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11 Aug 17. Lockheed Martin in talks with US DARPA about extending SPIDER programme. Key Points:
• Lockheed Martin is in talks with DARPA about extending its SPIDER work
• The company developed an ultra-thin imaging lens that compacts telescope power
Lockheed Martin is in talks with the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) about extending the Segmented Planar Imaging Detector for Electro-Optical Reconnaissance (SPIDER) ultra-thin telescopes programme, according to a company official.
Scott Fouse, vice-president of Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center (ATC), told Jane’s in a 7 August interview the company invested a “couple of million” US dollars to complete its portion of SPIDER. Fouse said Lockheed Martin hopes to cobble together corporate funds, additional corporate space system internal research and development (IRAD) funds, and, hopefully, some external funding to continue SPIDER. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
10 Aug 17. UK ‘gaps’ Sentinel ops in Middle East A ‘gap’ in UK Raytheon Sentinel R1 Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR) surveillance aircraft operations against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq has emerged, after more than two years of continuous presence on the region. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced in early August that a Sentinel from the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) 5 (Army Co-operation – AC) Squadron had returned to its home base at Waddington in Lincolnshire. The MoD said the aircraft had been deployed for two months, and during that time was airborne for 235 hours. A ministry spokesperson confirmed to Jane’s on 9 August that the aircraft would not be replaced on duty at RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus, where the UK bases the majority of its aircraft participating in Operation ‘Shader’, as the UK contribution to the war against Islamic State is codenamed. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
09 Aug 17. Sensor overload is overloading the network. Analysts are drowning in the amount of data provided by Army sensors and those of the military writ large. And often unsaid is the burden that this overload places on the network.
“Over time, regardless of what is happening in CENTCOM or AFRICOM or in EUCOM, the demand for the aerial sensors has always increased,” Mark Kitz, director of the System of Systems Engineering team at Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, said Aug. 9 during a panel discussion at TechNet Augusta in August, Georgia.
“Our footprint forward has decreased significantly. The intelligence community has put a lot of investment and a lot of time and a lot of capability in putting sensors forward [and] having soldiers here in [the continental United States] processing those sensors.”
While acknowledging this is a great capability, Kitz said it places a significant burden on the network. This problem will only get worse in the next 10 years with the increase in boxes and sensors, he added.
“So the challenge that our PEO is relaying to industry … is: How do we get more information, how do we still deliver that accurate and timely information whether that’s intelligence, whether that’s video for integrated base defense, whether that’s situational awareness on our survivability platforms?” he said. “How do we get all of that capability that we need without burdening the network anymore? Don’t assume that network is going to get thicker and broader and [be] there for us.” (Source: C4ISR & Networks)
09 Aug 17. Kelvin Hughes to showcase its largest ever range of radar equipment and software at DSEI 2017 on Stand S4-110. Kelvin Hughes has had an amazing 2017 to date, from numerous contract wins, growth of the Kelvin Hughes Academy with recruitment of new apprentices, a number of new product launches including its new drone detection radar and celebrating 70 years of type approved navigation radar. Topping that Kelvi