Category: Defense

Orolia fortifies resilient PNT with Satelles satellite time and location signal

A strategic alliance announced on Dec. 15 between Orolia and Satelles includes product development and go-to-market activities of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions provided by the Iridium satellite constellation, independent of GPS/GNSS signals. The companies intend to provide PNT solutions to military, defense, government and commercial customers worldwide.

Orolia, the parent of GNSS-active companies Spectracom and Spectratime, among others, announced that it has formed a strategic alliance, including an equity investment with Satelles Inc. to develop, market and sell PNT solutions based on Satelles’ satellite time and location (STL) signal technology. STL is a unique space-based PNT technology that provides location and timing data independent from traditional GPS and other GNSS satellite signals. By using STL, Orolia’s Spectracom and McMurdo solutions will, according to the company, be less susceptible to vulnerabilities such as spoofing, interference and jamming that are associated with GPS/GNSS.

Iridium satellite, courtesy Iridium.

Based on the low-Earth orbit (LEO) Iridium satellite constellation, STL signals are up to 1,000 times stronger than GPS/GNSS; this signal strength, due in part to the constellation’s closer proximity to users, helps to prevent jamming and enables signal reach into buildings and other difficult locations. STL’s additional cryptographic security also ensures performance, productivity and security.

For further background on Iridium, see “Iridium and GPS revisited: A new PNT solution on the horizon?“, the June 2016 Defense PNT column by Don Jewell.

Projected key applications and use cases include energy/utility grids, enterprise data networks including financial systems, maritime/aviation navigation, fleet/asset tracking management, search and rescue and data center management. Further details on planned projects and products of the Orolia-Satelles partnership will be posted to this site in a follow-up story in coming days.

Many highly sensitive military, defense, government and commercial applications and operations require accurate and reliable PNT data. Today, these applications rely on signals from GPS/GNSS satellites. There are instances, however, where GPS/GNSS signal strength and security are not sufficient and prone to signal disruption. For these cases, the companies jointly state, STL can be used as a secure signal of opportunity to complement GPS/GNSS, making the applications more accurate and secure and less prone to interference and attack.

“In today’s increasingly dynamic and mobile world, there is a growing need for precise and robust positioning, navigation and timing information especially in business-critical, high risk and life-saving operations,” said Jean-Yves Courtois, Orolia CEO. “By augmenting Orolia’s market-leading GPS/GNSS-based solutions with Satelles’ STL technology, we will have the industry’s first essentially fail-safe, resilient PNT solution. This breakthrough offering will be ideal for mission critical applications in which the smallest of discrepancies in PNT data accuracy, availability and stability can result in a network outage, a system crash or a loss of life.”

“Satelles’ pioneering role in STL technology is a perfect fit with Orolia’s proven Resilient PNT strategy,” said Michael O’Connor, Satelles CEO. “We look forward to working together to introduce new products and solutions that will provide our customers with the utmost confidence that their positioning, navigation and timing data is accurate, secure and accessible.”

December 15, 2016
GPS World remembers defense columnist Don Jewell

Don Jewell passed away unexpectedly on Oct. 12. For more than nine years, Don wrote the Defense PNT monthly e-newsletter column for GPS World, after a distinguished 30-year career in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as Deputy Chief Scientist for Air Force Space Command with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. A celebration of his life was held Oct. 20 in Colorado Springs.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Don earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma. He served in the U.S. Air Force as an aviator, navigator and space subject matter expert, and completed two Command assignments at Schriever Air Force Base.

His involvement with GPS began in 1978, either as a test system evaluator or user. As Politico-Military Affairs Officer in the Reagan White House, he worked with foreign embassies making critical export control decisions concerning sophisticated military hardware and software.

After the Air Force, Don worked seven years as senior space executive at Motorola and General Dynamics and as senior VP at Infofusion.

He worked at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) as a member of several advisory committees to the Department of Defense and U.S. government: the GPS Independent Review Team (IRT), Space Programs Assessment Group for SMC, Independent Assessment Team for WAAS and as Co-Chair of Military Critical Technologies Program for Space.

A close friend said, “Don was a real pillar for the PNT community and consummate spokesman for the truth, always offering constructive criticism where needed. An exemplary personality who always ‘did the right thing.’”

Another colleague remembered, “Don was a key player in all tasks undertaken in response to the Commander Space Command. One of his many significant roles was as key IRT debriefer of warriors returning to the U.S. through Ft. Carson following operational deployments, to get candid inputs on what shortfalls in PNT they had using GPS to execute their missions, so that Don could make sure DoD leadership didn’t get complacent in management and operation of GPS.

“His use of PNT as a vehicle for constant improvement was driven by Don selflessly serving our national security, helping our soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and others operating in harm’s way to serve our country well in his passionate and very candid role with his ‘constructive criticism’ counsel to Air Force and DoD leadership to assure the troops’ mission success, returning home safely often after intense combat. A tragic loss to our Nation, as he did this for many years.”

Don began writing the Defense PNT e-newsletter for GPS World in April 2007. His first column is lost in the mists of time, but here is an excerpt from his second column, May 2007:

“To think that all these billion-dollar companies, and the start-ups as well, depended to such a great degree on a ubiquitous utility that only became available on a global basis because of a seemingly insignificant, but in the end, deadly navigation error. Add to this the naked aggression and paranoia of the former Soviet Union and the benevolence and caring of a legendary U.S. President, and you have the beginnings of a tale that has changed our world forever, and whose final chapter may never be written.”

Don was active in the Military Division of the Institute of Navigation (ION). From 2010–2015, he helped assemble and co-chaired the Warfighter Crosstalk Panel in the Joint Navigation Conference (JNC); this was and remains today one of the most interesting and informative sessions of that conference, focusing on needs of military and first responder users for PNT.

Don regularly led weekly bible study meetings for more than 20 years and was recently appointed as president of Christ the King Lutheran Church.

Readers’ and friends’ appreciations appear at gpsworld.com/donjewell. Send further remembrances to [email protected]. Contributions in Don’s memory may be made to Christ the King Lutheran Church or the Amyloidosis Foundation.

December 13, 2016
New report covers global military GPS device market
GPS-enabled devices render large amount of assistance to a country’s armed forces on battlefields. In the modern-day scenario of combat, the need to be technically advanced and the ability to achieve precision strike with minimum self-loss are taking center stage.

This has resulted in greater use of GPS-guided devices and weapons by soldiers, which are considered in a new report by Research and Markets.

In Global Military GPS Device Market 2016-2020, analysts forecast the global military GPS device market to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.69 percent between 2016 and 2020.

The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global military GPS device market for 2016 to 2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the expenditure of each of the three regions (Americas, EMEA and APAC) to acquire these military GPS devices for enhanced performance of warfighters.

The report has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. It covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years.

The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

Key questions answered in the report include:
- What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be?
- What are the key market trends?
- What is driving this market?
- What are the challenges to market growth?
- Who are the key vendors in this market space?
- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?
Companies mentioned include:
- BAE Systems
- Lockheed Martin
- Northrop Grumman
- Raytheon
- Rockwell Collins
- Garmin
- Harris
- Thales
Buyers can request one free hour of the analyst’s time when purchasing thye market report. Details are provided within the report.
December 8, 2016
Raytheon, DARPA developing tech to protect power grid against cyber attack

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, has awarded Raytheon multiple contracts to research and develop technologies that will detect and respond to cyber attacks on the U.S. power grid infrastructure.

The contracts, which total $9 million, were awarded under DARPA’s Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems program.

“During the last two decades, industrial control systems have evolved so that most are now connected to the Internet, making them vulnerable to cyber attack,” said Jason Redi, vice president for the Raytheon BBN Technologies Networking and Communications unit. “A significant power disruption would have profound economic and human costs in the U.S, so our goals are to prevent attacks and to reduce the time required to restore power after an attack.”

Raytheon BBN will create technologies to enhance situational awareness by providing early warning of an impending attack and detecting adversary spoofing of power grid data collection and communication. These technologies will also maintain situational awareness in the immediate aftermath of an attack.

The company will also examine methods to maintain secure emergency communication networks in the aftermath of an attack. Raytheon BBN’s approach seeks to isolate affected organizations from the internet and establish a secure emergency network to coordinate power restoration without depending on external networks.

Raytheon BBN Technologies is a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon Company.

December 5, 2016
Lockheed completes COTS upgrade of ground control system

Lockheed Martin has completed a major upgrade to modernize the current ground control system of the U.S. Air Force’s GPS constellation.

The Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Upgrade #2 (CUP2) project is the latest step in the Air Force’s multi-year plan to refresh technology and transform the legacy Operational Control Segment — known as the Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP) — into a modern, high-performance command and control system.

On Oct. 15, CUP2 became fully operational and began managing the 31 GPS IIR, IIR-M and IIF satellites that make up today’s GPS constellation.

Capt. Adam Moody, 2SOPS GPS Operations Support flight commander, and Staff Sgt. Carl Ellinger, 2 SOPS GPS mission chief, review a checklist of procedures for a transfer operation at Schriever Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo/Dennis Rogers)

The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin the CUP2 project in November 2013 under its GPS Control Segment (GCS) contract, and the system is now fully deployed into the AEP’s GPS Master Control Station and the Alternate Master Control Station.

This is the third major technology refresh of the GPS command and control system since the GCS contract began in January 2013.

This upgrade to the existing ground control system provides the Air Force with flexibility. In May, as part of Contingency Operations (COps) under the GPS III contract, Lockheed Martin demonstrated a preliminary design to build off CUP2 and further upgrade the AEP to support next-generation GPS III satellites as they perform their positioning, navigation and timing mission. COps is a temporary gap filler prior to the entire GPS constellation’s transition onto the next-generation Operational Control System (OCX) Block 1, which is currently in development.

“Under CUP2, Lockheed Martin and the Air Force installed modern commercial hardware and a major software upgrade that enhances the system’s ability to protect data and infrastructure from cyber threats, as well as improves its overall sustainability and operability,” said Vinny Sica, vice president and general manager of Mission Solutions for Lockheed Martin. “Continued modernization and cyber-hardening of the GPS control system is vitally important to the sustainment of navigation services for our military and all global GPS users.”

The GPS Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center contracted the CUP2 upgrade. Air Force Space Command’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS), based at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado, manages and operates the GPS constellation for both civil and military users.

December 1, 2016
In memoriam Don Jewell, 1949–2016

Friends and colleagues of Don Jewell have sent these messages on learning of his unexpected passing in October. Below is a collection of memories and appreciation from readers and friends of Don.

To add your tribute, send to [email protected].

His is truly a loss for the entire GPS community.

He will be greatly missed. Like a Brother.

With great sadness I just learned of the passing of my Mentor and Friend Don Jewell.

He was the voice of the Warfighter and would always talk to the troops and get their input of the many devices he would review. Much to many manufacturers chagrin he published those against their glowing reviews.

Don and I became friends during my time at Trimble Navigation.
He became my mentor and my friend.
For 1 interview and demonstration of products he had me up for lunch in his house in Colorado Springs. I ended up being there for hours.
I especially enjoyed his company after I left Trimble and I became his escort at Trimble Dimensions in Las Vegas. It was there I introduced him to Tweeting.
He thought that was the funniest thing!

Don will be missed and I hope someone steps up to take his place as a technological voice of the Warfighter.

There are many men of talent and ability. There are many men of accomplishment. Many, too, of experience. There are fewer men of integrity, and even fewer who combine all of these things with humor and friendship. This is what made Don Jewell a rare and unique friend and colleague. While it is natural to mourn that his time among us is ended, there is also an undercurrent of joy that we shared time together.

Don was a real pillar for the PNT community and consummate spokesman for the truth, always offering constructive criticism where needed. An exemplary personality who always ‘did the right thing.’

Don was quite active as a volunteer in the Military Division of the Institute of Navigation (ION). From 2010 through 2015, he and I worked together to assemble and co-chair the Warfighter Crosstalk Panel in the Military Division’s annual Joint Navigation Conference (JNC), which was then and remains today one of the most interesting and informative sessions of that conference. It focused on needs of military and first responder users for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). We would ask potential panelists to speak freely about their experiences with PNT to support them in operations – what has worked well, what has not worked so well, and what they would truly like to have … then we would tell them to focus on the latter two. The panel was always a big highlight of the conference. Don’s popularity within the community helped us attract some great panelists.

We often traveled together, and it was during our off hours when the work was done that we would relax and chat over a meal. Don was passionate about family, particularly his wife Linda and daughter Dawn. When talking about good times with family, there was always a sparkle in his eyes, incredible joy and pride. Whenever we would have meetings in the Colorado Springs area, he and Linda would invite the team members to their home for an evening get-together, a great way to relax after intense work. Whenever he would come to IDA for work, he would swing by offices of the colleagues and friends he had made over the years, just to say hello.

Rest in peace, Don, and know that you made a big difference for so many in this world — indeed you did for me.

Don was one of those rare individuals that you just wanted to spend hours with listening to his take on life. My big regret is that I couldn’t have more of those hours.

His use of PNT as a vehicle for constant improvement was driven by Don selflessly serving our National Security through helping our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen and others operating in harms way to serve our country well in his passionate and very candid role with his “Constructive Criticism” counsel to Air Force and DoD leadership to assure the troops mission success, returning home safely often after intense combat.
A tragic loss to our Nation, as he did this for many, many years.

As a vocal and outspoken member of the AF Space Command GPS Independent Review Team, Don was a key player in all the tasks undertaken to respond to tasking by the Commander Space Command.

One of many significant roles was to be the key IRT debriefer of warriors returning to the US through Ft Carson following operational deployments to get candid inputs on what shortfalls in PNT they had using GPS to execute their missions, so that Don could make sure DoD leadership didn’t get complacent in management and operation of GPS.

I’m glad I had the pleasure of meeting him. Really nice guy.

Don was a very kind man and very supportive when I worked with him. This is very sad news.

He held tremendous respect in the GPS Control Segment community. Many of us were regular readers.

We’ll all miss him.

Sad news. I’m sorry to hear this. It was always a fun conversation with him and was one of the reasons I looked forward to attending ION. Our one hour lunch get-togethers would always turn into 2+ hours.

He was such a nice guy, and fun to work with.

We lost a wonderful friend.

May I respectfully suggest advocacy for naming the GPS AMCS at Vandenberg as the Don Jewell GPS AMCS.

I know that would bring a smile every time I heard or read of this honor to Don’s and his world-wide contributions to GPS/GNSS across all segments of navigation and for his service to our nation.

I suspect Don would have been humbled by this well deserved honor.

I will miss Don, and the opportunity for more occasional chats. I suspect many others will as well and I hope will endorse this recognition.

December 1, 2016
Insitu ScanEagle completes maritime search at Unmanned Warrior

At the Royal Navy’s Unmanned Warrior demonstration, Insitu showcased its newest wide-area maritime surface search and identification technology for representatives from the Royal Navy as well as military and industry officials from across the globe.

During the event, held in Benbecula, Scotland, the Insitu team was tasked to perform a range of maritime missions using ScanEagle equipped with the ViDAR payload. Developed in collaboration with Australia-based Sentient Vision Systems, ViDAR is a maritime surface search with automatic target finding capability on a group two unmanned platform.

ScanEagle with ViDAR. (PRNewsFoto/Insitu)

ScanEagle flew more than 55 hours, covering an area more than twice the size of Wales (41,500 km²) and using fewer than eight gallons of fuel.

Despite sometimes challenging weather, ScanEagle with ViDAR autonomously detected hundreds of large and small objects in sea state six conditions. These included spotting and positively identifying two mine sweepers by number, spotting smaller objects such as stationary jet skis and buoys at 5 nm and locating 28 contacts from one sortie in fewer than two hours.

ViDAR successfully and reliably detected objects through changing environmental conditions ranging from clear sun to wind, rain, haze and fog.

ScanEagle flew more hours than any other participating platform.

“During one flight our team spotted a target 19 nm away before the exercise began,” said Suzanne McNamara, vice president of business development for Insitu. “ScanEagle with ViDAR is a force multiplier that will establish a new standard for global navies. We are extremely proud of the successes we achieved during Unmanned Warrior and look forward to supporting our customers with this advanced capability.”

In May, Sentient and Insitu confirmed the signing of an exclusive global distribution agreement for the ViDAR software for unmanned systems within the small UAS weight class. ScanEagle is the first and only unmanned platform to fly this payload.

November 28, 2016
US military plans autonomous cargo-hauling and combat vehicles, drone swarms

Soldier-borne sensors, leader-follower cargo-hauling technology and tiny, handheld unmanned aircraft are in the forefront of new technologies planned for U.S. warfighters, according to Maj. Gen. Robert M. “Bo” Dyess. The deputy director of the U.S. Army Capability Integration Center told AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems Defense keynote audience that developing tools and systems demanded by soldiers is key. He cited a recent demonstration exercise, in which soldiers responded enthusiastically to small, backpackable UAS that would let them see over the next hill or fence.

The Army is also developing autonomous ground systems including an unmanned combat vehicle, fully autonomous convoy operations and swarming unmanned aircraft. Autonomous weapons are seen as key in combatting both relatively low-tech guerilla and militia groups as well as high-tech “near-peer” combatants from organized industrial powers. A contested electromagnetic spectrum is emerging as a critical battlefield in the contemporary and future warscape, Dyess said. Cyberspace, racked by fundamental threats of spoofing, jamming and hacking, becomes the new killing ground.

Shad Reese, Tactical Warfare Systems, Unmanned Vehicles coordinator for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, said DoD is elaborating a new unmanned systems roadmap, which should be published in the first quarter of 2017. The roadmap will cover the period 2016-2041.

Reese said that a key aspect of the new roadmap is swarming technology, although at present there is little work underway in industry to support this. “Everyone and their mom is talking about swarming, but if you step back and look at what’s going on in industry, there are no real players in industry working on swarming.” Some work is underway in academia, but “we would like to have commercially available swarming technology.”

The Army’s squad mission support transport robot (SMET).

Army’s Ground Robots

The Army has put a robotic vehicle, the squad mission support transport robot (SMET), designed to carry heavy loads for troops, into an accelerated acquisition program. SMET is a 1,000-lb. tracked or wheeled platform carrying rucksacks, water or ammunition. A SMET version was recently tested in Afghanistan.

An Army spokesperson said the SMET has also been chosen as a pilot program a new way to do acquisitions that could shave time off development and fielding of new technologies, with industry involved from the start in specifications and requirements.

Swarms

Hordes of flying, thinking armed robots that autonomously coordinate amongst themselves, altering attack strategies in mid-mission and pushing through to strike targets kamikaze-style, are also seen as critical to future combat. The Air Force Research Laboratory calls the tactical weapons “distributed collaborative systems.”

Three drones work together to beam back information about an enemy’s location, and blocks their radar signals. (Image: DARPA)

The Air Force seeks to put “that next level of decision making and capability on the platform. Not only can it maintain itself, but it can work other parts of the team, whether those be airmen, or whether those be other machines to perform a mission task.”

Swarming micro-drones can be “really fast, really resistant. They can fly through heavy winds and be kicked out the back of a fighter jet moving at Mach 0.9, like they did during an operational exercise in Alaska last year, or they can be thrown into the air by a soldier in the middle of the Iraqi desert.”

“Swarming is a way to gain the effect of greater intelligence without each individual unit needing to be intelligent,” added one strategist. Last year Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, commander of the Air Force Material Command, called swarming drones “very much a game-changing reality for our Air Force in the future.”

One consultant added that a human operator may not be able to compete with a fully autonomous system that identifies, analyzes and geolocates a target, especially in such a scenario where the swarm is moving rapidly. “The power and the sheer speed of execution would give them a huge advantage over their adversaries.”

Kristen Kearns, autonomy portfolio lead at AFRL, said that a major challenge with any autonomous system is verifying and validating that the decisions it is making are correct. Trust, or “verification and validation,” becomes paramount with artificial intelligence, Kearns added. “How do we assure safe and effective operations when we put decision making in the platforms?”

Steve Walker, deputy director of DARPA, said his agency has been working on developing battle management systems with a blend of manned and unmanned vehicles. “You have humans and unmanned systems and you need data fused together quickly and things are happening fast and you don’t want to overload the human with all that information. … You want to give him or her exactly what he needs to make a decision and have all these distributed effects work together,” he said.

One official noted the presence of many YouTube videos demonstrating robots flying, sailing or moving in formation. “It’s a good illustration of how so much of the advancement in this space is happening outside the defense world.”

November 9, 2016
US Navy awards Raytheon $255 million for precision landing

System equips the F-35 and unmanned aircraft with safer, more accurate landing guidance

The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon Company a $255 million contract for development and production readiness of its next generation precision landing system. The Joint Precision Approach and Landing System uses GPS satellite navigation to provide more accurate landing guidance for manned and unmanned aircraft, replacing radar and beacons used in older systems.

This contract, announced by the Department of Defense on Sept. 21 and Raytheon on Oct. 19, includes options which, if exercised, would bring the value to $270 million.

Raytheon will complete development for an auto-land capability to be used by both manned and unmanned aircraft, as well as finalize the integration with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: the first aircraft to be equipped with JPALS technology.

A U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning II lands aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the Pacific. (Photo: US Navy)

When operational in 2018, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps will use JPALS on the F-35C carrier variant, F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant and the MQ-25A multi-mission unmanned vehicle.

“The JPALS solution revolutionizes landings for manned and unmanned military aircraft,” said Dave Wajsgras, president of Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information and Services business. “Aviators will be able to trust this technology to provide safe, secure, and reliable landing guidance, at any time of day, in all kinds of weather and environments.”

Developed in partnership with the U.S. Navy to provide pinpoint landing guidance on carriers in rough seas, JPALS is tailorable to a wide range of environments including contingency operations requiring rapid deployment, or land-based airfields with curved, segmented and specialized approaches, and can integrate and modernize landing systems on legacy aircraft for joint interoperability.

JPALS improves navigational alignment prior to approach, allowing aircraft to land on any aircraft carrier or amphibious assault ship, day or night, even in adverse weather conditions. As the only military ground-based augmentation system in the world, the system features anti-jam protection to ensure mission continuity throughout a range of threat environments.

November 8, 2016
Spectratime launches Force 2020 atomic clock for defense
The Spectratime Force 2020 Rubidium clock is designed for the defense market.

Spectratime, a provider of high precision atomic clocks and a business of the Orolia Group, has launched the Force 2020.

The Force 2020 is a rugged, anti-vibration, GPS/GNSS-lockable, ultra-low-noise Rubidium atomic clock for highly dynamic defense platform applications.

According to Pascal Rochat, managing director of Spectratime, “Next-generation defense airborne radars, drones, helicopters, secure shipboard and radio communications systems use high K-band frequencies which require ultralow noise performance. In tactical missions, ultra-low-noise performance can only be minimally degraded during exposure to dynamic vibration and high-g environments to maintain the integrity of the battlefield systems. Spectratime’s Force-2020 rubidium atomic oscillator is perfect for such critical applications, and thus we are currently working with large defense contractors to integrate our new product into their highly dynamic defense platform systems.”

Product features
- Output frequency up to 500 MHz
- Can use the patented SmarTiming+ technology, disciplining an external SAASM or a non-SAAMS GPS or GNSS 1PPS reference up to 100,000 seconds with an auto-adaptive loop time operating at 1-ns resolution
- State-of-the-art frequency and timing signal stability performance
- Integration of an ultra-low-noise OCXO oscillator with optional low g-sensitivity and a single or dual vibration-isolated tray for the OCXO and/or the Rb oscillator to meet various dynamic application requirements.
November 7, 2016
Talen-X gets GPS Directorate security approval for BroadSim
Talen-X has been given security approval by the GPS Directorate, allowing BroadSim to create and process Y-Code while in a classified environment.

BroadSim is a software-defined GNSS simulator that enables users to easily model true and spoofed signals. BroadSim was developed to simplify advanced jamming and spoofing scenarios with Navigation Warfare (NAVWAR) testing in mind.

BroadSim supports high dynamics, advanced jamming, spoofing and encrypted military codes.

Powered by Skydel’s SDX 1000-Hz software simulator engine, BroadSim can simulate multiple constellations including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou.

Software features:
- Capable of generating and simulating multiple signal types
- GPS L1, L2 with C/A, P, Y and M
- GLONASS G1 and G2
- Galileo E1 and E5
- BeiDou B1 and B2
- Intuitive control using Skydel’s SDX software
- Utilizes four RF outputs, each with multiple simultaneous constellations
- Generates high-fidelity jamming and interference signals
BroadSim hardware includes a generator and controller with two integrated commercial-off-the-shelf USRP radios, an integrated OctoClock-G with GPS disciplined oscillator, four frequency-independent transmit and receive channels and a UBX-160 RF daughterboard.
November 2, 2016
Mayflower selected for submarine antenna anti-jam upgrade

An antenna upgrade for U.S. Navy submarines is being provided to improve GPS anti-jamming capabilities.

Mayflower Communications Company, subcontractor to Lockheed Martin Sippican, is applying its Submarine Anti-Jam GPS Enhancement (SAGE) capability to the U.S. Navy Multifunction Mast Antenna System (OE-538B) upgrade to improve submarine communications and meet Navigation Warfare (NAVWAR) requirements.

The SAGE (NavGuard 501) GPS anti-jam unit.

The Mayflower SAGE — a variant of Small Antenna System (SAS) — was developed specifically for inclusion on Submarine Platforms to support U.S. Navy requirements for GPS anti-jam.

The SAGE’s small size and feature set make it capable for ease of integration by Lockheed Martin Sippican into the OE-538B antenna mast.

The SAGE is a high performance and low size, weight and power (SWaP) cost-effective antenna system that will enable the U.S. Navy submarine fleet to operate in GPS contested or denied (NAVWAR) environments.

The SAGE (NavGuard 501) can supply clean GPS Signals to multiple GPS receivers from a single antenna and is compatible with C/A, SAASM P(Y), and M-code receivers. The SAGE fits he small SWaP requirements of the OE-538B antenna mast.

The SAGE is Mayflower’s latest federated, affordable anti-jam solution that leverages proven small antenna system (SAS) technology and provides Iridium capability in an integrated antenna. The SAS solution has been extensively tested by the federal government on multiple platforms.

The SAGE is the highest performance and smallest GPS anti-jam federated solution with Iridium capability in the market. The SAGE AJ solution offers an affordable SWaP-C alternative over larger and more expensive existing anti-jam systems.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR HQ) awarded the sole source contract for the development of an OE-538B antenna upgrade and procurement to Lockheed Martin Sippican/Granite State Manufacturing Submarine Antenna Joint Venture. The contract is in support of the Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence (PEO C4I), Undersea Integration Program Office (PMW/A 770).

Mayflower was selected by the U.S. Navy and Lockheed Martin Sippican to design, develop, and integrate the Submarine Anti-Jam GPS Enhancement (SAGE) (NavGuard 501) product.

Joseph Thomas, Mayflower’s Director of Government Programs, said, “The SAGE product has given Mayflower the opportunity to support a U.S. Navy National Strategic Level Platform and to expand into the next generation of small SWaP NAVWAR GPS Anti-Jam systems. The SAGE ensures we can continue to offer the warfighters the very latest and most efficient technology to support operations in an A2AD Environment”.

Mayflower is working closely with Lockheed Martin Sippican to complete integration and environmental qualification of the SAGE to support the OE-538B program requirements.

October 31, 2016