Webinar: The Future Of U.S. Foreign Military Sales

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  October 8, 2021 | International, Aerospace

  National Reconnaissance Office opens door for more commercial services

  The new Broad Agency Announcement is designed to help the NRO access and evaluate emerging commercial satellite capabilities.

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  July 8, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Other Defence

  DARPA Funding Brings Machine Learning to BAE Systems’ Signals Intelligence Capabilities

  HUDSON, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BAE Systems has been awarded funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to integrate machine-learning (ML) technology into platforms that decipher radio frequency signals. Its Controllable Hardware Integration for Machine-learning Enabled Real-time Adaptivity (CHIMERA) solution provides a reconfigurable hardware platform for ML algorithm developers to make sense of radio frequency (RF) signals in increasingly crowded electromagnetic spectrum environments. The up to $4.7 million contract, dependent on successful completion of milestones, includes hardware delivery along with integration and demonstration support. CHIMERA's hardware platform will enable algorithm developers to decipher the ever-growing number of RF signals, providing commercial or military users with greater automated situational awareness of their operating environment. This contract is adjacent to the previously announced award for the development of data-driven ML algorithms under the same DARPA program (Radio Frequency Machine Learning Systems, or RFMLS). RFMLS requires a robust, adaptable hardware solution with a multitude of control surfaces to enable improved discrimination of signals in the evolving dense spectrum environments of the future. “CHIMERA brings the flexibility of a software solution to hardware,” said Dave Logan, vice president and general manager of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) Systems at BAE Systems. “Machine-learning is on the verge of revolutionizing signals intelligence technology, just as it has in other industries.” In an evolving threat environment, CHIMERA will enable ML software development to adapt the hardware's RF configuration in real time to optimize mission performance. This capability has never before been available in a hardware solution. The system provides multiple control surfaces for the user, enabling on-the-fly performance trade-offs that can maximize its sensitivity, selectivity, and scalability depending on mission need. The system's open architecture interfaces allow for third party algorithm development, making the system future-proof and easily upgradable upon deployment. Other RF functions, including communications, radar, and electronic warfare, also can benefit from this agile hardware platform, which has a reconfigurable array, front-end, full transceiver and digital pre-processing stage. Work on these phases of the program will take place at BAE Systems' sites in Hudson and Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Dallas, Texas. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190708005199/en

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  July 27, 2018 | International, C4ISR

  How Army researchers are using software and analytics to maximize battlefield power

  By: Todd South ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — As soldiers at every level become more connected and devices proliferate, the strain on the field-level power grid increases. Staff at the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command dove into the finer details of power management, auto tuning and analytics to drive how soldiers use power in the field. Most of that work is focused around the tactical microgrid, basically the network of power that runs tactical operations. Think thick cables, generators and all the power that lets the computers, radios and networks run to digest the vast amounts of information, communication and other electrical needs consumed by a modern military. In the not-too-distant past, generator operators and technicians played a sophisticated guessing game that involved a clock, multimeter, flashlight and notepad to measure and mark which power supplies were running, at what level, and where they were on fuel. But by adding digital capabilities and software-driven devices into the guts of what were simple analog generators and boxes full of copper wiring and switches, they have created a type of brain for what was formerly a mindless system. That's resulted in the new Advanced Medium Mobile Power Source, the first new generator for the service in years. The combination of that device, controllers within the system, and advanced software gives the soldier a centralized place to monitor and manipulate the different devices in the microgrid that will help the flow of power move to where its needed. “I can tell you if you're using too many lights or computers on one of those three phase lines and if you're out of balance,” said Bradley Stanley, an RDECOM computer scientist. By using software to make those readings, the end user can then shift the strain to other parts of the system, maximizing power output and fuel use for what can be 24-hour, days long operations. Another software improvement in “autotuning” is helping make what can be a multi-person with expert training four-hour job into an automated procedure handled by the computer. https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/07/26/how-army-researchers-are-using-software-and-analytics-to-maximize-battlefield-power