Dec/090
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-06
- At the Baltimore Mayor's Xmas parade, Sheila Dixon was greeted by bystanders waving $25 Best Buy pricetags #
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Oct/090
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-25
- The new mine-resistant ATV (M-ATV) has started shipping to Afghanistan http://bit.ly/2HfVjT #
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Oct/090
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-18
- New post: Q&A – Lockheed's Airborne Multi-Intelligence Lab (http://cli.gs/Z8dS9) #AML #C4ISR #C4ISR_On-the-move #CERDEC #
- Post updated: Q&A – Lockheed's Airborne Multi-Intelligence Lab (http://cli.gs/Z8dS9) #AML #C4ISR #C4ISR_On-the-move #CERDEC #
- New post: Q&A: CERDEC's Charlie Maraldo on C4ISR On-the-Move '09 and the Persistent Surveillance Testbed (http://cli.gs/bD20M) #AML #C4 … #
- Post updated: Q&A: CERDEC's Charlie Maraldo on C4ISR On-the-Move '09 and the Persistent Surveillance Tes… (http://cli.gs/bD20M) #AML … #
- RT @MyArmyReserve: RT @chuckfrey: @suespaight Social media is a channel, not a strategy. Tactics=tools. Strategy=what we want to accomplish #
- Companies partner to deliver "person of interest" info sharing package for intel, law enforcement http://bit.ly/1P2Ac #
- RT @ApacheClips: 'Russian NATO' Holds 1st Exercise http://bit.ly/2Ib08 #military #army #
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Oct/090
Army demos electronic jammer for helicopters — Defense Systems
The Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Command (CERDEC) has demonstrated a new system that can be used both to locate electronic emitters on the battlefield — radios, remote-controlled improvised explosive devices, radars and other sources of electromagnetic radiation used by a potential adversary — and then jam them.
The system, called Sledgehammer, “is a combination of an airborne electronic support system named Airhammer, that was produced by L-3 Communications Applied Signal and Image Technology in Linthicum Heights, Md., and some existing government developed electronic attack capabilities,” said Kristen Kushiyama, business development coordinator for public affairs at CERDEC’s headquarters in Fort Monmouth, N.J. “It is flown and operated on board the rotary-wing vehicle, and it finds and jams signals from hostile forces. Sledgehammer can be installed and operational in about an hour on several versions of the UH-60,” she said.
Sledgehammer was flown aboard a CERDEC-owned UH-60A as part of this program, an adjunct to the C4ISR On-the-Move 2009 event held last month at Fort Dix, N.J, and at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst, N.J., said Charlie Maraldo, project manager for the Persistence Surveillance Testbed at CERCEC’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate.
via Army demos electronic jammer for helicopters — Defense Systems.
Oct/090
Army fuses airborne sensor lab with ground networks — Defense Systems
At the Army’s C4ISR On-the-Move Event 2009 in September, Lockheed Martin Corp. demonstrated its new Airborne Multi-Intelligence Laboratory. The AML aircraft, a repurposed Gulfstream III corporate jet, was converted to a test platform for evaluating the integration of multiple intelligence-gathering sensors onboard a single aircraft. The flight team includes analysts who correlate the intelligence data and make it available to ground units over a network connection.
“A little over 10 or 11 months ago, Lockheed Martin made investment decisions in particular that looked at where the customer set was going — some of their higher priority needs,” said Jim Quinn, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems and Global Services-Defense. “This was driven both internationally as well as domestically, and the importance of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in supporting operations around the globe.”
Lockheed Martin initially intended that AML would provide its civilian and defense customers a way to evaluate how well technologies worked together, and provide a testbed for connecting sensors to enterprise service-oriented architectures such as the Distributed Common Ground System, Quinn said during a press briefing at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in early October. Now, the company is considering whether to partner with contract aviation companies to lease the capability to the DOD and other government agencies on a contingency basis, he said.
via Army fuses airborne sensor lab with ground networks — Defense Systems.
Oct/090
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-11
- I just received confirmation that I will be attending @TEDxMidAtlantic on November 5th, 2009! Apply Now http://tedxmidatlantic.com #
- Support #TEDxMidAtlantic, add a #twibbon to your avatar now! – http://twibbon.com/join/TEDxMidAtlantic #
- New post: At AUSA (http://cli.gs/VujbP) #AUSA #events #liveblog #AUSA #events #liveblog #
- New post: Modernization Mayhem (http://cli.gs/RHNBR) #AUSA #FCS #modernization #
- Post updated: SecDef Gates speaks of the importance of ISR technology at AUSA (http://cli.gs/UDmBL) #AUSA #ISR #
- The Pentagon announced that it's developed a new 30,000 lb. "massive penetrator bomb" for taking out buried bunkers. http://bit.ly/wn66g #
- Back from AUSA, where my tweeting was restricted due to phone signal issues. Prepare to be paste-bombed with three days of posts. :D #
- RT @FORSCOM: LTC Parker: Army-wide approved Social Media Web sites are Delicious, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Vimeo. #ausa #
- RT @FORSCOM: COl Tom Collins, Ch Public Affairs, FORSCOM, just told the FRG Leaders we should have Social Media policy within next 60 days. #
- Post updated: Harris says it delivers "JTRS capabilities today"–Boeing begs to differ (http://cli.gs/AzjRj) #AUSA #GMR #JTRS #
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Oct/090
X-band offers cure for congested spectrum — Defense Systems
From my conpany profile of Xtar in Defense Systems:
Operations in Southwest Asia have created an insatiable demand for satellite communications capacity — a demand that commercial providers have largely filled.
However, DOD has to compete for available capacity on commercial satellites with media and telecommunications companies and other high-volume satellite communications customers.
One of those providers is Xtar, a joint venture of Loral Space and Communications and Hisdesat Sevicios Estratégicos. Xtar’s commercial X-band service is now available as part of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Defense Information Systems Network Satellite Transmission Services-Global program and through the General Services Administration.
“Hisdesat was formed to basically manage the Spanish military communications satellite program,” said Denis Curtin, Xtar’s chief operating officer. “They do some other things, but that was the first reason. Xtar is 56 percent owned by Loral, 44 percent owned by Hisdesat, and is a U.S. managed company.”
via X-band offers cure for congested spectrum — Defense Systems.
Oct/090
Military under the gun on unmanned aerial system mishaps — Defense Systems
The hazards of operating unmanned aerial systems were magnified in September by a number of UAS mishaps for the Air Force and Army. On Sept. 27, an Army RQ-7B Shadow UAS crashed into the Mosul, Iraq, office of the Iraqi Islamist Party, just a few weeks after an Air Force MQ-1 Predator crashed in central Iraq.
And in Afghanistan, on Sept. 13, the Air Force was forced to shoot down one of its own MQ-9 Reaper aircraft that did not go into failsafe mode after the service lost remote control of the aircraft.
Although mishaps with UASs have happened before as the military services push them to the edge of their operational capabilities, one major difference in how the Army and Air Force operate their systems has been identified as the cause for many of the Air Force’s mishaps with Predators.
via Military under the gun on unmanned aerial system mishaps — Defense Systems.
Oct/090
Sturdy containers offer shelter from the storm for network equipment — Defense Systems
Excerpt from my ruggedization story on Defense Systems:
Making relatively small electronics rugged enough for use in extreme environments, such as the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Afghanistan, is a major challenge. But what if you need more than a laptop computer with you, perhaps a whole network operations center — from loading the equipment on a plane, truck or helicopter to dropping it in the middle of nowhere?
That’s the sort of task that VT Group, formerly known as VT Milcom, has performed several hundred times during the past four years. “We got into the containerized shelter business initially about four years ago,” said Scott Bohman, VT Group’s general manager. “We got involved in some air traffic control solutions being installed in Iraq for the Air Force and then worked some communications shelters with [Air Forces Central] for overseas work, [and we] did a couple of shelters on the Iraqi oil platforms in the Persian Gulf.”
Read the full story at : Sturdy containers offer shelter from the storm for network equipment — Defense Systems.
Oct/090
Navy lays course for Second Fleet migration to NMCI — Defense Systems
Excerpt from my feature on NMCI in this month’s Defense Systems:
The Navy Marine Corps Intranet is entering the last year of its contracted life. After 10 years, the network has become one of the most reliable and secure networks in the Defense Department after starting as a frequent target of ridicule for what some involved with the program characterize as justified complaints.
As evidence of the Navy’s continuing reliance on NMCI, the network recently gained more customers: the headquarters of Commander, Second Fleet (C2F) and the Second Fleet’s newly established Maritime Operations Center. MOCs are regional command and control centers that give joint and Navy fleet commanders an overview of their forces’ location and status, in addition to other information that help commanders make decisions.
The goal of using NMCI for the C2F MOC is partially to enhance decision-making through improved collaboration, but the need for increased cybersecurity was also a major factor, Navy Capt. Jeff Link, C2F’s director of command, control, communications, and computers, said in a statement issued by C2F’s public affairs office.
“Working under tight restrictions and timelines, the coordination between the organizations involved in transitioning the systems to NMCI worked out extremely well,” he said.
via Navy lays course for Second Fleet migration to NMCI — Defense Systems.
