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11 Dec 15. NEW ZEALAND – Replacement sought for land mobile radio telephone system. The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is planning to replace the Defence Land Mobile Radio Telephone System (DLMRTS) as it is no longer maintainable. To this end, it is seeking industrial input to help plan a future procurement.
“The DLMRTS is currently a non-secure VHF radio telephone system originally designed to fulfil communication requirements for transport control, emergency services, airfield safety and bombing range safety. To achieve this, radio repeaters were installed around the country and Motorola terminal equipment and portables issued to end users. In addition to this, NZDF adopted the Emergency Services (ES) band, including designated common channels for interoperability with emergency services.” The RFI document is available from the New Zealand procurement portal or can be availed from MPI upon request.
Reference Number: rxi_85
RFx ID: 14641751
Response deadline: 8 January 2016
Issuing Authority: New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF)
(Source: MPI – Hawk Information)
15 Dec 15. Northrop Grumman studies F-X, F/A-XX technologies. Key Points:
• Northrop Grumman has revealed its NGAD concept for F-X and F/A-XX
• The design is a cross between its B-2 bomber design and its X-47B UAV developed for the USN.
Northrop Grumman unveiled its vision for a next-generation US combat aircraft on 11 December, showing reporters at its Palmdale facility in California a cross between its US Air Force (USAF) B-2 Spirit bomber design and its X-47B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed for the US Navy (USN).
Artists’ renderings of the sixth-generation aircraft depict a stealthy air vehicle employing a laser weapon against multiple targets.
The USAF’s F-X programme would develop aircraft to replace the Boeing F-15 Eagle, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, and, eventually, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter now in production. The USN’s F/A-XX, meanwhile, would replace the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
Chris Hernandez, Northrop Grumman’s vice president for research, technology, and advanced design, said Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) – a term used by both the company and by the Pentagon to encompass both F-X and F/A-XX – must have long range and carry a lot of weapons because survivability and lack of overseas basing will be two of its main challenges. Hernandez said the aircraft’s appearance is derived from those assumptions.
“This looks a lot like a baby B-2, and this is really getting into our sweet spot,” he said.
The company has put two design teams to work on the project even though no specific guidance on desired capabilities has been put forth by the Pentagon yet. Still, Northrop Grumman aerospace systems President Tom Vice focused on management of all the heat generated by powerful weapons and sensors as a key concept that companies will likely have to master in order to build such an aircraft.
Even the most advanced lasers are just over 30% efficient, so at least twice as much heat is generated for the energy employed by the beam, Vice said. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
15 Dec 15. Successful Seatooth Demonstration at NASA Neutral Buoyancy Lab. WFS Technologies demonstrated a wirelessly-enabled OneSubsea SCM (Subsea Control Module) at a recent demonstration at NASAs Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) using Seatooth enabled subsea wireless radio products in conjunction with a Seatooth PipeLogger network system and viewed in real time using a Seatooth Video unit. The wireless sensor network comprising two Seatooth® PipeLoggers and a Seatooth Controller Unit was deployed with one Seatooth PipeLogger measuring the temperature of a jumper, the second transmitting temperature data from a ‘buried’ location. The Seatooth Controller unit used a wireless RS232 module to integra