Aug 10. SELEX GALILEO’s 20µm pixel pitch Infrared FPA Detectors. Selex Galileo has developed and demonstrated a number of Long, Medium and Dual Waveband Infrared detectors (DWIR) for high performance thermal imaging with half and full TV formats.
640 x 512 Detectors:
Condor III is a DWIR detector and is based on our world leading Mercury cadmium Telluride (MCT) processes and established ROIC design. Each of the 640 x 512 pixels in the array has a dual band response and can be switched between medium and long waveband sensitivity mode by changing the bias voltage on the device, ensuring spatial coherence between the two bands. By integrating the photocurrent from each band in separate storage cells at the pixel, both bands can be captured and output within a single frame period optimising the temporal coherence between bands. The entire storage capacity for each pixel can also be dedicated to the Medium or Long waveband, giving user selectable and interchangeable high performance operation. The combination of both the Medium and Long wavebands provides exceptional Detection, Recognition and Identification over previous technology generations. All our full TV detectors are offered as an integrated detector cooler assembly (IDCA), with either a rotary or linear split cycle Stirling cooling engine. Other full TV 20m detectors are the Medium waveband M20 and Long waveband L20.
384 x 288 Detectors:
Osprey-C is a long established Medium waveband and Long waveband half TV detector, designed to be small and lightweight. It has been supplied with either a compact rotary cooling engine or with a Joule-Thomson cooler, and is compatible with a linear split cycle cooling engine. The readout integrated circuit (ROIC) has recently been enhanced to give added functionality, including windowing and variable gain known as Osprey-S, available in Medium and Long waveband variants.
30 Jul 10. South Korea develops new long-range cruise missile. South Korea has deployed a new cruise missile with a range up to 1,500 km that is capable of striking the entire North Korean territory and also China and Russia, Jane’s has learnt. Seoul claims that the missile is aimed at deterring North Korean attack, but poses a challenge for the US, which has been trying to prevent its South Korean ally from acquiring long-range missile technology and potentially triggering a fresh arms race in Northeast Asia, a western military source told Jane’s. “Since the sinking of the Chon An , the strategic equilibrium in the region has been upset,” said the Seoul-based source. (Source: Jane’s, IDR)
10 Aug 10. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in India has been developing a series of directed energy weapons (DEW) to improve the country’s anti-ballistic missile capability. The DEW is a sophisticated weapon capable of destroying a target by emitting and
transferring the energy to a target in an aimed direction. DRDO Laser Science and Technology Centre director Anil Kumar Maini said a DEW laser weapon could generate high-energy pulses of 25kW, capable enough to destroy a ballistic missile in its terminal phase within the range of 7km. He said a gas dynamic laser-based DEW which can be flexibly deployed by a moving vehicle, is also being developed. The Indian laser weapons would serve in three platforms such as the air force’s transport planes, fighters and the navy’s destroyers and submarines, according to the Xinhua news agency. India conducted two anti-ballistic missile interception tests by launching anti-aircraft missiles during the first half of the year. (Source: airforcetechnology.com)
09 Aug 10. Lockheed Martin has signed a nonexclusive licensing agreement with Ceradyne, Inc., for the development, manufacture and application of the Lockheed Martin-developed TekShieldTM lightweight, opaque ceramic armor. TekShield can protect Soldiers against coupled threat effects common in today’s urban tactical environments, such as a bomb blasts