Among the latest in military avionics trends: Digital electronic displays, panoramic displays, software-defined radio (SDR), improved satellite communications, and precise navigation without GPS.[Continue reading →]
Radar on the high seas
Modern maritime radar systems for missile defense and navigation have become more precise by leveraging commercial signal processing and radio frequency (RF) components in modular designs that enable commonality with clear technology refresh paths.[Continue reading →]
Small radars enable detection in coastal zones
For force protection in tight areas such as coastlines and coastal zones, military leaders are leveraging small, compact surveillance radar systems. Mark Radford, CEO of Blighter Surveillance Systems, discusses this trend and talks about the technology behind small radars with Senior Editor Sally Cole. Edited excerpts follow[Continue reading →]
Space Fence radar system to identify, track space junk
Space Fence, a fully digital S-band radar system, is being built for the U.S. Air Force by Lockheed Martin to better identify and track space junk to help protect military satellites and other space assets by preventing conjunctions and the creation of more debris – hurtling along at speeds of 17,500 mph – within low-Earth orbit.[Continue reading →]
Small UAS payloads pose SWaP and bandwidth challenges
The payloads of military unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) continue to evolve - using smarter sensors and a smaller overall footprint - but must overcome size, weight, and power (SWaP) design hurdles, as well as slower-than-desirable sensor processing, lack of bandwidth in downlinks, and security challenges.
As military UASs continue to evolve and shrink in size – think swarms of tiny drones – their resulting payload footprints pose numerous tight SWaP design space constraints and tradeoffs, together with sensor processing, datalink bandwidth, and security issues as well.[Continue reading →]
Vetronics designers focus on reduced SWaP-C and enhanced C4ISR
Government cutbacks may be slowing vetronics upgrades, but the defense industry is still focusing on initiatives to reduce size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C), as well as investing in command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) capabilities.[Continue reading →]
Unmanned underwater vehicles modernize U.S. Navy's sea-mine-hunting capabilities
Since the end of World War II, sea mines have damaged or sunk four times more U.S. Navy ships than all other types of attacks. In the future, advances in fully autonomous Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) – equipped with embedded computing technology – will play a key role in sea-mine countermeasures.[Continue reading →]
GPS: Smaller, faster, jam-proof, and nearly everywhere
Missile systems, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) payloads, soldier radios, and other applications are seeing the benefits of miniaturization and enhanced performance in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. However, GPS designs also require more elaborate anti-jamming techniques such as combining GPS with Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) to combat new, sophisticated threats. Meanwhile, DARPA researchers continue to reduce GPS footprints as they combine a tiny IMU and timing capability on one substrate.[Continue reading →]
