Military & Aerospace Electronics

JULY 2016

ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE

New horizons of rad-hard processors U.S. Air Force and NASA developing radiation-hardened ARM processor for space. PAGE 4 Small sensor payloads, big performance Unmanned vehicles are getting smaller and smaller, and so are their payloads. PAGE 10

militaryaerospace.com

High-performance embedded computing Engineers blending several HPEC components in hybrid architecture for sensor and signal

processing. PAGE 16

1607MAE_C1 1 7/1/16 8:13 AM POWER YOUR CRITICAL MISSION Our VXR Series High-Reliability COTS DC-DC Converters are Built for Rugged Environments

7 to 100 9 to 60 -55°C to 2000 V 2 to 20 Amp Watts Volt Input +105°C Isolation EMI Filters

Utilizing VPT’s V-SHIELD™ Advanced Packaging Technology

Fully Compatible with Aqueous Cleaning Processes Impervious Encapsulation Dual-Sided Thermal Conduction Integral EMI Shield

www.vptpower.com

EFFICIENT & RELIABLE | DECADES OF PROVEN HERITAGE | CERTIFIED QUALITY | SHIP FROM STOCK

1607MAE_C2 2 7/1/16 11:55 AM JULY 2016 VOL. 27, NO. 7

2 TRENDS

4 NEWS

4 IN BRIEF

10 SPECIAL REPORT Small unmanned payloads R8 RAD-Hard with big performance Unmanned vehicles are getting smaller and MOSFETs for POL smaller, and so are their sensor payloads, as designers push the limitations on small Features: size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP) for unmanned vehicle sensor payloads. › 20 V BVDSS › TID rated to 100 Krads without performance degradation to   16 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS 300 Krads Y › SEE immunity to LET of R 81 MeV-cm2/mg O HPEC for onboard data processing

T › Logic level gate drive with VGS

STORYS and persistent surveillance

rating to 12V

R Engineers blend multiple high-performance Low RDS(on) 12 milliohms E › embedded computing components in v typical (SMD 0.2 package) O hybrid architectures to facilitate sensor and Low total gate charge (QG), COvERC › signal processing on ISR platforms. 18 nC typical › Available in SMD 0.2, the industry’s smallest surface- 22 RF & MICROWAVE mount power package yielding 50% space saving and TO-39 package for thru-hole assembly 24 UNMANNED VEHICLES 63% Lower Gate Charge 5 V or 12 V L 0.8 V to 3.3 V 26 ELECTRO-OPTICS WATCH Digital Loads: FPGA, CPU, CTRL 25% Lower Vin RDS(on) Memories, etc C 28 PRODUCT APPLICATIONS Logic Level

30 NEW PRODUCTS For more information call 1.800.981.8699 or visit www.infineon.com/hirel

Military & Aerospace Electronics® (ISSN 1046-9079), Volume 27, No. 7. Military & Aerospace Electronics is published 12 times a year, monthly by PennWell® Corpo- ration, 1421 S. Sheridan, Tulsa, OK 74112. Periodicals postage paid at Tulsa, OK 74112 and at additional mailing offices. SUBSCRIPTION PRICES: USA $175 1yr., $309 2 yr., $440 3 yr.; Canada $270 1 yr., $465 2 yr., $600 3 yr.; International $325 1 yr., $620 2 yr., $810 3 yr. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Mili- tary & Aerospace Electronics, P.O. Box 3425, Northbrook, IL 60065-3425. Military & Aerospace Electronics is a registered trademark. © PennWell Corporation 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Permission, however, is granted for employees of corporations licensed under the Annual Authorization Service offered by the Copyright Clearance Center Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, Mass. 01923, or by calling CCC’s Customer Rela- tions Department at 978-750-8400 prior to copying. We make portions of our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that may be important for your work. If you do not want to receive those offers and/or information via direct mail, please let us know by contacting us at List Services Military & Aerospace Electronics, 98 Spit Brook Rd LL-1, Nashua, NH 03062-5737. Printed in the USA. GST No. 126813153. Publications Mail Agreement no. 875376. www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 1

1607MAE_1 1 7/1/16 8:07 AM trends BY JOHN KELLER, EDITOR IN CHIEF 

Time to boost the importance of U.S. Cyber Command

Simple question: Are top U.S. gov- The U.S. House of Representatives arsenal of land-, submarine-, and ernment leaders serious about cy- just approved a defense authoriza- aircraft-based nuclear weapons. The bersecurity and cyber warfare, or tion bill for federal fiscal 2017. This organization also is responsible for not? It would be simple for anyone bill contains a provision to make missile defense; command, control, concerned to say, “what a silly ques- U.S. Cyber Command the nation’s communications, computers, intel- tion; of course we are!” Okay, then, tenth unified combatant command. ligence, surveillance and reconnais- it’s time to prove it. The Senate has yet to vote on the sance (C4ISR); and combating weap- Congress is considering a plan to measure, and it’s not clear if boost- ons of mass destruction. It’s an open boost the profile of U.S. Cyber Com- ing Cyber Command’s profile might question whether Cyber Command mand at Fort Meade, Md., by elevat- face a presidential veto. fits in here. ing the organization to the status The nine unified combatant com- Still, let’s face it, I’m not hearing of a unified combatant command. mands that exist today in the U.S. about another potential global “Pearl Put simply, that would mean that Department of Defense (DOD) are: Harbor” when it comes to special op- Cyber Command leaders would re- U.S. Africa Command based in Stutt- erations, transportation, or C4ISR. port directly to the secretary of de- gart, Germany; U.S. Central Com- It’s time that Cyber Command with fense and the president of the Unit- mand based at MacDill Air Force its responsibilities for policies, plans, ed States, unencumbered by other Base, Fla.; U.S. European Command and enabling technologies for of- layers of command. based in Stuttgart, Germany; U.S. fensive and defense cyber warfare Is cybersecurity high enough on Northern Command at Peterson Air stepped out on its own. the list of national defense priori- Force Base, Colo.; U.S. Pacific Com- There’s much to be gained. Cyber ties to warrant its own unified command at Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii; activities within the U.S. govern- mand? Clearly the answer is yes. U.S. Southern Command in Doral, ment and the cyber industry that Only nuclear weapons post a more Fla.; U.S. Special Operations Com- supports them today are woefully dire threat to the continued exis- mand at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.; fragmented. Industry doesn’t have tence of the U.S. as a national entity U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air one clear mission when it comes to than does cybersecurity. Force Base, Neb.; and U.S. Transpor- developing the most important cy- A catastrophic cyber attack on U.S. tation Command at Scott Air Force bersecurity technologies. Custom- military forces and public service in- Base, Ill. er bases are scattered, and we have frastructure like power distribution, Placing Cyber Command among a collection of competing cyber transportation, water, finance, and these organizations would take it out fiefdoms. the food supply has the potential to from under U.S. Strategic Command, Now it’s time for one voice and trigger millions of deaths in Con- where Cyber Command resides to- one clear message to industry, and tinental U.S. within a few months. day as an armed forces sub-unified elevating U.S. Cyber Command to a There’s a good reason that experts command. U.S. Strategic Command unified combatant command within refer to a potential catastrophic cy- primarily is responsible for main- the U.S. Department of Defense is a ber attack as a “Cyber Pearl Harbor.” taining and deploying the nation’s crucial first step toward that goal. 

2 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_2 2 7/1/16 8:07 AM LICENSE TO THRILL

Each of us are agents of innovation. With our partners in government and military it’s a matter of mission – to faithfully serve and protect the people and resources of this country. And we’ve done so with the full range of advanced electrical test and measurement technologies, from the means to remotely monitor commercial broadcast bands to devices for foreign counter-intelligence. Together we’re developing insight systems that enable innovation and assure the integrity of performance in complex systems. And with each technical leap forward we enjoy the satisfaction of creating, the pride in advancement, and the reward of delivering what’s needed and what’s next. tek.com/thrill

1607MAE_3 3 7/1/16 8:07 AM news

IN BRIEF Air Force, NASA to develop radiation-  Boeing to upgrade missile hardened ARM processor for space guidance systems on Minuteman III ICBMs BY JOHN KELLER This four-year project is expect- Missile guidance experts at the GREENBELT, Md. — U.S. government ed to deliver a next-generation, rad- Boeing Co. will continue upgrad- space researchers want industry hard space processor based on the ing guidance systems on U.S. to develop a next-generation, radi- ARM processor architecture to pro- Minuteman III intercontinen- ation-hardened, general-purpose, vide optimal power-to-performance tal ballistic missiles (ICBMs) un- multi-core processor within the for upgradeability, software avail- der an $8.1 million U.S. Air Force next four years to meet on-board ability, ease of use, and cost. contract modification. Officials computing needs of future manned The HPSC project also will use of the Air Force Nuclear Weapon spacecraft and space robots. Radiation Hard By Design (RHBD) Center’s Intercontinental Ballis- Officials of the NASA God- standard cell libraries, as well as the tic Missile Systems Directorate dard Space Flight Center in Green- ARM A53 processor with its inter- at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, are belt, Md., have issued the final so- nal NEON single instruction, multi- asking the Boeing Directed Ener- licitation for the High Performance ple data (SIMD) design. Experts say a gy & Strategic Systems segment Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) Pro- heterogeneous multi-core architec- in Layton, Utah, to upgrade the cessor Chiplet program for NASA ture using many different processor communications equipment in- and U.S. Air Force manned and un- core types will not provide the best terface unit (CEIU) in the Min- manned spacecraft. possible return on investment. uteman III ICBM guidance system. The order asks Boeing to provide engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) for the nuclear missile’s CEIU. EMD means full-scale development. Boeing engineers will provide updates to the Minute- man III’s legacy CEIU to a more robust software language and change the communication protocol from telephony to Inter- net protocol to address security concerns. This project is called Performance Assessment Data System Communications Equip- ment Interface Unit (PADS CEIU), an interface unit using an analog signal over the telephone line using a standard commer- NASA and the U.S. Air Force are asking industry to develop a new rad-hard ARM processor for cial off-the-shelf (COTS) modem. future space applications.

4 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_4 4 7/1/16 8:07 AM Applications for the HPSC proces- put, power consumption, and fault Companies interested were asked sor will include military surveillance tolerance. The HPSC processor ar- to submit bids by 20 July 2016. and weapons systems, human-rat- chitecture sometimes will be inside E-mail NASA’s Denise Sydnor for ed spacecraft, habitats and vehicles, a dedicated spaceflight computer, more information at denise.y.sydnor@ and robotic science and explora- and sometimes may be embedded nasa.gov. Program details are online tion platforms. System applications in a science instrument or space- at https://www.fbo.gov/notices/eefe- range from small satellites to large flight subsystem. 806f639ae00527a13da6b73b3001.  flagship-class missions. Space computing tasks of the HPSC processor will include command and data handling, guidance navigation and control, and communications like software-defined radio; human assist, data representation, and cloud computing; high-rate, real-time sensor data processing; and autonomy and science processing. The HPSC processor will include Serial RapidIO (SRIO) for high-bandwidth communications, and several interfaces to high-speed, off-chip memory. The SRIO interfaces also can function as advanced microcon- troller bus architecture (AMBA)-bus bridges to tile or cascade several processors to increase bandwidth or improve fault tolerance. The SRIO interface also can ex- tend the HPSC processor to other SRIO-enabled processing devices such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and in the future to other application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)-based coprocessors. Future onboard space computers for manned and unmanned missions will require big improve- ments in vision-based algorithms with real-time requirements; model-based reasoning techniques for autonomy; and high-rate instrument data processing. A key goal for the HPSC project is the ability to trade dynamically between processing through-

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 5

1607MAE_5 5 7/1/16 8:07 AM news

BAE Systems developing advanced EW to counter enemy radar BY JOHN KELLER

ARLINGTON, Va. — Officials at the U.S. ity to sense their environment and Defense Advanced Research Projects adapt their transmission characteris- Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., tics and pulse processing algorithms announced a $13.4 million contract to defeat attempts to jam them. modification to BAE Systems Elec- BAE Systems engineers complet- tronic Systems in Merrimack, N.H., ed algorithm development and com- for phase-three of the Adaptive Radar ponent-level testing in phase-one BAE Systems is helping the government Countermeasures (ARC) program. of the ARC program. In the second develop advanced electronic warfare systems The ARC program seeks to devel- phase, they completed algorithm in- to counter enemy adaptive radar. op electronic warfare (EW) capabil- tegration into an EW payload along ities to identify, characterize, and with extensive hardware-in-the- measure synthesis, and countermea- adapt to advanced, complex radar. loop testing involving thousands of sure effectiveness assessment. The The program uses machine learn- tests against advanced closed-ra- system not only will be able to learn ing to learn in real time what adver- dar simulators. automatically to counter new radar sary radar is doing and create a new Now BAE Systems experts move threats, but also will enable human jamming profile on-the-fly. The pro- into the third and final phase of the operators to command and receive gram’s goal is to develop ways of DARPA ARC program in which they feedback from the system. countering adaptive radar threats will work to increase the complexity The ARC program should be quickly based on over-the-air ob- and realism of ARC testing. The pro- able to isolate agile unknown ra- servable signals. gram is expected to be complete in dar threats in dense, complex elec- Threats of particular interest in- 2018, and then BAE Systems and U.S. tromagnetic environments with clude ground-to-air and air-to-air military experts will move ARC-de- friendly, hostile and neutral RF phased array radars capable of per- veloped technologies into existing emitters; counter these new ra- forming several different functions, EW systems. BAE Systems originally dar threats; provide real-time feed- such as surveillance, cued target ac- won a 30-month, $36.7 million ARC back on countermeasure effective- quisition, tracking, non-coopera- phase-one contract in March 2013. ness; counter several threats at once; tive target identification, and missile In addition to BAE Systems, ARC support single-platform or distrib- tracking. These radar systems are ag- phase-one contractors are Leidos in uted, multi-platform operations; ile in beam steering, waveform, cod- Reston, Va.; Vadum Inc. in Raleigh, support autonomous and human- ing, and pulse repetition interval. Key N.C.; Helios Remote Sensing Systems in-the-loop operation; and use a challenges to the ARC contractors are Inc. in Rome, N.Y.; Michigan Tech Re- standards-based, modular, open, and how to isolate signals clearly amid search Institute (MTRI) in Ann Arbor, extensible software architecture. The hostile, friendly, and neutral signals; Mich.; and Systems and Technology system should also store and down- figuring out the threat the signal pos- Research (STR) in Woburn, Mass. load new knowledge and counter- es; and jamming the signal. The six ARC contractors will work measures for post-mission analysis. Modern enemy radar systems are to enable EW systems to generate ef- BAE Systems will do the work in becoming digitally programmable fective countermeasures automatical- Nashua, N.H., and Burlington, Mass., with unknown behaviors and agile ly against new, unknown, or ambigu- and should finish by June 2018.  waveforms, so identifying and jam- ous radar signals in near real time. ming them is becoming increasing- The program will develop a FOR MORE INFORMATION visit BAE Systems Electronic Systems online at ly difficult. Things will get worse in closed-loop system with signal anal- www.baesystems.com. the future as radars develop the abil- ysis and characterization, counter-

6 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_6 6 7/1/16 8:07 AM RF Solutions From RF Engineers

Largest selection Expert technical support Same day shipping

Applications Engineers Available

24/7 Support

Armed with the worldís largest selection of in-stock, ready to ship RF components, and the brains to back them up, Pasternack Applications Engineers stand ready to troubleshoot your technical issues and think creatively to deliver solutions for all your RF project needs. Whether youíve hit a design snag, your service. Call or visit us at pasternack.com to learn more.

866.727.8376 www.pasternack.com

1607MAE_7 7 7/1/16 8:07 AM news

DARPA eyes cybersecurity for Internet of Things and embedded computing

BY JOHN KELLER emanations, power fluctuations, and Government researchers are trying to find WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio — U.S. thermal output variations. The intent efficient ways to apply cybersecurity to military researchers are asking cy- is to enable a decoupled monitoring relatively low-power computers, handheld devices, and embedded systems. bersecurity experts at Praxis Engi- device to confirm the software that neering Technologies Inc. in Annap- is running on the monitored device, analog and digital technologies. The olis Junction, Md., to find new ways to determine which instruction, basic combination of analog signal analy- of providing cybersecurity for em- block, or function the software is ex- sis and program analysis techniques bedded computing and Internet of ecuting, or which part of memory the will enable external monitoring de- Things (IoT) devices. software is accessing. vices to detect attempted cyber at- Officials of the Air Force Research The LADS program seeks to devel- tacks not only on embedded comput- Laboratory (AFRL) at Wright-Patter- op new cybersecurity capabilities for ing and IoT devices, but also to larger son Air Force Base, Ohio, announced embedded and mission-specific devic- information technology devices. a $12.6 million contract to Praxis for es. These kinds of devices have limita- For this program, DARPA is asking the Leveraging the Analog Domain tions that larger computer systems do Praxis to provide multi-model analog for Security (LADS) program. not, such as low storage and memo- sensing to determine adaptively what LADS seeks to develop a new pro- ry capacity, slow processor speed, low features to compute from signals tection paradigm that separates se- power consumption, intermittent con- a device emits during training and curity monitoring from the protected nectivity, and lack of trustworthy vis- testing. Praxis experts also will ex- system by focusing on low-resource, ibility into system status and opera- tract sub-bands of interest, eliminate embedded, and IoT devices. AFRL tion. Compounding these limitations noise from individual signals, and re- awarded the contract on behalf of the are cost sensitivity, limited ability for move interfering transmissions emit- U.S. Defense Advanced Research Proj- these devices to work together, and ted from other devices in the vicinity. ects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va. limited ability to modify and upgrade Praxis will do the work in Annap- Praxis experts will explore tech- them once they are in the field. These olis Junction, Md., and should be fin- nologies to associate the running factors limit the use of cybersecurity ished by July 2020.  state of a device with its involuntary developed for bigger devices. FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Praxis analog emissions across the device’s LADS seeks to develop new cyber- Engineering Technologies online at electromagnetic emissions, acoustic security capabilities by combining www.praxiseng.com.

Mercury acquisition capitalizes on RF, cyber, and anti-tamper technologies

BY JOHN KELLER croelectronics businesses for $300 business segments passes to Mer- CHELMSFORD, Mass. — Enhancing the million. The Microsemi segments that cury, which has carved out a niche company’s expertise in RF and micro- Mercury is acquiring were known as in electronic warfare, RF and microwave, cybersecurity, and anti-tamper White Electronic Designs in Phoenix; wave technologies, and high-perfor- technologies are cornerstones of the the Endwave Corp. defense electron- mance embedded computing. acquisition by Mercury Systems of ics and security (D&S) business in Endwave Defense specialized in the embedded security, RF and micro- Camarillo, Calif.; and Arxan Defense high-frequency RF solutions for de- wave, and custom microelectronics Systems in West Lafayette, Ind. fense electronics and security ap- businesses from Microsemi Corp. Microsemi acquired Endwave De- plications. White Electronic Designs Mercury completed its acquisition fense in 2009, and White Electronic specialized in secure anti-tamper, of the Microsemi embedded security, Designs and Arxan Defense Systems solid-state memory; multi-chip-on- RF and microwave, and custom mi- in 2010. The core expertise of the board solutions for military appli-

8 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_8 8 7/1/16 8:08 AM news

cations; and small size, weight, and ing digital and RF and microwave The acquisition brings millimeter power consumption microelectronics. components on systems on mod- wave expertise to Mercury that the Arxan Defense, meanwhile, special- ules rather than on separate circuit company previously did not have, ized in cyber security and anti-tam- cards. “We’re looking at packages Austin says. This will help Mercury per software for military applications. that designers can surface-mount, play in the smart munitions market, These three segments had been fold- rather than design onto a separate as well as in new electronic warfare ed into the Microsemi embedded se- card,” says Neal Austin, who is join- applications like the Miniature Air- curity, RF and microwave, and cus- ing Mercury from Microsemi. Launched Decoy.  tom microelectronics businesses. “We always are interested in more scale in RF, and are looking for more geo- graphic footprints in RF,” says Mercu- DISCOVER BETTER DESIGNS, FASTER. ry Chief Technology Officer Ian Dunn. FLOW − THERMAL − STRESS − EMAG − ELECTROCHEMISTRY − CASTING Mercury executives also are con- OPTIMIZATION − REACTING CHEMISTRY − VIBRO-ACOUSTICS centrating on SWaP-constrained en- MULTIDISCIPLINARY DESIGN EXPLORATION abling technologies in RF and mi- FULL DETAIL − COMPLETE PHYSICS − EXPLORE ALL DESIGN POSSIBILITIES crowave, as well as in digital signal processing, Dunn says. “The smaller you go, the more you have to add value at the systems level, and we were interested in companies with multichip modules expertise.” What Mercury calls secure processing, however, is perhaps the most important component of the new acquisition, company officials say. Secure processing involves not only cybersecurity, but also activities, technologies, and tools that involve ways to secure embedded computing. The term refers to “whatever you are doing to securing processing for mission, ground, and automotive applications, from trust to physical things, information assurance, and to securing the hardware for the target application,” Dunn says. Mercury is gaining secure processing capabilities in a big way from the acquisitions from Microse- mi of the former White Electron- ic Designs and Arxan Defense Sys- tems. In addition, the acquisition [email protected] from Microsemi is boosting Mer- cd-adapco.com cury’s expertise in microelectronics packaging, especially integrat-

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 9

1607MAE_9 9 7/1/16 8:08 AM SPECIAL REPORT

Small payloads with big performance

Military personnel using the SkyRanger system with an EO/IR payload. Unmanned vehicles are getting smaller and smaller, and so are their sensor payloads, as designers push the limitations on small size, weight,

and power consumption for unmanned vehicle sensor payloads. warfighter’s most important job “is to stay alive and deal with the ene- BY J.R. Wilson my,” he says. “If you give them systems that take a lot of time to put A decade and a half of combat in power demands saw the variety of together or fly and are twitchy, Southwest Asia saw unmanned ae- sensors and missions increase to they won’t use them. If a Micro UAV rial vehicles (UAVs) grow from an in- where UAVs are not only ubiquitous doesn’t help the soldier without get- teresting and sometimes useful ad- today, but also essential to the mis- ting in the way, they won’t fly.” dition to intelligence, surveillance, sions of all ground forces. In this kind of environment, field and reconnaissance (ISR) in a cha- One area that did not expand rap- tests involving the warfighters are otic battle space to an essential part idly was manpackable UAVs. Strin- paramount. “Anything that is close of U.S. and coalition capabilities. As gent size, weight, and power (SWaP) to the soldier goes through a lot their value for an increasing num- requirements have made it extreme- of iterations before people become ber of missions grew, so did research ly difficult to justify adding new comfortable with using it,” Groenert and development of smaller and field equipment. continues. “It is an ongoing and con- more capable platforms and sensors. “The soldier can only carry so tinuing conversation with the soldier UAVs that have deployed to the much weight and only has so much and these small UAVs must provide region ranged from the giant Global time to think about these things,” something the soldier doesn’t have Hawk to hand-launched Micro UAVs explains Michael Groenert, depu- today without increasing the burden, (MUAVs) that are small and light ty director of the science & technol- both physical and cognitive. That’s enough to be carried in a single war- ogy division at the U.S. Army Night something our lab works to support.” fighter’s backpack. Major advanc- Vision & Electronic Sensors Direc- The value of manpackable UAVs es in miniaturization and reduced torate at Fort Belvoir, Va. Today the for individual warfighters or small

10 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_10 10 7/1/16 8:08 AM units is obvious: an immediate, re- subsequent use beyond the capa- DESIGN al-time ability not only to see over bilities of an enemy who also could the next hill and around the next buy the base technology on the open WITH CONFIDENCE building, but also for communica- market. The first commercial sensor Advanced Technology, Proven Heritage tions and to receive sensor data on capability to be adapted for MUAVs possible chemical, biological, or ra- was imaging, which must meet day/ diological threats. night and all-weather requirements. “On a small UAV, microelectro- Payload crunch mechanical systems (MEMS) and The difficulty is packing high-level uncooled technologies enable a true sensors, power for platform and sen- nighttime capability, using a sol- sors, onboard processing, guidance id-state silicon camera that is light- and navigation, and communica- weight, low-power, and imaging in tions into a package small enough to the long-wave IR band, so you get fit into a backpack with little assem- the same quality imaging day or bly required. Using such an MUAV night in all weather conditions,” ideally should be no more compli- says Groenert. “We continue to try cated than a hand grenade: pull to mature and improve image in- it out, turn it on, and throw it to- tensifier technology. Current tech ward the target. isn’t appropriate for small UAVs, so “Industry and government labs the lab has invested in improved have continued to provide improved low-light intensified imaging, which capability — in acuity, range, and is not as mature as the uncooled SWaP — since the proliferation of microbolometers used in most Mi- manpackable unmanned aircraft cro UAVs today.” systems (UAS). The military contin- The ability to see at night is a ues to seek R&D for advanced sens- non-trivial proposition. “Being able ing capabilities on small UAS that of- to see at night is a challenging goal. ten times are only found on larger The commercial solution looks easier UAS or even manned aircraft,” notes than it is because they don’t have to Col. Paul Cravey, director of the worry about data security, compro- Army Training and Doctrine Com- mised networks or the bandwidth mand’s Capability Manager for UAS. limitations soldiers face on the bat- The Army continues to investigate tlefield,” Groenert says. “The Army is AVIONICS | MIL-COTS | SPACE and support research for improved investing a lot in miniaturizing the POWER CONVERSION SOLUTIONS electro-optical sensors; change detec- processing required to handle these MIL-PRF-38534 tion; chemical, biological, radiologi- high-resolution sensors and improve Class H & Class K Qualified cal, nuclear, and explosives (CBRNE) their autonomy, so you don’t have to Efficient and Reliable detection; electronic warfare; net- send the entire raw image down a Ships from Stock work extension; and signals payloads pipe. But separating the sensor from to push advanced sensing capabilities all that processing is getting harder.” to the lowest tactical echelon possible, Cravey says. The power challenge The military relies heavily on As with virtually every technology commercial developments, while developed for the individual warf- www.vptpower.com modifying economically to meet ighter or small unit, power is one of combat requirements and put their the most daunting challenges. With

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 11

1607MAE_11 11 7/1/16 8:08 AM SPECIAL REPORT

MUAVs, the trade-off between pow- likely to harm civilians or prop- Others contending for a future Le- er and payload forces the warfighter erty close by. thal Miniature Aerial Munition Sys- to choose between sensors, ammuni- “[Switchblade] provides a very, tem program-of-record contract tion, or water — the sensors lose ev- very low collateral damage foot- include Textron (Battlehawk), Lock- ery time. The same applies to cooling print compared to mortars and other heed Martin (Terminator), and Is- small and sophisticated electronics. weapons at a squad or platoon’s dis- rael’s uVision (Hero). Other nations “Thermal management — cooling posal,” says William Nichols, Army working on weaponized small UAVs and ruggedization of semiconduc- PEO Missiles and Space Close Com- include Poland, with WB Electron- tors allowing them to be conduction bat Weapons Systems Program of- ics Warmate, and Iran. There also cooled — is one of the R&D drivers fice. “The operator has the ability to have been reports of miniature “fly- in this arena,” says Benjamin Shar- wave off this missile within approxi- ing IEDs” being used by ISIS against fi, CEO of General Micro Systems in mately four seconds of detonation.” Kurdish fighters in Syria, a develop- Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. “Current ment that is likely to grow rapidly as solar technology is silicon-based and commercial UAVs, already carrying not bendable, so whatever UAV you cameras of various sizes and resolu- create would have a shell that is a tion, are modified with explosives or solar collector, so you can harvest even chemical, biological, or radio- power from the sun from any angle. logical weapons. That means manufacturing a solar Just as the weaponized Predator cell that is not flat.” and Reaper have become the best- A newly evolving application for known UAVs for their “drone strikes” manpackable UAVs is weaponiza- against enemy targets in Southwest tion. One such platform has been de- Asia, sensor-packed platforms of all ployed to Afghanistan; the Switch- sizes will remain the primary type A SkyRanger unmanned aerial vehicle system blade from AeroVironment Inc. in complete with an HDZoom30 payload and of aerial robots deployed by the U.S. Monrovia, Calif., was built as a con- flight control tablet. and other militaries. Manpackable cept demonstrator for the Army’s Le- MUAVs increasingly will become ca- thal Miniature Aerial Munition Sys- Digital data links pable and in growing demand by in- tem (LMAMS) program, although In April 2016, AeroVironment an- fantry and special operations forces. the Army categorizes it as a “tactical nounced development of the Block Driving research for such platforms missile system” rather than a UAV. 10C upgrade to Switchblade, incor- will be the need to fly anytime, any- Originally conceived by the Air porating a digital data link (DDL) to where, using tablet computer-based Force Special Operations Command, provide stable and secure encrypted control software for day and night the 5.5-pound (including launcher), communications and more efficient missions, an airframe able to toler- GPS-guided Switchblade small UAV use of existing frequency bands ate wind gusts as strong as 90 miles is armed with a 40-millimeter gre- while significantly reducing the like- per hour, and all kinds of inclement nade-like warhead, has a range as lihood of signal interception. weather at altitudes to 1000 feet. far as six miles, and an endurance The Block 10C upgrade also en- of about 15 minutes. That gives it ables users to fly several Switch- Imperative for small payloads limited loiter capability as its elec- blades at the same time and place From a payload perspective, there tric propulsion systems enable it without signal conflict. Operation- needs to be continued advances in to search in near silence for fixed al ranges can increase significant- robust, durable, small, power-lean or moving targets beyond line-of- ly using another DDL-equipped UAV, sensors and communications, as sight or hidden behind walls or oth- facilitating the automatic commu- well as lightweight long-charge or in- er obstructions. By identifying and nication of mission plans from one flight rechargeable power systems. striking a specific target with a rel- platform to another, also known as “As operators use UAVs more fre- atively small explosive, it is far less sensor-to-shooter operations. quently, they uncover new forms of

12 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_12 12 7/1/16 8:08 AM application, which drives into the personnel rather than relying on a sensor and payload technologies,” single individual. Evolving MUAV says David Proulx, vice president of sensors also are opening a broad product & marketing at UAV special- range of new possibilities, such de- DC-DC CONVERTERS ist Aeryon Labs in Waterloo, Ontar- tecting specific compounds more io. “All our customers start with rel- safely than a ground unit. 2V to 10,000 VDC Outputs atively simple imaging tasks, then Manpackable MUAVs with ad- 1-300 Watt Modules migrate to more complex imaging, vanced sensors and other pay- Regulated/Proportional/Programmable then to non-imaging tasks, such as loads will significantly change fu- Isolated/Single/Dualsolated/Single/Dual OutputsOutputs using the UAV as a communications ture combat tactics, techniques, High Reliability node. So as more people use it, that and procedures (TTPs), concept of Greater than 1,000,000 hrs. creates a feedback loop to us to de- operations (CONOPS), and individ- Mil Hbk 217F velop new technologies. ual/small unit effectiveness and • “We do see a general trend of survivability. Military Upgrades Expanded operating temperature driving situational awareness down “The goal is to increase soldier -55º to +85º C, no derating required to the squad, platoon, or even indi- situational awareness while decreas- • vidual operator level,” Proulx contin- ing workload and cognitive burden, Environmental Screening ues. “We think there is a great trend so increased autonomy, reducing the Selected Screening, Mil Std 883 where situational awareness and ISR • become on-demand tools the sol- ULTRA Miniature dier can deploy from the backpack. From 0.5" x 0.5" x 0.2" • That means providing them with Surface Mount/Thru-Hole easy-to-use UAVs that don’t require more than a couple of days train- • Custom Models • US Manufactured ing. Putting ISR in the hands of the • AS 9100 Approved individual warfighter enables fast- High Reliability AC/DC er and more flexible response. Being Power Supplies, Transformers The SkyRanger with the HDZoom30 payload self-sufficient in situational aware- and Inductors attached. ness and mission plans, allowing the individual operator to make deci- amount of data the soldier has to sions based on that real-time infor- handle while improving his aware- mation, enables them to make bet- ness and adaptability to evolving ter decisions based on immediate conditions on the ground,” Groen- circumstances.” ert says. “There is a big push on the sensor side to not just make high- New requirements er resolution and frame rate sen- See PICO’s full line catalog at There is no shortage of new require- sors, but sensors that are smarter. www.picoelectronics.com ments coming from end users as a There is only so much bandwidth on YOUR PROVEN SOURCE. function of increased usage and un- the battlefield and so much effort Over 40 years providing reliable products. derstanding. Those include real-time the soldier can put into it. The lon- Over 2,500 Standard Modules. system interoperability, where man- ger it takes for an image to reach the 800-431-1064 packable UAVs operate in concert soldier, the less valuable it is. So the with ground robots and larger air- closer to the imager that processing PICO ELECTRONICS, Inc. 143 Sparks Ave., Pelham, New York 10803 craft, getting all that data back in a occurs, the better,” Groenert says. Call Toll Free 800-431-1064 • FAX 914-738-8225 consistent form to the same user. Tying sensors together is a spe- E Mail: [email protected] Another is distributed command cial challenge. “Making sensors mul- and control, shared among several tifunction is another part of that,

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 13

1607MAE_13 13 7/1/16 8:08 AM SPECIAL REPORT

such as enabling the sensor to pro- Drones and the PI System vide 3D information,” Groenert says. Multiple streams of data in one flight “As they move around the battlefield, you get imagery of the same target from multiple sources, so can you infer structure using that. If the soldier can get 3D understanding of the battlefield from passive sensors, that’s another piece of leverage. So increasing sensor capability without increasing the workload to interpret that data has been a big push for us.” There has been growing concern among military and industry leaders that the technology gap that has set the U.S. apart from the rest of the world is closing and the nation ultimately may lose that lead. Groenert says he agrees the defense industry will face a short- Unmanned aircraft and the PI System work together to deliver surveillance information in real time to the decision makers that need it most. age of top-grade engineers in the future — with more PhDs going to With advanced sensors providing flying and interpreting the data foreign students who return home increasingly intelligent eyes on the coming from it,” Groenert says. “In rather than working for U.S. compa- battlefield and embedded processing the future, with improved displays nies and Americans who go to work to reduce the amount of time and ef- and sensor autonomy, moving from in the commercial sector, includ- fort a soldier must devote to over- imagery to information, the sol- ing overseas, rather than in what is watch and situational awareness, dier can lift his head up and trust seen as a diminishing defense in- MUAVs have the potential to be- the sensor and aircraft carrying it dustry. But he also sees that largely come very important to future tac- to tell him when he needs to look at as a problem for very specific, mili- tics and operations. the imagery.” tary-only technologies. “The same missions can be done Each new technology that has with fewer soldiers or with an en- brought individual warfighters into Market explosion hanced awareness and better re- closer, real-time contact with high- “The small UAV field is exploding sponse to threats as sensors and er headquarters, such as individu- right now, with significant com- processing continue to improve,” al communications gear, has raised mercial work being done, especial- Groenert continues. “A lot of capa- the specter of those outside the the- ly embedded processing,” Groen- bility can be added in terms of re- ater of operations micromanaging ert says. “With targeted investment duced decision times, enhanced those on the inside. Instead, the re- and guidance, the Army can lever- ability to detect and respond to sult has tended more toward a better age a lot of that work and make sig- threats and create useful effects informed warfighter having greater nificant advances in areas that al- with fewer soldiers in harm’s way.” autonomy to deal with his immedi- ready are depending on commercial Technology trends include au- ate combat environment. work. I’m optimistic we can fol- tomation to reduce the number of The future of manpackable low the model of leveraging the do- UAV operators. “Today a lot of sys- MUAVs and sensors is a much broad- mestic commercial technology base tems require a soldier for every er issue than individual technology and not doing everything purely in- platform, putting a lot of his brain- developments or even America’s abil- house for the military.” power into keeping the system ity to maintain a technological edge,

14 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_14 14 7/1/16 8:08 AM SPECIAL REPORT

says Steven Sarnecki, vice president MUAVs because it decouples the size designs to new applications more of U.S. federal & public sector affairs of the sensor as a limiter on the pay- quickly than they ever have been at UAV software specialist OSIsoft load. Sarnecki cautions that simply able to do before. “I see us right now LLC in San Leandro, Calif. increasing the amount of data avail- being out-adapted,” Sarnecki warns. Instead, Sarnecki sees manpackable may not be the key to vastly im- “We may still be smarter and work able UAV development as ensuring proved systems. harder, but there are others in the the U.S. military has the right infra- “The one thing we cannot ignore world who can shift a lot more structure — from command head- is that more data is not the answer,” quickly than we can right now. quarters to field units to the plat- Sarnecki says. “With ISR and situa- We’re starting to see folks from oth- forms themselves — to aggregate tional awareness, more information er countries not just coming here an increasingly heavy data load, is the answer. We need to manage to be educated and then return- transforming raw data to useful in- the volume of data coming in, just ing home, we’re starting to see new formation made available to those as we are in society at large with the technologies coming out of those who need it in real time. Internet of Things. We will be able to countries, such as Brazil.” Sarnecki sees MUAVs as re- collect a lot more sensor data with The future of manpackable UAVs, mote-sensing platforms, deployed UAVs; the real key will be to deter- then, is an amalgam of factors, from where and when needed, with sen- mine differences over time.” leadership in evolving technologies to restricted funding to global compe- “I think the next breakthrough has to be tition to potential data overload. But what has marked 21st century com- power management, harvesting power from bat to date may make MUAVs with the sun, thus eliminating battery packs, advanced, even multifunctional, sen- the least reliable part of those systems.” — sors as vital to U.S. military success in the future as improved body ar- Benjamin Sharfi, CEO, General Micro Systems mor and precision-guided munitions. “The days of large, pitched battles sor data then integrated in real time At the same time, asymmetri- in a somewhat predictable fashion with geospatial data. This can cre- cal threats from adversaries such as are in many ways well behind us, so ate a mobile sensor that can provide ISIS mean what used to be restricted the idea the warfighter is becoming any type of measurement back to its to government funding now can be somewhat more autonomous, with user, then integrate that into a map tackled by three jihadists. more frequent but smaller in scale with data that changes in real time. operations, speaks to the need to put The challenge, he adds, is to break The pace of change flexible, small ISR capability in their down the tendency to “silo” prob- “The genie is out of the bottle,” Sar- hands,” Proulx concludes. lems to fit silos of funding. necki says. “We have not lost our “The value of a UAV is only as “What we have to deal with now ability to innovate, but we have lost good as its ability to collect and dis- is theater-scale situational aware- pace in our ability to educate new tribute needed data. That speaks ness, which requires a broader per- scientists and implement new tech- not only to having flexible sensor spective rather than very pre- nologies. Other nations and entities payloads — meaning users can affix scriptive funding to solve a past have gotten better at being adept different payloads in the field, with- problem,” Sarnecki says. “There is an at exploiting technology, including out tools, in a matter of seconds — opportunity for video R&D to be en- some we have developed. Any or- but ensuring the captured data is hanced and leveraged with minia- ganization or country has to be a available to everyone. So they have turized sensor technology that has learning organization, both educa- individual level intel-gathering ca- been developing in parallel.” tionally and through adaptation.” pability, but what they gather is Device miniaturization has been U.S. UAV designers also may be easily and securely shared with all the primary enabling technology of facing a requirement to adapt new who need it.” 

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 15

1607MAE_15 15 7/1/16 8:08 AM TECHNOLOGY F CUS

HPEC enables onboard data processing for persistent surveillance

Engineers blend multiple compute components in hybrid architectures to facilitate sensor and signal processing on ISR platforms.

BY Courtney E. Howard

“Threats facing warfighters today This need for more information is are more unpredictable than at any not unique to militaries, and is driv- time in history,” driving the need for ing the demand for powerful per- data, says Larry Schaffer, director sistent surveillance systems (PSS) Logos Technologies’ Simera wide-area motion of business development at Abaco throughout civil and defense orga- imaging sensor can monitor city-sized areas. Systems in Huntsville, Ala. nizations across the globe. The war- “In World War I, the first ‘tech- fighter relies on persistent surveil- Va. As a result, many concluded nological’ war, forces still fought lance, but so too do facilities in the that WAMI is difficult and expen- face-to-face; huge groupings thrust electrical and information infrastruc- sive, but that has changed in re- against each other, reminiscent of ture and where large groups of peo- cent years. Logos Technologies’ all wars before,” resulting in 11 mil- ple assemble, such as stadiums, en- Redkite, for example, “is a more ca- lion casualties, Schaffer explains. tertainment venues, transportation pable system at 20 pounds than was Then war entered a new age, fought hubs, and schools, Schaffer says. Constant Hawk when it deployed at less by force-on-force conflict, and “Intelligence, surveillance, and over 1,000 pounds,” he says. warfighters needed to know more reconnaissance (ISR) is hot and has “The community is starting to before they faced the opposition. been hot for some time, and the appreciate the value of WAMI,” Mar- “Just as WWI changed our need plunging cost of aerial platforms has ion says. “There was a bit of a learn- for information, current stateless brought ISR to the masses,” Schaffer ing curve, but there is a widening asymmetric threats change war- adds. “It is unbelievably widespread.” awareness of what WAMI can add fighters’ information needs,” Schaf- to force protection, event securi- fer says. “What is needed today is Surveillance sea change ty, disaster relief, and asset protec- ‘situational understanding’ or a con- Early wide-area motion imaging tion. These assets could range from tent-rich, real-time picture as well (WAMI) systems developed by the protecting a nuclear power plant to as historical and predictive informa- U.S. military have been large and protecting rhinos from poachers.” tion in many domains.” Situational expensive to procure, operate, and Marion compares global WAMI awareness refers to knowing what’s maintain, and they had a very large adoption to that of full-motion vid- going on in real time — “knowing processing, exploitation, and dis- eo (FMV). “A decade ago, FMV was in where the good guys and bad guys semination (PED) analyst footprint, limited use, but now it’s everywhere. are, what the terrain and potential explains John Marion, president of I expect the same thing to happen mission threats are,” he explains. Logos Technologies LLC in Fairfax, with WAMI. The U.S. military has

16 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_16 16 7/1/16 8:08 AM been leading on that front, but there use of open architectures, commer- tracking commercial development has also been a dramatic increase in cial off-the-shelf (COTS) rather than in three key areas: cameras, focal international awareness and inter- proprietary parts, and adherence to planes, and processing components.” est in WAMI.” Logos has more than industry standards. Logos, for exam- a dozen systems offered for sale or ple, “integrates these systems from a More compute power under active development, and the mixture of custom and COTS parts,” Persistent surveillance isn’t just cap- uses include disaster relief, border Marion describes. “We are always turing data anymore; it’s now much and critical infrastructure protection, force protection, law enforce- ment, and counter-poaching surveillance. Key characteristics customers seek are low system size, weight, and power (SWaP) and improved analyst tools to reduce the PED burden. “A key driver for the proliferation of WAMI is reducing system SWaP,” Marion says. “Take the 700-pound Gorgon Stare, for example. Not many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can carry it, but if you drop the weight of the WAMI system to 20 pounds including processing, as we have done with Redkite, then you get a sensor that can go on a large number of platforms, including Group 3 UAVs.” Marion anticipates greater proliferation in mission sets, as well. “The first WAMI systems, Constant Hawk and Angel Fire, were deployed to Iraq in 2006 for ISR. In 2011, Kestrel was deployed on aerostats to protect troops operating in and around forward operating bases (FOBs) in Af- ghanistan. In the past few years, we’ve also seen the testing of WAMI for border and event security; and right now, we see it being evaluated for disaster relief supporting human- itarian aid missions as well as to protect megafauna from poachers.” Persistent surveillance, wide-area motion imaging, and wide-area aerial surveillance (WAAS) systems are as varied as the missions they ful- fill, if not more so. Some commonal- ity among systems exists, however, given the growing demand for and

www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_17 17 7/1/16 8:08 AM TECHNOLOGY F CUS

more sophisticated and encompasses transmit data is the problem of ag- “analytics, data fusion, sensor fusion, gregating, correlating, and devel- predictive analysis, including gaze oping an understanding of all this recognition, intent recognition, crowd data — which, of course, is use- interaction dynamics, and more,” less without knowing what it means,” Abaco’s Schaffer observes. “As we get Schaffer adds. “What is increasing- Small, low-power, module-based COTS comput- more and more sensor modalities ly important is a better kind of data ing solutions such as Kontron’s COBALT enable (UV, IR, lidar, radar, sonar, spectral, compression, where only results, not upgrades to the latest advanced processors. visible) adding to a-priori (geomor- raw data, are sent. This is the work phology, past events, weather and to be done on the platform. How, (DSPs), field-programmable gate ar- climate patterns), the richness of this you ask? It will be done by ‘learn- rays (FPGAs), and general-purpose data added to the need for processing machines’ — high-performance processors. The processing stack for ing it quickly is driving demand for computers that can process mas- the company’s Redkite UAV system higher levels of processing power.” sive data sets based on experience, performs all the processing, yet the This compelling need has brought or processing based on an under- weighs only three pounds and draws Abaco many customers seeking standing of what is important in a 100 watts, Marion says. “We have a high-performance embedded com- multi-domain dataset.” fully capable WAMI system — includ- puting (HPEC), according to Schaffer. Onboard processing is key, says ing sensor, embedded processing per- The company provides the comput- Logos Technologies’ Marion, because forming all analytics, and data stor- er that fuses radar, lidar, visible, in- it enables users to exploit data in real age — housed in a 20-pound package. frared, and synthetic (a-priori) data time, as it is collected, with a data Our infrared system for nighttime into one real-time visualization for link whose capacity is three orders use is fairly light too: only 50 percent helicopter pilot situational under- of magnitude lower than the rate at heavier than the daytime WAMI.” standing — “one single picture that which data is collected. Along with the small size of the encompasses multiple data streams sensors, it follows that the process- and sensor modalities. These HPEC Sensor systems ing elements must be small as well, systems must [also] be carried on The focus on sensor systems usually Abaco’s Schaffer says. “Small size space/power-constrained platforms, involves specifics of the sensor itself, and low mass work well to support giving us a ‘sizable’ advantage, as the but data processing and analytics are something else that is needed: rug- HPEC unit that does this is about the just as important — especially in ex- gedness. At Abaco, we have a ful- size of a six-pack of beer.” ploiting the WAMI data with other in- ly rugged, 300 MFLOP computer the telligence sources, Marion says. For size of a credit card that takes less Big data and bandwidth the past seven years, Logos engineers than 10 watts, so we know how to The past decade has brought not have been taking advantage of devel- do rugged, small, and powerful.” only huge strides in wireless data opments in commercial embedded Ruggedness and operational transmission, to which cell phone processing to produce “much more availability are extremely import- users can testify, but also massive capable WAMI processing systems ant, Marion says, because WAMI arrays of ever-higher-resolution sen- in ever smaller packages,” he says. systems are often used close to 24/7. sors operating in multiple modalities “For these systems, software devel- “For example, the operational avail- on remote platforms, Schaffer says. opment needs to be done in parallel ability of our Kestrel systems in Af- “This need for bandwidth has far with the hardware development so ghanistan has been at 94 percent out-paced the ability of down-links analytic functions can be performed with over 200,000 operation hours.” to cope, so we take lots of data and at these data rates in real time but in “The ability to operate for a long squirt it out over time and, therefore, SWaP-miniaturized hardware.” time is a given, but computers pro- sacrifice real-time understanding. In the design of Logos custom- duced today will quickly be replaced “Less than desirable for sure, but ized processing boards, engineers as sensors demand even higher-per- far more than the time it takes to use a mix of digital signal processors formance processors,” Schaffer adds.

18 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_18 18 7/1/16 8:08 AM TECHNOLOGY F CUS

“In only the past few years, our com- application areas for such tech- as far back as the Vietnam War. puters have reduced weight by 75 nologies are proliferating wildly,” However, until relatively recent- percent and consume 90 percent says Mark Littlefield, vertical prod- ly, persistent surveillance systems less power per MFLOP. This is an un- uct manager, defense at Kontron have been custom-crafted to meet relenting trend and we are on it daily.” in Poway, Calif. “Persistent surveil- extremely low SWaP requirements. Abaco’s computing solutions are lance isn’t new; systems like this Extremely small and low-power “widespread in the processing of have been deployed by the U.S. COTS computing hardware, along video, radar, sonar, and other complex datasets related to PSS/WAAS,” Schaffer says. “Go small or go home. Today, it is truly about low SWaP; higher performance and lower con- AIA sumption in all domains; and doing CONVCONVERTERERTER more with less.” Flexible DC-DC Analyst overload Power Systems Myriad surveillance systems are cap- for Military & High Reliability Applications turing more data now than at any • 800 Watts Conduction Cooled (No Fans) • 9~45 or 16~80 VDC Input Ranges other time in history. Analysts are • MIL-STD-704, 461 & DO-160 Compliant overwhelmed, and technology firms • Measures only 180 x 120 x 60mm are helping to lighten the load. “For years, we’ve been performing real-time onboard processing to sta- bilize and geo-locate the imagery as well as provide multiple ground users GPack800 their own pan and zoom view within 800 Watt Modular DC-DC Power System the imagery. That was demonstrated • Up to 4 Isolated Outputs for a U.S. government customer near- • Parallel or Serial Connections ly a decade ago,” says Marion. “More • -40~+85°C Ambient (-55°C Option), recently, we’ve added precision geo- Conduction Cooled Operation registration, automated tracking of • Ultra-Wide input ranges: - 9~45Vdc (transient 60Vdc/100ms) all the moving targets in the scene, - 16~80Vdc (transient 100Vdc/100ms) and other tools that help dramatical- • Reverse Polarity Protection ly reduce the burden on analysts. • Inrush Current Limiting “We are now providing tools to • Advanced Status & Control - Global Output Enable / Inhibit organize the WAMI data, along with - Individual Voltage Enable / Inhibit data from other intelligence sourc- - Synchronization In/Out (560kHZ) - Over Temperature Monitor es, in ways that very significant- - Remote Sense (≤10% compensation) ly streamline the analytical process, - Output Voltage Trimming - Output Current Trimming allowing single analysts to solve - Active Current Share (± 5% Accuracy) problems much faster, and allowing • Up to 88% efficiency them to solve much more complex problems,” Marion continues.

Overcoming past limitations “Persistent surveillance sys- www.gaia-converter.com tems are in high demand, and

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 19

1607MAE_19 19 7/1/16 8:08 AM TECHNOLOGY F CUS

with standardized methods to forming distributed networks, are making low-cost, COTS-based solutions possible.” In the past, significant digital signal processing or image processing was limited to fairly large platforms because extremely small, low-power platforms didn’t have the computing horsepower needed for these applications, Littlefield continues. Times have changed with the availability of processors in the sub- or couple-of-watt range Redkite records, stores, and processes all activity within its coverage area for up to eight hours. capable of performing real-time image processing or DSP. “When these processors are linked to sensors and network communications software to provide COTS- ad-hoc networking hardware based on standards, they based solutions for the computing and communications form an ideal platform for PSS,” Littlefield says. The ac- portions of the PSS application — leaving the sensors tual deployment platform can vary widely; the com- used and the “special sauce” of the applications codes mon element is that they sense their environment and for processing and analyzing the data collected by the share data and information with neighboring sensor sensors to customers, Littlefield says. platforms. “Each platform has its own needs and chal- Kontron engineers marry standards-based COMe lenges which drive system design.” Mini and SMARC small-form-factor hardware compo- Kontron leverages small/low-power computing plat- nents with software tools like MQTT to create an appli- forms, the Internet of Things (IoT), and standards-based cation platform for persistent surveillance. Littlefield ad- vises engineers against spinning their “own hardware and software frameworks. There are COTS solutions out there; engage the market. Even if there is not a RUGGEDIZED product that is 100 percent suitable for your application, 19" RACKS there may be something that could be adjusted slightly to meet your specific needs. That’s the power of COTS.” ERacks ï Welded Aluminum ï Lightweight & Rugged ï U to 1U Sizes ï EMI/EMC Shielding Availableble Popular processing trio Processors today — multicore chips, GPUs, FPGAs, and AmazonA RRacksk a combination — are very efficient in performance ï Rotomolded Polyethylene ï Integral Wheels ï 4U to 14U Sizes ï Short Lead Times per unit of power and capabilities, supporting the unmanned vehicle doing the processing in the sky, explains Marc Couture, senior product manager at Curtiss-Wright 19" rack-mount transit cases are shock- Controls Defense Solutions in Littleton, Mass. mounted, with 19"-34" deep chassis- . “The Achilles heel is typically the common data link ! to the ground, not a lot of bandwidth,” Couture says. “In- " " -# $.%#&#&&'. %#&#&&' &()*+(.($& , stead of sending whole images from an MQ-9 Reaper type of unmanned aircraft, just sending the information — CP Cases, Inc. that capability exists now, and not just for the biggest (410) 352-9450 UAVs like Global Hawk, but also for smaller [platforms], [email protected] www.cpcases.com including the Shadow, because we’re able to pack a lot of processing in a small footprint.” A magic trio of processing technologies is popular now, Couture describes. “Often FPGAs are closest to the electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) sensor, typically seated right behind it. They are input/output (I/O) chameleons that adapt to sensor output and perform image compression; they

20 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_20 20 7/1/16 8:08 AM TECHNOLOGY F CUS

are good at doing repetitive things in realm we’re bringing into the mil-ae- level, and the tricky thing is how to parallel quickly.” ro realm,” Couture continues. “WAAS build boards and enclosures to make Further, a multicore Intel device is one of the most compute-intensive use of these massive efficiencies. In- is the general-purpose processor of applications there is. Customers are frastructure technologies and hy- choice and well suited to identifying asking how much they should pros- brid processing may change how we threats on the ground. The third de- ecute with FPGAs, processors, and architect systems in the future, and vice, a general-purpose graphics pro- GPUs. Now we’re down to the chip enable new ways to do things.”  cessing unit (GPGPU), is very good at very compute-intensive tasks, Cou- ture says. “They provide teraflops (floating-point operations per second) ® of computing power for stitching together images from multi-gigapix- el cameras, matching and correlating High Speed Board to Board data, orthogonal rectification, intensive algorithms, and so on. When the Compliant Connector Intel processor gets overwhelmed, work is offloaded to GPUs. “This heterogeneous trio enables big capabilities for WAAS/PED while keeping SWaP-C low. It can scale the processing for big UAVs or smaller ones. Now it’s open to all different size birds,” Couture adds. Magnified View of Pins Arranged in a Solderless Board-to-Board Interconnect Coaxial RF Configuration The goal is to have multiple UAVs using InvisipinÆ (shown with compression stop) with very high-resolution cameras HIGH DENSITY INTERCONNECT ï NEAR-ZERO THICKNESS and processing covering the surface area on the Planet Earth, says Cou- Specifications ture. “A platoon leader just wants to ï > 50 GHz Bandwidth @1 dB get troops over a dune. Now he can ï 20 m C-Res (typical) call up and say ‘I need specific im- ï Up to 4 Amps agery for this area.’ The UAV will beam down an image of that area Configurations to him,” Couture says. “A two-star ï 0.23mm to 0.64mm diameter pins general might want [data about] 30 ï Pitches from 0.4mm to >1mm Compliant InvisipinÆ Interconnect square miles; the same UAV can give *Available in tape and reel (machine placeable) or fully integrated into custom products. an overall snapshot of that. It’s like having a server in the sky, captur- INFINITELY CONFIGURABLE ï INDIVIDUALLY SOLDERABLE ï HI COMPLIANCE RANGE ing data in real time and in no time beaming it to the ground to have analysts look at it. They have real-time access to data in the midst of it — in-theater data.

“High-level processing on the plat- www.RDIS.com/MA [email protected] 610-443-2299 form is possible because of the avail- ©2015 R&D Interconnect Solutions. All rights reserved. R&D Interconnect Solutions, Invisipin, and RDIS.com are ability of Intel Xeon D, the proces- trademarks of R&D Interconnect Solutions. sor of choice in the supercomputing

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 21

1607MAE_21 21 7/1/16 8:08 AM RF& microwave

Special Ops readies industry  Harris wins potential $1.7 billion radio contract competition to develop U.S. Army communications spe- new manpack radio cialists finalized a potential $1.7 billion contract with Harris BY John Keller Corp. to provide military radio equipment to Afghanistan and MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — U.S. Spe- other U.S. allies under the For- cial Operations Command (SOCOM) eign Military Sales program. at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., is fi- The indefinite-delivery/indef- nalizing plans to buy a next-genera- inite-quantity (IDIQ) contract tion manpack (NGMP) radio in a po- with Harris RF Communications tential $290 million program. in Rochester, N.Y., will involve The NGMP radio will enable Spe- a wide range of secure radio cial Operations teams to communi- communications, tactical com- cate on selected frequencies from 30 U.S. Special Operations Command is reaching out to industry to develop a new manpack munication networks, and em- to 2,600 MHz with embedded com- radio system. bedded, high-grade encryption munications security. It will have an solutions, as well as ancillaries, open-systems architecture to enable operation with each channel able spare parts, and services. periodic hardware, firmware, oper- to support narrowband and wide- ating software, and radio waveform band waveforms simultaneously  Marine Corps seeks upgrades. The future Special Op- while receiving intelligence, surveil- wearable IMUs to erations Next-Generation ManPack lance, and reconnaissance (ISR) data measure fatigue (NGMP) Radio will replace SOCOM’s in full-motion video as an embedded U.S. Marine Corps researchers current radio communications capability or via an attached mission are reaching out to industry for equipment like the AN/PRC-117F and module. wearable inertial measurement PRC 117G multiband multimission The NGMP must be able to cross- units (IMUs) small enough to at- radios, as well as the AN/PRC-150 band data from one of its two chan- tach to the feet, legs, backs, and multiband radio. nels to the other and from the ISR chests of Marine infantrymen. SOCOM radio communications ex- receiver to either of the two radio Officials of the Marine Corps perts are trying to determine if in- channels, as well as include an em- Systems Command at Quanti- dustry can meet their requirements bedded selective availability anti- co Marine Base, Va., issued a primarily with existing radio tech- spoofing module (SAASM) global po- source-sought notice (M67854- nology. The radio — with National sitioning system (GPS) receiver. 16-N-0510) for small, lightweight Security Agency (NSA) and Joint In- For this radio SOCOM needs Spe- IMUs to help with infantry mo- teroperability Test Command (JITC) cial Forces capabilities like the bility research. Researchers certifications — should be available Demand Assigned Multiple Ac- want to gather IMU data to eval- for purchase no later than 12 months cess (DAMA) integrated waveform uate the fatigue and perfor- after contract award. The contract (IW) for UHF satellite communica- mance of Marines operating in will span six years of radio deliveries tions (SATCOM); Mobile User Objec- the field over a variety of terrain and could be worth as much as $290 tive System (MOUS); general-pur- and carrying different kinds of million, SOCOM officials say. pose, narrowband and wideband warfighter equipment.  The new radio should be capa- high-frequency (HF) waveforms; ad- ble of simultaneous two-channel vanced special communications

22 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_22 22 7/1/16 8:08 AM modes (ASCM); and electronic to include software, logistics sup- [email protected] and Le- counter-counter measures (ECCM) port, operational and depot-level atrice Frederick at frederl@socom. waveforms. maintenance, data, and training. mil.  The contractor chosen to provide Companies interested should MORE INFORMATION IS the new SOCOM radios also must e-mail comments, questions, or online at https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/ provide program and configuration concerns to NGMP Program Man- USSOCOM/SOAL-KB/H92222-16-R- management, systems engineering ager David Tenebaum at david. XXXX/listing.html.

GD upgrading Navy shipboard radio with HF automatic link establishment

BY John Keller

SAN DIEGO — Military radio experts at dropouts. It also is susceptible to in- An ALE-equipped radio uses a call- General Dynamics are upgrading the terference from lightning storms, and sign or address in an ALE controller, U.S. Navy AN/USC-61(C) maritime ra- propagates differently in the daytime, which scans through a list of frequen- dio system to high-frequency (HF) ca- at night, and during different seasons. cies listening for other ALE radio call- pability and automatic link establish- Automatic link establishment signs. To reach a specific station, the ment (ALE) to enhance shipboard seeks to overcome deficiencies by caller simply enters the callsign just over-the-horizon communications. enabling radio operators to choose like dialing a phone number. U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Sys- the best frequencies on which two The ALE controller selects the tems Command (SPAWAR) officials stations or a network of stations best available frequency and sends in San Diego announced a $7.3 mil- out brief digital selective calling sig- lion contract modification to General nals containing the callsigns. When Dynamics Mission Systems in Scott- the distant scanning station detects sdale, Ariz., to update DMR software the first few characters of its call- to add HF and ALE capabilities. sign, it stops scanning and stays on The General Dynamics AN/USC- that frequency. The two stations’ 61(C) shipboard radio enables sur- ALE controllers automatically hand- face ships and submarines to com- shake to confirm that a link is estab- Radio rooms on U.S. Navy surface warships municate over high frequency (HF), lished and they are ready to commu- are getting an upgrade to enable more clear ultra-high frequency (UHF) line of and easy-to-use HF radio signals. nicate. If changes in the ionosphere sight, UHF satellite communications break or interfere with communica- (SATCOM), and very high frequen- can transmit and receive. ALE is the tions in progress, the system quickly cy (VHF) radio bands. HF radio oper- de-facto worldwide standard for ini- can re-establish communications by ates on frequencies between 3 and tiating and sustaining HF communi- finding other clear frequencies. 30 MHz using radio waves that can cations for voice, data, text, instant AN/USC-61(C) uses open-architec- bounce off the ionosphere layer of messaging, internet messaging, or ture standards and includes embed- the Earth’s atmosphere to achieve image communications. ALE alerts ded type 1 encryption; embedded long-range communications. HF also radio operators audibly and visual- red/black baseband switching and is capable of line-of-sight commu- ly so they can begin communicating routing; co-site performance; single nications, as well as ground-wave with each other immediately, and point of control for radio communi- over-the-horizon communications. helps eliminate the longstanding cations; and built-in test (BIT). Using HF can be tricky because need for repetitive calling on pre-de- General Dynamics will do the changes in the ionosphere can cause termined time schedules and moni- work in Scottsdale, Ariz., and should RF interference and communications toring static on HF radios. be finished by April 2018. 

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 23

1607MAE_23 23 7/1/16 8:08 AM UNMANNED vehicles MORSECORP joins DARPA program for Northrop Grumman to build second TERN melting air-drop unmanned aircraft prototype UAV

BY John Keller Unmanned aircraft designers at Northrop Grumman Corp. are ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. military re- developing a second prototype searchers have chosen a third com- unmanned air vehicle (UAV) pany to develop small, unpowered, and shipboard launch and re- and unmanned aircraft to air-drop covery system to enable the small packages for forward-de- UAV to fly from relatively small ployed forces. After delivery, the MORSECORP is joining the DARPA ICARUS program to develop air-drop unmanned surface ships like destroyers, unmanned aircraft melt without aircraft that melt for stealth and secrecy. frigates, and freighters. U.S. De- any detectable trace to keep them fense Advanced Research Proj- out of enemy hands. ishing unmanned aerial vehicle ects Agency (DARPA) officials in Officials of the U.S. Defense Ad- (UAV) able to deliver a small pack- Arlington, Va., announced $17.8 vanced Research Projects Agency age no larger than three pounds to million contract modification to (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., have add- a GPS-programmed location with the Northrop Grumman Aero- ed MORSECORP Inc. in Cambridge, 33-foot accuracy. space Systems segment in Re- Mass., to the Inbound, Controlled, The small aircraft, which the dondo Beach, Calif., for phase-3 Air-Releasable, Unrecoverable Sys- companies will develop to oper- work on the Tactically Exploit- tems (ICARUS) program. ate at night, must be able to vanish ed Reconnaissance Node (TERN) MORSECORP joins the Xerox within four hours of landing, leav- program, which seeks to over- Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in ing remnants no larger than 100 mi- come limitations of Navy ship- Palo Alto, Calif., and DZYNE Tech- crons — or about the width of a hu- board aircraft surveillance. He- nologies Inc. in Fairfax, Va., on the man hair. licopters are relatively limited ICARUS program, which seeks to The vanishing vehicles that in maximum distances and design and demonstrate a precision, MORSECORP, PARC, and DZYNE will flight times, for example, while autonomous, guided, air-delivery develop must be no larger than 10 fixed-wing manned and un- vehicle that vanishes on command. feet in their largest dimension, and manned aircraft must operate MORSECORP specializes in vehi- be able to glide for nearly 100 miles from aircraft carriers or large cle guidance, navigation, and con- when released from altitudes of land bases with long runways, trol; mission planning; multi-vehi- 35,000 feet. although they can fly farther cle autonomy; computer vision; and DARPA researchers primarily and longer than helicopters. mobile computing. want to determine whether a large The ultimate goal for a TERN The ICARUS approach is similar structure can be made transient UAV and launch system is to to the DARPA Vanishing Program- cheaply enough to be disposable, enable persistent intelligence, mable Resources (VAPR) program to such that they limit the logistics surveillance, and reconnais- develop sensitive electronic compo- trail and make the most of range. sance (ISR) and strike capabil- nents able to self-destruct on com- Critical technical challenges ities with payloads as large as mand to keep them out of the hands facing the ICARUS program cover 600 pounds while operating at of potential adversaries. PARC also is two major categories: aerodynam- ranges as long as 900 nautical involved in the VAPR program. ics and materials. miles from a host vessel.  ICARUS is asking MORSECORP, CONTINUED ON PAGE 25  PARC, and DZYNE to develop a van-

24 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_24 24 7/1/16 8:08 AM NASA to determine state of the art in UAV sense and avoid avionics

BY John Keller seeks to determine industry’s abili- strong Flight Research Center at Ed- EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — U.S. ty to design and integrate airborne wards Air Force Base, Calif. aviation authorities are reaching sensors of relatively small size, Of particular interest to NASA are out to industry for help in formulat- weight, and power consumption UAVs expected to operate side-by- ing avionics performance standards (SWaP) for medium-size UAVs. side with manned commercial and for medium-sized unmanned aeri- Of primary concern are un- general-aviation aircraft flying in al vehicles (UAV) that must be able manned aircraft operating under FAA Class D, E, or G airspace. to sense and avoid other aircraft in FAA Class D describes con- controlled airspace. trolled airspace that extends Officials of the National Aero- from the surface to 2,500 feet nautics and Space Administra- surrounding airports with option (NASA) have issued a sourc- erational control towers. In this es-sought notice (NND16828627L) airspace, each aircraft must es- for the Alternative Airborne Sur- tablish two-way radio commu- veillance Systems for Beyond Visu- nications with the tower. al Line of Sight Unmanned Aircraft Class E describes airspace Systems (UAS) Detect and Avoid between 14,500 and 18,000 project. feet over the U.S. and over the The FAA is asking industry’s help in formulating sense- This survey — part of the NASA ocean within 12 nautical miles and-avoid standards for medium-sized unmanned UAS Integration in the National Air- aerial vehicles operating in controlled airspace. of the coast. It also describes space System (UAS-NAS) project — U.S. airspace above 60,000 feet. instrument flight rules (IFR) at al- Class G, meanwhile, is uncontrolled titudes higher than 500 feet at be- airspace. NASA experts also would DARPA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 24 yond-line-of-sight distances from like to hear from manufacturers The ICARUS program will span their control centers. of optionally piloted aircraft ex- two phases and 26 months, culmi- These unmanned aircraft are not pected to operate in these kinds of nating in a field-test of vanishing able to carry large surveillance sen- conditions. precision air delivery prototypes. sors, yet still need to watch their Makers of relevant airborne sen- MORSECORP, PARC, and DZYNE surroundings for other aircraft. Can- sors or aircraft should respond to are involved in the first phase, didate sensors include electro-opti- NASA by e-mail at afrc-uas-nas@ which will develop and demon- cal/infrared (EO/IR), light detection mail.nasa.gov, or by post at NA- strate an air delivery vehicle us- and ranging (LIDAR), relatively small SA-Armstrong Flight Research Cen- ing nontransient materials. The op- radar systems, or small Automat- ter, P.O. Box 273 M/S S323, Edwards, tional second phase will fabricate a ic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast CA 93523. For questions or con- field testable, vanishing air delivery (ADS-B) avionics. cerns, contact NASA’s Rosalia To- vehicle.  NASA experts will use industry berman by e-mail at rosalia.to- responses to help formulate RTCA [email protected], or by phone at FOR MORE INFORMATION Special Committee-228 Minimum 661-276-3931.  visit MORSECORP online at Operational Performance Standards www.morse-corp.com, PARC at MORE INFORMATION IS online at (MOPS) for medium-sized UAVs. www.parc.com, DZYNE Technologies https://www.fbo.gov/spg/NASA/ at www.dzynetech.com, or DARPA at The request for information was re- DFRC/OPDC20220/NND16828627L/ www.darpa.mil. leased on behalf of the NASA Arm- listing.html.

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 25

1607MAE_25 25 7/1/16 8:08 AM ELECTRO OPTICSwatch ELECTROO OPTICSwatchc

 Navy orders six Blackjack Lockheed Martin, Raytheon tackle DARPA UAVs for naval and Marine Corps surveillance project to enable cooperating UAVs U.S. Navy officials are buying six BY John Keller new RQ-21A Blackjack small tactical unmanned aerial vehicles ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. military is (UAVs) to provide surveillance ca- moving forward with a program to pability for U.S. Marine Corps and enable cooperating surveillance and Navy tactical commanders. Of- attack unmanned aerial vehicles ficials of the Naval Air Systems (UAVs) to work together on missions Command at Patuxent River Na- involving electronic jamming, de- U.S. military researchers are trying to blend sensors and multi-sensor fusion technologies val Air Station, Md., announced graded communications, and other to enable unmanned aircraft to work together. a $71.6 million contract to Boeing difficult operating conditions. Insitu Inc. in Bingen, Wash., for Officials of the U.S. Defense Ad- H. Wagner Associates in Hampton, six low-rate initial production lot-5 vanced Research Projects Agen- Va.; Scientific Systems Co. in Wo- Blackjack unmanned aircraft sys- cy (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., an- burn, Mass.; Smart Information Flow tems, which include air vehicles, nounced a $7.4 million phase-two Technologies LLC in Minneapolis; ground control stations, launch contract to the Lockheed Martin Soar Technology Inc. in Ann Arbor, and recovery equipment, and Corp. Missiles and Fire Control seg- Mich.; SRI International in Menlo spare parts. The Boeing Insitu RQ- ment in Orlando, Fla., for the Collab- Park, Calif.; and Applied Commu- 21 is a twin-boom, single-engine, orative Operations In Denied Envi- nication Sciences in Basking Ridge, monoplane UAV for surveillance ronment (CODE) program. N.J., DARPA officials say. and reconnaissance. It can be DARPA officials also awarded The program’s first phase focused launched and recovered on land a CODE phase-two contract to the on the design, development, and de- or at sea without runways, using a Raytheon Co. Missile Systems seg- livery of the system requirements pneumatic launcher and net-type ment in Tucson, Ariz., but did not definition and preliminary system recovery system. The 81-pound specify the contract amount. design for a CODE prototype. The Blackjack is eight feet long with The CODE program seeks to ex- second phase is to mature the al- a 16-foot wingspan designed to pand the mission capabilities of gorithm suite necessary to enable carry multi-sensor payloads in a existing UAVs through increased new services. large pod below its nose. The UAV autonomy and inter-platform collab- Although today’s UAVs have prov- can fly as quickly as 104 miles oration. Collaborative autonomy has en themselves in a wide range of mis- per hour, cruises at 63 miles per the potential to increase capabilities sions, most current UAVs are not well hour, and can fly as long as 24 and reduce costs of today’s UAVs by matched to the needs of future con- hours and as high as 19,500 feet. It composing heterogeneous teams of flicts, DARPA officials say. Compared is a version of the Insitu Integra- UAVs that can capitalize on the ca- to today, future conflicts will be much tor UAV. The multimission RQ-21A pabilities of each unmanned aircraft less permissive, very dynamic, con- Blackjack’s open-architecture pay- without the need to duplicate or in- front U.S. and allied forces with more load bays can be customized with tegrate capabilities into one UAV, dangerous threats, and involve con- visible-light and infrared cameras, DARPA officials say. tested electromagnetic spectrum and communications and other tools Companies working with Lock- relocatable targets, researchers say. to give warfighters on the forward heed Martin and Raytheon on the In these future conflicts, UAVs CODE phase-two contract are Daniel could use collaboration algorithms

26 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_26 26 7/1/16 8:12 AM to help each other with tasks like Lastly, DARPA wants to develop edge of battle situational aware- geo-locating targets with long-dis- an open architecture for UAV collab- ness information. It can integrate tance sensors, as well as guiding oration to help commanders main- new payloads quickly, offers roll- less-capable UAVs to within their tain situational awareness and on, roll-off capability to move the sensor ranges. control of the UAVs in electron- system quickly from ship to shore, Collaboration algorithms could ic jamming, poor communications, and aboard cargo aircraft. The help UAVs work together to provide bad weather, and other adverse UAV can carry sensor payloads as multi-modal sensors and diverse conditions. DARPA briefed indus- heavy as 39 pounds. observation angles to improve tar- try on CODE program details earli- FOR MORE INFORMATION get identification, transmit import- er this month. visit Boeing Insitu online at ant information through the net- The program is divided into three www.insitu.com. work, provide navigational aide to phases. The first phase focused on low-tech or damaged UAVs, and system analysis, architecture, de- protect each other by overwhelm- sign, and critical technologies. The  Rugged smart camera for ing defenses. first phase also had two tracks, one industrial environments Goals of the CODE program are for system integrators and the other introduced by ADLINK to develop and demonstrate the val- for technology developers. ADLINK Technology in San Jose, ue of collaborative UAV autonomy in In addition to Lockheed Mar- Calif., is introducing the NEON- tactical situations; rapidly bring that tin, Leidos Inc. in Reston, Va., par- 1040 x86 rugged smart camera for capability to the warfighter; develop ticipated in the CODE program’s harsh environments. The NEON- ways to expand the range of collab- first phase. Leidos won a $4.2 mil- 1040 has an IP67-rated housing, orative UAV missions; and help re- lion CODE phase-one contract in M12 connectors, quad-core In- searchers contribute to collaborative November 2014. tel-based processor, field-pro- autonomy technologies. The second phase involves de- grammable gate array (FPGA) DARPA researchers primarily are tailed design of the CODE system co-processors, and graphics pro- interested in four areas. First, they and in-flight demonstrations. The cessing unit (GPU) for high-speed, want to develop autonomy for third phase will develop and demon- high-resolution imaging applica- the subsystems, equipment, and strate full mission capability during tions. The NEON-1040 features a flight trajectories of UAVs work- three series of flight tests. 4-megapixel, 60-frame-per-second ing alone under routine and abnor- The CODE program’s first phase global shutter sensor and the Intel mal conditions. ran through early this year. The sec- Atom quad core 1.9 GHz processor, Second, DARPA researchers want ond phase runs from early 2017 featuring minimal footprint and to develop interfaces to enable mis- to mid-2017, while the third phase rugged IP67-rated construction. sion commanders to maintain sit- runs from mid-2017 through the The quad-core CPU increases com- uational awareness, dynamically end of 2018. puting power, and FPGA copro- define mission objectives and prob- On this contract modification cessors and GPU deliver advanced lems, monitor progress, and provide Lockheed Martin will do the work in image processing. Software sup- important inputs as necessary to Orlando, Fla.; Cherry Hill, N.J.; Fort port and API compatibility enable several UAVs simultaneously. Worth, Texas; Minneapolis; Ann Ar- migration from original x86 plat- Then researchers want to develop bor, Mich.; Exton, Pa.; Pittsburgh; and forms. The NEON-1040 offers as UAV team-level autonomy, including Philadelphia, and should be finished much as 32 gigabytes of storage developing and maintaining a com- by May 2017.  for image processing, programs, mon representation of the operat- and archiving.  FOR MORE INFORMATION visit ing environment to help formulate Lockheed Martin Missiles FOR MORE INFORMATION collaborative action plans that make and Fire Control online at visit ADLINK online the most of the strengths of each www.lockheedmartin.com/us/mfc, or at www.adlinktech.com. participating UAV. DARPA at www.darpa.mil.

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 27

1607MAE_27 27 7/1/16 8:12 AM PRODUCT applications

NAVIGATION AND GUIDANCE DISPLAYS Air Force looks to Rockwell Collins to Navy chooses Honeywell for cockpit provide handheld GPS navigation displays on carrier-based combat jets U.S. Air Force navigation and guidance experts are readying a potential U.S. Navy avionics specialists are five-year contract to Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to build looking to the Honeywell Interna- and maintain military handheld GPS receivers. tional Inc. Aerospace segment in Officials of the Air Force Materiel Command at Robins Air Force Albuquerque, N.M., for several sizes Base, Ga., are revealing plans to award a sole-source contract to of advanced multipurpose displays Rockwell Collins for the Defense Advanced Global Positioning System (AMPD) for the avionics systems of (GPS) Receiver (DAGR). These the Navy F/A-18F jet fighter-bomb- purchases will be for U.S. and er and EA-18G electronic warfare foreign military customers. aircraft. The DAGR is the approved Officials of U.S. Naval Air Sys- handheld GPS receiver for all tems Command at Patuxent River U.S. military services and is Naval Air Station, Md., announced integrated or embedded in more a $9.1 million contract to Honeywell than 150 military platforms, Air to provide 101 advanced multipur- Force officials say. pose avionics displays for the F/A- DAGR is a small, lightweight GPS receiver for vehicular, handheld, 18F and EA-18G aircraft. sensor, and gun laying applications. It provides moving map and The AMPD rugged display family situational awareness capabilities, and it meets military environmental consists of 5-by-5-inch forward avion- requirements. ics displays, 5-by-5-inch aft displays, The DAGR provides enhanced protection against jammers and was and 8-by-10-inch avionics displays. among the first handheld GPS receiver programs in the U.S. to include The AMPD replaces obsolete selective availability anti-spoofing module (SAASM) security technology, cathode ray tube (CRT)-based dis- Rockwell Collins officials say. plays in legacy aircraft, and uses The Air Force will solicit and negotiate with Rockwell Collins on a state-of-the-art active matrix liquid sole-source basis to build, repair, and de-militarize DAGR units. The Air crystal display (AMLCD) technology. Force will award the contract to Rockwell Collins sole-source because The displays are full color, high the government does not own rights to the unit’s technical data to density, and can be used during the support a competitive procurement from any other source, officials say. day, at night, and with the night vi- The proposed contract is for a one-year basic period plus four one- sion imaging system (NVIS). Of the year ordering periods. The value of the upcoming contract has yet to be AMPD family, the 5-by-5-inch ver- negotiated. sions are for the F/A-18E/F/G models, and the 8-by-10-inch versions FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Rockwell Collins online at are for the F/A-18F/G aft cockpit. The www.rockwellcollins.com. 8-by-10-inch model includes a direct digital video input. The displays

28 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_28 28 7/1/16 8:12 AM provide symbology, raster, and hy- The Telephonics NetCom offers brid display formats, and support crew intercommunications and radio mono and full-color modes. management, and can support as Honeywell will do the work in Al- many as 20 users. The system offers buquerque, N.M., and should be fin- adaptive noise cancellation technol- ished by October 2017. ogy at each microphone input, en- FOR MORE INFORMATION visit hances audio intelligibility, and pro- Base, Calif., are asking Rockwell Honeywell Aerospace at tects user hearing. Collins to provide as many as 194 http://aerospace.honeywell.com, or The system’s low size, weight, Quint Networking Technology Naval Air Systems Command and power consumption help simpli- (QNT) radios. The contract also calls at www.navair.navy.mil. fy installation and integration onto for Rockwell Collins to provide 379 the JLTV, Telephonics officials say. parts of associated hardware, as VETRONICS NetCom’s system in a box dual-op- well as 36,482 hours of incidental Oshkosh chooses Telephonics erator design functions as a vehicle equipment modification services for NetCom vetronics communications intercom with secure, digital commu- the AN/ALQ-231(V) Intrepid Tiger system for JLTV program nications for all internal and external Electronic Attack System in support Vetronics designers at Oshkosh De- communications. As an IP-based sys- of the Joint Electronic Attack Com- fense LLC in Oshkosh, Wis., needed tem, NetCom integrated into the net- patibility Office. an in-vehicle communications sys- worked digital backbone of the vehi- The QNT program, supervised tem for the Joint Light Tactical Vehi- cle and digital battlespace. by the U.S. Defense Advanced Re- cle (JLTV) that Oshkosh is developing The system offers an integrat- search Projects Agency (DARPA) in for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps. ed capability for infantry and vehi- Arlington, Va., is developing a mod- They found their solution from Tele- cle crew members to maintain com- ular network data link to establish phonics Corp. in Farmingdale, N.Y. munications among themselves and multiband communications among Oshkosh awarded a contract to with higher-echelon commanders. manned aircraft, unmanned com- Telephonics to provide its NetCom It uses the Telephonics TruLink bat air vehicles (UCAVs), weapons, Vehicle Intercommunications Sys- wireless intercommunication system tactical unmanned aerial vehicles tems for the JLTV, which will replace with common line-replaceable units (UAVs), and infantry ground forces. a portion of the military’s current across all ground vehicles, and en- QNT technology seeks to use data fleet of up-armored HMMWVs. ables many vehicles to keep in touch links to integrate tactical UAVs, in- With the additional capabilities of using one crew station. fantrymen, and weapons into the NetCom, these vehicles will further FOR MORE INFORMATION future digital battlefield for net- enhance the situational awareness visit Telephonics online at work-centric warfare operations and safety of U.S. troops via clear www.telephonics.com. that use distributed sensor plat- and secure communications. Net- forms to find, fix, track, and engage Com will be integrated onto the Os- RADIO EQUIPMENT important stationary and moving hkosh JLTV starting in 2016. Navy orders networking radios targets in real time. Telephonics is a subsidiary of for network-centric warfare On this contract Rockwell Collins Griffon Corp. from Rockwell Collins will do the work in Cedar Rapids, Military radio designers at Rockwell Iowa, and Yuma, Ariz., and should Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will be finished by May 2021. 

provide advanced networking radios FOR MORE INFORMATION visit for network-centric warfare under a Rockwell Collins online at $24.9 million U.S. Navy contract. www.rockwellcollins.com, or Naval Air Officials of the Naval Air War- Warfare Center Weapons Division- fare Center Weapons Division-Point Point Mugu at www.navair.navy.mil. Mugu at Ventura County Naval

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 29

1607MAE_29 29 7/1/16 8:12 AM To submit new products for consideration, new products contact John Keller at [email protected].

RF AND MICROWAVE of 15 dB. Also linear, the CMD240 requirements per the U.S. military’s RF amplifiers for military demonstrates a 1 dB compression qualified manufacturing list (QML). and telecommunications point of 19 dBm at 10 GHz and an It’s an assurance of quality without introduced by Custom MMIC output IP3 of 28 dBm with 80 milli- additional parts tests and screen- Custom MMIC in Chelmsford, Calif., amps supply current. ing. Crane offers MFK Class H DC-DC is introducing a range of high-perfor- FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Custom converters with two SMD numbers: mance RF and microwave amplifiers MMIC online at www.custommmic.com. SMD 5962-14210 for MFK singles, and and switches with ultra-wideband SMD 5962-14211 for MFK duals. POWER ELECTRONICS operation for military, test and mea- FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Crane Crane qualifies DC-DC converters online at www.craneae.com. to MIL-PRF-38534 Class H Crane Aerospace & Electronics in CONNECTORS Redmond, Wash., is introducing Small rugged connector for mil-spec qualification for the Inter- handheld defense and UAV point MFK series DC-DC convert- uses introduced by Fischer ers for military and aerospace power Fischer Connectors in St-Prex, Swit- electronics applications. The devic- zerland, is introducing the MiniMax es now meet MIL-PRF-38534 Class 06 small ultra-miniature connector H. This performance specification for space-limited, body-worn, or surement, and telecommunications for hybrid microcircuits, adminis- handheld applications in defense applications. The SP3T CMD234C4 tered by the U.S. Defense Logistics and security, instrumentation, test provides high isolation of 40 dB Agency’s Land and Maritime seg- equipment, and unmanned aeri- at 10 GHz and low insertion loss of ment in Columbus, Ohio, describes al vehicles (UAVs). The MiniMax 06 2 dB. The CMD234C4 includes an on- a standard military quality level for connector can include as many as 12 board binary decoder circuit that re- use in the U.S. Department of De- power and signal contacts in a foot- quires two complementary control print of 10 millimeters, correspond- voltage logic lines of 0/-5 volts. The ing to a density factor of 0.83. The SP5T CMD235C4, similar to the SP3T MiniMax 06 connector also includes design, features a low-power, inte- a configuration with two signal and grated 3:8 TTL decoder for enhanced two high-power, 1.3-millimeter con- digital control. The CMD235C4 pro- tacts for applications that need 10 vides an insertion loss of 2.5 dB and amps or more power. MiniMax 06 a high isolation of 40 dB at 10 GHz. is easy to use and ensures premi- The gallium arsenide CMD235C4 and um performance even in harsh en- CMD234C4 switches come in small fense (DOD). This document is a vironments. MiniMax 06 integrates size and lead-free, RoHS-compliant performance specification for hy- into the ultra-miniature, high-per- 4x4 SMT QFN packages, and have a brid microcircuits, multichip mod- formance Fischer MiniMax series, switching speed of 66 nanoseconds. ules (MCM), and similar devices, known for its use in limited space The DC-22 GHz and 2-22 GHz galli- and provides a manufacturing base- um arsenide MMIC distributed am- line to support government micro- plifiers offer ultra-wideband perfor- circuit applications. Adhering to mance from DC to 22 GHz, with a MIL-PRF-38535 Class H ensures that noise figure down to 2.2 dB and gain these devices meet performance

30 JULY 2016 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1607MAE_30 30 7/1/16 8:12 AM and lightweight applications, and an EIA-310 rack. The RS4198L24 sup- dual core SoC with PC I/O and on- for meeting the combined needs of ports as many as 10 PCI Express 3.0 board data acquisition circuitry. signals and power. Tested for high- x16 expansion slots (8 of which can FOR MORE INFORMATION visit speed protocols such as HDMI and support double-width cards) for add- Diamond Systems online at data transfer of up to 10 gigabits per in cards and is powered by 3200- www.diamondsystems.com. second, the series also addresses the watt 2+2 power supplies. DATABUSES growing market need for higher data FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Crystal transmission rates. Group online at www.crystalrugged.com. Rad-hard MIL-STD-1553 databus FOR MORE INFORMATION visit terminals for space introduced by DDC BOARD PRODUCTS Fischer Connectors online at Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohe- www.fischerconnectors.com. Single-board computer based on mia, N.Y., is introducing two 3.3- DMP Vortex86DX3 introduced volt, integrated, radiation-tolerant, RUGGED SERVERS by Diamond Systems MIL-STD-1553 databus terminals Rugged servers for radar signal Diamond Systems Corp. in Sunny- that include transceivers, trans- processing introduced by Crystal vale, Calif., is introducing the com- formers, protocol, and memory for Crystal Group Inc. in Hiawatha, pact, rugged HELIX PC/104 single- rad-hard, mission-critical space ap- Iowa, is introducing the RS4104 and board computer based on the DMP plications. Total-Space ACE offers RS4198L24 high-performance and Vortex86DX3 system-on-chip (SoC) BC, RT, MT, and RT/MT functional- configurable rugged servers for use processor. ity to interface to a host processor, in harsh-environment applications The Helix while the Total-Space RT is an RT that require storage, removal, and board pro- only terminal for interfacing with instantaneous processing of criti- vides option- systems without a host proces- cal data. Crystal Group has designed al integrated sor, such as FPGA and simple logic. these units to accept GP/GPU engines data acquisi- Both versions feature an extended such as the Xeon Phi, AMD FirePro, tion circuit- -55-to-125-degree-Celsius tempera- or the Nvidia Tesla for data-intensive ry, PCI Ex- ture range, 300 kilorads total-dose applications, including digital signal press MiniCard I/O expansion, and radiation hardness, and more than processing (DSP); intelligence, sur- rugged construction. Helix is for ap- veillance, reconnaissance (ISR); radar plications needing a stable, low-cost signal processing; training; and oil board platform with many years & gas exploration. These machines of availability. Two standard Helix are rack-mounted servers designed models are available off-the-shelf: to have dual Intel Haswell or Broad- one aimed at low-cost basic appli- well E5 Xeon processors paired with cations and the other targeting data 85 MeV single-event-effects radia- coprocessors like the Xeon PHI or acquisition applications. tion hardening. The device replac- Nvidia’s Tesla products. The RS4104 The data acquisition model adds es two transceivers, two trans- and RS4198L24 are driven by In- a data acquisition circuit as well as formers, protocol, and memory; tel Haswell or Broadwell E5-2600 V3 other I/O. Customization options simplifies layout; and improves re- or V4 processors and can be config- are available allowing customers to liability. Its transformers and trans- ured with as much as 1.5 terabytes match the specific needs of their ceivers are trimmed and tested as a of Registered DDR4 memory. The application with on-board has of set, and provide MIL-STD-1553 com- RS4104 also supports as many as 10 the Helix board. Using an expand- pliance. The two configurations are PCI Express 3.0 x8 or 5 PCI Express ed PC/104 form factor measuring available in gull-wing and flat pack- 3.0 x16 expansion slots for add-in 102-by-102-millimeters, the rectan- ages, and are qualified DSCC MIL- cards and is powered by a 1780-watt gular shape provides more coastline PRF-38534 Class H or K.  power supply. The unit is 20 inches for I/O connectors. The board com- FOR MORE INFORMATION visit DDC deep, 17.5 inches wide, and fits onto bines the 1 GHz DMP Vortex86DX3 online at www.ddc-web.com.

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS JULY 2016 31

1607MAE_31 31 7/1/16 8:12 AM PRODUCT & LITERATURE SHOWCASE

ISOTROPIC AIRBORNE, SHIPBOARD, GROUND MOBILE Silver Conductive Silicone Adhesive DATA RECORDING AND DATA STORAGE MasterSil 973S-LO RPC 24 Features excellent electrical conductivity • Meets NASA low outgassing requirements • Highly flexible system • Resists high temperatures • Cures well in deep and wide sections • 24 Solid StateSt t or r HHard d Disk DrivesDri - in only 2U of panel height Magazine Based • Two Quickly Removable Storage Magazines - each containing up to 12 HDDs or SSDs each High Performance • Fault Tolerant, Hot Swap Components RAID Storage - no single point of failure • Sustained Read and Write Data Transfer Rates - of over 5000 MB/sec and 3000 MB/sec respectively • MIL-STD-810G , MIL-STD-461E Certifed

AS9100 Rev C/ISO 9001: 2008 Certiﬁed Hackensack, NJ 07601 USA • +1.201.343.8983 • [email protected] INTERNATIONAL www.masterbond.com wwww.phhenxinnt.com 714--283-4800

1607MAE_32 32 7/1/16 8:12 AM GROUP PUBLISHER Alan Bergstein 603 891-9447 ⁄ [email protected] Digital EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Keller 603 891-9117 ⁄ [email protected] Magazine EXECUTIVE EDITOR Courtney E. Howard 509 413-1522 ⁄ [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITOR App WESTERN BUREAU J. R. Wilson 702 434-3903 ⁄ [email protected] EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Cindy Chamberlin You can now read Military Aerospace PRODUCTION MANAGER Sheila Ward & Electronics magazine on your iPad®, SENIOR ILLUSTRATOR Chris Hipp AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Stephanie O’Shea ™ Android tablet or Kindle. 603 891-9119 ⁄ [email protected] Take Military Aerospace & Electronics AD SERVICES MANAGER Glenda Van Duyne 918 831-9473 ⁄ [email protected] with you wherever you go! MARKETING MANAGER Gillian Hinkle • Read current and past issues 603 891-9126 ⁄ [email protected] • Bookmark stories – a fantastic research tool • Download each issue and create your own library

• Share comments with other readers www.pennwell.com

Editorial offices PennWell Corporation, Military & Aerospace Electronics 61 Spit Brook Road, Suite 401, Nashua, NH 03060 603 891-0123 • FAX 603 891-0514 • www.milaero.com Sales offices EASTERN US & EASTERN CANADA & UK Look for the free apps in the App Store, Google Play and Amazon Bob Collopy, Sales Manager Visit www.militaryaerospace.com/mobile for more information 603 891-9398 ⁄ Cell 603 233-7698 FAX 603 686-7580 ⁄ [email protected] WESTERN CANADA & WEST OF MISSISSIPPI Jay Mendelson, Sales Manager ADVERTISERS INDEX 4957 Chiles Drive, San Jose, CA 95136 408 221-2828 ⁄ [email protected] ADVERTISER PAGE REPRINTS Jessica Stremmel 717 505-9701 x2205 ⁄ [email protected] CD-Adapco ...... 9 DIRECTOR LIST RENTAL Kelli Berry CP Cases Inc...... 20 918 831-9782 ⁄ [email protected] For assistance with marketing strategy or ad creation, please Crystal Group Inc...... 5 contact PennWell Marketing Solutions Paul Andrews, Vice President Gaia Converter US ...... 19 240 595-2352 ⁄ [email protected] Corporate Officers IR HiRel, An Infineon Technologies Co...... 1 CHAIRMAN Robert F. Biolchini VICE CHAIRMAN Frank T. Lauinger Master Bond Inc...... 32 PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Mark C. Wilmoth EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT Pasternack Enterprises ...... 7 AND STRATEGY Jayne A. Gilsinger SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FINANCE AND CHIEF FINANCIAL Phoenix International...... 32 OFFICER Brian Conway Technology Group Pico Electronics Inc...... 13 SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHING DIRECTOR Christine Shaw QML Inc...... C4 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES R&D Interconnect Solutions ...... 21 Phone: 847 763-9541 • Fax: 847 763-9607 E-mail: [email protected] RGB Spectrum ...... 32 Web: www.mae-subscribe.com Systel Inc...... 17

Tektronix Inc...... 3

VPT Inc...... C2, 11

1607MAE_C3 3 7/1/16 8:12 AM 1607MAE_C4 4 7/1/16 8:13 AM