Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
————————————————————————
25 Jul 19. Auto-GCAS Finalized for the F-35. The F-35 Joint Program Office, U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin have started integrating the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto-GCAS) with the Air Force F-35As in the fleet. Therefore the team was able to field Auto-GCAS success- fully seven years earlier than previously planned. Originally developed for the F-16 in partnership with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Auto-GCAS uses terrain mapping, geolocation and automation to detect and avoid potential ground collisions. When the program recognizes imminent impact, it will prompt the pilot to take action. If the pilot is unresponsive, Auto-GCAS assumes temporary control to divert the aircraft out of harm‘s way, and then returns control of the aircraft to the pilot once on a safe trajectory. The system has been operating successfully aboard the F-16 for more than five years and has already been credited with saving eight F-16 pilots‘ lives since 2014. “This is a great day for the warfighter as the Auto-GCAS is a proven system that is long overdue,” said Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, F-35 Program Executive Officer. “Expediting this life-saving technology into the F-35 across the global fleet will bring more warfighters home. Over the service life of the F-35 fleet, having Auto-GCAS is estimated to prevent more than 26 ground collisions from happening. The time and effort expended to deliver this critical warfighting capability is worth it – it will save lives.” (Source: ESD Spotlight)
25 Jul 19. Collins Aerospace completes first cockpit upgrade for French C-130H. Collins Aerospace Systems and partners have completed the first cockpit upgrade for the French Air Force’s C-130H Hercules aircraft.
France’s defence procurement agency DGA awarded a contract to an industry team comprising Collins Aerospace, Lockheed Martin and Sabena Technics in September 2016 to perform the modernisation of 14 C-130H aircraft. Collins Aerospace is the prime contractor for the programme and plays a key role in the ongoing certification flight test campaign.
As part of the programme, the company has equipped the aircraft with its Flight2 avionics solution, which features a digital glass cockpit, advanced communications, navigation, surveillance, and integrated flight management system.
Other enhancements include the dual HGS-4500 Head-Up Guidance (HGS) with EVS-3000 multispectral enhanced vision system for improved situational awareness.
The HGS also features an electro-optical infrared camera for asset detection.
The upgrades are intended to enhance operational capabilities of the C-130H aircraft to support the French Air Force’s specific mission requirements.
Collins Aerospace France Avionics managing director Olivier Pedron said: “Modernising to the Flight2 system provides the French Air Force with the latest generation of avionics and optimised support and maintenance solutions to complete demanding missions all over the world.”
The company noted that the first two aircraft will undergo flight and qualification test by the DGA. After the testing is completed, Collins Aerospace and Sabena Technics will deliver modification kits to the Service Industriel de l’Aéronautique (SIAé) for installation on the remaining 12 C-130Hs in the fleet.
In September 2017, the firm completed its first Flight2 avionics system integration for the modernisation programme in Toulouse. Collins Aerospace’s Flight2 solution will allow the French C-130H to comply with the latest International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards. The company has upgraded or is under contract to upgrade more than 371 C-130 aircraft with its Flight2 integrated avionics solution. In March this year, the firm won a contract to modernise the avionics system of the Portuguese Air Force’s C-130H aircraft. (Source: airforce-technology.com)
24 Jul 19. Leonardo to provide Tempest large-body test aircraft. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has contracted Leonardo to provide a large-body test aircraft as part of the Team Tempest initiative.
Announced at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford in Gloucestershire on 19 July, the contract will see the company provide a modified Boeing 757 testbed aircraft to test systems and sensors destined for the future Tempest fighter, as well as supporting capability enhancements for the current Eurofighter Typhoon and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning.
The MoD did not provide a contract value, but noted that the testbed aircraft will come into service in the early 2020s.
Leonardo is one of four primary industrial partners on the Tempest programme that is being developed by the RAF Rapid Capabilities Office, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), and Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S); the others being BAE Systems, MBDA UK, and Rolls-Royce.
Due to enter service in the early 2030s, the Tempest is being developed “from the inside out”, according to the MoD, with the emphasis on the systems and sensors rather than the airframe that will accommodate them.
BAE Systems has previously noted it will feature a flexible payload; adaptable airframe; long-range sensing; laser direct-energy weapons; advanced materials; intelligent maintenance; dynamically reconfigurable architecture; cyber protection; MUM-T; trusted artificial intelligence reasoning; and a future ‘wearable’ cockpit. Future powerplants are being explored also, with the RAF recently touting the notion of hypersonic (Mach 5+) technologies and engines being developed for future platforms.
Further to the aircraft itself, the Tempest will operate in concert with ‘loyal wingman’ unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) being developed under the Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) programme, and alongside all other air assets as part of a Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
The Tempest programme is a fundamental pillar of the MoD’s Combat Air Strategy (CAS), with a GBP2bn (USD2.65bn) initial investment in the project announced at the 2018 Farnborough Air Show. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
24 Jul 19. Cranfield and Thales to Collaborate on New Aviation Technologies. Cranfield University and Thales have announced plans to work closely in partnership to unlock the potential of new aviation technologies. The UK Government’s recent Aerospace Sector Deal highlighted the potential for the UK in developing future aviation technology, with a previous study by PwC revealing that drone technology has the potential to increase UK GDP by 2 per cent by 2030.
The agreement, signed at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at RAF Fairford, will see the two organisations explore closer collaboration in areas such as: unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and unmanned traffic management (UTM), aerial and ground autonomous systems, airspace data communications and digital aviation security.
Victor Chavez, Chief Executive of Thales UK, said:
“We are in the midst of a digital transformation in the aviation sector. Thales is at the leading edge of this change with Cranfield University as a critical academic partner. Together, we will develop pioneering technologies and innovate to drive sustainable aviation, including entirely new air transport systems and enhanced passenger experience. Our agreement with Cranfield University today opens the door to the next era of digital aviation.”
The two organisations are already working closely together, as partners in the £67m Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre (DARTeC) and the National Beyond visual line of sight Experimentation Corridor (NBEC).
DARTeC will address challenges such as:
- The integration of drones into civilian airspace
- Increasing the efficiency of airports through technological advances
- Creating safe, secure shared airspace through secure data communication infrastructures
- Increasing the reliability and availability of aircraft through self-sensing, self-aware technologies
The National Beyond visual line of sight Experimentation Corridor (NBEC) aims to create an experimentation corridor that will enable drones and unmanned aircraft to fly in the same airspace.
Professor Helen Atkinson FREng Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Aerospace, Transport Systems and Manufacturing at Cranfield University, said:
“Together with Thales and our partners, Cranfield is at the forefront of helping the UK unlock the potential of digital aviation, through both DARTeC and NBEC. Through this agreement we can further strengthen our collaboration and play a key role in helping realise the ambitions of the Industrial Strategy.”
About the National Beyond visual line of sight Experimentation Corridor (NBEC)
The NBEC partners, Cranfield University, Blue Bear, Thales and Vodafone, aim to create an experimentation corridor that will enable drones and unmanned aircraft to fly in the same airspace. The corridor will stretch across Bedfordshire from Blue Bear’s headquarters in Oakley to Cranfield University’s airport.
About the Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre
A new £65m Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre is being built at Cranfield to spearhead the UK’s research into digital aviation technology. In 2018, Cranfield Airport became the first in the UK to have an operational digital air traffic control centre, replicating what can be seen through the windows of a traditional air traffic control tower via a live feed using HD cameras and sensors. Co-investment support for DARTeC is being provided through a consortium of leading aerospace and aviation companies including Aveillant, Boxarr, the IVHM Centre, Saab and Thales – as well as Research England and Cranfield University. Since its launch the DARTeC consortium has grown to include additional organisations, namely Blue Bear Systems Research, the Connected Places Catapult, IATA and the Satellite Applications Catapult.
About Cranfield University
Cranfield is a specialist postgraduate university that is a global leader for education and transformational research in technology and management. (Source: UAS VISION)
24 Jul 19. Cape Drops Support for DJI – Partners with Skydio. Cape, a cloud platform for remote drone operations, has announced that, effective immediately, the company will drop support for DJI drones. As part of the decision, the company also launched the Cape Preferred Partner Program (P3), a new initiative aimed at ensuring the security of commercial drone integrations across industries.
Skydio, a creator of drone systems that combine artificial intelligence, computer vision and advanced robotics, is the first company to officially join Cape P3, just months after they were selected by the U.S. Department of Defense to take part in the Short Range Reconnaissance program for the U.S. Army. Together, the companies will collaborate on next generation technology that is both easier to use and more capable than ever before, enabling secure, intelligent, and cost-effective remote drone operations for both enterprises and government organizations.
Cape P3 was established to create a process for ensuring secure integration of Cape Aerial Telepresence software with trusted drone hardware manufacturers and enterprise application developers. The program is a direct result of increasing security concerns around the use of drones for public safety and commercial use, and follows the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) recent warnings regarding security risks related to the use of Chinese-made drones. Among the concerns, the DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warned of the potential risk of Chinese-made drones compromising data and sharing information on servers beyond organizations’ themselves.
With the launch of the partner program, Cape software will exclusively allow for integration with hardware and enterprise applications from U.S. companies, such as Skydio, or companies from countries with intellectual property treaties with the U.S. As a result, Cape will specifically cease all integration with DJI-manufactured drones, as well as all other drones developed by companies based in China. Cape P3 is the latest example of the company’s commitment to enabling wide scale use of drones by enterprises, ensuring total data privacy and the safety of U.S. airspace.
“The success of commercial drone adoption in the U.S. depends on total data security and privacy protection,” said Chris Rittler, CEO of Cape. “In launching the Cape Preferred Partner Program and ceasing integration with DJI drones, we are taking a stand for the benefit of all enterprises who want to utilize drones as part of daily operation. We are proud to be partnering with Skydio in leading the charge for improved security standards and increased safety during a critical inflection point in the industry.”
Today’s businesses increasingly rely on the integration of drones into daily operations to maximize workforces, improve operational efficiencies and enable data-driven decision making, with security and safety topping the list of technology requirements. The combination of Skydio’s advanced drone technology and Cape Aerial Telepresence software offers companies the highest level of drone data protection, while enabling ease of use and the accessibility of captured footage by existing industry-specific enterprise applications.
Now, commercial customers and public safety and government agencies will be able to easily capture 4K quality images and videos autonomously with best-in-class collision avoidance, while remotely operating the drone from any location, and view the captured footage in real-time over any internet connection. With the Silicon Valley startups sharing the same principles on data privacy, security and intellectual property protection, the partnership offers organizations the best possible technology for practical everyday use cases that security-conscious operations teams can count on.
“Skydio’s advancements in autonomous drone technology expand the horizons for aerial data capture for consumers, enterprises and first responders by enabling robust, precise, autonomous and semi-autonomous flight in every environment, in close proximity to obstacles, and in GPS-denied environments,” said Adam Bry, CEO at Skydio. “With the Cape partnership, users of Skydio’s upcoming drones will be able to remotely operate the drones without fear of crashing, and without putting anybody in harm’s way.” (Source: UAS VISION)
25 Jul 19. DARPA 3DSoC Initiative Completes First Year. Update Provided at ERI Summit on Key Steps Achieved to Transfer Technology into SkyWater’s 200mm U.S. Foundry. Progress moves technology closer to availability of a standard foundry process designed to greatly increase compute performance and energy efficiency. SkyWater Technology Foundry, the trusted innovation partner for tomorrow’s most advanced technology solutions, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), announced an update at the 2019 ERI Summit on the DARPA sponsored 3DSoC program, the largest of the ERI programs. The program is being led by MIT and supported by Stanford University and SkyWater; the team has achieved progress in transferring the carbon nanotube (CNT) Field Effect Transistors (FET)-based 3DSoC technology into SkyWater’s 200mm production facility after years of development work and successful concept demonstration at MIT. The benefits of such breakthrough technology will set a new benchmark for compute performance and energy efficiency and is a pivotal move towards bringing back cutting-edge manufacturing to the U.S.
The technology supports monolithic integration of stackable tiers of CNT-based logic and RRAM to realize a high-density SoC architecture. To fabricate the 3DSoC, SkyWater is using a 90nm process which is predicted to deliver power/compute performance exceeding that of conventional 2D architectures fabricated with 7nm process flows. Though this demonstration is using 90nm geometry, the technology is compatible with node scaling for further performance gains. While observers note the program’s ambitious objectives and potential challenges, the initiative is tracking to plan as the first year concludes.
To date, the new SkyTech Center has been commissioned within SkyWater, which includes all the capital equipment required to support the program. Unit process steps as well as a complete process flow from MIT have been transferred successfully to SkyWater’s 200mm processing facility and the program is currently running a wide variety of test chips to continue to jointly develop the technology and demonstrate its potential.
“I am thrilled to see the progress and many steps taken on this road in transitioning our work from our academic lab at MIT into the real world through SkyWater’s volume manufacturing facility,” said Dr. Max Shulaker, MIT Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The close collaboration between MIT, Stanford, and SkyWater has proved critical in progressing these nanotechnologies toward widespread adoption.”
“SkyWater has been focused on breaking the mold of Moore’s Law scaling from our start. This technology holds great promise for doing exactly that, by not only putting the industry on a new compute/performance scaling path, but by shining light on new paths to enable the next wave of artificial intelligence and machine learning,” said Dr. Brad Ferguson, SkyWater Chief Technology Officer. “Max and the team at MIT are making an enormous contribution to the industry and we greatly value the opportunity to play a role in bringing this new IC architecture to market.”
About SkyWater Technology Foundry
SkyWater is a solely U.S.-based and owned, DMEA-accredited Technology Foundry, providing custom design and development services, exclusive design IP, and volume manufacturing for integrated circuits and micro devices. The Company’s world-class operations and unique processing capabilities enable mixed-signal CMOS, rad-hard and ROIC solutions. SkyWater’s Innovation Engineering Services empower development of superconducting and 3D ICs, along with carbon nanotube, photonic and MEMS devices. SkyWater serves customers in growing markets such as aerospace & defense, automotive, cloud & computing, consumer, industrial, IoT and medical. For more information, please visit: www.skywatertechnology.com/.
(Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
23 Jul 19. DST in pursuit of high-performance computing capability for Defence. Defence Science Technology’s (DST) John Taylor is on the hunt for a high-performance computing solution to support Defence’s key tactical and strategic objectives. There has been a massive uptake of HPC by universities and research organisations. It has become a tool of the trade and a way to deal with huge amounts of data and most areas of defence research will benefit from the new capability.
With confidence based on his experience of establishing and managing a HPC team at CSIRO, Taylor said, “Defence scientists will be able to run code thousands of times faster than on their high-end desktop computers. That means shortening the run-time for complex problems to realistic time frames, and tackling problems we couldn’t even dream of attempting on a desktop. High-performance computing offers are a whole range of advantages including accelerating the innovation cycle, which is critical to maintaining competitiveness.”
DST is aiming for a top 50 spot in the list of the world’s 500 fastest computers. In November 2018, the IBM Summit supercomputer developed for the US Department of Energy was ranked number one, with a speed rating of 122.3 petaflops.
One petaflop is a unit of computing speed equal to one thousand m m (1015) floating-point operations per second.
“Whether it’s modelling and simulation of a hypersonic object travelling through the atmosphere, or analysing the vast amounts of data from our modern weapon systems, data sets are now being described in petabytes, and will be rapidly expanding to collections and data sets measured in exabytes,” Taylor added.
“Inside the top 50 is a suitable place for an organisation like DST to aim for. We’re aiming for 20 petaflops. To put that into context, we’ll be over 125 m times faster than the original Cray-1 supercomputer, which ran at 160 megaflops.”
Taylor’s team has been operating a pilot high-performance computing capability at DST’s Melbourne site, with beta users helping to ramp up DST’s knowledge of how to operate a supercomputer in a secure environment, and just as importantly how to support and manage users efficiently.
He added, “Our HPC centre will play a key role in rapidly analysing huge volumes of data, being able to call on a significant number of the graphics processing units (GPUs) required by AI algorithms. Many of the programming interfaces will automatically pick up and use the GPUs, but we’ll also have a suite of libraries so researchers won’t have to completely rewrite existing code to access the benefits of the latest generation of high-performance computing hardware that GPUs represent.”
Before you know it, high-performance computing power will be within the desktop reach of every Australian defence scientist.(Source: Defence Connect)
19 Jul 19. The Navy’s 6th Generation Fighter Could Put the F-35 in a Museum. New much-longer range sensors and weapons, incorporating emerging iterations of AI, are expected to make warfare more disaggregated, and much less of a linear force on force type of engagement. Such a phenomenon, driven by new technology, underscores warfare reliance upon sensors and information networks. All of this, naturally, requires the expansive “embedded ISR” discussed by the paper. Network reliant warfare is of course potentially much more effective in improving targeting and reducing sensor-to-shooter time over long distances, yet it brings a significant need to organize and optimize the vast, yet crucial, flow of information.
The Navy is currently analyzing air frames, targeting systems, AI-enabled sensors, new weapons and engine technologies to engineer a new 6th-Generation fighter to fly alongside the F-35 and ultimately replace the F/A-18.
The Navy program, called Next-Generation Air Dominance, has moved beyond a purely conceptual phase and begun exploration of prototype systems and airframes as it pursues a new, carrier-launched 6th-Gen fighter to emerge in 2030 and beyond, service officials explained.
“Some important areas of consideration include derivative and developmental air vehicle designs, advanced engines, propulsion, weapons, mission systems, electronic warfare and other emerging technologies,” Navy spokeswoman Lt. Lauren Chatmas told Warrior earlier this year.
A formal Analysis of Alternatives, expected to complete this year, is weighing the advantages of leveraging nearer-term existing technologies such as new variants or upgrades to cutting edge weapons, sensors and stealth configurations – or allowing more time for leap-ahead developmental systems to emerge.
The current analysis follows a now-completed Initial Capabilities Document detailing some of the sought-after requirements for the new aircraft, or “family of aircraft,” Chatmas explained.
Anticipated decisions about a 6th-Gen fighter balance themselves upon the as-of-yet unknown maturity of various promising new weapons and technologies nearing a threshold of operational possibility.
For instance, some now-in-development next-gen stealth technologies, including new radar-evading configurations, coating materials and advanced thermal-signature reduction are fast-approaching levels of combat readiness. Yet, absent a clear timeframe when, for example, new stealth or AI enabled sensors can ensure overmatch for decades to come, Navy developers are thinking it may make sense to push the current “art-of-the-possible” to the maximum extent.
This challenge, explored by a Naval Postgraduate School essay called “The 6th-Generation Quandry,” poses the question as to whether it might be equally if not more effective to postpone formal 6th-generation development until truly breakthrough advances emerge, while pursuing advanced variants of current, yet upgradable platforms in the interim.
The 2016 paper, from the Naval Postgraduate School Acquisition Research Program, cites a handful of current systems showing significant long-term promise. The paper sites “new models of the F-35 optimized for air combat,” the emerging B-21, drone-launching C-130 “mother ships” and “weapons truck arsenal planes” are positioned to optimize current technological progress. These systems, including a B-52-like arsenal plane, unmanned fighter jets, AI-empowered sensors and new weapons with unprecedented range are designed to accommodate new iterations of AI, processing speeds, software upgrades and other incremental improvements.
According to this logic, there simply might not be enough of a margin of difference in performance between the best upgraded platforms of today – and something entirely new which could be built in the next 10 years or so.
Could these upgradable systems, fortified by new-iterations of stealth technology now being woven into the B-21, themselves be sufficient to propel naval aviation superiority for decades? This would alleviate the risk and expense of pursuing something truly “breakthrough” in the near term, potentially freeing up funding and resources to explore paradigm-changing air-fighter technologies for the long term.
Furthermore, current sensors, avionics and weapons systems are increasingly AI-reliant, a circumstance which makes it easier to greatly improve performance by integrating new algorithms, analytics or processing speed. In effect, all of this raises the question as to whether an entirely new airframe is truly needed to achieve overmatch in coming decades? By 2030?
These questions seem to be informing the current Navy rationale, which is to look at both new airframes as well as adaptations of the best of what’s available. The latter option brings its own advantages, because various industry developers are already building prototypes of 6th-Gen fighters with newly designed, stealthier airframes. Looking at applications of AI, miniaturized long-range sensors, targeting technology and drones operating with ever-increasing levels of autonomy – some contend that perhaps some of the most essential ingredients of long-term transformational technologies are, in effect, already here. This would be the basis upon which a nearer-term aircraft, drawing from some off-the-shelf-items, would be pursued.
Some of these decisions are also expected to be impacted by the success with which the Navy is able to keep extending the combat service life of the F/A-18. The Navy’s F/A-18 Service Life Extension Program has already extended the aircraft’s initial plans to fly 6,000 flight hours to 8,000 hours through a series of upgrades. Now, looking at the airframes and the state of cutting-edge avionics, the service is hoping to push its fleet of F/A-18s to 10,000 hours. Navy officials tell Warrior these upgrades are significant and, in many cases, can bring the F/A-18 combat performance well into the future. Some of the adjustments start with the airframes themselves; Service Life “Assessment” Programs look to possibly replace the center “barrel” of the airframe and analyze the fatigue of the Nacelle (engine coating or skin), service officials say.
The F/A-18 upgrades also add new navigation technology, digital memory devices, mission computers, helmet-mounted cueing systems, Electronically Scanned Array Radar and an advanced targeting sensor called Infrared Search and Track, As a passive sensor, IRST enables better targeting while not emitting a signal, making it vulnerable to enemy electronic warfare attacks.
All Paths Point to 6th-Gen AI
There is widespread consensus that applications of AI appear to provide the framework for the most defining expected technological progress. In fact, a 2017 paper from a 16-nation NATO conglomerate of analysts, called the Joint Air Power Competence Center, raises questions about when, and how, AI may outpace the human ability to keep up. The essay, titled “Air Warfare Communication in a Networked Environment,” quotes Air Force Acquisition Executive William Roper from his previous role directing the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office, saying “AI is progressing beyond the human ability to interface with it.”
For instance, “smart sensors” able to gather, analyze and organize vast volumes of combat information in milliseconds, using AI-fortified algorithms, are now being built into airframes themselves to combine new sensing technology without increasing an aircraft’s radar signature. The absence of an external antenna, pod or structured array of some kind removes otherwise more radar-detectable structures from an airframe.
“Smart sensors and smart antenna arrays with adaptive properties would be embedded into the structure of an aircraft,” an essay from Jain University’s International Institute for Aerospace Engineering states. ( “Sensor Technology and Futuristic Of Fighter Aircraft, “ Jain Univ).
At the same time, while massive increases in sensor ranges, data-sharing and long-range connectivity will continue to bring as-of-yet unprecedented advantages to warfare operations, there are also challenges which emerge as combat becomes more networked. Referring to this phenomenon as creating clusters of “embedded ISR,” the Joint Air Power Competence Center paper warns of security risks and what it calls “hyper-connectivity.”
New much-longer range sensors and weapons, incorporating emerging iterations of AI, are expected to make warfare more disaggregated, and much less of a linear force on force type of engagement. Such a phenomenon, driven by new technology, underscores warfare reliance upon sensors and information networks. All of this, naturally, requires the expansive “embedded ISR” discussed by the paper. Network reliant warfare is of course potentially much more effective in improving targeting and reducing sensor-to-shooter time over long distances, yet it brings a significant need to organize and optimize the vast, yet crucial, flow of information.
“Not everybody in the network needs to see and hear everything. There needs to be a hierarchy, and a backup architecture for degraded network operations,” the paper writes.
These types of challenges, wherein vast amounts of ISR data needs to be aggregated, analyzed and organized, are precisely what AI and high-speed processing can address. Using advanced algorithms and real-time analytics, computing power can instantly identify and disseminate key moments or items of combat relevance, thereby establishing priorities and massively quickening the human decision cycle.
AI-informed combat decisions, enabled by accelerated real-time analytics, allow human decision makers to draw upon otherwise inaccessible pools of data. Algorithms can integrate new information, instantly compare it against vast amounts of stored data, and come to informed conclusions without requiring human intervention. Often referred to as easing the “cognitive burden,” AI and iterations of man-machine interface, can perform time-consuming or otherwise impossible information-analysis tasks, all while a human functions as ultimate decision-maker in a command and control role. While AI is quickly advancing toward being able to discern and organize seemingly subjective information, there are many decision-making abilities and problem solving faculties regarded as unique to human cognition. (Source: News Now/https://nationalinterest.org)
————————————————————————-
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.
———————————————————————-