NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
21 Mar 05. Northrop Grumman Corporation and Silicon Graphics, Inc. have signed a cooperative agreement that combines their visualization and technology expertise to revolutionize how warfighters make decisions in the battlespace. The two companies will provide visualization solutions-synthesizing data and presenting it to decision-makers through dramatic new graphical means-for customers in the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Intelligence community, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Systems engineering and integration work will be performed at Northrop Grumman’s Advanced Concepts Demonstration Laboratory (ACDL), at its Mission Systems sector in Reston, Va. The ACDL is a corporate-wide showcase for capabilities in visualization,
collaboration and innovative use of command and decision-management data. Northrop Grumman and SGI will integrate data from disparate sources and create meaningful, interactive visual displays that enable better situational awareness and, ultimately, better decision-making. The companies will leverage SGI’s powerful computing and visualization machines with Northrop Grumman’s systems integration expertise and knowledge of agency missions to build complex models to assess, for example, the effects of weather on the battlespace.
23 Mar 05. Iridium Satellite will introduce a new, cost-effective 9600 data transceiver this year based on the company’s Short Burst Data (SBD) technology. This move will extend the unique capabilities of Iridium to a new set of markets, expanding service in asset tracking, remote monitoring and telemetry reporting. The 9600 transceiver will offer a superior price-performance capability over existing satellite-based options. Iridium’s SBD Service, which the 9600 will enable, is an efficient packet-based technology. It is optimized for the frequent data transmissions that asset tracking and remote monitoring applications typically require. Iridium envisions widespread adoption of the 9600 transceiver for enterprise-scale solutions which require immediate and comprehensive access to critical data from the field. Examples include supply chain management, field force automation, and even maintenance repair and overhaul systems. Iridium anticipates production deliveries of the 9600 to begin in late 2005. Iridium value-added manufacturers and resellers are beginning plans to integrate the transceiver into a wide range of satellite data communications products for specific vertical market applications.
23 Mar 05. A SATCOM system developed by Raytheon Company has successfully acquired an extended data rate (XDR) downlink from the U.S. government’s “gold standard” satellite simulator. XDR will transmit more data, deliver it faster and still reduce the enemy’s ability to intercept or jam the transmission. The company’s Secure Mobile Anti-jam Reliable Terminal — Tactical (SMART-T), an advanced extremely high frequency (AEHF) satellite ground station, is the world’s first contractor-developed system to acquire the XDR downlink. The technological breakthrough occurred during recent simulation conducted at Raytheon’s SATCOM Integration and Test facility in Marlborough, Mass. It is an important step in putting the full power of AEHF communication capability in the hands of warfighters. XDR is a new, high speed, technologically sophisticated waveform that is a subset of AEHF. It boosts data throughput by a factor of four and simultaneously offers better data protection. As one example, XDR will allow sailors to conduct targeting missions, such as a Tomahawk missile launch, using improved graphical target data and more precise intelligence data. The XDR breakthrough follows the successful preliminary design review of Raytheon’s Navy Multi-band Terminal (NMT), during which the company demonstrated the maturity of its design and the benefits that this