Latest Military News Stories

Mercury Systems Receives $49 Million Order to Develop RF Solutions for Missile Defense Systems

Mercury Systems, a leader in trusted, secure mission-critical technologies for aerospace and defense, announced that it has received an order worth $49 million from a leading defense prime contractor. Based on the order, Mercury will deliver high-performance signal processing and RF solutions for a missile defense program. The order was received in the company’s fiscal 2020 fourth quarter and is expected to be shipped over the next several quarters.

This order is one of the largest in the company’s history and reinforces their commitment to "Innovation That Matters", delivering superior value and performance that help solve customer’s most complex embedded processing challenges. Mercury Systems is dedicated to delivering solutions that provide significant affordability and portability, making commercial technology profoundly more accessible to aerospace and defense. Click here to read more.

Airbus Introduces SATCOM On-The-Move Solution for Military Applications

Communications are important for all military operations. However, when operating in areas where there is no line-of-sight link available, SATCOM becomes vital. SATCOM-on-the-move solutions enable the military to communicate while they are on the move in vehicles. Airbus Secure Communications, a division of Airbus Defence & Space, has announced the release of a land-based SATCOM On The Move solution (OTM-T) that offers constant communication link through a secure connection for operational units in field. The solution offers engaged units in operation a secure broadband connection with high availability to exchange videos, voice and operational flows in fast moving circumstances.

The Airbus solution is a dual-band system, which is compact, measuring around 800 mm in diameter and 400 mm in height, and lightweight less than 60 kg, which can easily be integrated into an armored vehicle. It uses two antennas with radiant panels assembled on top of one another. One antenna uses X-Band, while the other uses the Mil-Ka band and is sheltered by a ballistic radome to protect it from small gauge weapons. The X-Band Antenna operates from 7.25 GHz to 7.75 GHz (Space to Earth) and 7.9 GHz to 8.4 GHz (Earth to Space), while the Mil-Ka band antenna uses operates at 20/30 GHz. Click here to read more.

Kratos Acquires CPI's ASC Signal Division to Grow their Satellite Communications Business

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., a leading National Security Solutions provider, has announced that it will acquire CPI ASC Signal Division, Inc. (ASC) from Communications & Power Industries LLC (CPI) for $35 million in cash. ASC Signal is a manufacturer of high-performance, highly engineered antenna systems for satellite communications, radar, electronic warfare (EW), and high-frequency (HF) applications. The transaction is expected to close within the next 60 days, subject to normal and customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The products, business, and North American manufacturing operations that Kratos is acquiring bring 60 years of innovation in high-performance antenna products used in a variety of mission-critical space applications ranging from Telemetry, Tracking & Command (TT&C) to Satellite Communications and Earth Sensing & Observation for military and commercial satellites in low (LEO), medium (MEO) and geostationary (GEO) orbits. With an expanded portfolio that now includes transportable and fixed earth station antennas ranging from 2.4-meter to 18-meter in diameter, radar antennas for air traffic control and weather applications, and lines of High-Frequency (HF) and specialty antennas, Kratos is well-positioned to meet the current and future needs of the combined Kratos and ASC customer base. Click here to read more.

DARPA Enabling Long-Range Communications without Large, Power-Hungry Antennas

The U.S. Military currently uses giant parabolic dishes, tall pole-mounted antennas, large antenna domes and high-power amplifiers to establish long-range tactical communication for its troops in remote locations. Although this method successfully establishes a connection, it has its own drawbacks, specifically in terms of weight, power and cost (SWAP-C). These antennas present large visual and radio frequency (RF) signatures and are vulnerable to jamming, and constitute a single point of failure.

To break this dependence on big antennas and amplifiers, DARPA recently announced the Resilient Networked Distributed Mosaic Communications (RN DMC) program. RN DMC aims to provide long-range communications through “mosaic” antennas composed of spatially distributed low SWaP-C transceiver elements or “tiles.” This approach replaces high-powered amplifiers and large directional antennas with mosaics of dispersed tile transceivers. Transmit power is distributed among the tiles, and gain is achieved through signal processing rather than by a physical antenna aperture to concentrate energy. Click here to read more.

L3Harris Awarded Contract for US Air Force B-1B Bomber Electronic Warfare System

L3Harris Technologies has been awarded a five-year contract by the U.S. Air Force for sustainment of the B-1B Bomber’s Electronic Countermeasures (ECM) system which helps to protect the aircraft against evolving electronic threats worldwide. This contract will see L3Harris continue to sustain the AN/ALQ-161A system to meet the future strategic airpower needs of the Air Force through the aircraft’s projected retirement in 2040.

L3Harris will provide AN/ALQ-161A repair support to the Air Force as part of the contract. The unit is an integrated radio frequency ECM system designed specifically for the B-1B. It detects and counters radar-based weapon systems and also provides a tail warning function to detect and counter incoming missiles from behind the aircraft. The system sorts threats by priority and reacts against them automatically while allowing for “man-in-the-loop” intervention. Click here to read more.

Cobham Develops mm-Wave Active Electronically Scanned Arrays for Radars & Surveillance Applications

Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions (CAES), a leading provider of mission-critical electronic solutions, has announced the capability to develop new millimeter wave (mmW) Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESA) for airborne early warning radar, intercept or acquisition control, ballistic missile warning and acquisition surveillance, mapping and missile tracking and guidance applications. Frequencies under development include Ka-Band and W-Band. Due to the technical challenges of deploying AESA architectures in this frequency range, CAES is one of only a handful of organizations with the capability to develop such solutions.

Jeff Hassannia, Senior Vice President of Business Development, Strategy and Technology for Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions, commented that their AESA technology incorporates the best capabilities from the broad portfolio of technologies, representing an integrated aperture to data architecture. As one of only a handful of companies able to provide this capability, Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions is able to achieve this milestone due to their legacy in antenna and aperture design and mastery of the front end of advanced systems combined with the familiarity with the needs of aerospace and defense customers. It is critical to offer cutting-edge sensor technologies in partnership with their customers to deliver solutions aligned with program needs and the needs of the warfighters. Click here to read more.

Triad Helps its Customer with a Communication Link for a Critical Stratospheric Flight

An industry-leading provider of stratospheric communication platforms called on TRIAD to gain an incremental wireless communications range boost. Using the solution that TRIAD developed, their underwhelming low-performance wireless link was converted to a long-range high-performance line in under 5 minutes.

The challenge was to fill the capability gap between aircrafts, drones and satellites. The industry-leading platform designer and manufacturer delivers solutions for communications, data relay, and intelligence, surveillance, and recognizance (ISR) applications to space agencies, the military, communications providers, and many other commercial applications. Click here to read more.

Skyworks’ California Facility Receives AS9100D Certification

Skyworks Solutions has announced that its Milpitas, California based facility has now achieved AS9100D certification. Through its defense and space business (formerly known as Isolink), Skyworks is a leading global supplier of high performance, high-quality radiation-tolerant components for aerospace, defense, medical, extreme industrial and high-reliability markets and applications.

AS9100D certification is an industry-recognized, international aerospace quality management system standard, which provides manufacturing suppliers such as Skyworks with a comprehensive quality system for providing safe and reliable products. Click here to read more.

Orolia Introduces its First Low SWaP-C Miniaturized Rubidium Oscillator

World leader in Resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) solutions and space-based atomic clocks, Orolia, has introduced the Spectratime mRO-50. It is a breakthrough low SWaP-C (Size, Weight, Power and Cost) Miniaturized Rubidium Oscillator designed to meet the latest commercial, military and aerospace requirements where time stability and power consumption are critical.

The Spectratime mRO-50 provides a one day holdover below 1µs and a retrace below 1 x 10-10 in a form factor (50.8 x 50.8 x 19.5mm) that takes up only 51 cc of volume (about one-third of the volume compared to standard rubidium) and consumes only 0.45W of power, which is about ten times less than existing solutions with similar capabilities. Click here to read more.

Comtech Introduces the World’s Smallest Over-the-Horizon Microwave Troposcatter Terminal

Comtech Telecommunications announced that its Florida-based subsidiary, Comtech Systems, has introduced the Comtech COMET, the world’s smallest over-the-horizon (OTH) microwave troposcatter terminal. Comtech Systems is part of Comtech’s Government Solutions segment and has also received an initial contract award for production terminals from ADS, to be used by a US Military end-customer.

COMET, which stands for Compact Over-the-horizon Mobile Expeditionary Terminal, is the world’s first rapidly deployable, low power, airline checkable, OTH microwave troposcatter terminal. Troposcatter technology has long been associated with large antennas and high-power amplifiers that require kilowatts of prime power and large trucks to transport them to the field. The COMET has fundamentally changed this paradigm. Click here to read more.

US Navy’s Unmanned Fire Safety Helicopter to Be Equipped with an AN/ZPY Radar

The US Navy, in partnership with leading defense company, Northrop Grumman, has started flight testing of the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter equipped with the Leonardo AN/ZPY-8 radar. The radar significantly increases Fire Scout’s detection and tracking of targets. The ability to simultaneously employ multiple modes supports U.S. Navy intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements. This increased capability enables Fire Scout to extend ranges to meet emerging requirements.

The MQ-8C Fire Scout is the Navy's next-generation autonomous helicopter. Combined with the maturity of Northrop Grumman's autonomous systems architecture, Fire Scout meets customer requirements for ship-based and land-based autonomous systems. It also has the ability to autonomously take off and land on any aviation-capable ship and from prepared and unprepared landing zones. This enhancement significantly increases range and endurance (more than double) and payload capacity (more than triple). Click here to read more.

Radar Industry to Show Steady Growth from 2019 to 2025

In today's world, radars have become an essential tool for not only military but a range of consumer applications as well. In the military field, the need for improved survivability, low probability of intercept and longer detection range has oriented the industry towards active antenna arrays using solid state technologies. There were drastic changes in the radar industry in the past decade with the possibility to use more integrated and lighter devices together with the advanced capabilities offered by multiple beam-shaping and steering, which motivated the transition from vacuum tubes to solid state solutions.

The Yole Group of Companies, including Yole Développement and System Plus Consulting, have deeply investigated the radar technology landscape and related industries to develop a report that gives a detailed up-to-date picture of this industry. Yole recently released its new technology & market analysis called Status of the Radar Industry: Players, Applications and Technology Trends 2020 report. In this study, analysts cover the complete radar industry, including automotive radar market forecasts extended to in-cabin occupancy detection, along with automotive radar imaging, defense, security and aerospace, industrial, consumer and medical market forecasts. This new report also points out market and technology trends, supply chain and market share per segment. Click here to read more.

Bandpass Filter

Lowpass Filter

Highpass Filter

Band Reject Filter

Diplexer

Triplexer

Flexible

Attenuators

Bends

Circulators

Directional Couplers

Isolators

Phase Shifter

Rotary Joints

Straights

Termination

Transitions

Waveguide to Coax Adapters

Rigid PCB Quotes

Flexible PCB Quotes

PCB Assembly Quotes

PCB Design Quotes

PCB Repair Quotes

PCB Stencil Quotes

Latest Military News Stories