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13 Jun 13. Ultralight Miniature Connector for Aeronautics. An alternative to the D-subminiature connector, the new microComp® Quicklatch is a 100% composite miniature quick connector designed particularly for use on in-flight entertainment (IFE) screens aboard commercial aircraft. It is 32% smaller and 45% lighter than a D-sub and can save as much as the equivalent of the weight of one passenger on modern civil aircraft. Released just six months ago, the microComp® Quicklatch is already being used on Airbus A350, A380 and A330 aircraft and Boeing B747, B787 and B777 aircraft. Production of the connector is expected to double each year.
07 Jun 13. In a sense — and in one sense only — American and NATO forces have had it easy in Iraq and Afghanistan. With uncontested control of the skies and with little to fear from electronic jamming or precision fires, virtually all of the defensive electronic warfare missions they have conducted involve roadside bombs. But future battlefields will likely be more complex and not quite as permissive, analysts and Pentagon thinkers warn, citing the increasing proliferation of precision munitions and the more sophisticated communications and electronic jamming gear that states can now wield. Permissive or not, the electronic jamming capabilities the US Army has developed in Iraq and Afghanistan are a far cry from the service’s Centra Spike program, which used commercial airplanes packed with electronics to find and track the location of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the early 1990s. Since 2011, Army units rotating into Afghanistan have used the Communications Electronic Attack with Surveillance and Reconnaissance (CEASAR) system, a beyond-line-of-sight electronic jammer mounted on a Beechcraft King airplane that can both intercept phone communications on the ground as well as jam enemy cellphones. The jammer is a repackaged version of the communications jammer found on the EA-18G Growler and was initially sent to Afghanistan in 2011 as a forward operational assessment program. But the system “did so well in its forward operational assessment, the war fighter said, ‘Hey, why don’t you leave it here?’ ” instead of shipping it back to the states, Col. Jim Ekvall, chief of the Army’s electronic warfare office, told Defense News on May 20. While the program has been highly successful in eavesdropping on Taliban cellphone communications and has given dismounted troops a better sense of what they’re facing over the next ridgeline, Ekvall is well aware of the issues US forces will likely face in controlling the electromagnetic spectrum in coming years.
“We can’t afford to build something that only works in a permissive environment, or it only works in a [counterinsurgency] environment,” he said, “but if you take on a sophisticated enemy it’s not going to work.” Anything the Army builds has to be able to fight across the spectrum. “It’s gotta be versatile, it’s gotta be flexible, it’s gotta be programmable.” (Source: Defense News)
12 Jun 13. ITT Corporation (will highlight its newly qualified MIL-DTL-38999 Series III Composite – part of its Cannon brand of leading connector solutions and the most recent addition to this MIL-DTL product family – at the 2013 Paris Air Show. This circular connector can be used for a variety of applications including military communication systems, aerospace launch vehicles, military and commercial aviation, and hand-held and vehicle platforms. The Class J and M series components have also been awarded full certification as a QPL (Qualified Product List) part by the Defense Logistics Agency, making the composite connector a preferred component for military environments. ITT Cannon’s MIL-DTL-38999 Composite is four times more resistant to corrosion than standard OD Cad and 50X Nickel models, making it more reliable than competi