Industry News

New Micro Lidar Tech - Lidar is a critical method by which robots and autonomous vehicles sense the world around them, but the lasers and sensors generally take up a considerable amount of space. Not so with Voyant Photonics, which has created a lidar system that you really could conceivably balance on the head of a pin. … Continue reading
UCLA Prof Faces Prison for Spying - A California-based electrical engineer has been found guilty of attempting to export sensitive military electronics to China and could face more than two centuries behind bars. Yi-Chi Shih, 64—a part-time professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)—was convicted on 18 federal charges last week, linked to a plot … Continue reading
Laser Weapons for Fighters? - On April 23, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) tested a fiber-optic laser at the White Sands Test Range in New Mexico that successfully shot down“multiple air-launched missiles in flight.” The Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHIELD), pictured here, currently exists as a bulky, ground-based demonstrator. However, the Air Force is optimistic … Continue reading
DARPA Modernizes SBIR Program - Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) are the principal set-aside programs for small business participation in federal research and development funding, yet the requirements for administering and managing these programs have not changed significantly in decades. To keep pace with discovery in science and technology worldwide, … Continue reading
Neural Net Learns to Cheat - Depending on how paranoid you are, this research from Stanford and Google will be either terrifying or fascinating. A machine learning agent intended to transform aerial images into street maps and back was found to be cheating by hiding information it would need later in “a nearly imperceptible, high-frequency signal.” … Continue reading
Quantum Arms Race? - In the 1970s, at the height of the Cold War, American military planners began to worry about the threat to US warplanes posed by new, radar-guided missile defenses in the USSR and other nations. In response, engineers at places like US defense giant Lockheed Martin’s famous “Skunk Works” stepped up … Continue reading
2019 Forecast: Hard Choices on EW - After a quarter-century of post-Cold War neglect, the Department of Defense has once again become serious about electronic warfare: the art of detecting, disrupting, and deceiving enemy radio and radar. But battles between electrons are invisible, literally and often politically as well, and EW must fight for attention and resources with higher-profile efforts from hypersonic … Continue reading
Schott Develops New Wide-FOV Glass - International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that sales of AR glasses will reach $30 billion by 2021.  Developers need a glass that widens the field of view (FOV) found in many devices.  FOV is a key performance standard upon which lens material is evaluated. Ideally, AR glasses would match humans’ natural … Continue reading
Raytheon to Develop New MTS Ball - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio – U.S. Air Force electro-optical surveillance experts needed next-generation multispectral targeting sensor systems for the MQ-9 Reaper attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and other reconnaissance aircraft. They found their solution from the Raytheon Co. Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, announced … Continue reading
BAE Starts Work on Gulfstream Compass Call - On 9 July BAE Systems announced it had commenced work on the ‘Cross Deck Initiative’ to transfer subsystems from the US Air Force’s Lockheed Martin EC-130H Compass Call Electronic Warfare (EW) aircraft onto new Gulfstream EC-37B platforms: an initiative which the firm is jointly pursuing with L3 Technologies. According to … Continue reading
The Legendary Herc at Farnborough 2018 - 400+ delivered. 21 operators in 18 nations on five continents. 1.7 million flight hours (and counting). 17 different mission capabilities. 11 production variants. Many accomplishments, many capabilities … only one C-130J Super Hercules. From the highest landing strip in the world to austere, landing strips almost destroyed by natural disasters, … Continue reading
Ohio Integrating UAS into Traffic Infrastructure - Ohio may soon be using unmanned aerial systems to communicate with smart vehicles and transportation infrastructure to monitor traffic and roadway conditions. As drone numbers soar, DriveOhio’s UAS Center is investing $5.9 million for a three-year study on how to safely fit these aircraft into an already congested airspace. Led … Continue reading
First RQ-4 Equipped with MS-177 Arrives at Beale - SAN DIEGO, March 1, 2017 — Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has begun flight testing of the MS-177 sensor payload with a successful inaugural flight on an RQ-4 Global Hawk high altitude long endurance autonomous aircraft system. The flight tests mark the first time the sensor has been flown on a … Continue reading
Congrats to UDRI! - The University of Dayton Research Institute has won a $72 million contract with the U.S. Air Force. As part of the six-year deal, UDRI will conduct research and development for the Quick Reaction Evaluation Materials and Processes program, which is run by the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air … Continue reading
Integrated Hyperspectral and Lidar Sensors on a UAV - FITCHBURG, Mass – Headwall Photonics Inc. in Fitchburg, Mass., is introducing advanced sensor payloads consisting of hyperspectral sensors and laser radar for deployment on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Space Daily reports. Continue reading original article The Military & Aerospace Electronics take: 14 June 2018 — Through the fusion of hyperspectral … Continue reading
Lockheed Picks Raytheon to Provide F-35 DAS! - WASHINGTON: Northrop Grumman was pushed aside today by Lockheed Martin as it picked Raytheon to build perhaps the F-35’s most important sensor, theDistributed Aperture System. “It’s a major upset,:” Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group said when I asked him to discuss the signficance of the decision. “And from a … Continue reading
GA-ASI Flies Detect and Avoid on MQ-9 - A Detect and Avoid (DAA) avionics system developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA‑ASI) was the key technology that enabled an unmanned aircraft flight through the National Airspace System (NAS) after taking off from southern California on Tuesday. The DAA system installed on Ikhana, a NASA-owned Predator B/MQ-9 Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS), enabled … Continue reading
AgilePod Flies on MQ-9 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio – In March 2018, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Sensors Program Office, working jointly with the AFLCMC Medium Altitude Unmanned Aerial Systems Program Office, sponsored three demonstration flights of an MQ-9 Reaper with AgilePod. The flights were a first for AgilePod on an Air … Continue reading
Counterfeit Parts in Electronics Manufacturing - Counterfeit parts are more common than many people believe, and this is certainly true for electronics components. These counterfeit parts decrease customer satisfaction and increase costs for legitimate manufacturers like ACDi. That is why we have a strict quality control system in place to prevent counterfeit parts from entering our … Continue reading
Army Wants EW at All Levels - PENTAGON: Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley, has ordered a review of service’s longstanding shortfalls in electronic warfare, officers told me in an exclusive interview. The ultimate goal: give commanders from platoon to corps the ability to shut down enemy radio and radar as readily as they now call in … Continue reading

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