L-3 Communications has announced that its next-generation military code (M-code) GPS user equipment has successfully completed the final step in a government security certification process.
L-3’s M-code GPS features advanced user equipment technology, increasing soldiers’ ability to resist enemy jamming and spoofing and performing significantly better in contested environments. The development and certification of this technology was performed under the Air Force Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) program led by the GPS Directorate within the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) at Los Angeles Air Force Base.
The certification review was performed by an independent government review team, with a focus on the security design of the L-3 GPS user equipment. The goal of these new security standards is to further protect the integrity of the navigation and timing solutions and provide required safeguards for critical information inside GPS user equipment. Work on this project will be done by L-3 Interstate Electronics Corporation (L-3 IEC), which is part of the Precision Engagement & Training sector within L-3’s Electronic Systems business segment.
“We are pleased to be the first DoD contractor to complete security certification for our new M-code GPS user equipment,” said Michael T. Strianese, L-3’s chairman and chief executive officer. “L-3 is ahead of the technology curve, and we are delivering critical innovations that have significant applications inside DoD markets and on several U.S. Army initiatives. Timely delivery of these advancements to the warfighter is essential as they respond to current and emerging threats on the battlefield.”
Based in Anaheim, California, L-3 IEC is provider of positioning, navigation and timing products and solutions and long-term supplier of critical navigation, test instrumentation and missile tracking systems for the U.S. Navy’s Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) weapon systems, including the Trident submarine.
Geodetics Inc.’s newest mobile mapping product, Geo-MMS, is a fully integrated lidar mapping payload for integration with unmanned aerial systems (UAS).
The Geo-MMS includes an inertial navigation system (INS) coupled with a lidar sensor. Raw data from the integrated GPS, inertial measurement unit (IMU) and lidar sensors are recorded on the internal data-recording device and can be post-processed using Geodetics’ lidar tool software package to directly geo-reference the lidar point clouds with LAS-format output. Geo-MMS is available with a wide range of sensors.
Geo-MMS can be used in various applications in both military and commercial industries such as precision agriculture; mining; utilities; asset management; oil; construction and infrastructure inspections; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); sense and avoid; coastal surveillance; and situational awareness.
As a company based in the United States, Geodetics can also accommodate defense SAASM and M-code path requirements.
A new market report focuses military GPS and GNSS devices. The “Global and Chinese Military GPS/GNSS Devices Industry, 2011-2021 Market Research Report” is an in-depth study on the current state of the industry, with a focus on the Chinese market.
The report provides key statistics on the market status of device manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry, according to publisher Wise Guy Reports.
The report provides a basic overview including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure and development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures.
The report states the global market size (volume and value), and the segment markets by regions, types, applications and companies are also discussed.
Market analysis is provided for major regions including the United States, Europe, China and Japan, and other regions can be added. For each region, market size and end users are analyzed as well as segment markets by types, applications and companies.
The report also focuses on global leading industry players with company profiles, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information. Industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.
Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.
In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.
THISR modular kits provide the tools needed to capture the first-person view on the battlefield. (Photo: Bruce Donaldson, THISR team leader, Red Hen Systems)
The Tactical Handheld Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (THISR) by Red Hen Systems is an advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) asset providing a real-time solution to operators and mission teams.
The modular kits provide the tools needed to capture the first-person view on the battlefield. The THISR is a custom integration of cameras, a laser rangefinder, GPS unit and software linked through Red Hen System’s VMS-333 mapping system.
THISR is the integration of three core collection technologies:
Random Access Full Motion Video (RAFMV) with mapping integration
360° immersive rendering
light UAV/UAS
Together, all three technologies provide critical information to the operator for use in planning superior missions, enhancing situational awareness and protecting forces, the company said.
The kits offer near-real-time dissemination and surveillance, and can be integrated with other technologies.
The THISR options.
Mapping system. The VMS-333 encodes multiple geo-referenced sensor metadata records into a single data stream and combines this metadata with photographic and video imagery. Data multiplexing capabilities are available for two different mission types–nadir and oblique ground observation missions.
The nadir mission provides an automated process to create a seamless orthogonal geo-referenced photographic mosaic of the entire flight path that can be used to produce 3D terrain models of the ground below.
The oblique mission provides the functionality to take at-will photographs of ground-based areas of interest from a handheld SLR camera, and geo-reference these photographs with the location of the ground target using coupled laser range finder technology.
It’s getting bigger all the time, GPS/GNSS business. And coming along in its wake, starting to grow like a sproutly little brother, is GPS anti-jamming, to safeguard the signal in various scenarios.
The anti-jamming market for GPS is expected to reach US$4.8 billion in value and 309.2 thousand units in volume by 2022, according to a newly released report by Research and Markets, a Dublin, Ireland-based market research “store.”
Anti-jam technology sales revenue will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.0 percent between 2016 and 2022, while volume goes up 10.1 percent. Major drivers at the moment lie in the military sector, but that could well change in the next decade. The proliferation of low-cost GPS jammers is seeing to that.
Meanwhile, any armed force that puts its faith in guided missiles now feels the acute need for a secured weapons system, something not easy to accomplish. Flight-control applications are especially vulnerable.
North America is the largest and most dynamic sector of the anti-jamming market, given its powerful military and the presence of three top players in the anti-jamming market for GPS: Rockwell Collins Inc. (U.S.), The Raytheon Company (U.S.) and NovAtel Inc. (Canada).
Other companies cited by the report, and given each their own subsection, are Cobham, Mayflower Communications, BAE Systems, Furuno Electric Company, Harris Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Thales Group, Boeing and u-blox.
Breaking down by receiver type, the report studies two major categories: military and government grade, and commercial transportation grade. The market is also analyzed geographically, with sub-sub-subsections devoted to “Threat From North Korea and Disputes With China,” “Dispute in the South China Sea,” and “The Crisis in Syria and Isis.”
Aside from looking — or deriving, more often — numbers according to Anti-Jamming Technique (nulling systems, beam-steering systems and civilian systems), the report does not concern itself overly with technical details. These usually are of little interest to investors, the report’s main target. Thus it will have little of interest for engineers, except for those practicing business development.
A market breakdown by application lists:
flight control
surveillance and reconnaissance
position, navigation and timing
targeting
casualty evacuation
timing installations
logistics tracking
law enforcement
From the Executive Summary:
“The nulling systems type of anti-jamming techniques accounted for a share of 70.0% in 2015; the market was valued at USD 2,180.3 million in the same year and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.7% between 2016 and 2022. The market for beam steering systems was valued at USD 662.8 million in 2015 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period. A major reason for beam steering systems holding such a low market share is that they are comparatively new in the market since the last decades and hence are not widely used. They are very expensive and are used only on high-end military vehicles such as strike aircrafts. For a long time nulling systems was the only known type of GPS anti-jamming technique. However, with the development of beam steering systems and the civilian anti jamming systems, the market for GPS anti-jamming is expected to increase.”
In July, GPS World asked the experts, “What percent of a GNSS designer or manufacturer’s R&D budget should be devoted to mitigation of jamming?”
“Solving for jamming, intentional or unintentional, in the design of any GNSS technology platform is no longer an option. How much any one company spends is largely a function of how much is spent on engineering overall and of how much has already been invested upfront on jamming mitigation. The required level of jamming resistance of any PNT solution also depends very much on the particular application, which in turn influences the budget allocated.”
“GNSS jamming is a growing concern, and an assessment of risks and an element of testing against the most applicable real world threats should be included as part of every developer’s engineering process. Spirent has decades of experience in providing test equipment and services to engineers working to understand and mitigate jamming threats. We have seen increased investment by designers and integrators of PNT systems that are driven to provide robust/resilient solutions to their customers.”
“While some receivers already incorporate jamming protection (e.g., CW excision), more sophisticated methods (for example, against broad-band jamming and spoofing) should be incorporated into perspective products. The percentage of R&D budget depends on a line of business. For manufactures pursuing applications such as military and critical infrastructure, the number can be as high as 50 percent. For many civilian applications a potential impact of jamming is less damaging. Yet, from 10 percent to 20 percent should be still allocated.”
Dual Mode Plus uses inertial guidance with GPS updates to shape flight path for target engagement at desired impact heading and dive angle. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin’s new Dual Mode Plus laser guided bomb (LGB) successfully completed two recent flight tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, California.
The tests demonstrated operation of the new linear optics, GPS/inertial navigation system (INS) guidance subsystem and the control actuation system, meeting all mission objectives.
Released from an F/A-18 Super Hornet, the two Mk-82 (500-lb.) inert warheads, fitted with Dual Mode Plus guidance kits, impacted fixed targets well within operational performance requirements.
“Lockheed Martin’s Dual Mode Plus benefits from the reliability and affordability of the Paveway II Plus LGB system while integrating a GPS/INS, all-weather moving target capability,” said Joe Serra, Precision Guided Systems director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This combination offers a precise and affordable direct attack weapon system to the U.S. and its allies.”
Effective against fixed, relocatable and moving targets, Dual Mode Plus will improve mission effectiveness by providing precision strike capabilities in all-weather conditions at extended standoff ranges.
Dual Mode Plus maintains Paveway II LGB physical dimensions and easily integrates with aircraft employing Paveway II LGBs or other similar direct attack weapons utilizing conventional MIL-STD-1760/1553 or Universal Armament Interfaces.
Lockheed Martin is a qualified provider of all three Paveway II MK-80 series LGB variants (GBU-10 MK-84 [2,000 lb.], GBU-12 MK-82 and GBU-16 MK-83 [1,000 lb.]) and is the sole provider of the Enhanced Laser Guided Training Round and Dual Mode LGB kits.
The company has delivered more than 150,000 training rounds, more than 75,000 Paveway II LGB kits and 7,000 dual-mode systems to the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and 23 international customers.
Rockwell Collins is bringing its NavFire Precision Positioning Service (PPS) GPS to Leonardo-Finmeccanica’s Vulcano family for naval and artillery applications.
NavStrike military GPS offers high performance GPS for tightly coupled GPS/INS integrations.
Derived from the field-proven 12-channel NavFire Precise Positioning Service GPS receiver, Rockwell Collins’ NavStrike military GPS offers high performance GPS for tightly coupled GPS/inertial navigation system (GPS/INS) integrations.
“We have customized the NavFire receivers for the particular caliber of the ammunition, and provided full support to the customer during and after the firing trials,” said Claude Alber, vice president and managing director, Europe, Middle East and Africa for Rockwell Collins. “In the end, our product perfectly matched the demanding performance requirements of our customer.”
The NavFire GPS includes the Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) to allow decryption of precision GPS observations through over-the-air rekeying. The positioning information is used by the guidance system of the projectile.
Nearly 30 years ago, Rockwell Collins assisted the U.S. Air Force in developing GPS technology and that legacy continued when the company created the world’s first all-digital miniature GPS receiver under contract with DARPA. Over the years, Rockwell Collins has produced more than 50 GPS products and delivered more than 1 million GPS receivers for commercial avionics and government applications. This recent GPS contract continues this legacy to create leading edge military navigation solutions.
SeapPort-e, the U.S. Navy’s electronic platform for acquiring support services, has awarded Esri a defense contract for its geographic information system (GIS) technology services. SeaPort-e provides a standardized, efficient means of soliciting services and support from businesses small and large.
This indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract simplifies the acquisition process for the federal government by facilitating multiple task orders for customers without forcing companies to recompete. The SeaPort-e platform acquires support services in 22 functional areas and conducts rolling admissions to encourage small business participation. Nearly 85 percent of SeaPort-e’s contract holders include small businesses.
Esri collaborated with nine small business team members — Aerial Information Systems; APEX Expert Solutions LLC; Geographic Information Services, Inc.; Lynker Technologies, LLC; Metron Incorporated; Orca Maritime, Inc.; Punctuate Systems, Inc.; T3W Business Solutions; and VSolvit LLC — to participate in the contract. Each team member offers expertise that is complementary to Esri’s support program.
Esri is committed to supporting small businesses in their objectives to grow their federal footprint and, earlier this year, launched Federal Small Business Specialty, a partner program to enable that mission.
Partnering with Esri offers many opportunities for small businesses to provide consulting, implementation, and solutions to meet geospatial requirements and provide ArcGIS software related services, Esri said. SeaPort-e will allow Esri to leverage small business partners’ capabilities and also support their growth.
“Our business model is to team up with Esri partners to serve U.S. Navy customers,” said Curt Hammill, Esri navy account executive. “Our goal is to make them both successful. SeaPort-e gives us a new vehicle to do that.”
Esri joins other awardees in providing support to the U.S. Navy across areas such as research and development, systems engineering, modeling and simulation, software engineering, and quality assurance.
Secondary receiver uses eLoran to back up GPS time
Spectracom has been selected to provide Interference, Detection and Mitigation (IDM) capability to its SecureSync precision time and frequency reference system to support Rohde & Schwarz Benelux B.V. and the Netherlands Ministry of Defence for secure long-range military communications systems.
The upgrade, which is based on a secondary receiver that extracts precision timing signals from the eLoran system when GPS signals are not available, will increase the reliability of the overall communication system by further enhancing the resiliency of the precision timing core.
As part of its expanding set of resilient PNT solutions, Spectracom systems synchronize to a variety of precision references whenever and wherever available.
In this deployment, signals from the eLoran system are constantly monitored and act as the primary reference when GNSS signals are not available due to interference or jamming. This new capability supports the goal of a sustainable and reliable network for ongoing global operations.
The modularity of the SecureSync precision time and frequency platform allows customers and integrators to easily and incrementally increase system capabilities, such as multiple reference signals, as they become available.
A networked radio from Thales is designed to meet soldiers’ need for assured positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) while on foot.
The MBITR2 is part of a broader defense effort to provide PNT solutions in case of GPS jamming or interference. The MBITR2 is one of a number of devices and technologies, many still in development, to address this need.
For instance, under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory, Navsys Corporation is testing a network-assisted PNT acquisition algorithm to run on tactical radios such as the MBITR2. The algorithm is designed to provide improved acquisition performance in a GPS jammed environment by leveraging an innovative assisted GPS (A-GPS) architecture where navigation and timing data are shared across the tactical radio network.
The AN/PRC-148B MBITR2 ground tactical handheld radio is small, light and power-efficient. It builds on the legacies of both the earlier narrowband AN/PRC-148 MBITR tactical handheld radio and the wideband AN/PRC-154 tactical handheld radio. It covers the 30–512 MHz frequency range.
When equipped with the MBITR2, dismounted warfighters can connect with the wideband tactical Internet protocol and the voice network via the Soldier Radio Waveform wideband channel, while maintaining contact via the legacy narrowband channel.
The MBITR2 is interoperable with MBITR radios already deployed. More than 200,000 are now in the field, and Thales said the earlier generation radios can be upgraded with a low-risk and cost-effective approach.
Further, the MBITR2 retains compatibility with the existing installed base of ancillaries.
MBITR2 features
Two radios in one
Simultaneous two-channel (narrowband and wideband) operations
Adds a second wideband channel to the AN/PRC-148 to provide networking, data, and video capability
Retains the existing AN/PRC-148 JEM Type-1 capabilities and waveforms
Navsys Corporation received the 2016 James S. Cogswell Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement Award, the highest honor the Defense Security Service (DSS) presents to cleared industry partners, for its facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Founded in 1986 by Alison Brown, NAVSYS has assisted other small businesses, including partner GPS Source, in establishing security programs for GPS products.
The company conducts research and development on global navigation technologies and specializes in GPS hardware design, systems engineering, systems analysis and software design for government and commercial customers.
GammaTech Computer Corp.is offering a new all-in-one computer, the Durabook V10BB. The unit is a highly customizable, ultra-rugged, all-in-one computer designed specifically for military and homeland security applications.
The unit is compliant with multiple military standards and IP67 specification to meet extremely harsh conditions while providing highly reliable CCCI and battle management capabilities.
The V10BB can be tailored to meet specific applications or requirements through optional military connectors, programmable function buttons, and various military I/O interfaces.
“When it comes to engineering and manufacturing computer devices that can withstand the most hostile, toughest military applications, GammaTech stands head and shoulders above the competition,” said Tom Wang, GammaTech president. “The rugged Durabook V10BB all-in-one computer provides our military and homeland defense personnel with the accuracy, efficiency, reliability, and durability they deserve and need, whether in actual combat or preparing for it.”
The Durabook V10BB is compliant with multiple military standards, including:
MIL-STD-461F for control of electromagnetic interference (EMI)
MIL-STD-810G for vibration, water, temperature, shock and dust proofing
MIL-STD-1250 for corrosion prevention and deterioration control
MIL-STD-1275 for military ground vehicles (Optional)
Because of its functionality and safety features, the Durabook V10BB is designed for combat or non-combat military operations in extremely harsh environments.
Other key features of the Durabook V10BB include:
Multi-function display withspecial night mode; and optical bonding with EMI mesh to optimize direct sunlight readability
Intel Broadwell MCP processor which supports both 4 GB or 8 GB onboard memory and a 2.5-inch wide temperature 500-GB SATA SSD
