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14 May 12. The US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) is developing renewable-energy based microgrids to power communications systems of soldiers stationed in remote combat outposts. RDECOM Communications – Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) electrical engineer Marnie de Jong said the microgrids would facilitate the integration of different energy sources, such as panels or wind turbine and batteries together for more efficient use and storage. According to de Jong, CERDEC is developing two systems, reusing existing natural energy from wind and solar (RENEWS) and renewable energy for distributed undersupplied command environments (REDUCE) systems, to provide alternative power sources for soldiers in combat. Work on RENEWS started in 2009 in partnership with RDECOM’s Army Research Laboratory and Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, and the prototypes are being sent for operational assessments by soldiers from the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, and US Africa Command. (Source: armytechnology.com)
15 May 12. Telephonics Corporation announced that the U.S. Navy conducted an exercise to demonstrate several Anti Surface Warfare concepts of operation using an MH-60S (Sierra) helicopter in conjunction with a Fire Scout Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The exercise included the use of Telephonics’ multi-mode, maritime surveillance radar on the MH-60S. The demonstration took place at the Chesapeake, MD Test Range, and it highlighted the ability of the radar to rapidly perform wide-area surveillance and to automatically detect and track surface contacts over wide areas. Provided with a surface surveillance picture, the crew of the MH-60S is able to classify targets of interest using the high resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imagery from the radar and to direct the Fire Scout to specific contacts of interest for identification with its on-board electro-optic/infra-red (EO/IR) sensor. (Source: ASD Network)
14 May 12. In the largest deployment yet of the General Dynamics-developed JTRS HMS Manpack and Rifleman Radios and the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) network, the U.S. Army is now conducting realistic operational evaluations of the next generation of high-speed communications equipment developed for ground forces. WIN-T Increment 2 and the JTRS Manpack and Rifleman radios form the baseline for the Army’s on-the-move tactical network. These two networking programs of record are completing operational testing at the Network Integration Exercise (NIE) 12.2 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., through the end of May. The JTRS HMS Manpack radio (AN/PRC-155) provides line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight, high-bandwidth waveforms for on-the-move voice, sensor, data and position-location capabilities on soldiers or in vehicles. The PRC-155 two-channel networking manpack radio is the first tactical radio capable of supporting all three non-proprietary JTRS networking waveforms and is engineered to easily port additional JTRS waveforms as they complete development. Nearly five pounds-per-channel lighter and with twice the communications and networking capabilities of some single-channel manpack radios, the PRC-155 is also interoperable with radios that U.S. forces are currently using, including interim radios that cannot meet the networking requirements of the future force. The PRC-155 Manpack radio has been a part of all three NIE exercises and is the only Soldier Radio Waveform (SRW) radio undergoing Multi-service Operational Test and Evaluation at NIE 12.2.
14 May 12. Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions (CWCDS) announced the development of a new family of rugged FPGA XMC cards that combines the unprecedented combination of low power and high performance of Xilinx®’s new Kintex™-7 de