Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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30 Mar 22. Oxley Moves Site Operation to Four Day Working Week. In an industry leading move, LED lighting & electronics manufacturer Oxley Group, is moving to a four-day working week in a bid to improve work life balance for employees, drive business productivity and reduce carbon footprint.
The move, which will cover the whole operation at their head office site in Ulverston, Cumbria, will be implemented from 4th April 2022 on a 12-month trial basis has been regarded as highly progressive by industry colleagues and customers. The team will continue to operate a 37 hour week which will be worked on a flexible basis over four long days.
The new working arrangement has overwhelming support from the Oxley team and the Group forsees that it will deliver multiple benefits. The most notable of these is a better work-life balance, which will support the health and wellbeing of the team. In the current climate of skills shortages it is hoped that this will aid both support the retention of current skills and future recruitment.
There is much evidence that a four day week model delivers higher productivity and performance, research into existing four day week implementation programmes shows that a shorter working week increases an organisation’s productivity, in addition some Oxley production cycles are better suited to a longer day model, which will enhance Oxley’s excellent customer delivery.
As part of the business’ commitment to Sustainability, a four day working week will reduce site energy usage and have a significant impact on carbon footprint by removing the need for 20% of travel to work journeys. Additionally, as a signatory to the Women in Defence and the Women in Aviation & Aerospace Charter, gender equality is very important to Oxley and there is strong industry evidence to suggest that this move will deliver improved gender balance.
The response from the Oxley team has been very positive, its hoped that there will also be a community benefit to the new arrangement as all Oxley colleagues will have more leisure time to spend locally, supporting other Cumbrian businesses.
Manufacturing Supervisor, Liam Williams commented, ‘Being at home on a Friday, I’m able to spend more time with my daughter, reducing the time she spends in childcare and therefore reducing the cost of childcare. This allows me to spend more time with my family and to have a better work – life balance which is very important to me. The change has been a massive boost for morale, to know that the company is listening to your ideas and taking action.’
Production Manager, Helen Cooper added, ‘It’s not just a four day week, under the flexible working arrangements I can make my schedule work for me, this is beneficial to a lot of people and especially those with a family and it makes Oxley a more attractive place to work’
Mechanical Design Engineer, Aaron Fox is looking forward to less driving time, ‘I commute 50 miles a day, one less travel day will save me £500 a year and it will give me personal time at the weekend. Oxley is giving us a lot of trust, this makes it a more pleasurable place to work’
Operations Manager, Kieth Denison is clear on how he will be spending his Fridays, ‘We’re based so close to the Lake District, I’m looking forward to working a four day week and getting some more cycling in over a three day weekend’
Oxley Group CEO, Darren Cavan commented, ‘Our team is at the heart of the business, after the pandemic we had to look at how the future of work would look. We undertook a survey entitled ‘Challenge and Change’ to understand the priorities of our colleagues, there was overwhelming support for a four day week. We listened and we’re delighted that we have been able to move forward and implement this so quickly, alongside flexible and hybrid working solutions.
The flexible and hybrid changes enable our team to develop a work pattern that fits for them personally and that is suited to their role, for example they may wish to work from home when focus and concentration is needed or to work onsite when collaboration is required, feedback from many employees was that connections were also very important to them so all of our team will still have a desk and Oxley will continue to support the activities and social interaction on site that our team enjoys so much.
We believe this change will offer a Win, Win, Win, to our team, the business and of course our customers across the globe who expect an excellent level of service from Oxley.’
30 Mar 22. Self-standing mesoporous Si film can power lithium-ion batteries. Battery researchers at the University of Eastern Finland have developed a self-standing mesoporous silicon (Si) film anode for lithium-ion batteries. This film electrode does not need carbon additives and binders to connect particles like typical slurry-based electrodes, but it still exhibits excellent battery performance. The success of this electrode design provides an efficient strategy for achieving high energy density lithium-ion batteries. The development of high performance lithium-ion batteries has been highly desirable due to their wide applications in portable electronics and in electric and hybrid vehicles. Silicon is the most promising anode material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries due to its high theoretical specific capacity and safe electrochemical potential. However, Si anode suffers from large volume expansion and contraction during cycling that causes electrical contact loss between silicon and other battery components, eventually leading to battery failure.
Battery researchers from all over the world have been dedicating their efforts to improving Si electrode performance, including researchers at the University of Eastern Finland. Using the electrochemical etching method, they developed a self-standing mesoporous Si film anode for lithium-ion batteries. The idea is that the pores of mesoporous silicon can accommodate the volume expansion during cycling, thus leading to stable battery cycling. They systematically investigated the effects of pore characteristics on electrode performance using correlation analysis and uncovered their relationship.
Detailed pore analysis and electrochemical characterization of the Si films were performed to study their correlation. Correlation analysis showed that both reversible specific capacity and initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) have a strong negative correlation with the porosity and surface area, while the cycling performance is dictated by the film thickness over the pore characteristics. The only positive correlation was found between the long-term cycling stability and the pore diameter. The best Si film anode delivers an ICE of 81.2% and stable cycling for over 450 cycles with a limited specific capacity of 1200 mAh g−1 in half cells.
The study indicates the direction of the porous silicon material for high-performance lithium-ion batteries. More importantly, it provides the researchers in the battery material research, especially Si anode, with a better understanding of the factors involved in evaluating the electrode performance and developing more cost-effective evaluation strategies for battery research.
The research was funded by the Academy of Finland (project number 325495).
30 Mar 22. GPS Source Provides US Army with Modernized Military GPS for Patriot Missile Systems.
- First equipping of military code-capable assured positioning, navigation, and timing systems to provide more accurate and secure military GPS
GPS Source, a subsidiary of General Dynamics Mission Systems, announced today it has delivered Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (APNT) systems with integrated Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) receiver cards to the U.S. Army DEVCOM AvMC and PEO Missiles & Space. Initial systems will be used to evaluate the performance of Patriot missile batteries with modernized GPS hardware solutions.
These will be the first fielded APNT systems supporting MGUE hardware and the first fielded systems utilizing dedicated military signals, known as M-code. The systems include General Dynamics’ GPS Source Enhanced DAGR Distributed Device (ED3), VICTORY CSAC (Chip Scale Atomic Clock) Accessory Module (VCAM), and anti-jam antenna, along with integrated MGUE receiver cards. These systems support the Department of Defense’s ongoing GPS modernization program and will provide Patriot Missile radars, launchers and command and control systems with a stronger, more accurate GPS signal to protect them against potential jamming or electronic warfare attacks.
“This is a very important milestone. These will be the first fielded MGUE capable units since the inception of the GPS Modernization effort over twenty years ago,” said Aaron Mebust, vice president and director of GPS Source. “These systems will immediately provide warfighters in the field with significant operational APNT capabilities to successfully defeat emerging threats so they can execute their missions safely.”
GPS Source is currently the only provider of a fielded APNT solution available to the Army. The system was first fielded in 2019 and is a mobile modular system that monitors GPS signals for validity and sends assured PNT data to military devices.
Since 2000, GPS Source has provided GPS distribution and validation equipment to the U.S. military. (Source: ASD Network)
29 Mar 22. Movellus to Provide Intelligent Clock Network IP to BAE Systems. Movellus, Inc, today announced a subcontractor agreement that will result in the BAE Systems’ FAST Labs™ research and development organization having access to Movellus’ Intelligent Clock Network IP. Recently BAE Systems announced a collaboration with several companies including Movellus to provide solutions under a contract from the Army Contracting Command – Rock Island under the Cornerstone Other Transaction Authority.
BAE Systems will include Movellus’ TrueDigital IP with its rad-hard ASIC technologies and libraries to deliver a complete, advanced development solution for creating system-on-chip designs for its portfolio of rad-hard electronics for civil, commercial, and national security missions.
Maintaining our country’s technological edge requires the ability to quickly upgrade silicon platforms and speed-up the timetable for production of new defense applications. Military-grade technology requires domestically developed custom capabilities that often go beyond commercially available technology. For example, next-generation systems for aircrafts, satellites, space vehicles and other mission critical applications require radiation-hardened electronics.
The design and implementation of rad-hard electronics platforms can be very time consuming and prohibitively expensive. Movellus’ Radiation Hardened by Design (RHBD), process portable, all-digital Intelligent Clock Network IP eases the burden by simplifying the design process and enabling greater performance.
BAE Systems will include Movellus’ TrueDigital IP with its rad-hard ASIC technologies and libraries to deliver a complete, advanced development solution for creating system-on-chip designs for its portfolio of rad-hard electronics for civil, commercial, and national security missions.
“We are excited to collaborate with BAE Systems and look forward to working with FAST Labs to upgrade and modernize silicon platforms used to protect national security, critical infrastructure, and vital information,” said Mo Faisal, CEO and President of Movellus.
BAE Systems’ FAST Labs™ R&D group develops and delivers advanced technologies for the commercial and military electronics markets and aims to push the limits of what is possible. A key element of the group’s strategy is to partner with academic and industrial leaders to develop new technologies to support future product initiatives.
“Movellus’ intelligent clock network IP is innovative technology that expands our rad-hard capabilities,” said Chris Rappa, director at BAE Systems’ FAST Labs. “We believe Movellus’ silicon IP will facilitate upgrading and innovating silicon platforms while delivering significant size, weight and power (SWaP) advantages in a wide range of mission-critical military and commercial applications.”
About Movellus
Movellus is the leader in Intelligent Clock Networks (ICN). Its Maestro ICN IP is integrated into a range of applications from power-sensitive voice recognition devices in smart speakers and cellphones, to FPGAs and AI devices in large data centers, to satellites orbiting the world providing communications. Headquartered in San Jose with R&D centers in Michigan and Toronto, the team has introduced numerous highly patented architectural solutions that significantly improve clock network performance, enabling a new wave of architectural innovation. Visit us at www.movellus.com. (Source: PR Newswire)
29 Mar 22. New tech budget request is the Defense Department’s largest ever. Pursuing China, the Pentagon aims to bump spending for artificial intelligence and 5G. Efforts to outpace China are driving up the share of Pentagon spending devoted to emerging science and technology, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said Monday.
The Biden administration is requesting $130bn for the department’s research, engineering, development, and testing for 2023, nearly 10 percent up from last year’s request. Of that, $16.5bn will go toward emerging science and technology.
“And we make other significant investments in more mature artificial intelligence and 5G programs,” said Hicks.
The budget request will establish the Office of the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence officer, which will oversee the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the Defense Digital Service, an expansion of Project Maven, and the Artificial Intelligence Data Accelerator program, among other endeavors. It also allocates $250m for continued 5G experimentation, with test and evaluation for AI.
This president’s request will be the first to fund the Rapid Defense Experimentation Reserve, a core focus of Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, who has sought to field new, experimental technology in the hands of troops sooner, to facilitate better design and quicker deployment.
The request also includes $1.7bn to develop “next generation air dominance” technology, which could include a sixth-generation fighter, new types of drones, or both. The aim is an arsenal that “outpaces our competitors in the high-end conflict,” said Navy Vice Adm. Ronald Alan Boxall, the director for force structure, resources, and assessment of the Joint Staff.
There’s also money requested for microelectronics, a core research priority for several years now, and cybersecurity pilot programs. Those investments will fund five additional Cyber Mission Force teams within U.S. Cyber Command to “hold targets at risk and defend against malicious actors.” Funding is also requested for cyber ranges for better testing and training. “Finally, this budget lays the foundation for [U.S. Cyber Command] to have ownership of the mission and cyber mission force,” Boxall said.
A large part of that request will go to new software and data tools to link different weapons, platforms, and services, part of the U.S. military’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control vision. That includes $11bn for network modernization, which Adm. Christopher W. Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called “so critical to command and control another one of those functional battles that are so important to us.”
Said Boxall, “this budget also invests in artificial intelligence and machine learning-enabled battle management systems to improve soldier lethality.” Read that to mean: tools to better coordinate data between soldiers, drones, vehicles, etc.; and to make recommendations to commanders based on rapidly-incoming data. “Our investments in multidomain platforms, resilient communication systems, and ground air and maritime delivered fires will increase lethality of our joint force and enhance our ability to deter threats in all domains,” he said.
To fund these tech priorities, the Defense Department is cutting other areas, retiring some ships and cutting the number of stealth aircraft it was seeking to procure. It’s also cutting a controversial sea-launched cruise missile, capable of carrying a variably, low-yield nuclear warhead.
Critics of the missile—among them then-presidential candidate Joe Biden—had argued that it was unnecessary and dangerous. But the planned cancellation drew criticism from the Heritage Foundation’s Tom Spoehr and Fred Bartels. “The previous administration determined that a nuclear-capable sea-launched cruise missile was needed for the purpose of deterring Russian use of nuclear weapons in Europe,” they said in a statement. “Cutting this program leaves the U.S. without an option that is critically needed to deter Russia’s growing nuclear arsenal – and not to mention China, which has a significant advantage in this kind of nuclear capability.”
Overall, said Pentagon comptroller Mike McCord, the proposal keeps money flowing right where it’s really needed: to confront China.
“We had no illusions about Putin as anything but an adversary but if you look long-term, big-picture, whatever you want to call it, China still has the economic power, the military power to really be our primary challenge. We are not taking our eye off that ball in the [National Defense Strategy] or in the budget. But what we did do… we paid the most attention to the things that are foundational like space and cyber and the industrial base that are not a China investment or a Russia investment. They’re an investment in our capability across the board,” he said. (Source: Defense Systems)
27 Mar 22. DOD Publishes New Software Modernization Strategy. The Defense Department Software Modernization Strategy was published Feb. 1. Delivering a more lethal force requires the ability to evolve faster and be more adaptable than adversaries, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks said. The department’s adaptability increasingly relies on software and the ability to securely and rapidly deliver resilient software capability. That is a competitive advantage that will define future conflicts, she said.
“Transforming software delivery times from years to minutes will require significant change to our processes, policies, workforce and technology,” Hicks said.
The offices of the chief information officer, the undersecretaries of defense for acquisition and sustainment and research and engineering, as well as the software modernization senior steering group are involved in efforts to operationalize the strategy.
The goal, according to the strategy, is to provide cybersecure development, security and operations in software factories, as well as cloud services and faster delivery of software in support of critical data and communications — most notably, Joint All-Domain Command and Control and artificial intelligence.
Deputy Chief Information Officer for Information Enterprise Danielle Metz spoke to Federal News Network about the new strategy.
“I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to separate software modernization from cloud adoption because it would imply that software could be modernized without cloud. By placing the cloud at the center of the technology enablers of the strategy, it absolutely affirms the importance of cloud and why we want the department to move and migrate to the cloud,” she said.
The primary driver of the new strategy, she said, is harnessing the power of cloud computing, being able to build applications continuously, improved cybersecurity, and having “the ability to have technology at the fingertips of our warfighter as opposed to delivering a hardware intensive platform.”
The workforce is absolutely critical to the strategy, along with training, business transformation and user buy-in, Metz said.
“If we had all the money in the world to buy the best technology and we had the right processes in place to be able to get the needed technology at the time of consumption, but our workforce and our warfighters did not know how to use the technology to be able to execute their mission, we failed,” she said.
Metz said implementation plans for the new strategy will be delivered as early as this summer. (Source: US DoD)
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley offer a range of Military Marine NVG friendly LED lighting that includes navigation lights and controls, flight deck landing lights and interior compartment lighting. Our lighting products are used by Navies around the world including our own Royal Navy on UK Aircraft Carriers, Canadian Frigates, Swedish Submarines, Australian Surface vessels and Submarines, on board French Naval Carriers and in Naval Gun Turrets.
https://oxleydevelopments.cmail20.com/t/t-l-cdhkulk-yujhutkljd-r/
The technology is extremely energy efficient and built robustly, with proven long life. The lighting is NVG friendly, dimmable and programmable to allow for operations with aircraft pilots using military night vision goggles. They offer superior design giving high reliability for the most demanding environments with high sealing and the ability to meet the most stringent EMC standards.
https://oxleydevelopments.cmail20.com/t/t-l-cdhkulk-yujhutkljd-y/
Oxley are proud to say that we are working in partnership with SeaKing to enable a control panel to be offered with our LED Navigation Lighting. All of Oxley navigation lights have been specifically developed for vessels over 50 metres.
Contact Marcus Goad on 07850 917 263 for more information or to arrange samples.
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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