NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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Dec 08. A new firing success for ASTER with SAMP/T. Preliminary to the delivery of the first serial SAMP/T1 system to the French Air Force, incorporating the new operational software version taking into account the results of the techno-operational evaluation performed from spring 2007 to summer 2008 by the French Air Force and the Italian Army, EUROSAM has carried out a system firing at the CELM test range of the Délégation Générale pour l’Armement located in Les Landes (south west of France) on 8th December 2008. The firing was operationally representative of the medium-range interception of a subsonic aircraft flying at low altitude proceeding with an evasive maneuver. All the successive phases
of the engagement ran nominally with the target being intercepted by a direct hit at the intended range. For this firing, the SAMP/T system comprised the Engagement Module, the ARABEL Radar and Identification Module with its Electrical Generation Unit, a Vertical Launch Unit and the ASTER 30 Missile.
15 Dec 08. Raytheon Company’s Integrated Defense Systems business has achieved a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Maturity Level 5. IDS President Dan Smith said: “This is a signature accomplishment achieved through interdependent execution across our Engineering, Operations, Integrated Supply Chain, Quality and Integrated Business teams. The breadth of people, processes and programs involved in this appraisal gives testament to our disciplined processes across our enterprise, solidifying commitments to our customers.” The Standard CMMI Appraisal Method of Process Improvement assessed IDS’ Systems, Software and Hardware Engineering organizations. A team of appraisers spent four weeks at Raytheon IDS reviewing more than 14,000 documents and interviewing nearly 200 engineers, project leaders and program managers.
16 Dec 08. QinetiQ has successfully completed a series of trials using its T4 Vectored-thrust Aircraft Advanced Control (VAAC) Harrier aircraft on HMS Illustrious. These proved QinetiQ’s innovative new Bedford Array visual landing aid system – which stabilises the aircraft’s approach path in the presence of deck motion – as the solution for Shipborne Rolling Vertical Landings (SRVL) on the Royal Navy’s future carriers, particularly in rough sea state conditions. The UK Ministry of Defence has been funding ongoing research to refine and de-risk the use of SRVL approaches for its new jump jet – the F-35B Lightning II Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (STOVL) Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the UK MOD’s preferred choice to meet its Joint Combat Aircraft requirement. The MOD plans to operate up to 36 JSFs from each of its two new future aircraft carriers:- HMS Queen Elizabeth, currently
expected to enter service in 2014 and HMS Prince of Wales in 2016.
Dec 08. Zebra Imaging (See: CONTRACT NEWS IN BRIEF/US/TECHNOLOGY) was founded in 1996 by graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Laboratory. The mission of the company was established at that time: to develop and provide the best technologies and products for three-dimensional visual communications. With initial and continuing support from investors, the company has succeeded in producing and delivering the most innovative holographic products and technology in the world.Zebra is the only company that offers digital holograms that are autostereoscopic (no glasses or goggles required), full-parallax (viewing of the image over and under as well as from side to side), and full-color. Zebra’s technique produces images that are scalable to any size, and yet portable, since they are recorded and mounted either onto flexible film or rigid modular tiles. Unlike single-view and binocular 3-D displays, Zebra holographic images enable intuitive image-based collaboration, since they require no special eyewear or head trackers, and display all perspectives simultaneously f