Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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18 Jul 19. Thommen introduces 3ATI display. Thommen Aircraft Equipment has developed a new 3ATI high-resolution display module designed for forward fit and retrofit applications in commercial or military OEM programmes. The high resolution AMLCD display module is packaged to fit into a typical 3ATI case and can integrate with third-party electronics and computing backends for robust and durable digital flight instruments.
With six-layer anti-reflective, EMI-protected and heated front glass, the LED backlight display module provides high readability across an 80º viewing envelope and the integrated ambient light sensors can be used for automatic brightness adjustment. All-mode operation can also be provided as an option via NVIS-compliant LCD and bezel.
Thomas Terschlusen, Thommen’s director of sales and marketing, said: ‘With this 3ATI display module, we continue to expand our digital display solutions offering. What we address here is the growing need expressed by avionics OEMs for a price-competitive, compact, yet powerful, LCD sub-assembly.
‘This product is a solid alternative offered to the market and especially to avionics providers looking for the latest generation TFT display technology, which they can easily mount to their own piece of equipment. We also offer engineering support and deliver interface documentation to facilitate the integration work.’ (Source: Shephard)
17 Jul 19. Artificial Intelligence Top Technology Priority for SECDEF Nominee Esper. Army Secretary Mark Esper made it clear to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) July 16 that he would prioritize artificial intelligence technology development should he be confirmed as the next secretary of defense.
“Different people put different things at number one; for me, it’s artificial intelligence,” he said during his confirmation hearing in response to a question from SASC Strategic Forces Subcommittee Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) about his main technology priorities.
AI “will likely change the character of warfare, and I believe that whoever masters it will dominate on the battlefield for many, many, many years,” Esper said.
The Army Secretary noted the restructuring of the service’s rapid capabilities office to become the Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office under his watch, as well as the creation of a new Army AI task force hub at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh this past February.
“I just think it’s a fundamental gamechanger,” Esper said. “We have to get there first.”
Hypersonics, directed energy, robotics and autonomous technologies will also be priorities for research and development funds under a potential Defense Secretary Esper, he added.
In terms of major program priorities, Esper highlighted the need to modernize the nuclear triad and “fully develop the domain of space as a warfighting domain.” The Defense Department must also improve its cyber space capabilities and policies and upgrade a range of conventional capabilities, he noted.
While Tuesday’s hearing became somewhat heated as Democratic presidential candidate and SASC member Sen. Elizabeth Warren grilled Esper on his past as a lobbyist for Raytheon [RTN], the Senate is largely expected to approve his confirmation (Defense Daily, July 16). Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) told reporters July 17 on
Capitol Hill that he expects Esper’s nomination to be voted out of committee Thursday morning, to hopefully get a full vote scheduled on the Senate floor by early next week. “Every day that goes by is important,” he said. “We need to have a permanent secretary in that position.” (Source: Defense Daily)
17 Jul 19. To improve interconnectivity between platforms, Thales launches NEXEN. Air combat is becoming increasingly reliant on the interconnected platforms that exchange digital data with each other. Real-time data correlation provides information superiority to the armed forces. Their missions require many means of communication to be managed without worrying about which transmission channel is to be used. Thales therefore proposes NEXEN, a secure communications server which gives pilots a reliable and simplified source of connectivity.
At the heart of aeronautical connectivity, NEXEN integrates all the functions necessary for a military aircraft to exchange data in real-time. Thanks to NEXEN, all resources can be shared; with each security level assigned its own dedicated transmission chain. With its ANSSI-certified enclosure, NEXEN guarantees not only the separation of data flows according to their level of confidentiality but also the implementation of the best cybersecurity protections. The pilot is able to manage all radios at the same time, limiting the overall workload. Mission systems are able to efficiently exchange their respective data in real-time. Therefore, this solution will allow pilots to focus better on their core mission during moments of critical decision-making.
NEXEN offers a user-oriented architecture: all participants can publish their own resources and subscribe to other user channels without worrying about their location or the necessary means of transmission. This solution provides military aircrafts with the scalability that will enable them to meet the connectivity challenges of the coming decades. Thus, pilots will always have access to the most essential information for all tactical situations.
The target platforms for this solution are combat aircrafts, mission aircrafts, helicopters and drones.
17 Jul 19. This flying French rifleman is a triumph of future past. With a rifle in one hand, the infantryman flew over the military parade atop a hoverboard. Below the flying person was an array of ground robots in military service. Above, jets trailed dyed smoke, drawing the tricolor in the sky. At an event designed to celebrate the full pride and power of the French military, it was the single hoverboard-borne rifle that President Emmanuel Macron chose to highlight from Bastille Day 2019.
“Fier de notre armée, moderne et innovante,” he tweeted. “Proud of our army, modern and innovative.”
But how modern and innovative, exactly, is hoverboard-mounted infantry?
In specifics, the machine is quintessentially modern. Invented by Frank Zapata, the Flyboard was originally marketed as a recreational item, a sort of quadcopter-like machine built out of ducted fans that a pilot could stand on. In 2016, a rider on the Zapata flyboard octupled the distance record for hoverboard flights. The device itself is novel and risky enough to operate that its creator was banned for some time from flying it in France. The 2019 version of the craft reportedly has a top speed of around 120 mph and a total flight time of 10 minutes.
In intent, the Flyboard fits into a much longer pattern of trying to put humans in the low sky with the least amount of machine possible. Vertical take-off and landing for infantry was explored by the U.S. Army throughout the Cold War. It was mostly seen as a scouting platform, and abandoned because of a few clear limitations. One-person flying machines can, indeed, put a person over a hill, or on a rooftop, or above a treeline, but in so doing, they are loud, and they leave the human occupant exposed, and they don’t provide any armor. This is to say nothing of destabilizing recoil for a pilot operating a flyboard controller in one hand while firing a weapon from the other hand.
Small drones, with similar speeds and longer flight times, can get the same scouting information streamed to the ground control stations of remote operators, leaving the humans safe and the small craft a lot less detectable. Combat by flyboard is as fanciful as combat by jetpack, and just as unlikely.
Still, there’s more reason than just spectacle to look at why a military might seriously be interested in small flying vehicles for transporting humans. Implant Sciences, which made bomb detectors for the TSA, planned for several months in 2016 to acquire Zapata Industries, with the intent of marketing the flyboard to first responders and military customers.
That deal fell through in November 2016, and Implant Sciences was itself then acquired by L3. At present, Zapata remains privately held, though while the acquisitions did not go through, the idea of selling to the military likely persisted.
Without the rifle or the scouting implications, fast transport at low altitudes and with VTOL capability could get a specialist to people in need. When military planners look at jetbikesand hoverbikes, the consensus mission becomes one of uncrewed logistics transport and resupply, with the possibility of carrying a person mainly an option to get medics to people otherwise immobilized or inaccessible.
If there is a future for the flyboard in war, it is likely as a transportation option in a medic’s toolkit, though not one without risk. Instead, the flyboard may find its truest home in events like the Bastille Day parade, as a theatrical expression of ingenuity, divorced from any practical military utility. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
17 Jul 19. Facial recognition trials are a move in the right direction. Jason Sierra, sales director for UK defence and covert surveillance manufacturer, Seven Technologies Group, responds to the news that home secretary, Sajid Javid, has given his backing for police forces to trial facial recognition cameras. He said: “That the home secretary has given his backing for the use of facial recognition technology to be trialled by police forces is extremely encouraging. While its intended purpose is to clamp down heavily on online child abuse, its applications go far beyond this.
“Terror exists in many formats and there have been huge advancements in facial recognition software in recent years to the point where we now see artificial intelligence as integral to aiding the technology.
“Combining facial recognition with other technologies to detect changes in behaviour, temperature, audio and seismic conditions for example we can develop a better understanding of the threat environment.
“For our part, we work with law enforcement, defence and border control to limit and neutralise threat – so any move to integrate the technology at hand to save time and resource while increasing the chance to thwart any criminal intent is a move in the right direction.”
17 Jul 19. Launch of new TEMPEST filters for navies. In response to recent market trends and direct enquiries, MPE has now developed a range of TEMPEST protection filters specifically for installation within naval applications. This follows on from the “floating earth”, ultra-low-leakage power line filter range developed by MPE during 2017, as reported in Company Bulletin Issue 12. The new range of ground-breaking filters comprises high performance two-, three- and four-wire variants with low line-to-earth current leakage. The filters support system and equipment compliance with the overarching requirements of NATO TEMPEST SDIP-27 and SDIP-29 Standards and provide high levels of attenuation across the full frequency spectrum. They meet the line capacitance limitations of DEF-STAN 59-411 and MIL-STD-461 and are designed to be compatible with a ship’s integral DC leakage detection systems. The new filters have been developed for any naval application where TEMPEST protection is a requirement, typically briefing rooms, radio rooms, electronic warfare hubs, and navigation or command-and-control locations. Indeed, MPE has many years of accumulated expertise and experience in manufacturing low-leakage filters, for use in applications such as secure communications systems, computer installations, portable screened enclosures and mobile tactical shelters.
The new range of TEMPEST protection filters includes models from 16A through to 125A, providing high levels of attenuation from 100kHz right up to 10GHz – and with exceptionally low line-to-chassis leakage properties from 16.6mA down to 3.6mA. Mechanically these filters utilise stainless steel enclosures for enhanced corrosion resistance in marine environments, and are finished with high-quality epoxy paint. They have a very high resistance to shock and vibration, and are designed to have an extremely long service life. Incorporating the same field-proven, ultra-high-reliability components as have been used for decades in MPE’s other power line filter ranges, these ultra-low-leakage filters have already been designed into the highest profile marine platforms such as the Royal Navy’s Astute Class submarines and their new Type 26 frigate.
16 Jul 19. W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (Gore) announces the new GORE® Fiber Optic Cables, 1.8 mm Simplex with high impact-resistance for extreme defense aircraft environments. This version is proven to exceed new stringent JN1177 and EN4641-301 industry standards for more durability while maintaining high-bandwidth data and video transmission on 10-Gb avionics networks.
Added Durability. Enhanced Protection.
With a unique buffering system, Gore’s 1.8 mm Simplex exceeds the minimum weight impact requirements specified in these standards for enhanced crush and impact protection while retaining its original optical properties. This version is also resistant to abrasion, scrapes, aggressive chemicals, and undesirable fluids that aircraft typically experience during complex installation, maintenance activities, and repeated flight conditions. Even after exposure to a wide range of temperatures, this rugged cable endured high-intensity vibration and mechanical shock without degradation or optical loss. The combination of Gore’s unique cable materials also increases fiber movement under compression that improves termination with standard aerospace connector systems.
Prototyping & Evaluation
Complimentary samples of GORE® Fiber Optic Cables for defense aircraft are available, including the 1.8 mm and 1.2 mm Simplex, 900 micron, and Ribbon cables. Fill out this short online form to receive samples within two business days (48 hours) from the date of the request. Alternatively, contact a Gore representative regarding available materials for sample, prototype, and small production requirements.
All of Gore’s rugged fiber optic cables have compact, flexible footprints with tight bending capability that meet size, weight and routing constraints as more high-tech avionics are installed or retrofitted in defense aircraft.
About Gore Performance Solutions Division
Gore develops products and technologies that address complex product and process challenges in a variety of markets and industries, including aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, mobile electronics, oil and gas — and more. Through close collaboration with industry leaders across the globe, Gore enables customers to design their products and processes to be safer, cleaner, more productive, reliable, durable and efficient across a wide range of demanding environments.
15 Jul 19. Russian Helicopters to start additive manufacturing of parts in 2020. Russian Helicopters to start additive manufacturing of parts in 2020. In 2019, Russian Helicopters Holding Company (part of Rostec) is planning to re-engineer approximately 30 different helicopter parts to be manufactured using 3D printing technology and integrate them to serial production starting from 2020.
“This year we are finishing the re-engineering of around 30 different parts and details that will be manufactured using additive technologies. These parts are currently manufactured with various methods, like casting, punching or machining and we need to integrate their production to 3D printing. According to our plans, this will process will start in 2020. We are talking about serious, power elements of the structures, units and systems of our helicopters. By the end of the year, we will decide whether we are ready to put these parts on serial production”, said Director for Innovations of Russian Helicopters Andrey Shibitov.
Each item will undergo construction re-design, strength testing and testing from the point of view of all modern production technologies. As part of the tests, it is essential to confirm that the part made using additive technology is equal or superior in its characteristics to the analogous item it replaces. Only after this, the new parts can be approved to be integrated to the production of various helicopter series. To date, already 80 different parts are undergoing re-engineering.
At the moment, Russian-made helicopters are yet to include parts made using additive technologies. Russian Helicopters predicts that the share of 3D printed parts will significantly increase during 2020-2022 around the world.
The use of additive manufacturing can significantly reduce the mass of the aircraft and its cost. VRT500 is a light single-engine helicopter with coaxial rotors and maximum takeoff weight of 1600 kg. It will be equipped with the latest interactive avionics and have the most spacious passenger cabin in its class with the total capability of 5 persons. The helicopter can reach a max speed of 250km/h, has a flight range of 860km and can carry a payload of up to 730kg.
The light multi-purpose Ansat helicopter is actively used by the Russian air medical services. The helicopter has compact size and does not require a large landing area. It can also be used for normal passenger and VIP transport, cargo delivery and environmental monitoring. High-altitude tests of Ansat have been successfully completed, which confirmed the possibility of its use in mountainous terrain at altitudes up to 3,500 meters.
JSC “Russian Helicopters”, a part of Rostec State Corporation, is a leading player in the global helicopter industry, the sole Russian designer and manufacturer of helicopters. The Holding Company was established in 2007 and is headquartered in Moscow. We operate five helicopter assembly plants, two design bureaus, component production and maintenance enterprises, aircraft repair plants and one helicopter service company providing after-sales support in Russia and abroad. The customers of the Holding Company are the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs, EMERCOM of Russia, and other state customers, Gazpromavia, UTair Aviation company, large Russian and foreign companies.
Rostec is a Russian State Corporation that was established in 2007 to facilitate the development, production and export of high-tech industrial products designed for civilian and military applications. The Corporation comprises over 700 organizations in 60 constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are currently part of 15 holding companies and 80 directly managed organizations specializing in manufacturing military-industrial, civilian and dual-purpose products. Rostec’s portfolio includes well-known brands such as AVTOVAZ, KAMAZ, Concern Kalashnikov, Russian Helicopters, UralVagonZavod, etc. In 2017 the consolidated revenue of Rostec reached 1trn 589m rubles, while the consolidated net income and EBITDA amounted to 121 and 305bn rubles respectively. According to Rostec strategy, the main objective of the Corporation is to ensure that Russia has a technological advantage in highly competitive global markets. Rostec’s key objectives include the introduction of a new techno-economic paradigm and digitalization of Russian economy.
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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