February 17, 2023 | International, C4ISR
US launches artificial intelligence military use initiative
The initiative seeks to impose order on an emerging technology that can change the way war is waged.
June 3, 2019 | International, C4ISR, Other Defence
For the second year in a row, DARPA is convening the electronics community to discuss the ambitions and achievements of its five-year, upwards of $1.5 billion investment in U.S. microelectronics advancement. Attendees at the second annual Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) Summit – being held July 15-17 in Detroit, Michigan – will hear from commercial and defense leaders as they share their insights on the domestic semiconductor industry and the applications driving next-generation electronics. The Summit will close on July 17 with 11 public workshops designed to demonstrate program accomplishments, shape future areas of research, and provide insights into working with DARPA as well as transitioning technologies to use.
“Continued collaboration across industry, defense, and academia is critical to creating the next wave of microelectronics innovation,” said Dr. Mark Rosker, director of DARPA's Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). “Last year's Summit allowed these groups to come together and collectively work towards creating a more specialized, secure, heavily automated, and DoD-available electronics industry. This collaboration contributed to the formation of six new DARPA programs. With this year's expanded roster of workshops, we are again asking the community to share their perspectives, provide guidance, and foster the connections that will help define the future of an innovative and competitive domestic electronics enterprise.”
In areas ranging from security and privacy to rapid circuit design, ERI's programs are already working to address both commercial and manufacturing realities as well as the needs of the defense enterprise. Several “Ongoing Efforts” workshops will provide updates on these active research efforts, including presentations on secure hardware and software architectures for high-risk transactions; trusted-by-design components and their impact on supply chain security; and novel atomic clock architectures. Attendees will also experience live demonstrations of autonomous chip design tools as well as open source IP and verification technology in development on two ERI programs – IDEA and POSH. Both programs are addressing the complexity and cost barriers that have limited the competitive field for circuit design by exploring novel approaches to automated circuit design and IP sharing.
Shaping the future of microelectronics innovation requires research and development across a vast number of technical areas and applications. Several “Emerging Concepts” workshops will explore potential future areas of investment, and will seek input from the community to help define the most critical challenges to address. These workshops will focus on enhanced security for commercial hardware; energy-efficient computing for distributed machine intelligence; and novel approaches to designing and verifying distributed systems. A four-hour workshop will also focus on the challenges facing heterogeneous integration – a critical area of exploration for an emerging wave of alternatives to traditional transistor scaling. The workshop will cover problems associated with dense digital integration and mixing silicon with compound semiconductors, as well as potential solutions and paths forward.
Finally, two “Enhancing Collaboration” workshops will provide guidance to attendees who are new to working with DARPA or are interested in transitioning DARPA-funded inventions out of the lab and into the commercial world. During the “DARPA/MTO Collaboration 101” workshop, Rosker will provide both a history of the agency and information about how to work with DARPA in the future.
The deadline to register for the ERI Summit is Monday, June 24, 2019 at 11:59 PM EST. Registration information as well as a full agenda and workshop descriptions are available at www.eri-summit.com. All attendees must register in advance. Workshop headcount limits will be pre-determined based on attendee interest.
 
					February 17, 2023 | International, C4ISR
The initiative seeks to impose order on an emerging technology that can change the way war is waged.
 
					May 20, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Nathan Strout The U.S. Space Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $2.375 billion contract for two Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellites that will help provide ballistic missile warning for the military. Next Gen OPIR is to replace the Space-Based Infrared System, a crucial part of the nation's missile defense architecture. Utilizing infrared sensors, the satellites will be able to detect and track ballistic missile threats while being more survivable than the legacy system. The Space and Missile Systems Center plans to have five satellites in the constellation: three geosynchronous satellites built by Lockheed Martin, and two polar satellites being built by Northrop Grumman. Northrop Grumman was initially awarded a $47 million contract for system and payload requirements analysis and risk reduction for the two polar vehicles in June 2018. The $2.4 billion contract modification issued May 18 provides for Phase One design and development, the procurement of critical flight hardware, and risk-reduction efforts leading to critical design review. At this time, $70.5 million is being released. Work is expected to be completed by December 2025. Meanwhile, Lockheed is developing the three geosynchronous Next Gen OPIR space vehicles. That company was awarded $2.9 billion in August 2018 to begin work on the satellites, leading to critical design review. In October 2019, the Space and Missile Systems Center announced the system had passed preliminary design review. The Air Force has accelerated the timeline for Next Gen OPIR to get the first satellite delivered in 2025. That's required more money up front than initially expected, which was provided through a series of reprogramming requests in 2019. That became a source of tension between competing versions of the annual defense budgets in the House and Senate last year, but SMC credited that reprogramming with keeping Next Gen OPIR on track. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/05/19/northrop-grumman-receives-24-billion-for-two-missile-defense-satellites
 
					February 15, 2024 | International, Land
The CCS-C program develops the C2 system for most U.S. MILSATCOM systems including the Defense Satellite Communications System, Milstar, Wideband Global SATCOM and Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites.