SLD 500 Counter Sniper Systems Delivered to the US Marines

CILAS is delivering two SLD 500 counter snipers systems to the US Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC). The order was placed last December after several trial campaigns in various weather and distance conditions.

Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) intends to test in depth the capabilities of this system before using it to protect the US Forces engaged in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Iridium Awarded US Navy Contract for DTCS Development

Iridium Satellite LLC (Iridium) announces that the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren has awarded one of its subsidiaries a $21,688,808 indefinite-delivery indefinite-quantity cost-type contract to support development and delivery of the Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS). DTCS is an extension of "Netted Iridium," the company's push-to-talk communications capability. DTCS will provide over-the-horizon, on-the-move, beyond line-of-sight netted voice and data communications over the Iridium network for the tactical warfighter.

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New Vehicles Square Up to the Challenge

Tougher vehicles to deal with the harsh Afghanistan terrain have been put to work on frontline operations.

The first batch of more than 300 new Mastiff 2 and Ridgback armoured vehicles are now in Afghanistan and operational with trained crews, giving troop commanders better capability for battlefield tasks.The vehicles have been given a number of upgrades including:

-- explosive attenuating seats to provide better protection to the soldier on impact;
-- improved armour;
-- improved axles and suspension to cope with the difficult terrain;
-- better thermal imaging for the drivers;
-- greater crew capacity.

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Boeing Team Delivers 1st Block II Super Hornet TOFT to US Navy

Boeing and teammate L-3 have delivered four Block II F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Tactical Operation Flight Trainers (TOFT) to the U.S. Navy and declared them "Ready for Training." Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana, Va., has two of the trainers, and two are located at NAS Lemoore, Calif."These are the first Block II TOFTs, the new generation of trainers," said Steven Dent, F/A-18 Training Systems manager for Boeing. "The Boeing/L-3 team is able to offer a high level of aircraft concurrency with these new devices."

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How 18th Century Technology Could Down an Airliner

While the mystery of what caused Air France Flight 447 to vanish into the Atlantic Ocean is far from solved, preliminary reports suggest equipment first developed in the 18th century may have contributed to the crash of one of the most sophisticated airliners ever built.

The Associated Press reports some investigators suspect airspeed indicators (ASI) on the Airbus A330-200 iced over, giving faulty readings that directed onboard flight computers to accelerate fast enough to shear off the rudder and vertical stabilizer.

The air speed indicators on the doomed plane included a Pitot tube, named for Henri Pitot, the French engineer who in 1732 created an instrument that could measure the velocity of a fluid.

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New Small Reactor Could Revitalize Power Industry

A major manufacturer of power-generation equipment announced plans today to build a small nuclear reactor that company officials touted as a "potential game changer for the global nuclear market."

Babcock & Wilcox Co.'s 125-megawatt reactor would be significantly smaller than the average 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor and is aimed at plugging a major "market gap," CEO Brandon Bethards said at a Washington press conference. The new reactor might come online as early as 2018.

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OPTICAL ASSEMBLIES: Light comes to the computer chip

Optical technology can break the bottleneck of density and power consumption inside computing systems. Equally compelling for semiconductor manufacturers, it is now able to fit into production processes and cost models.

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Rescue Robots (Audio)

In 2001, when the September 11th terrorist attacks caused the twin towers of the World Trade Center to come crashing down, rescue professionals from many parts of the country raced to New York City to help search for victims. Among them was Robin Murphy, a robotics expert whose efforts after 9/11 marked the birth of the new and still rapidly evolving field: rescue robotics.


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Low-Cost Low-Power Screen from Dream Jobber Jepsen

The screen, reviewers agreed, was revolutionary. Oh, sure, it could have been bigger, the resolution in color mode could have been better, but its low power consumption, visibility in bright light, and dual color and black and white modes were standouts.

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E3 2009: Project Natal hands-on preview

It was demoed during Microsoft’s keynote on Monday to an appreciative crowd. However, unlike many of the video games on display here at the expo, you won’t find Natal on the show floor.

We were one of a handful of journalists given the opportunity to put Natal through its paces. Although Milo, Peter Molyneux’s extraordinary virtual child game, was not part of the demo, what we did see of Natal was incredibly impressive.

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American plans precision altitude flight on NextGen demo

American Airlines plans to fly a more precise altitude on an 11 June flight as part of the launch of testing to prove efficiencies of aircraft equipped with avionics to support next generation (NextGen) air traffic control modernization.

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Dyed solar cells to improve endurance

The US Air Force Research Laboratory foresees dye-sensitised solar cells powering long-endurance unmanned air vehicles following scale-model ground and flight tests.

AFRL Researchers have found that solar cells made from carbon-based materials that use dyes and anti-reflection technology film have a higher specific power convergence efficiency.

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Raytheon Submits KillerBee® Unmanned Aircraft System Bid to U.S. Navy

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) submitted its KillerBee unmanned aircraft system in response to the U.S. Navy's Small Tactical Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Tier II request for proposal.

The KillerBee UAS features a blended-wing aircraft body design. It also has systems for land or sea launch, recovery and ground control. The unique design of KillerBee enables growth for future payloads and additional mission capabilities.

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LockMart And USAF Mark Successful Sniper ATP Site Activations

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force have successfully completed Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) A-10C site activations at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ, and Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.

Sniper ATP site activations involve pod installation, maintenance and aircrew training. Coordinated with the Air Force Precision Attack Systems Project Office and Air Combat Command, Sniper ATP site activation efforts ensure maintainers are prepared to fully support the system in theater and that aircrews are proficient with pod operations and capabilities.

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$363.1M to ITT for U.S. Army SINCGARS Radios

ITT Corp in Fort Wayne, IN won a $363.1 million 24-month-base-firm-fixed-price contract for the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (SINCGARS), system enhancements and logistics support. ITT will provide 58,000 RT-1523 SINCGARS radios [PDF], 34,800 vehicle adapter assemblies/Internet routers and 34,800 radio frequency amplifiers to the Army’s Communications-Electronics Command.

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JLENS: Co-ordinating Cruise Missile Defense - And More

Experiences in Operation Iraqi Freedom showed that even conventional cruise missiles could have important tactical uses in the hands of a determined enemy. Meanwhile, the proliferation of cruise missiles and associated components, combined with a falling technology curve for biological, chemical, or even nuclear agents, is creating longer-term hazards on a whole new scale. Intelligence agencies and analysts believe that the threat of U.S. cities coming under cruise missile attack from ships off the coast is real, sophisticated and evolving.

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