01 Mar 11. Rockwell Collins and DRS Defense Solutions have been added to the growing list of companies with C4ISR products integrated into Lockheed Martin’s Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory, or AML. The AML is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance test bed developed to help customers experiment with and validate how intelligence sensors and systems interact, and how to best apply them in military and non-military markets.
“The AML has an architecture that allows us to easily integrate new capabilities,” said Jim Quinn, C4ISR Systems Vice President with Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems & Global Solutions-Defense. “This gives us the flexibility to exploit multiple intelligence sensor combinations to address the needs of many different customers. One day we can test radar for a military customer; then reconfigure the platform to fly a pipeline survey experiment.”
A modified Gulfstream III business jet, the AML’s open, “plug-and-play” architecture allows various sensors and systems to be rapidly integrated into the aircraft with minimal development time. This enables customers to quickly evaluate new sensors, new combinations of sensors and new tactics for employing sensors to develop capabilities to support a diverse range of contingency operations. The Gulfstream III was chosen as the AML platform due to its high-altitude capability, broad flight regime and long range.

23 Feb 11. GE Intelligent Platforms signed an agreement that will see National Instruments™ (NI™) distribute the GE cPCI-5565PIO Reflective Memory PMC and PMC Carrier Card for 3U CompactPCI® systems. The cPCI-5565PIO – which operates at 2Gbaud and features 256Mbytes of memory and multi-mode transceivers – is based on the GE PMC-5565PIORC, but includes a customized carrier card specifically designed to be configured with NI PXI chassis as part of the company’s NI VeriStand™ real-time testing and simulation software platform.

02 Mar 11. New deal signed to boost British high-tech manufacturing skills. Semta, the sector skills council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies, announced a strategic partnership agreement with A|D|S, the trade organisation responsible for advancing UK aerospace, defence and security industries. The partnership will allow enhanced collaboration between the two organisations, ultimately simplifying the provision of skills in line with feedback from companies to assist and support the aims and objectives of both employers and the sector’s workforce in the UK. The UK’s aerospace and defence industries are key players in world markets and major contributors to the UK economy. They are number one in Europe, second only to the US globally and together with security and space employ over 500,000 people across the UK in highly-skilled and long term jobs, generating over £60bn per year to the economy.

01 Mar 11. VSD, LLC signed an MOU Feb. 22 with His Excellency Sheikh Faisal Bin Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Qassimi to facilitate an international business relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The objectives set forth in the MOU are to jointly develop, deliver, and sustain training and simulation products for the UAE, supply products and services for the oil, gas, and power generation sectors in the UAE, and provide technical training through innovative technologies and educational programs. The focus of the training and simulation product provision for the UAE will be technology and software products and vocational, educational, and training programs. The oil, gas, and power generation sector product supply will focus on building and sourcing within the industry. Technical training will be done through the collaborative efforts of both organizations, focused on groundbreaking technology and educational programming.

01 Mar 11. AgustaWestland together with CAE and BAE Systems have today announced the formation of an industry team to pursue the AIR 9000 Phase 7 program in Australia. The AIR