Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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09 Nov 20. Oxley offers lamps that are robust and corrosion resistant. Made in stainless steel grade 303, as standard, these lamps can also be manufactured in marine grade 316 if required.
Grade 303 lamps are suitable for use in aircraft fittings, electrical switchgear components and in gear and shaft mechanisms. Grade 316 lamps also have a wide range of applications including food preparation areas, laboratories, coastal architecture installations and quarry and mining applications.
The range includes an 8mm panel sealed lamp and an 8mm sealed top and rear option. Both lamps meet IP68 sealing and are suitable for external applications and both are available with EMI shielding, the lamps are designed specifically for the military, aerospace and industrial markets and are suitable for the most challenging of environments. They are made from a stainless steel and glass construction and present a rugged and reliable option.
As with all of the Oxley lamps, these high performance products are available in a wide variety of configurations to suit the required application. A range of high intensity colours are available including red, green, yellow, blue and white and a variety of terminations can be selected for ease of installation. The lamps are available with a domed or convex lens alongside a selection of voltage and current options. Customer specials are available upon request.
12 Nov 20. Sagetech Avionics and Kraus Hamdani Deliver ArduPilot Integration. Sagetech Avionics, a technology company providing safety solutions for unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, a UAS technology company, announced that they have completed the integration of Sagetech’s UAV transponders with the world’s leading open source autopilot, ArduPilot.
The two companies successfully tested the new integration onboard the K1000 Ultra Long Endurance (K1000ULE) UAV, the world’s longest endurance, fully electric aircraft in its size and weight category.
“We’re thrilled to provide UAV innovators like Kraus Hamdani with reliable, integrated transponders for new platforms,” stated Sagetech Avionics CEO Tom Furey. “The integration of time-proven systems like ArduPilot and Sagetech’s ADS-B transponders ensures the safe flight of unmanned aircraft in controlled airspace, over long ranges, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), and at night.”
“The use of transponders in compliance with aviation standards is a key step to advancing the UAV industry for safe integration into controlled airspace,” said Kraus Hamdani Aerospace CTO and co-founder, Stefan Kraus. “Coupled with our contributions to the ArduPilot community for Sagetech’s low SWaP XP transponder, our fully autonomous K1000ULE platform can safely operate for extended periods in controlled airspace and at medium- to-high altitudes while carrying out complex missions,” said Kraus.
Through the partnership with Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, Sagetech adds ArduPilot support to its extensive list of autopilots that natively integrate with its XP Series of UAV transponders. Instructions for integrating Sagetech transponders with ArduPilot-based UAVs are available on the ArduPilot website. (Source: UAS VISION)
12 Nov 20. Israel receives F-35I testbed to develop national capabilities. Israel has received a Lockheed Martin F-35I ‘Adir’ combat aircraft to be used for in-country development testing of specific national capabilities.
The arrival, announced by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) on 11 November, saw the first non-US based testbed F-35I fly into the IAF Flight Testing Center (FTC) at Tel-Nof Airbase, south of Tel Aviv.
“[This event] marks the start of a new era in the IAF FTC Squadron – for the first time in 14 years, a first-of-its-kind fighter jet equipped with advanced experimenting capabilities will land at the squadron,” the service said. “The arriving ‘Adir’, designated for flight experiments, will greatly enrich the IAF’s independence in improving its division of fifth-generation aircraft.” Brigadier General Oded Cohen, Commander of Tel-Nof Airbase, added, “With the new addition of the ‘Adir’ to the lines of experimental aircraft in the IAF’s FTC Squadron, we are witnessing a historic event, the magnitude of which cannot be underestimated – a meaningful cornerstone in the IAF’s inauguration and development of the F-35 division. To the FTC Squadron personnel, the absorption of the ‘Adir’ poses new challenges. I have no doubt […] you will know […] how to challenge the limits of the ‘Adir’s’ capabilities, and lead the IAF through toward new horizons.” (Source: Jane’s)
11 Nov 20. DISA eyes mainframe-based blockchain. The Defense Information Systems Agency is looking for help on developing a blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) offering on Z system mainframes for its mission partners.
For more than a year, DISA has been eyeing a secure, agile and scalable BaaS solution mission partners could run on infrastructure inside accredited Defense Department environments, Sherri Sokol, innovation leader at DISA, told GCN in February 2019. “It would really just be the platform, infrastructure resource management and monitoring, which are services that DISA already offers,” she said.
The mainframe platform “takes advantage of the enterprise mainframe computing power and expertise DISA already offers and incorporates emerging technologies and approaches,” according to the June 2020 DISA Look Book.
BaaS could improve business processes across Defense Department networks by cutting down on the manual work of tracking data and assets across silos, improving accuracy and making information quickly available as a strategic asset.
BaaS would allow information to be selectively “shared among participants, enabling everyone to gain insights, accelerate informed decision-making, reduce the friction and cost in data exchanges and add new network members and data processes/workflows with relative ease,” the Look Book said. “Additionally, when blockchain is combined with other emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation and internet of things), it can become a force multiplier.”
In a Nov. 4 request for information, DISA said it wants to find out what currently available products it could use in a solution stack to provide a scalable permissioned BaaS offering.
The permissioned BaaS capability must be able to limit membership and visibility for any given blockchain network and the information shared between members on those networks, DISA said.
Besides deployment on a Linux s390x architecture, the system must support FIPS 140-2 Level 4-compliant encrypted sessions and role-based access controls, containerization and deployment in an air-gapped environment.
Responses are due Nov. 10. (Source: Defense Systems)
11 Nov 20. ColdQuanta Previews its Cold Atom Quantum Computer Technology. ColdQuanta, the quantum atomics company, previewed its quantum computer technology, built on its Quantum Core™. The Quantum Core is uniquely capable of being used as the basis for a wide range of quantum systems spanning computing, global positioning, signal processing, and communications. Today, this technology is a key component of NASA’s Cold Atom Laboratory on the International Space Station, atomic clocks, gyroscopes, quantum matter systems, and advanced research systems.
In developing the technology for a quantum computing platform, ColdQuanta is leveraging its deep expertise and more than a decade of experience delivering quantum products and systems. In April of this year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected ColdQuanta to develop a scalable, cold-atom-based quantum computing hardware and software platform that can demonstrate quantum advantage on real-world problems. The work is being led by ColdQuanta Chief Scientist Mark Saffman. In October, ColdQuanta announced cloud access to a quantum matter system that lets users generate, manipulate, and experiment with ultracold matter.
ColdQuanta’s leadership team has been active in building the emerging quantum industry. CEO Bo Ewald served as President of D-Wave International, was an early member of the Quantum Industry Coalition, and is currently leading IEEE quantum terminology and performance characterization standardization efforts. Founder and CTO Dana Anderson sits on the Steering Committee of the Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C), established with support from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as part of the U.S. government’s strategy for advancing quantum information science.
“ColdQuanta has successfully developed and deployed many kinds of quantum systems, all based on our Quantum Core platform,” said Bo Ewald. “This means that most of the technology needed for cold atom quantum computing has already been validated by customers. This gives us a significant advantage in the race to deliver a quantum computer that can address some of the most complex computing challenges we face today.”
According to Bob Sorensen, Chief Analyst for Quantum Computing, Hyperion Research, “ColdQuanta’s use of cold atom quantum computing opens up a range of new possibilities in discrete qubit performance, dynamically reconfigurable interconnect schemes, and perhaps most important, the potential to scale to large numbers of qubits per individual quantum processor. ColdQuanta is committed to a long-term road map that leads to a full-stack quantum computing solution and is already taking the right steps to ensure that their unique hardware can be readily accessible and programmable to a wide base of potential users. The next key step will be the demonstration of cold atoms to address a compelling and real-world use-case that can help drive this technology to the forefront of the currently crowded field of quantum computing hardware options.”
Computing with Cold Atoms
The ColdQuanta quantum computer is built around a unique glass cell that maintains a vacuum and houses a checkerboard-like array of cesium atoms, each of which acts as an individual qubit. Lasers and other photonic technologies cool the atoms to ten millionths of a degree above absolute zero, then initialize the qubits and orchestrate computations. The final state of the qubit array is photographed and analyzed.
Over the past several years, early-stage quantum computers have employed different approaches with superconducting circuits, trapped ions, photons, and other materials used as qubits. While there are pros and cons to each method, ColdQuanta’s approach has significant advantages over other implementations:
- The qubits are all atoms of the same element and are identical, so there are no manufacturing defects.
- The qubits are cooled to ten millionths of a degree above absolute zero, which is much colder than other technologies. Quantum effects typically operate better and longer at colder temperature. This combination allows for longer and more complex computations.
- Two dimensional cold atom arrays scale from tens to thousands of qubits, enabling bigger computations to address real-world problems. The DARPA ONISQ program, awarded to ColdQuanta, calls for a demonstration of a system with over 1000 qubits running a Department of Defense application.
- Gates can entangle distant qubits, allowing larger logical circuits on the same qubit array. This should allow more computational work to be accomplished per unit time with more advanced qubit connectivity.
- Advanced vacuum cell technology does away with the need for cryogenics.
- The computational platform is dynamically reconfigurable, which shortens the development cycle and leads to quicker system improvement.
On Monday, November 23 at 11am MT, ColdQuanta CEO Bo Ewald and Director of Quantum Applications Denny Dahl will host a webinar to discuss cold atom quantum computing. Register here.
About ColdQuanta
ColdQuanta leads the market in commercializing quantum atomics, the next wave of the information age. The company’s Quantum Core™ technology is based on ultra-cold atoms cooled to a temperature of nearly absolute zero; lasers manipulate and control the atoms with extreme precision. ColdQuanta manufactures components, instruments, and turnkey systems that address a broad spectrum of applications: quantum computing, timekeeping, navigation, radiofrequency sensors, and quantum communications. ColdQuanta’s global customers include major commercial and defense companies; all branches of the U.S. Department of Defense; national labs operated by the Department of Energy, NASA, and NIST; and major universities. ColdQuanta is based in Boulder, CO, with offices in Madison, Wisconsin, and Oxford, UK. Learn more at www.coldquanta.com. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
12 Nov 20. US Army puts disruptive technology prototypes to the test. The US Army has put several promising prototype command and control (C2) and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms through a series of intensive field experiments, in the hopes those technologies can be funnelled into the service’s key combat networking initiatives.
Programme engineers and information technology (IT) specialists from the army’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C5ISR) Center, under the service’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), evaluated a wide swath of emerging disruptive technologies during the centre’s Network Modernization Exercise (NetModX) 2020.
“We are really looking at those high-priority capabilities that could be game changers” in terms of how the army’s technological arsenal evolves, according to Joshua Fischer, the center’s acting chief of the Systems Engineering, Architecture, Modeling and Simulation Division. The findings from this year’s NexModX, held between 20 July and 2 October at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey, will inform ongoing work by the C5ISR Center on more than 30 high-priority technology demonstrators or prototypes that programme leaders are weighing for future evaluations in the coming year, he added.
“We are focused on unifying networks, in terms of … terrestrial, ground-based [data] transport, aerial tier transport as well as space-based transport,” via satellite communications (satcom), Fischer said regarding those 30 top-tier technology priorities team members plan to hone in on in the near to midterm. Other focus areas include strengthening technological enablers supporting the service’s common operating environment objectives, on the hardware and software side, to provide platform agnostic, networked situational awareness capabilities to US armed forces. (Source: Jane’s)
12 Nov 20. DSIT Solutions Awarded Contract for Supply of its Portable Acoustic Range (PAR) System to the Republic of Korea. DSIT’s PAR system is an advanced underwater signal processing solution, designed to measure noise radiated by submarines and surface vessels
DSIT Solutions Ltd. – a world leader in underwater defense and security solutions based on advanced state-of-the-art sonar and acoustics technologies for naval, homeland security and energy applications – has been awarded a contract for the supply of its Portable Acoustic Range (PAR) system to the Republic of Korea. With a view to expressing its long-term professional and technological commitment to the country, DSIT Solutions is pleased to support the Republic of Korea, including an extended warranty for the system.
DSIT Solutions’ PAR system measures the radiated noise of any maritime platform, on or below the surface, allowing navies and shipyards to monitor and control the noise and silence levels of their submarines and ships. The system ‒ which consists of a console and a uniquely designed buoy ‒ continuously tracks the measured platforms and transmits the data in real time to a remote command and control unit, using a wireless Data Link between measurement buoy and measured platform, thus enabling real-time radiated noise measurement and handling.
According to Hanan Marom, VP Business Development & Marketing, “The PAR system provides exceptionally high performance combined with simplicity of operation. This state-of-the art system has proven to be the ideal solution for many navies around the world. We are proud to have been selected by the Republic of Korea. The decision to select the PAR system is a significant vote of confidence in our proven underwater signal processing capabilities.”
11 Nov 20. British Army’s 3rd Division selects Systematic’s SitaWare Headquarters. The British Army’s 3rd Division (3 DIV) has become the latest component of the UK armed forces to select Systematic’s SitaWare command-and-control (C2) software. The ‘Iron Division’ – which acts as the United Kingdom’s strategic land warfare asset – is taking Systematic’s SitaWare Headquarters solution into service, which will provide comprehensive situational awareness and C2 capabilities at the battalion level and above.
“3rd Division represents the tip-of-the-spear for the British Army and its decision to field SitaWare Headquarters is testament to the software’s capabilities,” says Matthew Millward, Systematic’s Vice President of Business Development for UK, North Africa and Western Europe. “We are delighted to support further force elements of the British Army with an operationally proven, evergreen commercial off-the-shelf solution that delivers best-in-class C2 out of the box, and which with interoperability at the core of its architecture, enables forces to work within Joint and Coalition environments.” Under the contract Systematic will also provide technical and support services, as well as a range of training, “We are delivering a blended training solution that combines traditional classroom-based instruction with innovative online and e-learning packages. The latter has been successfully used with other SitaWare customers and will go some way to overcoming restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Millward notes.
This latest selection of SitaWare Headquarters follows the UK Ministry of Defence’s decision to field the software for the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC) last year – the software was selected by the MoD as the UK is the ARRC framework nation. SitaWare Headquarters was successfully employed by the ARRC during Exercise ‘ARRCADE FUSION 19’, where more than 1,100 personnel from 22 countries participated. The large-scale command post exercise rehearsed the procedures to command up to 120,000 military personnel in a warfighting scenario. SitaWare Headquarters is currently being put through its paces with 3 DIV at ‘Exercise Cerberus’, and is slated for use at Warfighter Exercise 21-4 in the United States next year, where 3 DIV will train alongside the US Army and the French Army. The SitaWare suite is operationally proven and has been delivered to more than 30 countries. The software provides comprehensive C2 across all levels of the battlespace, from the dismounted commander with SitaWare Edge through to mounted elements with SitaWare Frontline, and higher levels of command with SitaWare Headquarters.
11 Nov 20. UBIQ Aerospace develops autonomous de-icing technology for UAVs. Norway’s UBIQ Aerospace has developed technology based on electro-thermal concepts that allows Group 2 and 3 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to autonomously de-ice while flying in conditions conducive to icing.
Kim Lynge Sorensen, UBIQ Aerospace CEO, told Janes on 9 November that most modern fixed-wing UAVs were built for operations in fair weather and regions such as the Middle East. The typical mitigation measure for UAVs scheduled to fly in conditions conducive to icing is to postpone flight until better conditions develop. A video on UBIQ Aerospace’s website shows a UAV crashing after accumulating ice during flight.
Sorensen said the D-ICE system works by monitoring the atmospheric conditions in which an aircraft is operating after take-off. Detection algorithms and sensors monitor the aircraft’s performance for unexpected aerodynamic changes to aerodynamic properties.
As soon as icing, or operational conditions conducive to icing, is present, the system boots up and begins detecting whether ice is building up anywhere on the aircraft. If ice is building up on the aircraft, Sorensen said the system removes it through the electro-thermal panels located on specific areas of the aircraft prone to ice formations, such as the leading edge of an aerodynamic surface. The system also uses these electro-thermal panels to detect icing.
UBIQ Aerospace’s system ensures that enough ice has developed for removal because Sorensen said it will not be efficient if it simply heats the thermal panels to high temperatures.
“If it is just right, and enough ice builds, then the weight of the ice and the shape of the ice actually helps us remove it by heat,” Sorensen said. (Source: Jane’s)
11 Nov 20. PLAAF J-16 fighter pilots seen using new helmet. Footage released on 11 November by the state-owned China Central Television 7 (CCTV 7) channel shows that People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) pilots of J-16 multirole fighter aircraft are using what appears to be a new helmet featuring a helmet-mounted display system (HMDS) for increased situational awareness.
The footage, which was released as part of a report to mark the 71st anniversary of the founding of the PLAAF, shows the J-16 pilots wearing the helmet while preparing to carry out an aerial combat training mission at an undisclosed location.
No details were provided about the new helmet, how long it has been in PLAAF service, or whether it is only being used by J-16 pilots.
That said, the CCTV report noted that four members of the J-16 unit shown in the footage had won the service’s Golden Helmet aerial combat competition in 2018. The competition has been held every year since 2011 at the Dingxin Test and Training Base in Gansu Province to identify the service’s best fighter pilots. (Source: Jane’s)
05 Nov 20. EXCEED defence research project kicks off. The implementation of EXCEED, the last of the three defence research projects selected under the 2018 call for proposals for the EU Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR), was officially launched at an online kick-off meeting held this Wednesday and Thursday (4/5 November). It followed the signing, last week, of the grant agreement worth €12m between EDA and the winning consortium led by STMicroelectronics (France).
EXCEED stands for ‘trustEd and fleXible system-on-Chip for EuropEan Defence applications’. It was selected following an EU-wide PADR call for proposals on the topic of ‘European high-performance, trustable (re)configurable system-on-a-chip or system-in-package for defence applications’ organised by EDA in 2018.
The project aims at creating a European supply chain of reconfigurable, flexible and trustable programmable system-on-a-chip family targeting a number of ruggedized and secure defence applications such as for radio frequency (RF) sensors and signal processing arrays, flexible radios, secure positioning and navigation, UAV data links, military networks, flexible cryptography engines, dismounted soldier, guidance and mission critical controllers. The security of the System-on-chip architecture is studied in detail to cope with EU Classified information and defence specificities as well as country-specific requirements, through protection, personalisation and life-cycle management. The project also focuses on System Development Tools. The secure chip is fabricated in a trusted environment in Europe. The demonstrator chip will be a mid-scale member of the family.
The winning consortium encompasses a total of 19 participants from 6 EU countries and Norway. More information on the consortium can be found in the EXCEED project page.
About the PADR
The EXCEED project is part of the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) launched by the European Commission in 2017 to assess and demonstrate the added-value of EU supported defence research and technology (R&T). It paved the way for a proper European Defence Programme to come as of next year as part of the European Defence Fund (EDF), under the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027).
The PADR implementation is run by EDA following the mandate via a Delegation Agreement between the European Commission and EDA signed on 31 May 2017. By this agreement the Commission entrusts EDA with the management and implementation of the research projects launched within the PADR. (Source: EDA)
06 Nov 20. BAE Systems secures US Army ‘A-Team’ technology development deals. BAE Systems has secured several US Army research and development pacts that are designed to help create advanced technologies to team manned, unmanned, and autonomous aircraft in future combat operations. The company’s FASTLabs research directorate was awarded the army contracts, totalling USD9m, which will focus technology development projects for human-machine interface, resource capability, and situational awareness management on the service’s Advanced Teaming Demonstration Program (A-Team).
The three focus areas in which BAE Systems’ engineers were contracted to take on under the A-Team programme are “designed to advance manned and unmanned teaming (MUM-T) capabilities that are expected to be critical components in the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program,” according to a company statement issued on 3 November.
Company officials anticipate the development of a “highly automated system to provide situational awareness, information processing, resource management, and decision making that is beyond human capabilities”, the statement said. “These advantages become exceedingly important as the Army moves toward mission teams of unmanned aircraft that will be controlled by pilots in real time,” it added. A majority of BAE Systems’ A-Team work will leverage the company’s Future Open Rotorcraft Cockpit Environment Lab, which will host “simulation tests and demonstrations with products from different contractors” vying to integrate their MUM-T applications into the army’s FVL programme. Teaming of manned and unmanned aerial assets was a key objective of the army’s initial capstone exercise for Project Convergence. (Source: Jane’s)
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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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