Data Links & Communications
Boeing has delivered production units of a smaller, lighter version of its Tactical Compact Communications Relay (TCCR), which allows a small unmanned aircraft to function as a tactical, range-extending communications repeater for military handheld radios. Boeing subsidiary Insitu received four 1-pound TCCRs following tests of the narrowband relay
Testing
Lockheed Martin has developed a small homing beacon the size of a hockey puck to help increase the accuracy of cargo drops by UAS. The beacon is small enough to easily fit in a Marine’s pack and could soon provide a novel way to call in quick, accurate resupply
Data Links & Communications
Laser technology has yet to mature, and many enhancements are left to be made. Everything lasers can do currently is still improving at a rapid rate and new techniques to improve lasers are still in the works. One such new technique is beam combining, which blends several laser streams into
Data Links & Communications
Known as Navigation via Signals of Opportunity (NAVSOP), BAE Systems’ new system is able to calculate its position by making use of the hundreds of different signals that are all around us. By exploiting such a wide range of signals, NAVSOP is resistant to hostile interference such as jamming (a
Commercial
A small unmanned surveillance aircraft flies over an Austin stadium, diligently following a series of GPS waypoints that have been programmed into its flight computer. By all appearances, the mission is routine. Suddenly, it veers dramatically off course, careering eastward from its intended flight path. A few moments later, it
Business
With the help of Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Department of Defense is making major strides in its ongoing initiative to quickly and efficiently share the vast volume of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data available to users with access to the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS). The DCGS Multi-
Data Links & Communications
The security and reliability of unmanned aircraft is of considerable concern, especially when are increasingly employed in public airspace. Robert Dewar, President and CEO of AdaCore, a provider of commercial software solutions for the Ada programming language discusses the role of software in safety-, security-, and reliability-critical applications, including
Testing
A Jetstream aircraft known as ‘The Flying Test Bed’, which can fly as if it were a UAS , is undergoing a series of flight trials in preparation for the first maiden flight of a surrogate UAS in UK shared airspace later this year. The aircraft will fly using Instrument Flight
Data Links & Communications
RT Logic, a subsidary of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., has launched its newest, most powerful and widest bandwidth RF Channel Simulator. The 250 MHz T400CS Wideband Channel Simulator precisely replicates the real-time RF conditions that can be expected in wideband SATCOM, aircraft, missile, and UAS missions. Its
Data Links & Communications
Thales has announced the STANAG 7085 certification of its TMA 6000 wideband airborne datalink terminal by the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC), making the TMA 6000 the first European terminal of its kind to obtain certification in the United States. The TMA 6000 has now officially demonstrated its capacity to
Data Links & Communications
MicroStrain’s new LXRS "lossless” wireless communication protocol (patent pending) supports scalable networks of high speed sensor nodes without data loss due to temporary radio frequency (RF) fading, multipath, or interference. MicroStrain’s users have previously enjoyed a typical RF packet success rate of 99%. But now, with MicroStrain’
Data Links & Communications
AeroVironment is to employ its small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to demonstrate aerial communications capabilities for the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC is examining the ability to re-establish communications rapidly using aerial platform technology following a natural or man-made disaster that renders existing communications networks unusable