February 28, 2024 | International, Aerospace
Missile warning payload delay could push back 2025 launch plans
The late payload is being developed by RTX and will be integrated onto a Lockheed Martin satellite.
December 7, 2018 | International, Naval
Greek government plans crowdfunding for new warships
By: The Associated Press
ATHENS, Greece — Greece's defense minister is appealing to his austerity-battered countryfolk for a crowdfunding effort to raise money for new warships, promising to donate part of his own salary.
Panos Kammenos says he will open a bank account on Jan. 1 where members of the public can make donations “for new frigates and a flagship.”
He addressed his appeal to Greece's wealthy shipowning industry, as well as ordinary Greeks.
“I will be the first to deposit my salary in this effort,” he said, speaking to navy personnel on the occasion of Thursday's feast day of St. Nicholas, patron saint of Greek seamen and the navy.
Kammenos said 2019 will see a general drive to upgrade the fleet, which faces strong competition from neighboring Turkey, a NATO ally and historic regional rival.
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December 18, 2020 | International, Aerospace
Counter-drone startup Epirus raises $70M, plans to hire 100 people
By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― Epirus, a venture-backed startup offering a counter-drone capability, announced Thursday it raised $70 million to speed its technology to market. The round was led by San Francisco, California-based Bedrock Capital, and brings the 2-year-old company's total capital raised to roughly $80 million. The news comes six months after Epirus inked a strategic supplier agreement with Northrop Grumman to provide exclusive access to Epirus' software-defined electromagnetic pulse system Leonidas. Since then, the firm has doubled in size and plans to add 100 jobs in 2021. “We're aggressively hiring and expanding our footprint on the East and West coasts,” Epirus CEO Leigh Madden told Defense News. He added that the firm is shifting its headquarters from the Hawthorne, California, office to its newer offices in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Alongside Bedrock and several other investment firms, L3Harris Technologies is investing in Epirus. Epirus developed a SmartPower power-management technology that underpins its counter-unmanned aircraft system, and the company plans to partner with L3Harris to create greater power efficiencies within some of its existing systems. The technology, which allows the system to deliver a high-power output with a relatively low-power input, has a range of applications across other radio frequency systems, Madden said. (The company's systems involve a combination of high-power microwave technology and, for enhanced targeting, artificial intelligence.) The new funding, “enables us to rapidly build out our counter-UAS system,” Madden said. “We'll be bringing the Leonidas system to market as well as advancing the capabilities of our SmartPower technology ― and working with government customers and partners to expand the application of that technology.” Beyond Bedrock and L3Harris, the new Series B funding came from Piedmont Capital Investments, 8VC, Fathom VC and Greenspring Associates. In 2019, Epirus closed $17 million in Series A funding, which was led by 8VC. (Series A is meant to help a company progress to the development stage, and Series B is meant to help a company market or expand its existing market footprint.) Geoff Lewis of Bedrock Capital said in a statement that investors are “confident Epirus has the capacity to integrate its technology into top tier counter-UAS systems and lead the way in developing new and compelling directed energy applications.” “Epirus counters the weak assumption baked into standard VC models that the economic and cultural gaps of defense-focused investments are too wide to overcome,” Lewis said. https://www.defensenews.com/2020/12/17/counter-drone-startup-epirus-raises-70m-plans-to-hire-100-people/
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October 29, 2020 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR
US Air Force wants help seeing moving targets in its sensor data
Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded Descartes Labs a $2.2 million contract to generate real-time analytics with a focus on developing moving target indication data, the company announced Oct. 27. Under this new contract, AFRL will gain access to the company's geospatial analytics platform, which uses artificial intelligence and computer vision to process and fuse sensor data, such as satellite imagery, for tactical use. Descartes Labs claims the focus of this contract will involve using its platform to help the Air Force solve the challenge of generating moving target indication data for ground and airborne targets. The New Mexico-based company was recently awarded a contract from AFRL and AFWERX — an Air Force effort to spark innovation through nontraditional vendors — that gave the service access to Descartes Labs' geospatial analytics platform for multi-sensor data fusion and situational awareness. The company has also worked with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, helping the firm further refine its approach. “Through the implementation of multi-sensor analytics, the Air Force is creating a forward-thinking state-of-the-art national security system,” Mike Warren, Descartes Labs co-founder and chief technology officer, said in a statement. “Through increasing use of diverse types of data, the Air Force is laying the groundwork to solve tactical intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance problems now and in the future.” This latest contract was issued through AFRL's Space Technology Advanced Research program, which was launched in summer 2019 to develop enabling technologies for space-based capabilities, including on-orbit servicing, debris management, ground systems and more. http://9. https://www.c4isrnet.com/intel-geoint/2020/10/28/the-air-force-wants-help-seeing-moving-targets-in-its-sensor-data/