Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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20 Oct 20. Oxley Wins Prestigious ‘Made in The North West’ Export Award. Cumbrian based aerospace & defence manufacturer, Oxley Group has won the prestigious 2020 Made in the North West Export Award. The awards are a celebration of the most successful and inspiring manufacturers from across the region.
The Export Award is presented to the manufacturing company deemed by the judges to be the most outstanding exporter in terms of international presence, export growth and exports as a proportion of sales.
Oxley Group is a world leading designer and manufacturer of LED lighting systems and high specification electronic components. The Group has had wide scale success in exporting, sales outside of the UK account for over 80% of turnover and cover 34 countries across the world. Oxley works on prestigious programmes with major aerospace & defence companies, key international projects include an LED lighting suite for the Gulfstream G500 and G600 in the US, a range of lighting for the Saab Gripen in Sweden and a contract to develop the external lighting system on the new KF-X Fighter Aircraft programme for South Korea.
Freddy Oxley, the company’s founder had a philosophy about self-sufficiency and Oxley still provides a full end to end service in house from Ulverston. The Group is renowned for expertise in new product development and invests heavily in R&D and technologies to sustain future growth. International development began in the 1970s and over the last 4 decades, the team have established partnerships and customer relationships throughout many parts of the world. Now Oxley is a Northern Powerhouse Export Champion and works with the DIT Trade encouraging others to grow through exporting.
Oxley CEO Darren Cavan commented, ‘There are many hundreds of brilliant manufacturers exporting from across the North West, to win this award is a fantastic accolade. Oxley innovation and manufacturing quality is world class and as such we have demand for our products right across the globe. This award is testament to the brilliant team we have at Oxley who all play a part in our exporting success.
22 Oct 20. AR goggles could soon be used to direct military working dogs. A new project funded by the US Army Research Office (ARO) is developing augmented reality (AR) goggles to guide military working dogs in an effort to increase personnel safety.
Command Sight, a company focused on human-animal communication, received funding from ARO – part of the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory (ARL) – to develop a prototype of the AR goggles. The research was funded through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programme.
The dogs are trained to respond to laser pointers, which handlers can use to guide the dogs to positions when scouting areas for explosives, assisting in rescue operations, or a range of other activities. Simulated laser pointers are then presented to the dog’s field of view through the goggles, with AR enabling computer-generated imagery to be inserted over a real-world scene.
Stephen Lee, a senior scientist at ARO, said the technology had been driven primarily by evolutions in the commercial sector, notably the use of drones, which has fuelled the development of lightweight electronics and smaller cameras that can be carried comfortably by a dog.
Using the goggles, dogs are trained to respond to laser pointers that handlers can use to guide them to certain positions. (Command Sight)
“The fascinating thing is that this may open up new opportunities for guiding and working with dogs and to develop their capabilities,” Lee told Janes.
AJ Peper, founder and CEO of Command Sight, said the goggles had been made possible by more affordable technology, such as miniaturised single-board computers. (Source: Jane’s)
21 Oct 20. Is a shared lab the next step in Project Convergence? The U.S. Army official who led the service’s largest test of its developing network, artificial intelligence systems and sensors in September said there needs to be a shared laboratory where the joint forces can work together on improving those capabilities.
During an Oct. 21 media roundtable at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Army Futures Command’s Next Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team Director Brig. Gen. Ross Coffman said that planned annual demonstrations are not enough to ensure technologies from the various services work together. Instead, the joint forces need a shared lab for continued collaboration.
In September at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz, Coffman oversaw a sprawling demonstration known as Project Convergence, which the Army is calling “a campaign of learning.” With Project Convergence, the Army wants to use new network and AI capabilities to connect any sensor to the best shooter, regardless of domain or service. It is, in essence, the Army’s best effort to make the Pentagon’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) concept a reality.
Each of the services is developing its own piece of the CJADC2 puzzle. Most notably, the U.S. Air Force has doled out dozens of contracts and held several events as part of its Advanced Battle Management Systems effort. But in order to put the “joint” in CJADC2, those independent efforts will need to be interoperable, with data able to flow from one service to the next seamlessly. The Army and the Air Force have made some progress on that front, signing an agreement on Sept. 29 to work together in developing “mutual standards for data sharing and service interfacing.”
“What the Army and the Air Force are agreeing to is, we’re going to be able to see their data, they’re going to be able to see our data. And as much as we can, we will come up with common standards,” Hinote told C4ISRNET Oct. 15. “But even if we can’t come up with common standards, we realize that translators are going to be something that will be with us for a long time, and we will build the translators necessary to make sure we can share.”
The Army has already dipped its toe into integrating systems from another service into its tactical network. During Project Convergence 2020, the Army was able to borrow a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B and tie it into their sensor to shooter pipeline. In one exercise, the Army was able to take satellite imagery, detect threats and develop targeting data through artificial intelligence, and then pass that data through their developmental networks to the F-35B, which was then able to eliminate the target. In another exercise, the F-35B acted as the sensor, detecting a threat and passing its targeting data to a ground-based weapons system, which then responded accordingly.
Army officials have touted that collaboration — which was not a planned part of Project Convergence — for showing how the services can work together to detect and fire on beyond-line-of-sight targets. And the Army wants to build on that success at Project Convergence 2021, where it plans to integrate the joint forces into its campaign of learning.
“We’ve got to scale this. We’ve got to scale this at the joint level. We’re going to do that in ’21 with the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy have all committed to Project Convergence ’21,” said Coffman.
The United Kingdom has also agreed to participate, and Australia is a maybe.
But as excited as the Army is to bring in those partners in 2021, Coffman noted that military leaders need to collaborate more than just once a year. To foster that teamwork and reduce redundancy, Coffman is calling for a joint lab where the services can develop their CJADC2 systems together.
“We need a joint laboratory where we set this up in the lab — we ask the Air Force to bring their systems, the Navy to bring their systems, the Marines to bring their systems — so that we can continue to learn not just once a year, but a monthly basis: Here we are, here is where we need to go,” he said.
Coffman did not elaborate on where this lab would be, when it would be set up, or who would establish it. (Source: Defense News)
19 Oct 20. OnTime Networks announces a new addition to its fully rugged CM-4000 Series product line-up, the CM-4012F0 12-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch with MIL-DTL-38999 III connectors and support of MIL-STD 1275E.
OnTime Networks, a global leader for rugged, time synchronized Ethernet solutions for the Aerospace and Defense Industry, announced today a new addition to its fully rugged CM-4000 Series product line-up of Managed Switches, Inline Taps and GNSS Time Servers. The newly enhanced Cloudberry CM-4012F0 12-port Layer2+ GbE switch, featuring two (2) 55-pin Shell Size 17 MIL-DTL-38999 III connectors, each holding six (6) GbE ports and one (1) 5-pin Shell Size 11 MIL-DTL-38999 III power connector, providing dual power input capability.OnTime Networks CM-4012F0 12-port Gigabit Ethernet Switch with MIL-DTL-38999 III connectors meeting the unique requirements of ground vehicle (MIL-STD-1275E) and airborne (MIL-STD-704) applications. Qualified to temperature of -55..+85C(*), 85.000ft altitude and provides 250ms hold-over capability(*). (*) Options
This latest powerful addition to the CM-4000 Series, combines the requirement for small size, weight, power consumption, and cost (SWaP-C) optimization (2 lbs. weight / 10 Watt power consumption), with GbE connectivity and the latest MIL-STD 1275E power requirements for military ground vehicle use, as well as further addresses the need for MIL-DTL-38999 connectors.
The CM-4012F0 is available in MIL and AER versions addressing the unique requirements of ground vehicle (MIL-STD-1275E) and airborne (MIL-STD-704) applications. The CM-4012 is qualified to temperatures of -55..+85C(*), 85.000ft altitude and provides 250ms hold-over capability(*). (*) Options
About CM-4012F0 38999 Series
The CM-4012F0 Series is a fully rugged managed gigabit Ethernet switch specially designed to operate reliably in the harsh climatically and noisy electrical demanding environments (e.g. high altitude, extreme shock, and vibration, wide temperatures, humidity, dust and water exposure, noisy EMI, dirty power) of military applications. The platform is an advanced and highly engineered switch that addresses complexity, enable modularity and provides growth, while delivering optimal performance for Space, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaP-C) constrained aircraft applications onboard helicopters and fixed wing aircrafts. The unit complies to the environmental requirements of MIL-STD-810G, EMI/EMC requirements of MIL-STD-461 or IEC-55032/61000 and electric power characteristics requirements according to MIL-STD-704 (AER variant) and MIL-STD-1275E (MIL variant).
This fully managed, Layer 2/3 Gigabit switch provides a powerful set of networking features, including support for IPv4 multicast traffic filtering according to static filters or IGMP snooping, Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs), port control (speed / mode / statistics, ow control), Quality of Service (QoS) traffic prioritization, Link Aggregation (802.3ad), SNMP v1/v2/v3 management, secure authentication (802.1X, ACLs, Web/CLI), port mirroring and network redundancy based on RSTP/MSTP.
The CM-4012F0 Series is a PTP 1588 Transparent Clock (TC) and Boundary Clock (BC) with PTP version translation (v1/v2) support. The unit also contains a standard NTP server.
About OnTime Networks
OnTime Networks is a technology leader for rugged, time synchronized, fully managed, modular Gigabit Ethernet switches, specifically designed to operate reliably in the harsh and climatically demanding environments of the Aerospace and Defense Industry. Recognized for innovation and excellence, OnTime focuses on precise time over Ethernet according to IEEE 1588 (PTP) as core technology. For more information, please visit www.ontimenet.com. (Source: PR Newswire)
19 Oct 20. US Army looks to use soldiers’ biometric data to secure wearable tech. The U.S. Army’s tactical network modernization team wants to integrate wearables with the new augmented reality combat goggles as a means of bolstering cybersecurity.
Donald Coulter, senior science and technology adviser to the Network Cross-Functional Team, said on a Monday webinar hosted by C4ISRNET that one of the team’s priorities for the next year is advancing wearable technology for user authentication.
Under current capabilities, users are authenticated using passwords, common access cards or tokens to verify themselves. But these capabilities aren’t good enough in an operational environment, Coulter said.
“These can be broken, damaged [or] lost in an operational environment,” he said. “Trying to put in a password with tactical gloves when it’s a tiny keyboard is not an optimal solution.”
With the wearables, soldiers’ identities are verified using biometric data such as heartrates, gait, unique skin signatures and physical locations. The benefits of wearable technology is twofold: It makes the Army’s systems increasingly secure, while being more intuitive for the soldier in the field.
One of the first places the Army plans to “experiment and prove out” wearables is with the Integrated Visual Augmentation System — essentially artificial intelligence-enhanced goggles that assist with navigation, targeting, and advanced night and thermal vision. The IVAS effort is led by the Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team.
The Army finds the technology quite promising, “especially when you talk about the infusion of more artificial intelligence and machine-learning capacity — to really study, to capture more data and tag it, and really understand the unique characteristics of each person,” Coulter said. “It really gives us more confidence and ability to perform that effectively.”
He added that the wearable technology is mature, and his team may field it in the coming years.
Wearable technology is something the Network CFT is closely watching, but it’s also focused on protecting communications for manned-unmanned teaming, cyber situational awareness, the squad area network and IVAS radio.
“Over the next year we’ll continue to see more and more technologies getting out of the S&T domain and getting into the [project managers] for final prototyping, experimentation, maturation and integration,” Coulter said. (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
21 Oct 20. Easy Aerial Integrates infiniDome GPSdome Technology to Ensure Continuous UAS Operations in GPS-Denied Environments. GPS Signal Protection Vital to Ensure Safe Commercial and Defense BVLOS operations .
Easy Aerial, a leading provider of autonomous drone-based monitoring solutions for commercial, government, and defense applications, today announced it has integrated the infiniDome GPSdome solution for GNSS/GPS signal protection into its line of military-grade autonomous unmanned aerial systems.
GPSdome integrates into Easy Aerial’s Smart Aerial Monitoring System (SAMS) GNSS receivers and employs a unique interference filtering system that combines patterns from two omnidirectional antennas. In real-time, GPSdome analyzes the interference signal and feeds its properties into infiniDome’s proprietary algorithm to filter and reject any attacking RF interference allowing the UAS to continue GPS signal reliance during a jamming attack. Upon detection of a jamming signal, GPSdome notifies operators of a possible signal jamming interference.
Easy Aerial selected GPSdome for its lightweight, small form factor, low power consumption, and field-proven ability to detect, alert, and shield jamming signals. As the only dual-use GPS anti-jamming solution on the market, infiniDome’s technology is perfectly suited for Easy Aerial’s global security and defense customers ensuring safe Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and other critical operations in GPS denied environments.
“We chose GPSdome because it’s a proven solution that perfectly suits the diverse missions our customers routinely fly in some of the world’s most inhospitable and hostile environments,” said Ido Gur, co-founder & CEO of Easy Aerial. “While our systems are equipped with multiple onboard redundancies, GPS signals are vital to maintaining position, navigation, and timing accuracy, ensuring uninterrupted operation.”
“GPSdome delivers anti-jamming technology, unmatched in size, weight, power, and cost advantages,” said Omer Sharar, infiniDome’s CEO. “GPSdome is the industry’s only dual-use, both commercial and military, GPS anti-jamming protection. GPSdome not only detects the attack but also shields the received signals from being overpowered by jammers. These assaults can have drastic effects, including losses in property, services, as well as the potential risk to lives.” (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
19 Oct 20. UK Defence Secretary announces MOD Science and Technology Strategy 2020. The MOD Science and Technology Strategy 2020 sets out how MOD will secure and maintain scientific and technological advantage for the future.
Ground-breaking innovation will be at the heart of defence activity for generations, thanks to a bold new Science and Technology Strategy unveiled today by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace.
‘We are living in a time of unprecedented change. Science and technology (S&T) are developing and proliferating faster than ever before and have become a new domain of international competition. New adversaries have emerged, alongside traditional threats, who actively undermine our democracy and society, supported by substantial and rapidly modernising militaries. Terrorist groups and non-state actors can access technologies and weapons far more sophisticated than before. The natural environment is challenging us with a global pandemic and we have reached the tipping point where decisive action on climate change is required.’
The MOD Science and Technology Strategy 2020 sets out how MOD will secure and maintain scientific and technological advantage in future:
- by prioritising investment to focus on the long term and adopting a challenge-led approach, defence aims to anticipate and shape new technologies and applications of technology, and to build the expertise, policies, and military concepts needed to take advantage of them as soon as they are ready
- MOD will balance this challenge-led approach with a technology push to pursue promising technology or scientific disciplines which offer significant potential to allow them to be integrated into military capability as they mature. MOD will look to collaborate widely but effectively, sharing the effort and sharing knowledge where it in the UK’s interest to do so
- extracting greatest value and impact from defence research also means effectively curating and using the data generated: sharing it appropriately, developing understanding from it, and exploiting it to inform decisions faster than adversaries and competitors.
Professor Dame Angela McLean, the Defence Chief Scientific Adviser, said, “In an uncertain and rapidly-changing world, we can’t afford to be always on the back foot, fighting the latest challenge. This strategy sets out how I intend defence will get ahead of the game and start actively shaping the future.”
Read the full MOD Science and Technology Strategy 2020.: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mod-science-and-technology-strategy-2020
New UK strategy places focus on cutting edge science and technology
The strategy was launched with Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean, against a backdrop of futuristic autonomous military kit: from UAVs that can fit in the palm of a hand to crewless all-terrain surveillance vehicles commanded remotely from a Challenger II tank and the new AJAX vehicle demonstrating ‘human machine teaming’ with an unmanned all terrain buggy.
Building on the UK’s rich heritage in science and technology, this new strategy will focus on finding and funding the breakthroughs that will shape the future, and ensure the armed forces are equipped to meet tomorrow’s threats.
It will also have a renewed focus on data, including capture and curation, which will underpin research to identify threat trends and deliver generation-after-next military hardware.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “We are in a very real race with our adversaries for technological advantage. What we do today will lay the groundwork for decades to come. Proliferation of new technologies demands our science and technology is threat driven and better aligned to our needs in the future.”
The pair visited Salisbury Plain ahead of the Army Warfighting Experiment (AWE), which this week will showcase some of the latest British-built military technologies.
Professor Dame Angela McLean said, “We need a clear focus on what we want science and technology to achieve. I will champion a challenge-led approach, based on trends across science, technology and the military, to set out what we need to be able to do in the future and how we can build towards it through our S&T activity.”
Minister for Science Research and Innovation Amanda Solloway said, “Placing science and research at the heart of the UK’s defence activity will unleash a new wave of innovation for our brilliant armed forces, equipping them to meet our greatest challenges. By backing our best and brightest scientific minds in every corner of the UK, we will ensure we bolster the security of our nation now and for decades to come.
The Army Warfighting Experiment series allows the British Army to push the boundaries of technology and military technology, testing a range of prototype systems by putting them in the hands of the user while giving invaluable feedback to suppliers. This is all done to ensure that British troops maintain a continuous advantage over adversaries on the battlefield of today and tomorrow.
This complements the ongoing Integrated Review of foreign, defence, development and security policy. The Strategy & Technology will also be central to the government’s ambition for the UK to cement its status as a world leading science superpower, set out in its ambitious Research & Development Roadmap in July this year.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-research-and-development-roadmap/uk-research-and-development-roadmap (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
16 Oct 20. How ‘Team Ignite’ works to deliver concepts for the 2035 battlefield. Imagine a battlefield in which soldiers and equipment are hidden from satellites by living organisms that provide camouflage by filtering certain kinds of light. Or imagine concealing where soldiers have been by using organisms to build roads, with separate organisms that later eat away that pathway.
These ideas may seem like science fiction, but they are potential future capabilities under consideration by a relatively new program at the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command, called Team Ignite. The team, which has been operational for about a year, operates as a middleman between the the Army’s Futures and Concepts Center and the service’s operational community.
The Army began this effort because it wants technology that will give the war fighter a competitive edge on the battlefield of 2035.
Team Ignite hosts technology deep dives with Army employees across the future concepts community and operational community. According to Maj. Gen. John George, commanding general of the CCDC, the team has hosted 17 technological deep dives since its inception.
“Those ideas get embedded in the way that the functional concepts are written to help drive future priorities for the Army,” Jean Vettel, chief scientist for the Futures and Concepts Center at CCDC, said on an Oct. 14 call with reporters during the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting.
During these deep dives, which include representatives from other military services, science and technology leaders discuss novel technologies and what the technological maturity of that capability is now, as well as what it will be in the medium and long term. They also discuss the state of technological development within the Army or industry.
“That gives us a better idea of where we’ve got to be investing in, or areas we’ve got to be following and then adopting as we go forward,” George told reporters.
In the upcoming year, Vettel said, Team Ignite will focus on areas dictated to them by the head of Army Futures Command, Gen. John Murray. The top priorities for the upcoming year are artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomy, which are all underpinned by the network and data, though the team is not limited to those areas.
The team is currently working on using drones or robots to get ground-based soldiers over rivers in a combat zone. Users from the Futures and Concepts Center and the 101st Airborne Division collaborated on a list of potential technologies and attributes that deserve more research and development.
“When you’re trying to get units over rivers or wet areas … it’s an extremely dangerous operation because you’re exposed,” said Col. Stephanie Ahern, director of concepts at the center.
Ahern added that there are ongoing projects that have incorporated some of the capabilities the team came up with. Vettel told reporters that the team is exploring ways to move the Army entirely off of using fossil fuels, a shift from previous efforts by the service that focused on just reducing fossil fuel consumption.
Another “hot topic” for Team Ignite, Vettel said, is network deception capabilities to protect artificial intelligence algorithms that process sensor data from adversaries.
George told reporters that Team Ignite is still working to involve industry, but he added that having businesses attend every Team Ignite event would be “overwhelming.” Though he did say cooperative research and development agreements, which allow federal agencies to work with industry on technology development without spending federal funds, is the best way for “one-on-one” collaboration.
“We ultimately want this Team Ignite to become the way we do business,” he added. “It’s increased collaboration with the right partners and the right events.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
20 Oct 20. uAvionix Files FAA TSO Application for World’s First Certified Drone Transponder. Today, uAvionix Corporation announced it has filed a Technical Standard Order (TSO) application with the FAA Aircraft Certification Office (ACO) for its flagship Mode S ADS-B OUT transponder for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The ping200X follows a line of groundbreaking, low Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) avionics developed and certified by uAvionix for UAS and General Aviation aircraft. Approval is expected in Q4 2020.
Weighing only 50 grams, the Level 2els Class 1 transponder packs a punch, delivering 250W of transmit power while only drawing an average of 1.5W, making its profile small enough to be fitted onto Group 1 and 2 UAS.
ping200X will be certified to TSO-C112e (Mode S), TSO-C166b (ADS-B OUT), and TSO-C88b (altitude encoder), enabling airspace access, regulatory, and Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) acceptance worldwide.
ping200X will be the first TSO Certified Transponder designed for the unique needs of UAS. With years of experience miniaturizing avionics for smaller, lighter, and less power consuming applications, uAvionix has made advancements to support longer flight times, higher payloads, and non-traditional aircraft designs across industries.
“Certified avionics support our customers’ needs in pursuing Type Certifications for their aircraft, gaining access to controlled airspace, or in meeting safety case objectives for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations,” said Paul Beard, CEO. “It’s a regulatory enabler, providing assurance to regulators, ANSPs, and manufacturers that the device performs as intended, while providing for safe separation for larger UAS operating in mixed-use airspace.”
Learn more at uAvionix.com/products/ping200X/.
About uAvionix Corporation
uAvionix was founded with the mission of bringing safety solutions to the unmanned aviation industry in order to aid in the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into National Airspace Systems (NAS). uAvionix offers low SWaP TSO certified and uncertified avionics for General Aviation (GA), Airport Surface Vehicles, and the UAS markets. The team consists of an unparalleled engineering and management team with a unique combination of experience within avionics, surveillance, airport services, UAS aircraft development, radio frequency (RF), and semiconductor industries. uAvionix is backed by investors at Playground Global and Airbus Ventures. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
20 Oct 20. DOD Approves $87m for Newest Bioindustrial Manufacturing Innovation Institute. Today, the Department of Defense announced an $87m, seven-year award to the BioIndustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem (BioMADE), a nonprofit created by the Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC), for a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute (MII). BioMADE, headquartered at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, will collaborate with public and private entities to advance sustainable and reliable bioindustrial manufacturing technologies.
“The Department of Defense is committed to promoting U.S. biotechnology innovation and securing America’s bioindustrial base. Through today’s award, we are pleased to work with new partners to accelerate the Department’s biotechnology modernization and the development of this field which is so critical to our Nation’s future security and prosperity,” said Michael Kratsios, Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering.
In support of this collaboration, the $87m in DoD funding will be combined with over $187m in non-federal cost-share from 31 companies, 57 colleges and universities, six nonprofits, and two venture capital groups across 31 states.
Through a close relationship with DoD and the Military Services, BioMADE will work to establish long-term and dependable bioindustrial manufacturing capabilities for a wide array of products. Anticipated bioindustrial manufacturing applications include the following products: chemicals, solvents, detergents, reagents, plastics, electronic films, fabrics, polymers, agricultural products (e.g., feedstock), crop protection solutions, food additives, fragrances, and flavors.
The Institute’s efforts will examine and advance industry-wide standards, tools, and measurements; mature foundational technologies; foster a resilient bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem; advance education and workforce development; and support the establishment and growth of supply chain intermediaries that are essential for a robust U.S. bioeconomy. Other important focus areas include challenges related to biosafety and security and ethical, legal, and societal considerations.
BioMADE joins a network of eight additional MIIs established by DoD to leverage innovation and commercial best practices in the advancement of the United States’ competitive technology lead and national security interests. Beginning in 2012, with the additive manufacturing institute America Makes, the Office of the Secretary of Defense Manufacturing Technology (OSD ManTech) Office established the MIIs with the purpose of bringing “leap-ahead” technology to the Warfighter while laying groundwork for commercial adoption by the private sector.
The new Institute adds to existing DoD MII investments already totaling over $1bn in initial and follow-on federal investment and $1.74bn matching funds from industry, academia, and state governments. Additionally, DoD and the Military Services have sponsored over 865 education and research and development projects at the Institutes. Currently, over 1,270 organizations participate in the DoD MIIs. The participating organizations vary in size and comprise defense industry partners, commercial manufacturers, start-up businesses, higher education institutions, and state and local economic developers.
The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD(R&E)) is responsible for research, development, and prototyping activities across DoD. OUSD(R&E) fosters technological advancement across DoD to ensure the long-term superiority of the American joint force. Learn more at www.cto.mil/ or follow us on Twitter: @DoDCTO. (Source: US DoD)
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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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