Tag: Orolia Defense and Security

Orolia’s rescue beacons head to US Army

Latest Orolia Defense & Security personal rescue beacons deliver Cospas-Sarsat second-generation signaling

Photo: DVIDS

Orolia Defense and Security is now shipping its PRSS1b Personnel Recovery Devices to the U.S. Army. The beacon uses a commercial GNSS chipset that can be replaced by SASSM or M-Code-capable receivers depending on customer needs.

Orolia’s PRSS1b PRD provides second-generation Cospas-Sarsat signaling that delivers faster and greater location accuracy than previously fielded tactical location devices.

Photo: Orolia

Cospas-Sarsat is an international, humanitarian search-and-rescue system that uses space-based technology to detect and locate model 406 emergency beacons carried by ships, aircraft or individuals venturing into remote areas, often inaccessible by mobile phone. The system consists of a network of satellites, ground stations, mission control centers (MCCs) and rescue coordination centers (RCCs) that work together when a 406 beacon is activated.

Through collaboration with the Army, Orolia produced a robust, user-friendly and highly reliable device to locate personnel who become isolated, missing, detained or captured.

Orolia conducted a demonstration in October simultaneously on multiple continents, showing its technology working with the worldwide coverage provided by the Cospas-Sarsat infrastructure. The demonstration yielded beneficial data to support the qualification of Orolia’s Personnel Recovery Device and helped inform government stakeholders on the readiness of the second-generation ground and satellite infrastructure.

A U.S. Army HH-60 Black Hawk helicopter lowers a volunteer from Central Washington Mountain Rescue via the hoist system during a training exercise.(Photo: U.S. Army)

Also in October, Orolia received Cospas-Sarsat certification for its Ultima-DT ELT emergency transmitter, designed for use on aircraft. All 406-MHz emergency beacons are digitally coded and transmit distress signals immediately upon activation on a proprietary radio wavelength.

The three main types of 406 distress beacons and the kinds of situations for which each is designed: wilderness, marine and aviation environments. (Image: Cospas-Sarsat)

November 30, 2022
US Air Force procures Orolia’s CRPA testing solution

Orolia Defense & Security, provider of software-defined simulation solutions for navigation warfare, will supply a BroadSim Wavefront to the U.S. Air Force Guided Weapons Evaluation Facility (GWEF). BroadSim Wavefront is an innovative, Skydel-powered advanced GNSS simulator.

The BroadSim Wavefront simulator from Orolia Defense & Security. (Photo: Orolia)

The GWEF provides laboratory testing and simulation tools for developing precision-guided weapon technology, including a comprehensive scope of GPS plus inertial navigation systems (INS) and integrated components such as sensors, signals of opportunity and controlled reception pattern antennas (CRPAs). CRPAs are fundamental in many platforms due to their enhanced protection against electronic attacks in NAVWAR environments.

The Broadsim Wavefront simulator will be integrated into a test environment for networked, collaborative and autonomous weapon systems being developed under the Golden Horde program. Golden Horde is one of four Air Force Vanguard programs designed to rapidly advance emerging weapons systems and warfighting concepts through prototype and experimentation.

Of the several capabilities the GWEF required, features such as low-latency hardware-in-the-loop, automated calibration, and the flexibility to quickly integrate future signals and sensors were the most critical and serve as a key reason Orolia’s BroadSim Wavefront was selected. The system will also be capable of testing eight-element CRPA systems, eight simultaneous fixed radiation pattern antenna systems (FRPA), or a combination of CRPA and FRPA systems.

“When designing BroadSim Wavefront, we re-imagined every aspect for the user,” said Tyler Hohman, director of products for Orolia Defense & Security. “Though the GWEF unit contains eight nodes (corresponding to each antenna element), it can be scaled from four to 16 antenna elements. One of the greatest advancements is our continuous phase monitoring and compensation technique. It automatically monitors, aligns and adjusts the phase of each RF output continuously throughout the duration of a scenario.”

“Gone are the days of re-calibrating each frequency on your system, limiting your scenario duration or re-calibration every time you power cycle your system,” Hohman said. “Simply turn the system on, start the scenario, and your Wavefront system phase aligns and remains aligned for the entirety of the test.”

Leveraging the Skydel Simulation Engine, BroadSim Wavefront also supports high-dynamics, MNSA M-code, alternative RF navigation, open-source inertial measurement unit (IMU) plug-ins and a 1000-Hz iteration update rate.

“Because of the software-defined architecture, many upgrades don’t require additional hardware, which has been a crucial advantage for customers who are already using this solution,” Hohman said.

February 15, 2022
Orolia awarded US defense contract for advanced GPS simulation Suite

The U.S. military selected Orolia Defense and Security to supply multiple BroadSim advanced GPS simulator systems, a contract valued at $1.7 million (USD), in an effort to upgrade testing facilities and field test assets.

The BroadSim Advanced GNSS Simulator (Photo: Orolia)

These new simulator systems will enable better testing of widely deployed military GPS receivers, which are integrated into air and ground-based positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) systems.

BroadSim will be leveraged with Orolia’s Panacea test suite, which the U.S. military uses to conduct automated testing and analysis for PNT system performance and vulnerabilities.

BroadSim will bring versatility to the testing process by supporting diverse test methods and environments such as a laboratory setting, or an over-the-air (OTA) field test event.

BroadSim was selected based on its flexibility to support the ever-changing military tasks at hand, according to Orolia. It can be easily configured to support laboratory testing one day, and field testing the next with its four independent RF outputs, removable drives, and software-defined architecture.

“Equipping our actively deployed warfighters with state-of-the-art technology is of utmost importance and can mean the difference between mission success and failure. To help achieve that goal, Orolia’s GPS testing and simulation solutions ensure that these systems are battlefield ready,” said Tyler Hohman, Orolia Defense and Security’s director of products.

The U.S. military and other federal agencies such as DHS host several test events per year in which industry participates, such as GPS Testing for Critical Infrastructure (GET-CI).

Orolia will host a webinar on this topic on Thursday, July 16, at 2 p.m. EDT, titled “PNT Vulnerability Testing for Critical Infrastructure:Lessons Learned from Defense.”

The federal government considers PNT to be a critical aspect of mission success, as outlined in the C4ISRNET white paper “Protecting the U.S. Military PNT Advantage from GPS Jamming and Spoofing” and defined in the PNT Executive Order. For the 2021 federal fiscal year, the U.S. Army alone budgeted more than $275 million towards Assured PNT Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E), as published in the 2021 Defense Budget.

June 18, 2020