessly.
GE Works With General Dynamics To Maximize Troop Effectiveness And Safety
September 8, 2010 7:04 am | Product Releases | CommentsGE Intelligent Platforms today announced that it had received the first in a series of orders that are expected to total approximately $2.5 million from General Dynamics C4 Systems for a quantity of GE’s rugged NETernity 3U CompactPCI CP923RC-M Ethernet Switches.
Satellite navigation steers unmanned micro-planes
September 1, 2010 10:49 am | News | CommentsAn unmanned aircraft system guided by satnav has been developed within ESA’s Business Incubation Centre to provide rapid monitoring of land areas and disaster zones. The planes have already helped Spanish farmers in Andalusia to fight land erosion.
Fly your experiment to the edge of space!
September 1, 2010 10:42 am | News | CommentsESA is inviting students to propose experiments to fly on sounding rockets and stratospheric balloons. The winning teams will have the opportunity to design and build an experiment for the BEXUS balloons or the REXUS rockets.
RF inductor series approved to MIL-PRF-39010, Level M
September 1, 2010 7:01 am | Product Releases | CommentsGowanda Electronics recently introduced two inductor series meeting the military’s Qualified Products List requirements for “Established Reliability”. Gowanda’s ER10M and ER17S thru-hole RF inductor series are approved to MIL-PRF-39010, Level M.
SMT Frequency Synthesizer intended for Electronic Warfare Applications
August 31, 2010 7:45 am | Product Releases | CommentsThe HFS-2500 from EM Research operates over 2000 - 2500 MHz for advanced Electronic Warfare applications. This unit features exceptionally-low phase noise (<-121 dBc/Hz @ 100 KHz offset), fast switching (<5 mSec), 10 MHz step size, +5 dBm output power; supply voltages are +5VDC A-VCC / +8VDC D-VCC...
Au Series ideal for military and aerospace applications
August 31, 2010 7:29 am | Avx Corporation | Product Releases | CommentsAVX Corporation has expanded its extensive family of multilayer ceramic chips (MLCCs) to include gold plated terminations. Designated the Au Series, the RoHS compliant MLCC eliminates the use of tin and lead and subsequent tin wiskering events on the PCB.
Drones to be equipped with HD cameras?
August 30, 2010 7:17 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsThe Consumer Electronics industry is already discussing glasses-free 3D televisions. But for Airmen monitoring drone feeds, they’re forced to stare at grainy, SD video. Yet according to a piece in the Air Force Times, the times they are a-changin’—the military may soon have HD cameras on drones.
To boldly go where no dilettante has gone before
August 27, 2010 8:03 am | by Alix Paultre, Editor-in-Chief | Articles | CommentsOnce Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites announced the maiden flight of SpaceShipTwo, it was only a matter of time before Virgin Galactic would start selling tickets to space in earnest. This is great news for the development of commercial space, representing the first private steps into a new frontier.
Intel Core i7-Based OpenVPX Solutions for ISR Applications
August 25, 2010 8:16 am | Product Releases | CommentsMercury Computer Systems, Inc. (www.mc.com) launched the Ensemble 6000 Series 6U OpenVPX Intel Core i7 LDS6520 Module, the first embedded computing product combining Intel’s Core i7 processor family with the POET fabric interconnect, at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems North America 2010 conference today.
Lockheed Martin receives “contract modification” for F-22
August 25, 2010 6:13 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsLockheed Martin announced that it had received a $111.4 million contract modification from the U.S. Air Force for the 2010 Follow-On Agile Sustainment for the Raptor (FASTeR) sustainment contract. FASTeR entails support for the F-22 fleet, including training systems, customer support, integrated support planning, supply chain management, aircraft modifications and heavy maintenance...
Spectrometer to Fly in Space
August 25, 2010 5:23 am | by LabEquipment | Videos | CommentsThe Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), an experiment that will search for antimatter and dark matter in space, leaves the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) next Tuesday on the next leg of its journey to the International Space Station. The AMS detector is being transported...
Air Force filling holes in communication during drawdown
August 24, 2010 7:45 am | by Staff Sgt. Sanjay Allen, Air Component Coordination Element-Iraq Public Affairs | News | CommentsWhile convoys are operating in areas where ground communications are limited, joint airborne battle staff crews are stepping in to bridge the gap during the responsible drawdown of forces where communication is critical to ensure U.S. Forces redeploy safely.
Air Force Research Lab conducts second successful robot refueler test
August 24, 2010 6:15 am | News | CommentsThe test of a robotic refueling system by researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate in late July 2010 marks the second successful test of technology that could dramatically change the way the U.S. military services its aircraft.
U.S. aerospace companies boost technical education
August 23, 2010 7:11 am | News | CommentsU.S. aerospace and defense companies are stepping up support for educational programs in hope of encouraging students to pursue technical careers to help replace an expected flood of worker retirements.
Private spaceship carrier plane damaged in test
August 23, 2010 6:59 am | News | CommentsAn aircraft designed to launch Virgin Galactic's suborbital passenger spaceship was damaged in an accident on a California runway, manufacturer Scaled Composites said.
The Next Steps in OpenVPX Development
August 20, 2010 6:49 am | by Justin Moll, Director of Marketing, Elma Bustronic (www.elmabustronic.com) | Articles | CommentsOpenVPX is now beginning to sprout promising green shoots as interoperability has become a significant focus around the VPX topic.
Hybrid Armor Incorporates Specialty Multi-wall Carbon Nanotube Material
August 20, 2010 6:15 am | News | CommentsSouthWest NanoTechnologies, Inc. (SWeNT) is manufacturing specialty multi-wall carbon nanotubes for NanoRidge Materials, Inc. These CNTs are being incorporated into enhanced body armor to improve protection of soldiers and law enforcement officers from small arms fire.
Over 150,000 MegaPhase Cables Help Allied Forces Defeat IEDs
August 17, 2010 10:05 am | News | CommentsThe critical systems our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines use to jam radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) rely on the RF cables designed and manufactured at the MegaPhase facility in Stroudsburg, PA.
Israel approves purchase of F-35
August 16, 2010 7:27 am | by Jason Lomberg, Technical Editor | Blogs | CommentsAs reported by Defense Talk, Israel has agreed to purchase 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in a deal worth an estimated 2.75 billion dollars. At $96 million a piece, this would be the most expensive weapons deal ever signed by Israel. As the Swiss Army Knife of fighter jets, and the bulwark of the free world for the next 40 years (not to sound hyperbolic)...
Spacewalking astronauts plug in new cooling pump
August 16, 2010 5:58 am | News | CommentsSpacewalking astronauts installed a new ammonia pump to the International Space Station on Monday, accomplishing the urgent cooling-system repairs after more than two weeks of impaired operations in orbit.
