Military & Aerospace Electronics - February 2021

FEBRUARY 2021

RELEVANT. TRUSTED.
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES.

Hypersonic
weapons

Lockheed Martin to
develop hypersonic
smart munitions to
counter relocatable
targets. PAGE 4

Embedded
computing
chassis and
backplanes

Data throughput and
thermal management
lead to revolution in
systems design. PAGE 18

militaryaerospace.com

NEW LOOK
AT ELECTRONIC WARFARE

Military to embed EW
capability at all echelons
to make up for years
of lost time. PAGE 10

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FEBRUARY 2021
VOL. 32, NO. 2

COvER STORY 2 TRENDS .18" ht.
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4 NEWS matter!

5 IN BRIEF SURFACE MOUNT

10 SPECIAL REPORT AND PLUG IN
Military re-learns importance of
electronic warfare (EW) MILITARY/CRITICAL
APPLICATIONS
Top commanders seek to embed EW capability at
virtually all echelons as warfighters seek to make QPL UNITS STANDARD
up for years of lost time.
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18 TECHNOLOGY FOCUS AND INDUCTORS
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www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  1

2102MAE_PicoElectronics 1 12/22/20 2:33 PM

trends BY JOHN KELLER, EDITOR IN CHIEF

Defense budgets likely to remain
healthy during new Biden Administration

We have a new presidential administration, so what does If the Pentagon budget didn’t exactly flourish during
that mean for a defense industry that has gotten used to the Obama years, there wasn’t an historic fiscal disaster,
robust Pentagon budgets over the past four years with either. Spending remained relatively strong, there was
plenty of money for technology research and development? little programmatic upheaval at the Pentagon, and most
projects remained intact. Despite one’s political biases,
The short answer: it’s probably too early to tell. We there is little chance to expect anything different during
won’t have many hints probably until March — perhaps the Biden Administration.
even as late as May. President Trump did not submit his
administration’s detailed defense budget proposals to It’s not as though the defense industry hadn’t been pre-
Congress until May 2017, which was about four months paring for some kind of downslope in defense spending.
after he took office. Most likely we should expect the For at least a couple of years now, many believed that the
same from President Joe Biden. Trump budgets couldn’t continue their upward trend sus-
tainably, and the defense industry planned accordingly.
Long term, should we expect drastic defense budget
cuts from the new administration? Probably not. We’ve Less than two years ago Raytheon Co. and the defense
seen different administrations come and go over the past division of United Technologies Corp. merged to form
four decades, with few drastic changes in military spend- Raytheon Technologies Corp. Since Donald Trump took
ing. The defense budget historically changes slowly, and office in 2017, United Technologies bought Rockwell Col-
in a gentle way. It doesn’t mirror the sharp highs and lins; Harris Corp. and L3 Technologies merged to form
lows we see typically in private industry. L3Harris; and Northrop Grumman bought rocket-maker
Orbital ATK. Not long before that, United Technologies
There’s a lot of money in the U.S. defense budget — many sold its Sikorsky helicopter unit to Lockheed Martin —
hundreds of billions of dollars every year — and there’s no and all this happened during the so-called Trump Bump
reason we shouldn’t expect that to continue in the foresee- in defense spending.
able future.There are many military programs and technol-
ogy-development projects in progress that simply wouldn’t During these same heady days, military leaders in
make sense to stop now, or even slow down in a big way. the Pentagon also were preparing for a downturn, and
discontinued or cut back expensive programs like the
Many defense jobs are at stake, to say nothing about B-1 bomber and the Navy’s Zumwalt-class land-attack
long-established corporate interests in continuing defense destroyer. If there is to be a noticeable downturn in mili-
spending at healthy levels.We saw some relatively low mil- tary spending under the Biden Administration, the Pen-
itary budgets during the Clinton years of the 1990s, but that tagon and defense industry are ready for it.
had to do more with a perceived defense dividend at the
end of the Cold War than it did with political differences. So what would a defense budget downturn of any size
mean for the defense electronics industry? Probably noth-
After the two Bill Clinton administrations, defense ing drastic. Spending cutbacks mean keeping existing
spending increased in a moderate and controlled way platforms in the field for longer than anticipated. That
during the George W. Bush administrations. There was translates into systems upgrades that involve advanced
concern in the defense industry of drastic budget cuts electronic technologies.
during the administrations of Barack Obama, but much of
that fear was overblown. We did have the so-called “fiscal So should the defense industry fear Pentagon budgets
cliff” military budget drawdowns of 2012, but those were under the Biden Administration? Not likely. Defense bud-
relatively short-lived and in many ways had compensation gets will continue to have a lot of money, and it’s likely
from a variety of budget resolutions to soften the blow. there will be plenty to go round. 

2  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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news

Navy eyes multi-aperture antennas for
electronic warfare (EW) on surface warships

BY John Keller

SAN DIEGO — U.S. Navy electronic war- These capabilities must come in Photo (above): Navy experts want to con-
fare (EW) experts are surveying small size, weight, power consump- duct communications, electronic support,
industry to find companies able to tion, cooling, and cost package. The and electronic attack operations aboard
perform communications, electronic transmit and receive aperture must surface warships from one small aperture.
support, and electronic attack from be no larger than 73 inches high,
the same antenna array aboard naval 73 inches in diameter, have a deck- Given the limits of available ship-
surface warships. mounted support pedestal no higher board topside space, the Navy wants
than 24 inches, and weigh no more to make electronic support and elec-
Officials of the Naval Informa- than 1,000 pounds. tronic attack functions available from
tion Warfare Center-Pacific in San the same aperture.
Diego issued a request for informa- Navy experts say they need the
tion (NIWC_Pacific_MKTSVY_1754EE) ability conduct communications, Each proposed solution must be
on Tuesday for the Active Electroni- electronic support, and electronic a modular design that can be con-
cally Steered Array (AESA) and Phased attack operations aboard surface war- figured to several different missions,
Array Fed Reflector (PAFR) project. ships from one small aperture to face and use technology mature enough
current and future threats. A wide- to validate in a simulated environ-
Navy experts want to identify com- band high effective isotropic radiated ment (TRL-6). 
panies able to determine if active elec- power transmit and receive array
tronically steered array (AESA) and across at least S- though X-band, Companies interested were asked to submit
phased-array fed reflector antennas as well as a lower effective isotro- white papers by 29 Jan. 2021. More informa-
can provide wideband high UHF thru pic radiated power transmit capacity tion is online at https://beta.sam.gov/opp/74d-
SHF transmit and receive capability at and receive capacity in L- through Ku- 3976717f24ba7afde06318b48a96c/view.
very high effective isotropic radiated bands is necessary to do this.
power and gain over temperature.

4  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

Lockheed Martin prepares to build times the speed of sound from deck- (DARPA). This project consists of a
another 133 F-35 combat aircraft mounted Vertical Launch Systems, high-speed rocket that separates from
fire from bomber aircraft, and shoot the hypersonic payload, which then
Combat aircraft designers at Lock- up from the ground near the bound- glides unpowered to its destination.
heed Martin Corp. are preparing to aries of space. One in particular is What would it mean for a Navy ship
build 133 new F-35 jet fighter-bomb- the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) pro- to have this kind of range and strate-
ers for the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, gram of the U.S. Air Force and Defense gic attack envelope? Surely sit would
Air Force, allies, and others under Advanced Research Projects Agency enable surface warships to destroy
terms of a $903.6 million order. Offi-
cials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems VITA 48.4
Command at Patuxent River Naval
Air Station, Md. — the organization Liquid Flow-
handling F-35 aviation technology Through
procurement for all military forces — Cooling
are asking the Lockheed Martin Aero-
nautics segment in Fort Worth,Texas, Power-hungry OpenVPX modules require a cooling solution that
to provide long lead materials, parts, keeps the mission on course. From the experts in packaging for
components, and support necessary extreme environments comes the VITA 48.4 LFT Rugged ATR Platform,
to maintain on-time production and with 300W/slot cooling.
delivery of 133 Lot 16 F-35 aircraft.
The F-35 with its advanced avionics • Six OpenVPX payload & switch slots
is a fifth-generation single-seat, sin- • Four slots with RF & optical connections
gle-engine, all-weather stealth mul- • 10Gbps backplane data rates
tirole jet fighter-bomber designed to • Two VITA 62 power modules
perform ground attack, aerial recon-
naissance, and air defense missions. With you at every stage! elma.com
It is one of the most advanced com-
bat jets in the world. Long-lead items Elma Electronic Inc.
either are difficult and time-consum-
ing to obtain, and are funded early in
the aircraft design process to keep
overall production on schedule. Con-
tracts to build the actual aircraft will
come later. The F-35 is to replace U.S.
F-16, A-10, F/A-18, and AV-8B tacti-
cal fighter and attack aircraft. Lock-
heed Martin has been developing
the F-35 since 2001. Lot 16 consists
of 101 F-35A conventional-takeoff and
-landing aircraft, 32 F-35B short-take-
off and -landing aircraft, and 24 F-35C
carrier-based aircraft.

Hypersonic weapons soon could
fire from surface warships

Hypersonic weapons soon could fire
from U.S. Navy destroyers and take
off from surface warships at five

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  5

news

Boeing moves to production on electronic
warfare (EW) avionics for Air Force F-15 fleet

BY John Keller

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio — Electronic state is to produce a small quantity Boeing provides planning, design
warfare (EW) avionics experts at the of EPAWSS systems and set a tech- development, integration, testing,
Boeing Co. are moving from develop- nology baseline for initial operational and risk reduction activities for the
ment to production of EW avionics test and evaluation (IOT&E). F-15 EPAWSS program, while partner
for the U.S. Air Force F-15 jet fighter BAE Systems provides EPAWSS design
fleet that will help protect the combat Boeing is the original manufac- and production.
aircraft from radar-guided missiles. turer of the 1970s-vintage F-15 Eagle
jet fighter, and the BAE Systems Elec- EPAWSS offers integrated radar
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle tronic Systems segment in Nashua, warning, geo-location, situational
Management Center at Wright-Patter- N.H., designs and builds the EPAWSS. awareness, and self-protection to
son Air Force Base, Ohio, announced a McDonnell Douglas Corp. designed detect and defeat enemy aircraft, air-
$79.6 million contract in December to the aircraft and manufactured it from to-air missiles, as well as surface-to-
Boeing Defense, Space & Security seg- 1976 to 1996. Boeing bought McDon- air missiles amid dense electronic
ment in St. Louis for the F-15’s Eagle nell Douglas in 1996 and continued signals in contested airspace. Its elec-
Passive Active Warning and Surviv- F-15 production through 2019. tronic countermeasures enable the
ability System (EPAWSS) low rate ini- F-15 to penetrate enemy air defenses.
tial production. EPAWSS also will be part of the
avionics suite of the next-genera- The all-digital EPAWSS is smaller
The EPAWSS provides the Air Force tion F-15EX, which is based on the than previous F-15 EW systems, and
F-15 jet fighter fleet with EW technol- F-15 Advanced Eagle that Boeing is offers improved reliability and main-
ogy to make the most of mission effec- building for the air forces of Qatar tainability. The Air Force and Boeing
tiveness and survivability, BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia, which has a fly-by- chose BAE Systems to design and
officials say. It provides offensive and wire flight control system, digital elec- build the EPAWSS last year to replace
defensive EW options for the pilot. tronic warfare (EW) suite, an infrared the F-15’s ALQ-135 EW suite.
search and track (IRST) system, and
Low-rate initial production hap- the Raytheon APG-63(v)3 active elec- Delays in building and deploy-
pens after full-scale development tronically scanned array (AESA) radar. ing the Lockheed Martin F-35 have
and before full-scale production.This encouraged Air Force leaders to
extend the service life of the F-15
The U.S. Air Force F-15EX jet fighter, shown above, will be among the recipients for fleet beyond 2040, with upgrades
the Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS), which has involving new active electronically
entered production. scanned array (AESA) radars, new
EW sensors and processors, and new
cockpit displays.

The F-15EX carries more weapons
than similar fighter aircraft, and will
be able to launch hypersonic weap-
ons that are as large as 22 feet long
and weigh as much as 7,000 pounds,
Boeing officials say. The F-15EX also
is following the U.S. Department of
Defense (DOD) DevSecOps initiative
to develop secure, flexible, and agile

6  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

software and an open-systems avi- system, the Raytheon APG-63(v)3 weapons stations and digital Joint Hel-
onics architecture. active electronically scanned array met-Mounted Cueing Systems. The
(AESA) radar, and the Eagle Passive original F-15 jet fighter began devel-
The F-15EX will be a large, pow- Active Warning Survivability System opment in 1967, and entered service
erful, non-stealthy, twin-engine jet (EPAWSS) — an electronic warfare and with the U.S. Air Force in 1976. 
fighter able to carry a large air-superi- threat identification system.
ority weapons payload.The plane will On this EPAWSS contract Boeing will do
be able to carry as many as 22 AIM-9X The F-15EX also will have ter- the work in San Antonio, Texas, and should
Sidewinder and AMRAAM medium rain-following radar to enable the be finished by December 2026. For more
range air-to-air missiles. pilot to fly at a very low altitude fol- information contact Boeing Defense, Space
lowing cues displayed on a heads up & Security online at www.boeing.com,
It also will have a substantially display. The targeting pod contains a BAE Systems Electronic Systems at www.
more powerful mission computer laser designator and a tracking system baesystems.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle
than all existing versions of the F-15, with a 10-mile range. The plane also Management Center at www.aflcmc.af.mil.
new cockpit displays, a digital back- will have as many as 11 underwing
bone, infrared search and track (IRST)

enemy land, sea, and air targets mentation, digital imaging prod- ity System (EPAWSS) low rate initial
operating at otherwise unreach- ucts and software, aerospace and production. The EPAWSS provides
able distances or traveling at speed defense electronics, and engineered the Air Force F-15 jet fighter fleet
quite difficult to track. A hypersonic systems. FLIR focuses on intelligent with EW technology to make the
weapon not only could destroy land sensing for defense and industrial most of mission effectiveness and
targets, but also hit fighter jets flying applications.Teledyne electro-opti- survivability, BAE Systems officials
faster than the speed of sound.This cal products are used in the Boeing say. It provides offensive and defen-
expands the operational scope of Space Launch System for NASA. FLIR sive EW options for the pilot. Boeing
Navy ships and favors coordinated and Teledyne provide components is the original manufacturer of the
networked offensive weapons fired for the Lockheed Martin F-35 joint 1970s-vintage F-15 Eagle jet fighter,
from standoff distances safe from strike fighter. and the BAE Systems Electronic
enemy fire. Systems segment in Nashua, N.H.,
Boeing to install EPAWSS designs and builds the EPAWSS.
Teledyne Technologies to electronic warfare on McDonnell Douglas Corp. designed
acquire FLIR Systems electro- F-15 jet fighter fleet the aircraft and manufactured it
optical sensor specialist from 1976 to 1996. Boeing bought
Electronic warfare (EW) avionics McDonnell Douglas in 1996 and
Teledyne Technologies Inc. in Thou- experts at the Boeing Co. have won continued F-15 production through
sand Oaks, Calif., has agreed to buy their second large contract within 2019. EPAWSS also will be part of the
FLIR Systems in Wilsonville, Ore., in a month to produce EW avionics avionics suite of the next-genera-
an $8 billion cash-and-stock acqui- for the U.S. Air Force F-15 jet fighter tion F-15EX, which is based on the
sition to expand its electro-optical fleet that will help protect the com- F-15 Advanced Eagle that Boeing is
sensor offerings for the defense bat aircraft from radar-guided mis- building for the air forces of Qatar
industry. “At the core of both our siles. Officials of the Air Force and Saudi Arabia, which has a fly-
companies is proprietary sensor Life Cycle Management Center at by-wire flight control system, digi-
technologies,” says Teledyne Chair- Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, tal electronic warfare (EW) suite, an
man Robert Mehrabian. “Our busi- Ohio, announced a $189.3 million infrared search and track (IRST) sys-
ness models are also similar: we six-year order in January to Boeing tem, and the Raytheon APG-63(v)3
each provide sensors, cameras and Defense, Space & Security segment active electronically scanned array
sensor systems to our customers.” in St. Louis for the F-15’s Eagle Pas- (AESA) radar. 
Teledyne is a provider of instru- sive Active Warning and Survivabil-

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  7

news

Navy orders 35 eCASS test systems to
troubleshoot and repair avionics at sea or ashore

BY John Keller

LAKEHURST, N.J. — Test and measurement systems are for aircraft carriers, ing to new weapons systems such
experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. will amphibious assault ships, or at avi- as the F-35 Lightning II joint strike
provide 35 eCASS advanced combat ation land bases. fighter. Lockheed Martin won a $103
avionics test instruments under terms million low-rate initial production
of a $89.2 million order announced n This contract also provides for four (LRIP) contract in January 2014 for the
December. self-maintenance and test/calibration first 36 eCASS test and measurement
operational test program sets, five cal- stations.
Officials of the Naval Air Warfare ibration equipment suites and kits, 36
Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, rack rail kits, 44 shore installation kits, The eCASS station is the work-
N.J., are asking engineers at the Lock- and 28 ship installation kits. horse for avionics repair across the
heed Martin Rotary and Mission Sys- naval aviation enterprise, Lockheed
tems segment in Orlando, Fla., to build The eCASS test equipment is replac- Martin officials say. The test gear
35 electronic Consolidated Automated ing the Navy’s legacy CASS test equip- helps aircraft maintenance techni-
Support Systems (eCASS). ment originally fielded in the early cians return equipment to readiness
1990s. CASS is the Navy’s standard status quickly and efficiently. Com-
The eCASS equipment is designed automatic test equipment family sup- patibility with legacy CASS stations
to help sailors and Marines to trouble- porting electronics on naval aircraft. preserves the Navy’s investment in
shoot and repair aircraft assemblies more than 550 test program sets sup-
and return the avionics to service The first eCASS station went to the porting 750 avionics components.
quickly. The test and measurement Navy in February 2014 to support all
the aircraft in the Navy’s fleet, extend- The eCASS architecture is based
on the Lockheed Martin LM-STAR
commercial automated testing sys-
tem that is designed to facilitate
technology insertion and long-term
supportability.

LM-STAR serves as the cornerstone
of the F-35 Lightning II harmoniza-
tion plan, which helps enable sev-
eral different avionics manufacturers
to develop tests to help electronics
move from the factory floor to fleet
maintenance depots, Lockheed Mar-
tin officials say. 

The Consolidated Automated Support System (eCASS) helps sailors and Marines trou- On this contract Lockheed Martin will do the
bleshoot and repair aircraft assemblies aboard aircraft carriers and at land bases. work in Orlando, Fla., and should be finished by
December 2023. For more information contact
Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems
online at www.lockheedmartin.com, or the
Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division-Lake-
hurst at www.navair.navy.mil/lakehurst.

8  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

Lockheed Martin to develop hypersonic smart
munitions to counter relocatable targets

BY John Keller

ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. military research- Martin to develop the integrated pulsion system.
ers are asking Lockheed Martin Corp. OpFires system. Last July Lockheed DARPA officials are pursuing the
to develop an integrated system to Martin won a $7.4 million contract
attack enemy relocatable time-sen- to develop the OpFires propulsion OpFires project to compensate for
sitive targets like mobile ballistic components. limitations of U.S. ground forces in
missiles with hypersonic ground- the effective range of surface-to-sur-
launched rocket-propelled smart The DARPA OpFires project seeks face precision fires. OpFires seeks to
munitions that can penetrate mod- to enable capabilities for a mobile, provide theater level commanders
ern air defense systems. ground-launched tactical weapon with the ability to strike time-sensi-
system able to carry a variety of smart tive targets while providing persistent
Officials of the U.S. Defense munitions payloads to several dif- standoff from enemy counter-fire.
Advanced Research Projects Agency ferent ranges to attack relocatable
(DARPA) in Arlington,Va., announced targets. Lockheed Martin will focus on a
a $58.9 million order last month to hypersonic mobile, ground-launched
the Lockheed Martin Missiles and The project is a three-phase effort system design, and flight test, includ-
Fire Control segment in Grand Prai- that consists of weapon system pre- ing mobile ground launcher and all-up
rie, Texas, for the Operational Fires liminary design, critical design, and round. The company also will inte-
(OpFires) Integrated Weapon System flight testing. In October 2018 DARPA grate the Sierra Nevada propulsion
phase 3 program. awarded a $9.5 million contract to system into the final design. Flight
Sierra Nevada Corp. in Sparks, Nev., demonstrations should be in 2022.
The contract calls for Lockheed to develop an OpFires hypersonic pro-
The OpFires prototype is not
expected to meet all potential oper-
ational requirements, but will demon-
strate critical system attributes,
technologies, and functionality.

Lockheed Martin engineers also
will identify and develop critical
enabling technologies and compo-
nents such as weapon command
and control; booster thermal man-
agement; component technologies;
launcher simulations; missile guid-
ance, navigation and control simu-
lations; and system safety. 

Lockheed Martin will build hypersonic weapon prototypes to attack enemy relocat- On this contract Lockheed Martin will do the
able time-sensitive targets like mobile ballistic missiles. work in Grand Prairie, Texas; Huntsville, Ala.;
and Elkton, W.Va., and should be finished
by January 2022. For more information con-
tact Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Con-
trol online at www.lockheedmartin.com, or
DARPA at www.darpa.mil.

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  9

SPECIAL REPORT

Military re-learns the
importance of electronic
warfare (EW)

Top commanders seek to embed EW capability at virtually all Photo (above): The Menlo Micro MM5130
echelons as warfighters seek to make up for years of lost time. ‘Ideal Switch’ operates from DC to 26 GHz.

BY Jamie Whitney Electromagnetic Spectrum Superi- of these activities as Electromag-
ority Strategy, which outlines how netic Spectrum Operations (EMSO),”
The need to dominate the electro- the U.S. military aims to dominate Secretary of Defense Mark Esper
magnetic spectrum never has been the electromagnetic spectrum when wrote in the foreword to the pub-
higher for the U.S. military since the it is challenged by peer and near-peer lication released in October 2020.
end of the Cold War. By using elec- adversaries. “Consequently, this 2020 Depart-
tronic warfare (EW), branches under ment of Defense EMS Superiority
the Department of Defense (DOD) “The Department is transitioning Strategy builds on essential objec-
umbrella can go on the attack and from the traditional consideration tives from the 2013 DOD EMS Strat-
protect American warfighters and of EW as separable from spectrum egy and the 2017 DOD EW Strategy,
military resources. management to a unified treatment and takes the Department another
critical step forward in implement-
This fall, the DOD unveiled its

10  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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The Army’s newest electronic warfare vehicle, center, is tested in conjunction with governance.
other electronic warfare equipment at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. “U.S. military operations are

ing the 2018 National Defense Strat- focuses on strengthening alliances rarely conducted unilaterally and are
egy. This Strategy seeks to align EMS to achieve the Department’s vision increasingly reliant on contributions
resources, capabilities, and activities of Freedom of Action in the Electro- from our allies and partners,” DOD
across the DOD to support our core magnetic Spectrum.” experts write in the strategy. “DOD
national security objectives while must ensure EMS enterprise devel-
remaining mindful of the impor- The EMS Superiority Strategy opment efforts are interoperable and
tance of U.S. economic prosperity. includes five goals: develop superior aligned with our allies and partners
Additionally, this Strategy lays the EMS capabilities; evolve to an agile and should remove barriers limiting
foundation for a robust EMS enter- integrated EMS infrastructure; pur- collaboration. This requires interop-
prise, prepares EMS professionals sue total force EMS readiness; secure erable data sources and architectures.
to leverage new technologies, and enduring partnerships for EMS advan- The Department will help develop
tage; and establish effective EMS military-to-military agreements, host
nation agreements, agreements with
The AN/ALQ-217 ESM system functions as the sophisticated ears of advanced tactical the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-
aircraft and is installed on the U.S. and international E-2C and E-2D Advanced Hawk- tion (NATO), and other allies and part-
eye and P-3C type aircraft. ners focused on enabling coalitions
the use of their full portfolio of EMS
capabilities.”

The report continues, “This
requires the means (software, data
standards, transport channels, etc.)
to move and process data at machine
speeds with allies and partners. DOD
must encourage our allies and part-
ners to adopt, build, or enhance EMS
capabilities that will increase our
combined coalition EMS capability
and capacity with particular focus
on near-peer threats. This cooper-
ation includes the need to expand
opportunities for coalition EMS test-
ing, training, and education in the
United States and abroad.”

Jonathan Leitner, the radio fre-
quency (RF) product marketing engi-
neer for Menlo Microsystems Inc. in
Irvine Calif., notes that “Battlespace
dominance requires the upper hand
in tactical and strategic troop and
asset capabilities, and superior-
ity with C6ISR — command, con-
trol, communications, computers,
cyber-defense and combat systems
and intelligence, surveillance, and
reconnaissance. All of these are inter-

12  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

SPECIAL REPORT

connected in a fabric that is reliant on power handling and linearity levels. vibration. Much higher levels than
the electromagnetic spectrum, partic- What is also unique are the extreme what is capable with traditional RF
ularly radio frequencies from HF to levels of ruggedness that the switch relays and switches.”
millimeter-wave. The U.S. will need and therefore filter can handle. The
to maintain a level of supremacy in core MEMS technology of the switch’s Unmanned EW
the core RF technologies, from the contact and beam structure have
component to the systems level.This ultra-low mass and thus can with- Electronic warfare capabilities
will require that domestic companies stand very high levels of shock and increasingly are being added to
stay far ahead of adversaries in core unmanned platforms, whether they
research in semiconductors, materi-
als sciences, architectures, software Dawn Single Slot
tools, and manufacturing.”
OpenVPX Development
Menlo Micro’s Leitner notes that
the company is making a concerted Backplanes
effort into the aerospace and military
sector, including EW, RF front ends, The Dawn family of one-slot OpenVPX test station
radar, and tactical and military com- and development backplanes gives engineers the ability to
munications systems. perform compatibility tests and easily reconfigure payload
module profiles and slot interoperability to meet custom
“Menlo Micro has introduced the requirements.
MM5130, which is currently in pro-
duction and operates from DC to 26
GHz,” Leitner says. “We’ve coined the
term, ‘Ideal Switch’ as the MM5130
combines the attributes and advan-
tages of mechanical relays with
those of solid-state switch technol-
ogy. We’ve incorporated the MM5130
Ideal Switch into a new high power
MM6000 series reconfigurable filter
product.The key advantage of a filter
designed using the Ideal Switch are
the ultra-low losses of the RF paths,
fast switching speeds, and very high-

Highly useful as stand alone or in combination with other
backplanes, with or without RTM connectors. Multiple units can
be topology wired using MERITEC VPX Plus cables.

Last summer, Liteye Systems Inc. Rugged, Reliable Available 3U and 6U in VITA 65,
announced the Trailer Anti-UAS Defense and Ready. VITA 67.1, VITA 67.2, VITA 67.3,
System (T-AUDS), with an On-the-Move Nano-RF, SOSA-aligned and Power
and Fixed-Site Counter Unmanned Aircraft Supply slot profiles. Custom
Systems (C-UAS) solution. configurations available.

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The Curtiss-Wright VPX3-534 is for EW because it features high bandwidth, low-la- increased processing requirements,”
tency ADCs and DACs operating at up to 6 GigaSamples Per Second, integrated with Bateman says. DSP stands for digi-
a high capability Xilinx UltraScale FPGA. tal signal processing, while GPGPU
stands for general-purpose graphics
are in the sky, on the ground, and even piloted ones.” processing unit.
underwater. Jeff Bateman, line manager of
Electronic warfare platforms also
“Unmanned EW platforms can take field-programmable gate array (FPGA) are following military and aero-
humans out of direct conflict, which products at Curtiss-Wright Defense space industry trends in embracing
saves lives, but will limit the ability Solutions in Santa Clarita, Calif., says open-systems standards.
to discern nuances that only well- that using unmanned vehicles for
trained personnel can detect,” says EW will enable the swarming of large “Open standards make it easier
Menlo Micro’s Leitner. “This is why numbers of drones. to build highly integrated, scalable
EW platforms will still be required for EW systems that can keep up with
command, control, and communica- “For example, increased sensor changing application requirements,”
tions. Unmanned systems will grow bandwidth could be accommodated says Curtiss-Wright’s Bateman. “For
more important as a complementary by upgrading the RF and data con- example, increased sensor bandwidth
platform but not as a replacement to verter boards, while upgrading to could be accommodated by upgrading
newer DSP or GPGPU boards satisfies the RF and data converter board(s),
while upgrading to newer DSP or
Navy Capt. Sacarra Pusey, foreground, an electronic warfare officer, participates in GPGPU boards satisfies increased pro-
a cyber event at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. cessing requirements.

“The use of open standards eases
integration between different pieces
of the EW system technology chain,”
Bateman continues. “So, you can have
a tuner outputting data in a standard-
ized form, such as VITA 49 (VITA Radio
Transport) to an FPGA-based device
or SBC.The receiving device can then
ingest that data in a standardized way
then process that data. So, integra-
tion of components from different
parts of Curtiss-Wright or even dif-
ferent companies is eased by that
standardization.”

Bateman says that Sensor Open
Systems Architecture (SOSA) stan-
dards help build upon existing VITA
VPX standards.

“SOSA also eases the integration
of different types of processing in an
EW system, so that you can leverage
a wide variety of processing types, for
example, FPGA, SBC or GPU process-
ing,” says Bateman. “Different types
of hardware can be easily and more
readily applied in the same physi-
cal environment thanks to standard-

14  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

SPECIAL REPORT

ized and defined pin-outs, etc. That General Atomics’ MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone received an EW upgrade via Lockheed Mar-
means, too, that you can more easily tin’s Air Large pod.
change the system configuration in
the future if needed, if, for example, systems. The Army says that its air- Terrestrial counter-UAS
a new higher-performance FPGA or launched multipurpose UAS will be
DSP becomes available. Upgrades are able to act as scouts or decoys, go on On the ground, U.S. forces and allies
simplified because of standardization. the offensive with electronic attacks, must counter UAS armed with EW
and even act as a “suicide drone.”The capabilities alongside traditional
“EW by its very nature is a protean military branch says that the ALEs will munitions.
challenge that is continually evolv- be integrated into existing and future
ing as adversaries develop new tech- unmanned (and manned) platforms. Last summer, Liteye Systems Inc.
niques and technologies. To keep up in Centennial, Colo., announced its
with these ever-changing require- “ALE is a crucial piece of the Future Trailer Anti-UAS Defense System
ments you need a smooth path for Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (T-AUDS), with an On-the-Move
upgradeability, which is why open Ecosystem advanced team concept and Fixed-Site Counter Unmanned
standards are so attractive,” con- synergistically enhancing survivabil- Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) solution.
cludes Bateman. ity, threat identification, targeting, T-AUDS, is a Multi-Domain Awareness
and lethality of Army aviation bri- and Protection package, capable of
Army aerial EW gades and ground force command- detecting and defeating RF controlled
ers’ assets,” Army officials say. “The and silent flight drones while mobile,
U.S. Army officials announced last ALE FoS extends tactical and opera- then transiting from on-the-move to
year that they would move forward tional reach and lethality of manned static in less than two minutes, with
with an EW pod made by Lockheed assets, allowing them to remain out- full capabilities being brought to bear
Martin to be put on the MQ-1C Gray side of the range of enemy sensors in defense of a location.
Eagle unmanned aerial system (UAS). and weapon systems while delivering
The pod, dubbed “Air Large” by Lock- kinetic and non-kinetic, lethal and The combined system provides
heed Martin, provides the Army with non-lethal mission effects against an on-the-move 360-degree defen-
capabilities to jam equipment as well multiple threats, as well as, provid- sive capability, while several layers
as provide electronics support and ing battle damage assessment data. of detection, classification and posi-
sense the EMS. They will provide scalable effects to tive identification provide situational
detect, locate, disrupt, decoy, and/or awareness and protection.The combi-
“Our internal research & devel- deliver lethal effects against threats.” nation of electronic attack options for
opment programs have resulted in the operator provides both a sophisti-
first-of-its-kind converged technolo- cated machine learning high fidelity
gies that are at the forefront of real-
izing our customers’ urgent need
and vision for combined cyber and
EW capability and dominance,” says
Deon Viergutz, vice president of Lock-
heed Martin’s Spectrum Convergence
division.

Lockheed Martin has been testing
the pod as part of the Army’s Cyber
Blitz exercise. Army officials plan to
have the capability deployed to com-
bat aviation brigades in 2022.

Last year, the Army announced
a plan to defeat swarms of EW-en-
abled air-launched drones with its
Air Launched Effects (ALE) family of

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  15

SPECIAL REPORT

An Area-I Air-Launched, Tube-Integrated, Unmanned System, or ALTIUS, is launched also talk about rotary wing aircraft
from a UH-60 Black Hawk at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., where the Army led a demon- that have less space and power and
stration that highlighted the forward air launch of the ALTIUS. are already crammed with gear. For
unmanned, we have to work around
frequency defeat and a robust direc- wall plug and uses energy to disable things like interference with data and
tional broad-band defeat to ensure drones. The system uses High Power control links as well as the scalability
protection from the most serious Microwaves (HPM) to cause a counter of EW packages.
threats. electronic effect. Targets are identi-
fied, the silent weapon discharges He continues, “In the last three or
Late last year, the U.S. Air Force in a nanosecond, and the impact is four years, while the technology has
announced a contract to Black Sage instantaneous. kept advancing, we’ve had a cultural
of Boise, Idaho to take down enemy shift to focus on what technology we
drones with its Tactical High Power Naval EW can speed to the fleet, to be ready to
Microwave Operational Responder fight tonight. For the past 10-to-20
(THOR). Last year Dino Mensa, a senior sci- years, we were looking at what we
entist-technology manager for EW could do 10 years down the road. Now
The Air Force Research Laboratory technologies at Naval Air Systems we are accepting more risk, looking at
(AFRL) aims to use the CUAS radar Command at Patuxent River Naval what we can do today. We really need
system to provide precise targeting Air Station, Md., said the Navy also is to respond fast. We still maintain a
data to down enemy drones. committed to electromagnetic spec- five-year plan and our program office
trum dominance and airborne EW road maps and science and technol-
To provide the precise targeting provides “reach and agility and the ogy advisors whose job is to think
data required by the THOR system, ability to go out and come back with- ahead. Develop tonight and deliver
Black Sage utilized its proprietary out putting boots on the ground.” tomorrow really focuses on what we
DefenseOS software to receive and can do and I don’t see those [and long-
process data from the CUAS radars The Navy aims to equip all its com- range efforts] as competing priorities.
and export the data to the US mil- bat aircraft with at least some level of But the need to keep pace with our
itary’s Forward Area Air Defense EW capability, going beyond the well- adversaries has been heightened in
Command and Control (FAAD C2). equipped EW-ready EA-18G Growler. the last few years.
During a successful evaluation, the
integrated CUAS radar system, FAAD “You have to be able to scale to the “In that, I look at the industry
C2 and THOR weapon targeted and power of the aircraft and its mission, more as a partner than a recipient
defeated drones. Mensa told Military & Aerospace Elec- of requirements. It’s much more
tronics in 2020. “That drives what the productive to have a collaborative
THOR is a counter-swarm elec- package is going to be, using the tech- exploration of the options and look
tromagnetic weapon supervised by nologies available now and the prolif- at requirements as the spirit rather
AFRL for defense of air bases.The sys- eration of what we can do based on than as a checklist,” Mensa concludes.
tem provides non-kinetic defeat of commercially derived technology. We
multiple targets. It operates from a Collaboration is key

DOD officials also cite collaboration as
a key part of its fourth goal listed in
the EMS Superiority Strategy: secur-
ing enduring partnerships for an EMS
advantage.

“Strong international alliances and
partnerships are foundational to the
Department’s ability to execute its
complex global missions and con-
duct effective operations in the EMS

16  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

SPECIAL REPORT

as referenced in the NDS,” says the WHO’S WHO IN ELECTRONIC WARFARE
DOD in its strategy.
Abaco Systems Curtiss-Wright Corp. Mercury Defense Systems
“The Department must rely on Huntsville, Ala. Defense Solutions Division Cypress, Calif.
strong international alliances and www.abaco.com Ashburn, Va. www.mrcy.com/markets/
partnerships to ensure EMS access www.curtisswrightds.com electronic-warfare
policies support the U.S. military in BAE Systems Adaptive
conducting its full range of global Sensors Group General Dynamics Corp. Northrop Grumman Corp.
operations. Successful engagement Hudson, N.H. Mission Systems segment Mission Systems segment
in the International Telecommuni- www.baesystems.com Fairfax, Va. Baltimore
cation Union (ITU) treaty processes, https://gdmissionsystems.com www.northropgrumman.com
including the World Radio-commu- Boeing Defense, Space &
nication Conference (WRC), will Security segment Leidos Raytheon Space and
help to maximize DOD EMS access St. Louis Reston, Va. Airborne Systems
where and when needed to meet www.boeing.com/company/ www.leidos.com El Segundo, Calif.
wartime and peacetime national about-bds www.raytheon.com/
security objectives. Of note, this Lockheed Martin Corp. capabilities/ew
successful international engage- Comtech PST Corp. Rotary and Mission Systems
ment begins with effective Depart- Melville, N.Y. segment U.S. Army Cyber Center of
ment participation in domestic www.comtechpst.com Syracuse, N.Y. Excellence
processes.” www.lockheedmartin.com Fort Gordon, Ga.
Crane Keltec https://cybercoe.army.mil/home.
Likewise, the DOD notes that U.S. Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Menlo Microsystems Inc., html
military operations are infrequently www.craneae.com Irvine, Calif.,
conducted unilaterally, and that must https://menlomicro.com/
hold true in the world of electronic
warfare. capability and capacity with partic- tle, future Army forces will fight and
ular focus on near-peer threats. This win across all contested spaces to cre-
“DOD must ensure EMS enterprise cooperation includes the need to ate windows of advantage across mul-
development efforts are interopera- expand opportunities for coalition tiple domains that enable Joint Force
ble and aligned with our allies and EMS testing, training, and education freedom of action to seize, retain and
partners and should remove barri- in the United States and abroad.” exploit the initiative.
ers limiting collaboration,” says the
DOD. “This requires interoperable On the ground “The Army will operate in and
data sources and architectures. The through cyberspace and the elec-
Department will help develop mil- EW systems go beyond shipboard, tromagnetic spectrum and will fully
itary-to-military agreements, host UAS, and airborne platforms. Last integrate cyberspace, EW, and elec-
nation agreements, agreements with month, the U.S. Army announced that tromagnetic spectrum operations as
the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza- it would be ensure every brigade com- part of joint combined arms oper-
tion (NATO), and other allies and part- bat team will have an EW platoon ations to meet future operational
ners focused on enabling coalitions and a separate signals intelligence environment challenges,” Dyes con-
the use of their full portfolio of EMS (SIGINT) network support team. tinued. “These operations provide
capabilities. This requires the means commanders the ability to conduct
(software, data standards, transport This gels with the preface penned simultaneous, linked maneuver in
channels, etc.) to move and process by Maj. Gen. Robert M. Dyes Jr. for the and through multiple domains and
data at machine speeds with allies U.S. Army Concept for Cyberspace to engage adversaries and popula-
and partners. DOD must encourage and Electronic Warfare Operations tions where they live and operate.
our allies and partners to adopt, build, 2025-2040. They also provide commanders a full
or enhance EMS capabilities that will range of physical and virtual, as well
increase our combined coalition EMS “Defeating future enemies that as kinetic and non-kinetic, capabili-
possess advanced capabilities calls ties tailored into combinations that
for land forces operating as part of enhance the combat power of maneu-
integrated joint teams that conduct ver elements conducting joint com-
simultaneous and sequential opera- bined operations.” 
tions across multiple domains,” Dyes
wrote in 2018. “In multi-domain bat-

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  17

TECHNOLOGY F CUS

The evolution of embedded computing
chassis, backplanes, and enclosures

High data throughput and innovative thermal management may lead to a revolution in systems
design that places the burden of electronics cooling on the enclosure more than on the card.

BY John Keller

The traditional embedded computing backplane and level on the one hand, while maintaining fundamental
design is subject to many pressures these days, such as chassis and backplane design approaches on the other.
increasing demands for thermal management, open-sys-
tems standards such as the Sensor Open Systems Archi- Suffice it to say that today’s embedded computing
tecture (SOSA), demands for increased data throughput, chassis and backplanes are far from your father’s VME
steady demands for customization within accepted architectures. Pressure to deal with ever-growing amounts
industry standards, and demands for increased data of heat, ever-shrinking electronic components and board
input/output (I/O). architectures, and the need to produce ruggedized com-
puting subsystems in ever-smaller form factors will ensure
These pressures are leading to innovations that taken a rapid pace of change for embedded computing back-
together may be altering embedded chassis and enclosure planes and enclosures.
design in a fundamental way, as systems integrators seek
to accommodate rapid upgrades on the chip and board Thermal management

The Elma VITA 48.4 liquid flow-through ATR box with a 6U Open- It’s clear that computer components that get too hot do
VPX backplane can accommodate as many as eight boards and not perform to their designed specifications. The objec-
two VITA 62 plug-in power supplies tive, then, is to cool these hot components sufficiently
so they can operate at top performance. The problem,
however, involves size, weight, and power consumption
— better-known as SWaP. Systems designers want high
performance in small packages, but the smaller the pack-
age, the more heat it generates.

“Thermals and cooling are more and more key,” says
Ram Rajan, senior vice president of engineering and
research at chassis and electronics enclosure specialist
Elma Electronic Inc. in Fremont, Calif. A decade or more
ago the electronics cooling and thermal management
challenge was relatively uncomplicated. Ruggedized sys-
tems for avionics or land vehicles featured convection
cooling where fans blew heat way from hot components,
or conduction cooling where processor heat flowed to
card wedge locks and out through the walls of the chas-
sis. For all but the most demanding applications, these
approaches were sufficient for many years.

It’s different today, however, as embedded computing

18  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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TECHNOLOGY F CUS

systems are higher performance, yet the higher-Wattage boards,” explains Demand is increasing for extremely
run far hotter, than ever before. “The Justin Moll, vice president of sales and high-performance OpenVPX and custom-
trend is going away from air-cooled, marketing at Pixus Technologies in ized systems, including this Pixus chassis
and to conduction cooling and liquid Waterloo, Ontario. “Now we need to with backplane speeds in excess of 100
cooling,” says Elma’s Rajan. Driving cool in an air-cooled chassis maybe Gigabit Ethernet and cooling to 2500 Watts.
demands on thermal management 2,000 to 2,500 Watts — and in some
are advanced applications such as cases our customers want these to be Similarly, Pixus experts plan to
signals intelligence (SIGINT) and elec- in rugged deployable chassis.” announce a an electronics enclosure
tronic warfare (EW), and ever-more later this year that cools hot compo-
tight packaging for SWaP. There was a time not long ago when nents by running liquid through the
this kind of cooling capability came chassis walls.
This is leading to new innovations only in chassis intended for benign
in thermal management within chas- environments, but not so today. “One Design transformation
sis and enclosures. Elma designers, thing that is changing is people want
for example, rely on a hybrid cooling that kind of performance in the rug- The challenges of hybrid and liq-
approach that combines convection ged chassis, as well,” Moll says. uid cooling for embedded comput-
and conduction cooling called Air ing systems are encouraging systems
Flow Through (AFT), which is outlined While conduction cooling dom- designers to question some of the
in the ANSI-VITA 48.8 open-systems inated rugged embedded comput- fundamental chassis and enclosure
standard. Elma’s Rajan says these ing systems just a few years ago, the design issues as seek to find the most
approaches historically have been for trend today is shifting to approaches efficient solutions for cooling super-
niche aerospace and defense appli- that blend-in air cooling like VITA heated systems, as well as to accom-
cations, or for test-and-development 48.8 designs, he says. “We are seeing modate rapid systems upgrades and
chassis products. more air cooling today over conduc- technology insertion.
tion cooling,” Moll says.
“Compared even to five years Modern embedded computing
ago, the cooling requirements have A similar hybrid electronics cool- design typically calls for thermal
jumped up significantly because of ing approach similar to VITA 48.8 is management at the card level. Cir-
called Air Flow By, as illustrated in cuit boards are designed specially to
The Pixus open frame development chas- VITA 48.7. Both approaches blend conduction cooling, convection cool-
sis for OpenVPX/SOSA applications fea- conduction and forced-air cooling to ing, hybrid cooling, and liquid cool-
tures four VPX power and ground-only slots, wring the most performance possible ing. Today some experts are starting
four VITA 67.3c cutouts, and SOSA out of embedded computing systems. to question if thermal management
clocking. should move primarily to the enclo-
“We have to have card guides for sure level, rather than remain at the
wedge locks, but there is air going card level.
through or passing over the boards,”
Moll says. “There is definitely much “We have watched power density
more of a push to flow air over the increase year-over-year for the past
conduction-cooled boards to supple- handful of years, and what’s hap-
ment the cooling. We are seeing more
of that over typical conduction cool-
ing for VPX type of systems.”

Because modern embedded com-
puting architectures can generate
so much heat, designers are seeing
a spike in demand for liquid-cooled
chassis and modules. “In the last year
we have done more liquid-cooling
designs than we had in the previous
20 years,” points out Elma’s Rajan.

20  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

TECHNOLOGY F CUS

pened is the approach of conduc- approach several years ago resulted in Sealander says. “One of the things
tion cooled cards in enclosed chassis stable and predictable architectures, industry is pushing for is not to have
has solved the vast majority of the the rise of OpenVPX has resulted such wildly different designs for cool-
needs for deployed military elec- in a fragmenting of industry stan- ing, because the costs are too great. So
tronics,” explains Jacob Sealander, dards, which can confound systems we need to ask how can I accommo-
chief architect for C5ISR Systems at integrators. date these different methods of deal-
Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions in ing with heat without dealing with
Ashburn, Va. “Cards are all very different designs wildly different card form factors.”
for liquid and Air-Flow-Through,”
Traditional conduction cooling
simply cannot keep up with today’s POWER YOUR
rapid evolution in processor cards. CRITICAL
As state-of-the-art processor solu- MISSION
tions move from boards to sys- TODAY
tems-on-chip, the heat generation
increases rapidly with the decrease High Reliability
in size of general-purpose proces- Solutions for High
sors (GPUs), field-programmable gate Reliability Programs
arrays (FPGAs), and general-purpose
graphics processing units (GPGPUs). VPT provides proven DC-DC converters
and EMI filters for leading global space,
In this situation “you are remov- military, industrial, and avionics programs.
ing components that are 50 or 60
Watts apiece to components that are
120 Watts apiece, Curtiss-Wright’s
Sealander says. “Cooling technology
is bumping into the same thing as
the high-end processors out there,
which have employed non-standard
cooling technologies. They are not
defacto solutions, but are exotic solu-
tions that are becoming more of a
mainstay.”

While the old VME design

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TECHNOLOGY F CUS

standards that can deal with high go because rather than having a com-

power density. “There will be a con- puter hardware dedicated to a func-

tinued push for a standardized card tion, you can have a pool of resources

that can deal with all the different that can achieve that functionality.”

cooling methodologies,” he says. Sealander says Curtiss-Wright is

Despite this, The SOSA and C5ISR/ in the initial stages of devising a sin-

EW Modular Open Suite of Standards gle-card design that accommodates

(CMOSS) standards still are attempting a wide variety of cooling methodol-

to standardize at the card-level inter- ogies, and places the difficult bur-

faces, rather than at the box level.That This ATR chassis is an example of the high den of thermal management into the

may be in the process of changing. amount of I/O that one box had to accom- chassis and enclosure. “Rather than

“People are talking more about modate. The unit is about the size of a designing how the card is cooled, we

solutions these days rather than on half-ATR box. could put the complexity into the

hardware like chips and boards,” Seal- enclosure itself,” Sealander says. “The

ander says. “CMOSS and SOSA are embracing that by cooling fluid itself could be air, or liquid — both are via-

standardizing on the hardware to get that pool-of-re- ble for pulling heat off cards.”

sources approach that you see in cloud and IT world ... This approach could enable embedded computing

what is the hardware layer we need to get to the desired designers to change card designs quickly to meet cus-

functionality? CMOSS and SOSA are helping the military tomer demands, while using enclosure and chassis designs

electronics market embrace the cloud computing and that could change slowly and accommodate new card

virtualized space methodology. That’s where we need to designs rapidly. “The enclosure part of the infrastructure

could change slowly: the metal box and the cabling. That

MIL-STD-1553 FPGA is where the need is. The electronics is changing quickly,
and if we don’t want to keep fighting against it, we want

Mezzanine Card Reference Design to adapt at the speed of technology. With natural con-
duction or forced-air convection, the cards all have to be

different. We are working toward a single card design to

take advantage of advanced cooling.”

• Dual channel MIL-STD-1553 transceiver FPGA Mezzanine Card SOSA and standards
• Standard IAW VITA 57.1 form factor
• Host or FPGA interface via FMC connectors or two PMOD headers SOSA, CMOSS, and related emerging standards seek to take
• Uses Holt’s HI-25850 transceivers the proliferating OpenVPX standards into a manageable set
of guidelines for aerospace and defense electronics designs,
– Isolation transformers integrated in the same package which is a driving trend in electronic chassis and enclosures.
– 1.8V, 2.5V or 3.3V compatible digital I/O. “The desire for systems to support what were previously
– Optional bus tail-off compensation multiple, physically separated functions on one converged
– Optional receiver output pulse extension system is driving the need for more cores and support for
• Single-channel card also available virtualization,” says PeterThompson, vice president of prod-
uct management at Abaco Systems Inc. in Huntsville, Ala.
For further information on these and other Holt products contact:
(949) 859-8800 • [email protected] • www.holtic.com The U.S. military services also are increasing their
AS9100D: 2016 Registered support for SOSA, CMOSS, and a variety of other related
open-systems standards. The U.S. secretaries of the Navy,
Army, and Air Force have issued the so-called “Tri-Service
Memo” directing the Pentagon’s service acquisition execu-
tives and program executive officers to use open-systems
standards that fall under the umbrella of the Modular Open
Systems Approach (MOSA) project, of which SOSA is a part.

22  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

TECHNOLOGY F CUS

SOSA, which revolves around the VITA OpenVPX DEC) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
embedded computing standard, focuses on single-board “The SOSA effort is an area where there is significant
computers and how they can be integrated into sen-
sor platforms. It involves a standardized approach on activity,” says Pixus’s Moll. “It is using backplanes that
how embedded systems interrogate sensor data to dis- employ some variation of VITA 66 for optical and VITA
till actionable information. 67 for RF interfaces over the backplane.

CMOSS is intended to move the embedded industry Backplane speeds
away from costly, complex, and proprietary solutions and
toward readily available, cost-effective, and open-archi- Systems designers also are demanding increasing data
tecture commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies. It throughput from backplane and enclosure manufactur-
was started at the Army Communications-Electronics ers. “The speeds of the backplane are increasing from
Research, Development and Engineering Center (CER- the PCI Express Gen 3 type of speed of eight gigabaud.
Now 40 gigabit Ethernet is becoming common, but in the
WHO’S WHO IN CHASSIS future we are seeing PCI Express Gen 4, and eventually 100
AND ENCLOSURES Gigabit Ethernet,” Moll says. “Together with these faster
boards, the drive is more speed in less space.”
Abaco Systems Inc. Kontron America Inc.
Huntsville, Ala. San Diego Abaco’s Thompson also identifies 100 Gigabit Ether-
www.abaco.com www.kontron.com net interconnects and switches as a major trend in what
Abaco’s customers are looking for. Echoes Elma’s Rajan,
Aitech Defense Systems Inc. Mercury Systems Inc. “We are getting more and demands for 25-gigabit back-
Chatsworth, Calif. Andover, Mass. planes. For that you would need PCI Gen 4 for any of the
www.rugged.com www.mrcy.com high signaling.” 

Atrenne Integrated Solutions Pentek Inc. Large Format Sapphire
Inc. Upper Saddle River, N.J. High-Quality HEM®-Grown Boules
Littleton, Mass. www.pentek.com
www.atrenne.com GTAT’s industry-leading HEM® sapphire
Pixus Technologies production capabilities yield the larg-
Crystal Group Inc. Waterloo, Ontario est, highest quality boules available. This
Hiawatha, Iowa www.pixustechnologies.com means large format optical windows with
www.crystalrugged.com unrestricted thickness and outstanding
Reflex Photonics homogeneity.
Curtiss-Wright Defense Kirkland, Quebec
Solutions https://reflexphotonics.com www.gtat.com [email protected] 27 Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970
Ashburn, Va.
www.curtisswrightds.com Systel Inc.
Sugar Land, Texas
Elma Electronic Inc. www.systelusa.com
Fremont, Calif.
www.elma.com TE Connectivity
Harrisburg, Va.
ECS Case www.te.com/usa-en/home.html
Grants Pass, Ore.
www.ecscase.com Ultra Communications Inc.
Vista, Calif.
Extreme Engineering www.ultracomm-inc.com
Solutions (X-ES)
Verona, Wis. VadaTech Inc.
www.xes-inc.com Henderson, Nev.
www.vadatech.com
FiberQA
Old Lyme, Conn. Verotec Inc.
https://www.fiberqa.com North Haven, Conn.
www.verotec.co.uk
Finisar Corp.
Sunnyvale, Calif. ZMicro
www.finisar.com San Diego
https://zmicro.com
General Micro Systems (GMS)
Inc.
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
www.gms4sbc.com

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  23

RF&

microwave

Raytheon to start full production of
covert Silent Knight aircraft radar

BY John Keller

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — Aircraft terrain-avoidance radar designed to tion support, ground mapping, and
radar experts at Raytheon Tech- enable Special Forces aircraft to infil- weather information to air crews.The
nologies Corp. will start full pro- trate dangerous areas undetected and radar has advanced terrain-following
duction of covert terrain-following at night with reduced risks of crash- and -avoidance capabilities and will
radar to enable military aircraft to ing while flying at low altitudes. be lighter and require less power than
infiltrate enemy territory by hiding its predecessors. Raytheon’s principal
in mountain passes, valleys, and in The radar is designed for the Lock- partners on the Silent Knight radar
bad weather under terms of a $235.6 heed Martin MC-130J four-engine tur- include DRS Technologies in St. Louis,
million five-year order. boprop; Boeing MH-47G heavy-lift and Collins Aerospace in Cedar Rap-
helicopter; Sikorsky MH-60M medi- ids, Iowa.
Officials of U.S. Special Operations um-lift helicopter; and the Bell Boe-
Command at MacDill Air Force Base, ing CV-22 block 30 tiltrotor aircraft. The Silent Knight radar operates at
Fla., are asking the Raytheon Intelli- low-power levels to reduce its chances
gence & Space segment in McKinney, Special Operations commanders of being detected by enemy passive
Texas, to build and deliver the Silent need aircraft capable of flying at low RF receivers. The system also has
Knight radar system. altitudes covertly at night to insert color weather tactical data displays to
and remove commando forces for enhance pilot situational awareness.
Silent Knight is an above-K-band operations behind enemy lines.
multi-aircraft terrain-following and Essentially the Silent Knight radar
The system also provides naviga- system enables MC-130J and other
Special Forces aircraft to fly close
to the ground — hugging low spots
in mountain passes, valleys, and
other terrain features — even when
darkness and bad weather cause
zero-visibility.

The system’s sophisticated
weather radar also enables the air-
craft to hide in clouds, fog, dust, rain
storms, and total darkness at very
low altitudes. Its radar can pick out
key details like electrical towers and
high-tension power lines while pro-
viding pilots with enough warning to
avoid them. 

The covert Silent Knight radar system from Raytheon helps Special Operations aircraft On this contract Raytheon will do the work
infiltrate enemy territory at night and in bad weather. in McKinney, Texas, and Forest, Miss., and
should be finished by July 2025. For more
information contact Raytheon Intelligence &
Space online at www.rtx.com, or U.S. Special
Operations Command at www.socom.mil.

24  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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microwave

Army to add EW and SIGINT months of flight testing on the Pose- in Los Angeles to bolster radios to
systems on brigade combat idon, beginning in early 2021. This stand up to electronic warfare (EW)
team armored combat vehicles rapid timeline stems from collab- attacks from adversaries such as
oration of small focus teams that China and Russia. The radios are
The U.S. Army has worked furiously developed an approach to the sys- “very, very difficult to jam,” says
to develop new electronic warfare tem’s mechanical parts, company Dan Duvak, chief of the RF Com-
(EW) capabilities by rebuilding what officials say. This effort reduces the munications division of the Army’s
it divested after the Cold War, and is process to five or six months from Combat Capabilities Development
building new units that must oper- the 18 to 24 months it used to take. Command’s C5ISR Center — Com-
ate these emerging EW systems. As mand, Control, Communications,
part of what the Army calls new force Army fortifies radio Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Sur-
design updates, every brigade com- communications to withstand veillance and Reconnaissance —
bat team will have an EW platoon enemy EW jamming at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
and a separate signals intelligence The new radios can avoid enemy
(SIGINT) network support team. Both U.S. Army radio experts made jamming by detecting and evading
formations will operate the forth- critical advancements in 2020 to interference, as well as by operat-
coming Terrestrial Layer System Bri- strengthen the radios they plan to ing on reduced power, Duvak says.
gade Combat Team (TLS-BCT) — the use for multi-domain operations in Radios from each company were
Army’s first integrated EW, SIGINT, contested and congested environ- among the most promising capa-
and cyber platform — mounted on ments. Army experts worked with bilities at the C5ISR Center’s Net-
Stryker armored combat vehicles. Persistent Systems LLC in New York work Modernization Experiment. 
Two companies, Lockheed Martin City and Silvus Technologies Inc.
and Digital Receiver Technology, are
building prototypes for the Army,
which today lacks electronic attack
assets organic to brigades.

BAE Systems to install EW
self-protection to defend
P-8A Poseidon aircraft

BAE Systems received a $4 mil-
lion contract from the Navy for a
quick-turnaround demonstration
of a new radio frequency counter-
measure system for the P-8A Posei-
don aircraft. The electronic warfare
(EW) system will be a lightweight
pod mounted to the aircraft that
will add self-protection capability
to the Poseidon. It consists of a small
jammer, a high-powered ampli-
fier, and the AN/ALE-55 Fiber-Op-
tic Towed Decoy, and lures enemy
missiles away from the aircraft to
the towed decoy. BAE Systems will
design, build, integrate and ship the
aviation self-protection system in
around five months followed by two

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  25

2102MAE_PixusTechnology 1 1/25/21 1:02 PM

RF&

microwave

Lockheed Martin to equip the F-35A combat
jet with AARGM-ER anti-radar missile

BY John Keller

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — U.S. Air Force radar suppression missions. is scheduled to achieve initial oper-
electronic warfare (EW) experts are The AARGM-ER is an advanced ating capability (IOC) and start being
ready to enable the F-35A joint strike fielded to Navy squadrons in 2023.
fighter to attack and destroy enemy and extended-range version of the
air-defense radar installations. High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile AARGM provides the U.S. Navy, U.S.
(HARM). It is a new variant of the Marine Corps, Italian air force, and now
Officials of the Air Force Life AGM-88E missile that equips Navy the U.S.Air Force with a weapon system
Cycle Management Center at Eglin carrier-based fighter-bombers and for engaging and destroying enemy
Air Force Base, Fla., have announced electronic warfare jets. HARM was a air defenses and time-critical, mobile
a $9.3 million contract to the Lock- replacement for the AGM-45 Shrike targets. The AARGM also has precise
heed Martin Corp. Aeronautics seg- anti-radiation missile, which was in Global Positioning System (GPS)/inertial
ment in Fort Worth,Texas, to integrate service from 1965 to 1992. navigation system (INS) guidance and
the U.S. Navy Advanced Anti-Radia- network-centric connectivity.
tion Guided Missile-Extended Range AARGM is a supersonic, medi-
(AARGM-ER) into the F-35. um-range, air-launched tactical mis- The AARGM offers advanced signal
sile compatible with U.S. and allied processing and improved frequency
The AGM-88G AARGM-ER is a strike aircraft. The AARGM-ER missile coverage, detection range, and field of
new and advanced radar-killing features several upgrades to the AGM- view, compared to earlier versions of
missile designed to enable U.S. jet 88E that focus on extending the weap- the HARM system. It has time-critical
fighter-bombers suppress enemy air on’s operational range and survivability. standoff strike with supersonic GPS/
defenses preceding bomber attacks. INS point-to-point or point-to-milli-
The AARGM-ER replaces the mis- meter-wave-terminal guidance.
Fitting the AARGM-ER to the Air sile’s rocket motor and tail to increase
Force version of the F-35 will enable its range, while keeping the sensors It also has missile impact zone
the aircraft to join the Navy EA-18G and electronics of the AARGM-88E, control to prevent collateral dam-
Growler carrier-based electronic war- which are being upgraded in a sepa- age through tightly coupled, digi-
fare jet in carrying out air-defense rate project. The AARGM-ER missile tal terrain elevation database-aided
GPS/INS, as well as counter-emitter
shutdown through active millime-
ter-wave-radar terminal guidance.

The F-35 with its advanced avionics
is a fifth-generation single-seat, sin-
gle-engine, all-weather stealth mul-
tirole jet fighter-bomber designed to
perform ground attack, aerial recon-
naissance, and air defense missions.
It is one of the most advanced com-
bat jets in the world. 

The AARGM-ER is an advanced and extended-range version of the High-Speed Anti-Ra- For more information contact Lockheed
diation Missile (HARM), which is designed to kill enemy fire-control radar sites. Martin Aeronautics online at www.lock-
heedmartin.com, or the Air Force Life Cycle
Management Center at www.aflcmc.af.mil.

26  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

UNMANNvEeDhic le s

The GQM-163A Coyote supersonic target
drone to help train ship crews to attack and
defeat incoming hypersonic weapons.

Northrop Grumman to build 19 GQM-
163A drones for training defenders to
fight hypersonic cruise missiles

BY John Keller

PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. — Aerial target sea skimming target base vehicles — land-based missile-defense radar sys-
experts at the Northrop Grumman 16 for the Navy and three for Japan. tem to replace the ageing Patriot mis-
Space Systems segment (formerly sile system that has been in the U.S.
Orbital ATK) in Chandler, Ariz., are The Navy will use the supersonic inventory for more than three decades.
building supersonic target drones for target drones to help surface war-
the U.S. Navy and Army to help hone ship crews practice how to detect and The GQM-163A Coyote supersonic
missile-defense skills — particularly defeat incoming supersonic anti-ship sea skimming target provides an
against hypersonic weapons. missiles.The Army also uses the Coy- affordable target to simulate super-
ote to test and evaluate the Lower sonic sea-skimming and other emerg-
Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Tier Air and Missile Defense Sen- ing supersonic and hypersonic cruise
Systems Command at Patuxent sor (LTAMDS) limited user test tar- missiles. It also supports research
River Naval Air Station, Md., have get system. in ship-defense systems and fleet
announced a $57.1 million order training.
to Northrop Grumman to build 195 LTAMDS, under development by
GQM-163A lot 14 Coyote supersonic Raytheon Co. and Lockheed Martin The supersonic target drone is
Corp., is to be an advanced 360-degree designed to help Navy ship crews

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  27

UNMANNvEeDh ic le s

learn to defend themselves against than the Sunburn, can fly as fast as won a contract to develop the GQM-
modern anti-ship missiles like the Mach 2.5, and carries a 661-pound 163A in 2000, and the target drone has
French Exocet and the Russian-made warhead. Not only is this missile far been operational since 2005.
SS-N-22 Sunburn and SS-NX-26 Oniks, faster and more powerful than the
which may be operational with mil- Exocet, but it may have the capability The GQM-163A drone simulates
itary forces in Iran, Syria, and other to maneuver on its terminal flight to sea-skimming cruise missiles by
countries in the Middle East. its target, which could make defeating flying faster than twice the speed of
it difficult, if not impossible. sound as low as 12 feet off the sur-
The Coyote drone also could help face of the ocean. The target drone
surface warship crews and land-based The Sunburn and Oniks missiles also can simulate high-altitude cruise
counter-missile battery crews learn to have sufficient destructive payloads missile attacks that plunge down at
fight effectively against a new genera- to pose serious threats to large U.S. ships from higher than 30,000 feet. 
tion of hypersonic cruise missiles that warships like aircraft carriers, which
could reach speeds of Mach 5 or faster. are at the heart of U.S. power-projec- On this order Northrop Grumman Space
tion strategies around the world. Systems will do the work in Camden, Ark.;
The Sunburn anti-ship missile can Chandler, Ariz.; Vergennes, Vt.; Cincinnati;
fly at three times the speed of sound, The GQM-163A Coyote supersonic Oconomowoc, Wis.; Lancaster, Pa.; and other
giving targeted vessels little time to sea skimming target is a non-recov- U.S. locations, and should be finished by
react. It carries a 705-pound explo- erable, supersonic aerial target, capa- December 2023. For more information con-
sive warhead — twice the destruc- ble of speeds of Mach 2 or greater and tact Northrop Grumman Space Systems online
tive payload of the Exocet and three altitudes from 13 to 66 feet above the at www.northropgrumman.com, or Naval Air
times as fast. surface of the ocean, Northrop Grum- Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
man officials say. Northrop Grumman
The Oniks missile, more advanced

E L E C T RO

watc hO P T I C S

Military forces in the future may be able
to discard their heavy bulky night-vision
goggles for lightweight night-vision eye-
glasses that will offer wide fields of view.

DARPA eyes lightweight night-vision
eyeglasses with wide field of view

BY John Keller

ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. military research- Enhanced Night Vision in eyeglass of view and generally have limited
ers are asking industry to develop form factors (ENVision) project. spectral access to the near-infrared
night-vision devices far smaller spectral band, which limits situa-
and lighter in weight than today’s Today’s night-vision goggles typi- tional awareness.
night-vision goggles; the new devices cally are as bulky as four inches long
would be about the same size and and as heavy as 2.2 pounds. This This drawbacks from refractive
weight as a typical pair of eyeglasses. causes a large torque on the wear- optics for imaging, and image-in-
er’s neck, which limits the wearer’s tensifier tubes — two technologies
Officials of the U.S. Defense agility and often leads to chronic in modern night-vision systems that
Advanced Research Projects Agency injury over prolonged use of these have remained largely the same since
(DARPA) in Arlington, Va., issued electro-optical devices. their inception.
a broad agency announcement
(HR001121S0013) in January for the Today’s night-vision goggles also Instead, the DARPA ENVision pro-
burden the wearer with a narrow field gram seeks to overcome these lim-

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  29

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watc hO P T I C S

itations by developing enhanced known since the invention of the one optical element.
direct-view night-vision systems that laser in 1960. Direct photon upcon- While wide field of view, broad
are of a size and weight near those of version involves the absorption of two
typical eyeglasses. or more photons and re-emission of bandwidth, and high imaging qual-
a photon of higher energy. ity all are achievable individually,
These small and lightweight combining these traits in practice
night-vision eyeglasses would extend Currently, these processes are inef- remains a challenge. In addition to
visual access beyond near infrared ficient and are limited in the band- planar optics, image intensification is
to include shortwave, midwave, and width of light that can be upconverted necessary to convert the often weak
long-wave infrared spectral bands simultaneously.Yet recent advances in infrared light into visible photons
through a common aperture, giving material systems such as polaritonic detectable by the naked eye.
users access to spectral ranges from structures and sensitized core-shell
1.5 to 12 microns. These night-vision nanoparticles have opened up new ave- The ENVision program will last
eyeglasses, furthermore, would widen nues in exploring photon upconversion. for four years in two 2-year phases,
the user’s field of view to natural eye- and has two technical areas: proto-
sight of about 100 degrees. The process of photon upcon- types and upconversion.Those partic-
version-based night vision would ipating in the first technical area will
Optical specialists have attempted eliminate the need for several develop prototypes of enhanced night
to widen the fields of view for today’s components and could lead to vision systems in eyeglass form-fac-
night-vision goggles, but improve- even simpler, all-optical night-vi- tors, while those in the second tech-
ments come at the cost of increased sion systems in the future, such as nical area will investigate broadband
systems size, weight, and wear-and- night vision contact lenses, DARPA direct photon upconversion. 
tear on the user.The ENVision project researchers say.
seeks to explore the next technical DARPA briefed industry by webcast on 21
leap in night-vision technologies by Planar optics and planar image Jan. 2021. Companies interested were asked
achieving direct vision of the infrared intensifiers could enable direct vision to send abstracts by 2 Feb. 2021, and full
through photon upconversion. of several infrared bands through one proposals by 23 March 2021. Submit pro-
common aperture. Structured mate- posals to the DARPA BAA Website online
While current night vision systems rials such as diffractive optics and at https://baa.darpa.mil. More informa-
use a multi-step process, the physics metamaterials enable one to embed tion is online at https://beta.sam.gov/opp/
to upconvert infrared photons directly optical functionalities far beyond dfd7b79857804364bfb0d509443a9c35/view.
to visible light in one step has been those of traditional refractives into

Navy briefs industry on upcoming research
on laser weapon, character recognition

SAN DIEGO — Officials of the U.S. Naval The eight topics to be covered at tures in one system;
Information Warfare Systems Com- the industry day were: • AIT Solution for OM&S Inventor (21-
mand (NAVWAR) in San Diego • Combatant Craft Next Genera-
briefed industry in December on PAC-0176) to develop automated
eight topics related to an upcom- tion Processor & CANBus Inte- information technology for inven-
ing request for prototype projects gration (21-LANT-0174) as a tory control at 98 percent accuracy;
(RPP) on behalf of the Naval Infor- replacement for processor hard- • Electronic Maneuver Warfare
mation Warfare Center Atlantic in ware and software; Mobile Module (21-LANT-0177) to
Charleston, S.C., and Naval Infor- • STRATSTAR phase-one (21-LANT- develop prototype electronic emit-
mation Warfare Center Pacific in 0175) to develop a prototype laser ter detection, identification, classi-
San Diego. weapon that is tightly coupled fication, and localization capable
with command and control fea- of remote operation;

30  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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watc hO P T I C S

• Dynamic Interoperability in the Upcoming U.S. Naval Information Warfare Systems Command research projects will
Battlespace (21-LANT-0178) to involve laser weapons, imaging sensors, and sensor processing.
develop prototype capability for
tactical data exchange between requests for prototype projects (RPPs) More information on the Information Warfare
systems that have incompatible for white papers, enhanced white Research Project, how to become a consor-
data formats and standards; papers, or full proposals to be solic- tium member, or how to attend the industry
ited via N65236-18-9-0001.  day is online at www.theiwrp.org.
• Maritime Imaging SensorText Recog-
nizer Tool (21-LANT-0179) prototype
for text and character recognition to
identify maritime vessels;

• Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Plan to
Perform (21-LANT-0180) to improve
material availability of Littoral
Class Ships; and

• Human Machine Teaming for Tac-
tical Decision Making (21-LANT-
0181) prototype advanced analytic
algorithms for rapid decision mak-
ing in the battlespace.
For each of these eight topics,

Navy officials say they expect to issue

High-definition thermal camera core THE MOST FLEXIBLE
introduced by BAE Systems COTS RFSoC SOLUTIONS

The BAE Systems Sensor Solutions segment in Lexing- TM
ton, Mass., is introducing the Athena 1920 high-defini-
tion thermal camera core for long-range and demanding
applications in security, surveillance, and targeting sys-
tems.The Athena 1920 combines infrared image clarity
with a wide field of view, and is compact, lightweight,
and low-power. Additional applications for this ther-
mal camera core include aerial reconnaissance, perim-
eter security, and asset monitoring. The Athena 1920
features a 1920-by-1200-pixel vanadium oxide (VOx)
uncooled microbolometer pixel array using 12-micron
pixel technology.The camera’s 60 Hz frame rate delivers
clarity and minimizes motion blur in dynamic scenes.
The high-definition sensor offers nearly eight times the
field of view of traditional camera cores, and with its
51-by-40-by-21-millimeter size 70-gram weight are suited
for high-performance applications where size, weight,
power, and cost are important factors.The Athena 1920
camera core is manufactured at the BAE Systems sen-
sor facility in Lexington, Mass. For more information
contact BAE Systems Sensor Solutions online at www.
baesystems.com.

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2102MAE_AnnapolisMicro 1 2/1/21 10:27 AM

PRODUCT

applications

SOFTWARE TOOLS The AdaCore Mentorship Service pro- The contract came from the Joint Artifi-
vides QinetiQ with hands-on guidance from cial Intelligence Center (JAIC) in Washington
QinetiQ chooses AdaCore AdaCore’s formal software-verification experts to enhance the autonomous sensing capabil-
software to upgrade command- through customized on-site training, virtual ities of unmanned aircraft.
and-control system project meetings, and follow-up support.
The goal of the JAIC Smart Sensor proj-
Software experts from QinetiQ in Bristol, QinetiQ also has selected a multi-year sub- ect is to advance AI technology by demon-
England, needed software design and devel- scription contract for AdaCore’s software devel- strating object recognition algorithms using
opment tools to address software tool obsoles- opment tools, including GNAT Pro and SPARK Pro. an unmanned aircraft, as well as employing
cence. They found their solution from AdaCore onboard AI to control the aircraft’s sensors
in New York City. “As the lead engineer of the QinetiQ TCS and direct autonomous flight.
product, I can thoroughly recommend AdaCore’s
QinetiQ has selected the AdaCore Men- Mentorship Service,” says Michael Smith, tech- General Atomics will deploy the technol-
torship Service to address software tool obso- nical lead of software engineering at QinetiQ. ogy on the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted air-
lescence by modernizing the development “Faced with the complexities of upgrading a craft configured with several different sensors,
environment for the company’s Trials Control code-base dating from 2004 and comprising including the General Atomics Reaper Defense
System (TCS) — a command-and-control sys- several hundred thousand lines of code, I was Electronic Support System (RDESS) and Lynx
tem designed for the training, test, and eval- keen to engage early on with AdaCore.” synthetic aperture radar (SAR).
uation of military equipment.
AdaCore Mentorship Services can include vir- The General Atomics Metis product will
The upgrade from the legacy SPARK pro- tual and on-site training sessions, project meet- be used to command the MQ-9. Metis is an
gramming language to the latest version of the ings to monitor project progress and discuss intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
technology, SPARK 2014, was to sustain the outstanding issues, access to tool evaluations (ISR) tasking and intelligence-sharing applica-
safety-critical software development capabil- to explore benefit to your project, and direct tion that enables operators to specify effects-
ity required by TCS. code assistance on the customer application. based mission objectives and receive automatic
notification of actionable intelligence.
SPARK is a computer language and tool- For more information contact AdaCore
set that brings mathematics-based confidence online at www.adacore.com, or QinetiQ at General Atomics designs and builds
to software verification. The latest version of www.qinetiq.com. unmanned systems, radars, and electro-op-
SPARK provides QinetiQ with the foundation tic and related mission systems, including the
for a sound formal verification framework and SENSORS Predator UAV and the Lynx multi-mode radar.
static analysis toolset.
Army picks General Atomics General Atomics produces a variety of
One of the key features of SPARK technology to develop AI-based smart ground control stations and sensor-control and
is the ability to express behavioral properties that sensor for unmanned aircraft image-analysis software, offers pilot training
software engineers must implement correctly, and support services, and develops meta-ma-
and then checked by the verification toolset. U.S. Army unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) terial antennas.
designers needed artificial intelligence (AI)
capability for the Army’s Predator, Reaper, For more information contact General Atom-
and future military UAVs. They found their ics Aeronautical Systems online at www.ga.com.
solution from General Atomics Aeronautical
Systems Inc. in Poway, Calif.

Officials of the Army Contracting Command
at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., announced
a $92.3 million contract to General Atomics
last week that covers research, development,
test, and evaluation of AI for the smart sensor
prototype unmanned aerial platform.

32  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

THERMAL MANAGEMENT Poseidon at its factory in Renton, Wash. The The key technology innovation in the lat-
737 fuselage and tail sections are from by est TSi Horizon MEOLUT is a custom-designed
Meggitt to provide liquid Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kan., and move phased array antenna integrated with TSi’s pro-
cooling for avionics aboard to Renton where technicians will assemble the prietary MEOLUT signal processing and control
P-8A maritime patrol jet finished aircraft. techniques. NOAA, the U.S. agency respon-
sible for the U.S. SARSAT program, acquired
U.S. Navy avionics experts needed a large The P-8A’s flight management system and its first operational MEOSAR system in 2011.
electronics-cooling system for thermal man- the stores management system have been
agement of electronic components and sensors developed by GE Aviation Systems in Grand The TSi MEOLUT is designed to improve
aboard the U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime Rapids, Mich. The cabin has as many as seven detection and location accuracy of emergency
patrol jet. They found their solution from Meg- operator consoles. distress beacons for personnel, aircraft, and
gitt Defense Systems Inc. in Irvine, Calif. maritime vessels in distress.
The Poseidon’s MX-20HD digital elec-
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command tro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) multi-spectral With near horizon-to-horizon coverage
at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., has sensor turrets come from L-3 Communications to capture 406 beacon signals relayed from
announced a $27.4 million order to Meggitt Wescam in Burlington, Ontario. The MX-20HD orbiting satellite constellations immediately
for 31 P-8A liquid air palletized systems (LAPS) is gyro-stabilized and can have as many as after line-of-sight is established, TSi’s Horizon
over the course of three years. seven sensors, including infrared, CCDTV, MEOLUT delivers enhanced search-and-rescue
image intensifier, laser rangefinder, and laser coverage and second-generation signal pro-
The electronics cooling order calls for Meg- illuminator. cessing capabilities in a compact form factor
gitt to deliver 10 LAPS units in order year two; with no moving parts, company officials say.
11 LAPS units in order year three; and 11 LAPS On this order Meggitt will do the work in
units in order year four. Irvine, Calif; Sumner, Wash.; Niagara, N.Y.; By pointing to satellites near the horizon,
and other U.S. locations, and should be fin- TSi’s Horizon MEOLUT can detect and locate
Meggitt’s liquid palletized solution provides ished by November 2024. For more informa- emergency beacons with greater accuracy than
essential cooling to mission-critical equipment tion contact Meggitt Defense Systems online traditional dish antennas.
and sensors to ensure safe flight. The system at https://meggittdefense.com, or Naval Air
can provide as much as 64 kilowatts of cooling Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil. This enhanced detection ability, com-
for the aircraft when operating above 10,000 bined with TSi’s Selective Schedule Algo-
feet, and 20 kilowatts of ground cooling. COMMUNICATIONS rithm, enables the system to monitor diverse
regions, including the translation of oblong
The LAPS electronics-cooling system pro- NOAA chooses TSi for and irregular data points that are invisible to
vides thermal management for the computer global search-and-rescue traditional systems.
processors, electronic and electro-optical satellite terminal
sensors, and other heat-generating avionics For more information contact TSi online at
aboard the P-8A aircraft. Search-and-rescue experts at the U.S. National www.technosci.com, or NOAA at www.sarsat.
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration noaa.gov/meosar.html.
The P-8 is a militarized version of the Boe- (NOAA) in Washington, needed a global
ing 737-800 single-aisle passenger jetliner search-and-rescue satellite ground terminal HYPERSONICS
hardened for long-range ocean missions like for the agency’s facility in Wahiawa, Hawaii.
surveillance, maritime patrol, and anti-sub- They found their solution from Techno-Sciences BAE Systems to develop
marine warfare. It is replacing the Lockheed (TSi) in Lanham, Md. rugged weapon data link radio
Martin P-3 Orion maritime patrol turboprop for hypersonic weapons
aircraft. TSi officials announced in December that
NOAA has selected their company to deliver U.S. military researchers needed a weapon
Ultimately, the Navy plans to buy 108 P-8A the Horizon Medium Earth Orbit Local User Ter-
aircraft from Boeing, which is building the minal (MEOLUT) to enhance NOAA’s Medium
Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR)
ground segment at Wahiawa, Hawaii.

MEOSAR is the next-gen version of the
Cospas-Sarsat international search-and-res-
cue satellite system that has helped save more
than 50,000 lives since 1982.

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  33

PRODUCT

applications

data link radio to help steer hypersonic weap- munitions. Affordability seeks to reduce costs 50 kilorads of total ionizing dose radiation,
ons to their targets. They found their solution and increase value of TBG research. and immune to single-event upsets.
from the BAE Systems Electronic Systems seg-
ment in Merrimack, N.H. TBG is a two-phase effort that plans to Vicor makes the power devices immune to
include ground and flight testing to mature single-event upsets by using a redundant archi-
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced critical technologies, and aims to demonstrate tecture that houses two identical and parallel
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arling- system performance. The program builds on power trains with fault-tolerant control integrated
ton, Va., announced a $4 million contract to previous boost glide systems research. circuits in one high-density SM-ChiP package.
BAE Systems to develop two weapon data link
prototypes for test and integration of the future For more information contact DARPA Advanced communications satellites
hypersonic Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) vehicle. online at www.darpa.mil/program/tacti- require high power density and low noise, Vicor
cal-boost-glide, or BAE Systems Electronic officials say. Vicor soft-switching, high-fre-
The TBG program is a joint DARPA and Systems at www.baesystems.com. quency ZCS/ZVS power stages within met-
U.S. Air Force effort to develop technologies al-shielded ChiPs reduce the power system
for future air-launched, tactical-range hyper- SPACE ELECTRONICS noise floor to enable reliable signal integrity
sonic boost glide systems. and performance.
Boeing chooses rad-hard DC-
Boost glide uses a rocket to accelerate a DC converters from Vicor for The complete power-source-to-point-of-
weapon payload to high speeds, after which O3b mPOWER satellite system load solution consists of four SM-ChiPs: the
the payload then separates from the rocket BCM3423 100-volt nominal 300 Watt K = 1/3
and glides unpowered to its destination. Communications satellite designers at the Boe- bus converter in a 34-by-23-millimeter pack-
The TBG data link radio will provide weapon ing Co. needed radiation-hardened DC-DC con- age; the PRM2919 33-volt nominal 200-Watt
tracking, fire control, and situational aware- verter power modules for the O3b mPOWER regulator in a 29-by-19-millimeter package;
ness as it helps steer hypersonic munitions satellite system. They found their solution from and two VTM2919 current multipliers in K =
to their targets. Vicor Corp. in Andover, Mass. 1/32 with an output of 0.8 volts at 150 amps
and a K = 1/8 with an output of 3.4 volts at
Systems that operate at hypersonic speeds Designers at the Boeing Defense, Space 25 amps.
of at least five times the speed of sound (Mach & Security segment in St. Louis are using the
5) and beyond offer the potential for military Vicor SM-ChiP-packaged radiation-hardened The solution powers satellite’s ASIC directly
operations from longer ranges with shorter DC-DC power suppliers for the O3b mPOWER from the 100-volt power source with minimal
response times and enhanced effectiveness satellite system, owned and operated by SES external components and low-noise operation.
compared to current military systems, DARPA S.A. in Betzdorf, Luxembourg.
officials explain. The Vicor radiation-tolerant power modules
The O3b mPOWER space communications are available in the Vicor high-density SM-ChiP
Such systems could provide significant pay- system is under construction and due to be package with ball grid array (BGA) connections
off for future U.S. offensive strike operations launched this year. The initial satellite constella- and optional solder mask for the top and bot-
— particularly as adversaries’ capabilities tion comprises 11 high-throughput and low-la- tom surfaces. The devices operate in tempera-
advance. The TBG program has three primary tency satellites in a medium Earth orbit (MEO), tures from -30 to 125 degrees Celsius.
objectives: vehicle feasibility, effectiveness, ground infrastructure, and intelligent software.
and affordability. For more information contact Vicor online at
The system provides several terabits of www.vicorpower.com, Boeing Defense, Space &
Vehicle feasibility seeks to develop aerody- global broadband connectivity for applications Security at www.boeing.com/company/about-
namic and aerothermal performance, control- such as cellular backhaul to remote rural loca- bds, or SES S.A. at www.ses.com. 
lability, and robustness for a wide hypersonic tions and simultaneous international IP trunking.
operational envelope. Effectiveness seeks to
develop subsystems necessary for hypersonic The O3b mPOWER satellites use shapable
and steerable spot beams that can shift and
scale in real-time to suit different users, and
will join the SES existing constellation of 20
first-generation O3b satellites in MEO.

The Vicor SM CHiPs can power low-voltage
application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)
that take as much as 300 Watts from a 100-
volt nominal power source. Boeing tested these
power devices to be resilient to the effects of

34  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

To submit new products for consideration, new products
contact John Keller at [email protected].

INTEGRATED CIRCUITS fied plastic or ceramic versions at the printed expands their offering of mini PCI Express-
circuit board level. Voltage operation of the based AcroPack modules with a program-
Rad-tolerant SuperFlash SST38LF6401RT ranges from 3 to 3.6 volts. mable I/O solution featuring the Xilinx Zynq
memory for space applications The SST38LF6401RT SuperFlash device is sam- UltraScale+ multiprocessor system-on-chip
introduced by Microchip pling in a ceramic version and supported by (MPSoC). The APZU series uses the Xilinx Zynq
an evaluation board and demonstration soft- UltraScale+ multiprocessor system on chip
Microchip Technology Inc. in Chandler, Ariz., is ware, available upon request. For more infor- (MPSoC) for I/O processing and programma-
introducing the SST38LF6401RT radiation-tol- mation contact Microchip Technology online ble logic. Three models are available offering
erant, 64-megabit parallel-interface SuperFlash at www.microchip.com. a choice of digital I/O interfaces: 28 TTL; 20
memory device for maximum reliability and TTL and 3 RS422/485; and 14 LVDS signals.
robustness in the harsh radiation environment EMBEDDED COMPUTING These mezzanine modules mount on a vari-
of space missions. The chip is a companion ety of AcroPack carrier cards for PCI Express,
to Microchip’s space-ready microcontrollers, Mezzanine card with VPX, and other platforms that enable devel-
microprocessors, and field-programmable Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC) opers to mix and match I/O combinations on
gate arrays (FPGAs) that provide the building introduced by Acromag one board for embedded applications running
blocks for this scalable development model. on Linux, Windows, or VxWorks operating sys-
Radiation-tolerant to 50 kilorads total ioniz- Acromag in Wixom, Mich., is introducing the tems. The APZU’s Zynq 3CG MPSoC combines
ing dose — even while the Flash is still biased APZU series AcroPack mezzanine module that a feature-rich ARM-based processing system
and operating — the SST38LF6401RT device combines multi-core ARM processors, FPGA and programmable logic in one device. Two
enables systems to operate in a broad range capabilities, and I/O interfaces on a rugged, dual-core ARM Cortex CPUs (A53 application
of space applications where they cannot afford high-density platform for embedded com- processor and R5 real-time processor) deliver
any loss of code execution that could lead to puting applications. Acromag’s APZU series high-performance computation capability. For
severe defects and system loss. It also is a more information contact Acromag online at
companion to the Microchip SAMRH71 Arm www.acromag.com.
Cortex-M7-based radiation-hardened system-
on-chip processor and can also be used with RF AND MICROWAVE
the company’s RT PolarFire FPGAs to support
in-flight system reconfiguration. The device has Programmable attenuator
pinout distribution compatibility with its indus- with female SMA connectors
trial version for transition to the space-quali- offered by Broadwave

BroadWave Technologies Inc. in Greenwood,
Ind., is introducing the model 631-031-063
voltage-controlled programmable attenuator
for aerospace and defense applications. This
voltage controlled programmable attenuator

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  F E B R UA RY 2 0 2 1  35

new products

features a 63-decibel dynamic range in 1-deci- 2200 MHz; a maximum voltage standing wave and machine learning capabilities. The rugged
bel steps, is rated 1-Watt average input power ratio (VSWR) of 1.40:1; and insertion loss of computer provides centralized sensor ingest
and has SMA female RF connectors. Attenua- 3.5-decibels maximum. Other impedance and and data fusion support for mission-critical
tion accuracy is plus-or-minus 0.5-decibel or 2 connector options also are available. For more applications, and is configurable and modu-
percent of programmed and is controlled via information contact Broadwave Technologies lar. Kite-Strike is engineered and manufactured
solder terminal connectors. The supply volt- online at www.broadwavetechnologies.com. for low size, weight, and power consumption
age 12 volts DC at 30 milliamps nominal per (SWaP), and offers data center performance in
section resulting in 10 milliseconds switching RUGGED COMPUTERS a compact, rugged embedded edge computer.
speed. The 50 Ohm RF and microwave attenu- In addition to the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier
ator has an operating frequency range of DC to Rugged computer for artificial SOM, the Kite-Strike offers the Volta Architec-
intelligence (AI) introduced by Systel ture graphics processing unit with 512 CUDA
cores and 64 Tensor cores; an eight-core Car-
Systel Inc. in Sugar Land, Texas, is introducing mel ARM v8, 64-bit CPU; 32 gigabytes of sys-
the Kite-Strike next-generation rugged com- tem memory; 32 gigabytes of eMMC 5.1 data
puter for embedded edge supercomputing storage; Gigabit Ethernet, USB, and CAN I/O;
for deployment in harsh environments. The ARINC 429 and MIL-STD-1553 databus inter-
Kite-Strike integrates the NVIDIA Jetson AGX faces; and 4G LTE GPS. For more information
Xavier system-on-module, comes in a compact contact Systel online at www.nvidia.com. 
form factor, and enables real-time artificial
intelligence (AI) inferencing, deep learning,

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ADVERTISER PAGE E-mail: [email protected]
Annapolis Micro Systems Inc............................................................... 31 Web: www.mae-subscribe.com
Dawn VME Products............................................................................... 13
Elma Electronic Inc................................................................................... 5 VICE PRESIDENT/GROUP PUBLISHER Paul Andrews
Fairview Microwave................................................................................ 11 203 423-3963 ⁄ [email protected]
General Micro Systems Inc...................................................................C4 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Keller
GT Advanced Technologies................................................................... 23 603 891-9117 ⁄ [email protected]
Holt Integrated Circuits......................................................................... 22 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jamie Whitney
Pasternack Enterprises...................................................................... 3, 19 603 891-9135 ⁄ [email protected]
Pentek........................................................................................................C2 EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR Kermit Mulkins
Phoenix International............................................................................ 37 PRODUCTION MANAGER Sheila Ward
Pico Electronics Inc................................................................................... 1 AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Debbie Bouley
Pixus Technologies................................................................................. 25 603 891-9372 ⁄ [email protected]
RGB Spectrum.......................................................................................... 36 MARKETING MANAGER Adrienne Adler
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VPT Inc...................................................................................................... 21
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