DECEMBER 2018

RELEVANT. TRUSTED.
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES.

2018
Innovation
Awards
Defense and aerospace
electronics companies
recognized for
technology innovation
and achievement. PAGE 6

Secure data
storage
Designers and systems
integrators struggle
with keeping data
secure in proliferating
networked
devices. PAGE 22

militaryaerospace.com

Military organizes
for cyber warfare
U.S. warfighters work
aggressively to protect
military computers
and networks. PAGE 16

1812MAE_c1-c2_c4.indd 1 12/5/18 12:03 PM

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 DECEMBER 2018
VOL. 29, NO.12

I S S I ON
M I C AL
2 TRENDS
I T
CR ICES
4 NEWS
DEV
4 IN BRIEF

6 INNOVATORS AWARDS
2018 Military & Aerospace Technology
Innovation Awards announced for
DC-DC
aerospace and defense achievement Converters
AC-DC
COvER STORY 

16
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Military & Aerospace Electronics® (ISSN 1046-9079), Volume 29, No. 12. Military & Aerospace Electronics is published 12 times a year, monthly by PennWell® Corporation, www.picoelectronics.com
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www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 2018 1

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1812MAE01.indd 1 12/5/18 12:05 PM

 trends BY JOHN KELLER, EDITOR IN CHIEF 

Western Pacific is becoming a dense

concentration of unmanned surveillance assets
It’s getting crowded in the Western Although less visible, the U.S. Navy unmanned reconnaissance assets in
Pacific. is deploying a variety of unmanned the Western Pacific. Japan and South Ko-
Military rivalries along China’s coast maritime vehicles, including un- rea are about to get into the game, too.
are transforming the region into a rare manned submarines like the Gener- In December 2014 the Republic of Ko-
concentration of military unmanned al Dynamics Knifefish, as well as un- rea placed a $657.4 million order with
vehicle technology, as global powers manned underwater gliders that can Northrop Grumman through the U.S.
China and the United States, as well as cover vast distances with minimal on- Air Force for four RQ-4B Block 30 Glob-
regional powers like Japan and South board power. al Hawk long-range UAVs. It reportedly
Korea, step up their long-range surveil- Two years ago China’s navy captured was the first sale of the unmanned air-
lance capabilities in the air and at sea. a U.S. unmanned underwater glider in craft to an allied nation in the Asia Pa-
The South China Sea and East Chi- the South China Sea. The UUV, which cific region under the Foreign Military
na Sea, north and south of Taiwan, the Pentagon said was operating law- Sales process. Deliveries could start as
represent serious global military flash fully and was clearly marked as U.S. early as this year.
points as China expands its military property, was collecting data about the In addition, and just this month, the
forces into international waters, builds salinity, temperature, and clarity of the government of Japan placed a $489.9
modern aircraft carriers, boosts an- water about 50 nautical miles north- million order with Northrop Grum-
ti-aircraft and anti-ship defenses, and west of Subic Bay, Philippines, when man, also through the Air Force, for
maintains its potential threats against it was taken. three RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 30i long-
Taiwan. It’s likely this unmanned underwa- range surveillance UAVs. Global Hawk
As a result, the U.S. is stepping-up ter craft was gathering more informa- deliveries to Japan could start by 2022.
its freedom-of-navigation operations at tion than just water salinity, tempera- The Global Hawk is a serious UAV.
sea and in the air, with frequent mil- ture, and clarity, although the UUV’s It’s big — 47.6 feet long, with a wing-
itary overflights of the region — in- precision mission almost certainly is span of 130.9 feet. It can fly as high as
cluding flights by strategic bombers classified. It most likely had to do with 60,000 feet, can carry surveillance sen-
like the B-1 and B-52, as well as by stra- helping keep the military balance in sor payloads as heavy as 3,000 pounds,
tegic reconnaissance planes like the the region. China reportedly returned and can fly for as long as 32 hours on
P-8A Poseidon. the UUV after examining it. one load of fuel. They also cost upwards
U.S. military forces also are keep- This is probably not the last inci- of $150 million apiece.
ing a close eye on the region with dent of its kind, as use of unmanned With heavy iron like the Global
the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Glob- surveillance equipment only can be- Hawk deployed by several different
al Hawk and MQ-4C Triton long-range come more widespread. China, also, re- nations in the region, the Western Pa-
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as portedly is increasing its military use cific is bound to get more tense, more
well as with manned surveillance air- of unmanned aircraft and submarines unstable, and more dangerous. Not to
craft like the Poseidon — a militarized to keep tabs on the region. be a pessimist, but this is the kind of
Boeing 737 passenger jet modified for As time goes on, moreover, it won’t environment where things easily and
maritime patrol missions. be just the U.S. and China operating quickly could get out of control. 

2 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE02-03.indd 2 12/5/18 12:03 PM

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6/22/18 12:03 PM
2:22 PM
 news
Navy asks Lockheed Military researchers seek to
Martin to build additional
Trident II D5 submarine- counter threats from enemy
launched nuclear missiles
Strategic weapons experts at Lockheed Martin
hypersonic missiles and aircraft
Corp. will build additional UGM-133A Trident BY John Keller
II D5 submarine-launched ballistic nuclear mis- This effort asks the U.S. defense
siles and support deployed D5 atomic weap- ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. military research- industry for innovative proposals in
ons under terms of two orders announced ers are kicking off a project to develop counter-hypersonics to advance U.S.
Friday collectively worth $90.4 million. enabling technologies to counter the means to counter hypersonic vehicles.
Officials of the U.S. Navy Strategic Systems growing threat of enemy hypersonic It will develop and demonstrate an ad-
Programs (SSP) office in Washington are ask- missiles and aircraft. vanced interceptor able to engage en-
ing the Lockheed Martin Space Systems seg- Officials of the U.S. Defense Ad- emy maneuvering hypersonic threats
ment in Sunnyvale, Calif., to provide new pro- vanced Research Projects Agen- in the upper atmosphere.
curement of Trident II (D5) missile production cy (DARPA) in Arling-
and D5 deployed systems support. One order ton, Va., issued a broad
is worth $41.3 million, and the second order agency announcement
is worth $49.1 million. Over the past eight in November for the
months Lockheed Martin received contracts Glide Breaker program
and orders collectively worth $139.3 million to counter enemy hy-
for Trident II D5 missiles and support. Over personic vehicles — or
the same period the Charles Stark Draper those that can fly fast-
Laboratory Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., won a er than five times the
$58.6 million order for Trident D5 MK 6 guid- speed of sound.
ance system production. Top U.S. military
leaders over the past
Here’s what you need to year have voiced their
know about America’s alarm about Chinese
new defense Titan and Russian projects
Military researchers have turned their attention to defending
Harris Corp. and L-3 Technologies are plan- to develop hyperson- against enemy hypersonic missiles and aircraft, which can
ning to come together in hopes of better ic missiles and aircraft. travel as fast as five times the speed of sound.
competing against the much larger primes. Hypersonic missiles
Two years ago Harris completed its acquisi- particularly would be useful to attack DARPA officials will choose one con-
tion of Exelis Inc. On Oct. 14 Harris and L-3 large U.S. surface warships like air- tractor for Glide Breaker, which will car-
said they would combine in an all-stock deal craft carriers. ry out a system requirements review,
that would create a $33.5 billion defense The DARPA Glide Breaker project preliminary design review, critical de-
electronics company. L-3 Technologies CEO will develop an enabling technology sign review, and test readiness review
Chris Kubasik said the deal would move the critical for an advanced interceptor to counter enemy hypersonics.
two companies closer to becoming an “inno- capable of defeating hypersonic vehi- The winning contractor will devel-
vative non-traditional 6th Prime,” though cles, DARPA officials say. Key aspects op requirements, define a design, man-
the company would still fall well short of of the project are classified, and only age risk, mature enabling technologies,
industry leaders Lockheed Martin, General proposals addressing the classified as- develop requirements, develop a con-
Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, pects of Glide Breaker will be eligible ceptual design, develop software, con-
for funding. duct trade studies, and analyze costs.

4  D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICSwww.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE04-05.indd 4 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 If the Glide Breaker program makes BAA Website at https://baa.darpa.mil. and Boeing in annual sales. Each company
sufficient progress to warrant proto- Email questions or concerns to DARPA focused on military electronics and communi-
typing and other advanced develop- at HR001119S0008@darpa.mil.  cations. Both have been pushing to increase
ment, DARPA may release additional the amount of business they do directly with
solicitations next year. Companies in- More information is online at https://www.fbo. the Pentagon instead of subcontracting, with
terested should submit proposals no gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/HR001119S0008/list- Harris focused on battlefield management,
later than 21 Dec. 2018 to the DARPA ing.html. aircraft communications, and increasing its
classified space work and L-3 making a range
of sensors and night-vision equipment and
developing unmanned vessels.
Northrop Grumman to blend radar
and electro-optical sensors Army set sights on
sophisticated vetronics
BY John Keller and technology for future
main battle tanks
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio — Military sen- for ways to reduce radar’s effectiveness
sors experts at the Northrop Grum- — especially at long ranges, Air Force Could there be a lightweight armored combat
man Corp. Mission Systems segment researchers explain. PRECISE seeks to vehicle able to speed across bridges, deploy
in Linthicum, Md., will help U.S. Air improve radar signal processing and quickly from the air, detect enemies at very
Force researchers enhance the effec- fuse other sensors with radar to break long ranges, control nearby robots and fire
tiveness of long-range surveillance ambiguities and improve confidence in the most advanced weapons in the world–
radar by blending-in electro-optical declaring targets at long ranges. all while maintaining the unprecedented
technologies like visi- The project pri- protection and survivability of an Abrams
ble-light, infrared, mul- marily will develop tank? Just what, exactly, should future light
tispectral, and hyper- enabling technolo- main battle tanks look like? “I believe that a
spectral sensors. gies that advance complete replacement of the Abrams would
Officials of the Air combat identifica- not make sense, unless we had a break-
Force Research Labora- tion for warfight- through ... with much lighter armor which
tory at Wright-Patterson ers, and will fo- allows us to re-architect the vehicle,” Col.
Air Force Base, Ohio, have cus on radar-based Jim Schirmer, program manager for the Next
announced a $16.5 mil- identification of air Generation Combat Vehicle, said last month
lion contract to Northrop Northrop Grumman is helping the and ground targets at the Association of the United States Army
Grumman for the Preci- U.S. Air Force enhance long- for reconnaissance Annual Symposium in Washington. Newer
sion Real Time Engage- range surveillance radar by and surveillance lightweight armor composites, active protec-
ment Combat Identifica- blending-in electro-optical sensor aircraft. tion systems, and next-generation vetronics
tion Sensor Exploitation technologies. Promising en- may not evolve fast enough to address the
(PRECISE) project. abling technologies most advanced emerging threats. The Next
PRECISE seeks not only to fuse sever- developed in the PRECISE program may Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) program,
al different RF and electro-optical sen- be integrated onto a surveillance air- which has been moved forward by nearly a
sors, but also to enhance current radar craft for flight demonstration.  decade, could likely evolve into a family of
technologies through signal process- vehicles and will have unmanned technology.
ing, alternative bandwidths, and sim- For more information contact Northrop Grum- Any new tank will be engineered with addi-
ilar approaches. man Mission Systems online at www.northrop- tional space for automotive systems, people
Radar has been used for decades, yet grumman.com, or the Air Force Research Lab- and ammunition. 
potential U.S. adversaries are looking oratory at www.wpafb.af.mil/afrl.

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 2018 5

1812MAE04-05.indd 5 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 2018 Military & Aerospace Technology
Innovation Awards announced for
aerospace and defense achievement
BY Mil & Aero staff non-volatile memory express (NVMe)
solid-sate drives. Drives are installed
NASHUA, N.H. — Military & Aerospace Electronics and In- onto removable memory blades, each
telligent Aerospace today announced their 2018 Tech- with a maximum capacity of 32 tera-
nology Innovation Awards to recognize companies of- bytes, allowing for quick offloading of
fering substantial military, aerospace, and avionics data for post mission analysis.
design solutions.
Awards are in three tiers — ranging from plati-
num, the highest, to the gold awards, and finally to the silver awards — and
are based on the recommendations of an independent panel of industry judges.

The ATmegaS64M1 AVR microcontrol- The ADRV9008/9 from Analog Devic-

ler (MCU) from Microchip Technology es in Norwood, Mass., is an integrated, The HSR40 high-speed network-attached
Inc. in Chandler, Ariz., brings the AVR radio frequency (RF) agile transceiv- storage (NAS) data recorder from the
core with CAN databus capabilities to er offering dual transmitters and re- Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solutions
the aerospace industry. It is designed ceivers, integrated synthesizers, and Division in Ashburn, Va.
for enhanced radiation, extended tem- digital signal processing. With a turn-
peratures, and increased reliability in ing range from 75 MHz to 6 GHz, it of- The LP360 rugged connector from
critical aerospace applications, and fers wide bandwidth and high perfor- Fischer Connectors in St-Prex, Switzer-
comes with CAN controller, power mance in single-chip TDD solution for land, is for dismounted soldier systems,
stage controller, A/D and D/A control- communications, aerospace and de- to enable foot soldiers to share infor-
ler, and analog comparators. fense, and electronic test & measure- mation in real time. It connects and
ment applications. powers electronic devices body-worn
The HSR40 high-speed network-at- by soldiers, and is an integral part of
tached storage (NAS) data recorder from the Fischer intelligent vest, based on a
the Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solu-
tions Division in Ashburn, Va., offers 40
Gigabit Ethernet handling the incom-
ing data, with dual Xeon D processors
and two built-in 40 Gigabit Ethernet in-
terfaces. The processors can absorb the
incoming data and redirect it to the per-
sistent storage media, using third-gen-
The ATmegaS64M1 AVR microcontroller eration PCI Express. Data pipelines over The LP360 rugged connector from Fischer
(MCU) from Microchip Technology Inc. the backplane to the PCI Express-based Connectors in St-Prex, Switzerland.
6 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE06-15.indd 6 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 shared data and power bus with wiring other applications where radiation ex-
on the inside, one central battery for all, posure may occur, including high-alti-
and connectors that work as a hub in- tude aircraft, airborne weapons, and
terface at strategically chosen locations. mission-critical ground computing sys-
The VPX Backplane Probe Card Test Fixture
The ATS-6100 WFT wire fault test and from Elma Electronic in Fremont, Calif. tems. TRRUST-Stor VPX RT SSD includes
measurement system from Astronics Test advanced BuiltSECURE error-correction
Systems Inc. in East Aurora, N.Y., is de- Simics from Wind River Systems in Al- algorithms paired with large geometry
signed to detect existing and potential ameda, Calif., is simulation software industrial-grade single-level cell (SLC)
wire faults and help extend the life of that provides the access, automation, NAND flash memory.
aging military or civil aircraft, ships, and collaboration to enable agile and The S1U-MD Cyclone 1U rack-mount
ground vehicles, and other high-vi- continuous development practices. By multi-domain rugged computer system
bration equipment where operation- using virtual platforms and simulation, from General Micro Systems (GMS) in
al failure would be catastrophic. It de- aerospace and defense software devel- Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is two com-
tects hard and soft faults in a handheld, opers can decouple their work from plete Intel Xeon-based rugged com-
self-contained tablet, and eliminates physical hardware and its limitations puter server subsystems, each with as
the need to terminate the opposite end during development. Software develop- many as 18 cores. The server subsys-
of the cable for testing, limiting human ers use Simics to simulate nearly any- tems are packaged together, but elec-
interaction and leaving cables undis- thing from a single chip to complete trically isolated, including their sepa-
turbed in the system. systems and networks. Simics can run rate power supplies and APUs. Cyclone
The S402-SW Tiger from General Micro unmodified target software. is intended for military and aerospace
Systems in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., Red/Black networks that also require
is a mobile battlefield data center that storage-such as found on platforms
provides server-class performance in a with SIPR/NIPR networks.
ruggedized, conduction-cooled system. The Axon Miniature Data Acquisi-
Developed for the U.S. Army’s Product tion Unit from the Curtiss-Wright Corp.
Manager Mine Resistant Ambush Pro- Defense Solutions Division in Ashburn,
tected Vehicle Systems (PdM MRAP VS) Va., is an ultra-compact and lightweight
the S402-LC/SW is sealed and operates The TRRUST-Stor VPX Radiation-Tolerant data acquisition system that works as a
Solid-State Drive from Mercury Systems in
in temperatures from -40 to 85 degrees remote node or as a stand-alone chassis.
Andover, Mass.
Celsius with no fans required. Axon uses a 1-gigabit-per-second serial
The VPX Backplane Probe Card Test The TRRUST-Stor VPX Radiation-Toler- backplane to support high data rates.
Fixture from Elma Electronic in Fremont, ant Solid-State Drive from Mercury Sys- This design also enables designers to
Calif., enables characterization of dif- tems in Andover, Mass., is a commer- place off-the-shelf data acquisition
ferential VPX backplane channels be- cial solid-state drive (SSD) engineered modules in ultra-miniature “Axonite”
tween any two points on any 3U or for harsh operating environments us- housings and locate them remotely.
6U VPX backplane. It was designed for ing SpaceVPX standards. Although de- It helps decrease the installation time
use on backplanes intended to support signed for commercial satellite appli- and cost of the instrumentation while
high speed signaling protocols such as cations, the device also can adapt to simultaneously reducing wiring weight.
PCI Express 2.1, InfiniBand DDR, Serial
Rapid IO 2.2, PCI Express 3.0, Ethernet
10GBASE-KR, InfiniBand QDR, or In-
finiBand FDR. The platform compris- SystemLink from National Instruments and measurement systems. System-
es three elements: a set of probe cards, Corp. in Austin, Texas, is software that Link improves operational efficiency
a mechanical test fixture and a cali- enables engineering teams to connect, and system uptime by providing a cen-
bration card. manage, and optimize automated test tralized web application for automating

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 2018 7

1812MAE06-15.indd 7 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 tasks such as systems deployment and is for low size, weight, and power (SWaP) The SR429/4D NEXSYS ARINC 429
management, test monitoring, and data applications for advanced military ar- Multi-bit Decoder from Applied Avi-
analysis and reporting. SystemLink im- mored vehicles. It is housed in a wa- onics Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas, can
proves configuration compliance by ter-tight enclosure and designed to meet provide a binary decode of several
discovering system settings and pa- MIL-STD-810F environmental standards, data bits from one ARINC 429 data
rameters and enabling remote config- EMI requirements of MIL-STD-461F, and label. The SR429/4D is configurable
uration and diagnostics functions. the 28-volt vehicle requirements of MIL- with either 2x4 or 3x8 decode capa-
The Gallium Nitride (GaN) field effect STD-1275E. It weighs 115 pounds and can bilities in less than 1 cubic inch of
transistor (FET) power supply solution accommodate U.S. Army counter-UAS space. It offers configuration options
from Renesas Electronics Corp. in To- technology needs. for ARINC transmission speed, dis-
kyo comprises the Intersil ISL70040SEH crete output type, handling of SDI
GaN FET driver and ISL70023SEH and bits, and parity checking. Optionally,
ISL70024SEH GaN FETs to provide pow- the SR429/4D can be configured with
er to ferrite switch drivers, motor con- fail-sense circuitry that can simulta-
trol driver circuits, heater control mod- neously monitor the operation of the
ules, embedded command modules, signal converter.
100- and 28-volt power conditioning, The RACE0161 AV/Unmanned Driving
and redundancy switching systems in Solution from Crystal Group Inc. in Hi-
satellites and launch vehicles. The Gallium Nitride (GaN) field effect awatha, Iowa, is a high-performance,
The CTA803 AC-DC power supply from transistor (FET) power supply solution from rugged embedded autonomous vehicle
Aegis Power Systems Inc. in Murphy, N.C., Renesas Electronics Corp. in Tokyo. computer that harnesses modern com-
mercial off-the-shelf (COTS) compo-
nents stabilized in a rugged, compact
Hflgflfly flflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflfl enclosure constructed of aircraft-grade

afld IP flouflflflfl aluminum to streamline and speed

the development and deployment of
safe, robust, and reliable autonomous
and unmanned vehicles and systems.
A turnkey system, it helps overcome
common challenges related to power
and thermal management, size and
weight, reliability, harsh elements and
extreme environments, and an up-
grade path to accommodate future
Stay ahead with needs and technologies.
IC proven solutions The D2D-34S ATR chassis from Atrenne
Computing Solutions in Brockton, Mass.,
Ext•n•iv• r•ng• •f •U/•U supports the development-to-deploy-
high•p•rf•r••n•• p••tf•r•• ment program (D2D) life cycle, maxi-
d••ign•d t• •••t y•ur •riti••• •pp•i••ti•n• n••d•• mizing use of COTS components for
development and demonstration with
upgradeability for deployment, for re-
duced risk, reduced schedule, and re-
www•int•rf•••••n••pt•••• duced costs. This approach allows the
product to use the same platform to
P••••• ••nt••t E••• E•••tr•ni• In•• f•r furth•r inf•r••ti•n •n th••• pr•du•t•
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gram life cycle.

8  
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICSwww.militaryaerospace.com

IntCon_MAE_1812 1 11/8/18 4:55 PM

1812MAE06-15.indd 8 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 The QPD1025L 1800-Watt (P3dB) dis- VITA 62 compliant power supplies, and processing unit (GPU), rendering purely
crete gallium nitride on silicon carbide high support for air- and conduction-cooled in software, to eliminate the need for
electron mobility transistor power IC from modules. a GPU. This results in less hardware,
Qorvo in Greensboro, N.C., is for identi- The BuiltSAFE GS Software Multi-Core less complexity, and lower certifica-
fication friend-or-foe (IFF) systems, avi- Graphics Renderer from Mercury Systems tion costs for many applications. The
onics, and test instrumentation. It op- in Andover, Mass., is for safety-criti- high-performance safety-certifiable
erates from 1.0 to 1.1 GHz., and input cal applications, and enables advanced rendering engine is for applications
prematch within the package results in graphics on devices without a graphics ranging from avionics, to automotive
ease of external board match and saves
board space. The device is in an indus-
try standard air cavity package, and can
support CW and pulsed operations.
The ZM3 enterprise-class small-form-
factor mission computer from Zmicro Inc.
in San Diego is for space-constrained
applications such as manned and un-
manned airborne intelligence, sur-
veillance, and reconnaissance. It is
equipped with an NVIDIA Quadro P6000
graphics processing unit (GPU) accel-
erator, and comes in a rugged design
that’s about the size of a shoebox and
weighs nine pounds. This lightweight
computer packs in a 16-Core Intel Xeon
D processor, three PCI Express expan-
sion slots, as many as two removable
storage drives and double-wide COTS
high-end graphics cards. It provides
the capabilities of a rackmount serv-
er in a fraction of the size and weight.
The OpenVPX CMOSS Convergence De-
velopment Platform from Elma Electronic
Inc. in Fremont, Calif., is a complete test
environment that supports OpenVPX
embedded computing application de-
velopment where compliance with the
hardware convergence requirements of
Development to Deployment
the military CMOSS (C4ISR/EW Modular
Elma has the products and experience to help you
Open Suite of Standards) initiative is the
through every step of system realization.
goal. At the heart of the system is Elma’s
12-slot CMOSS backplane, with 12 pay-
loads and two power supply slots. The With you at every stage!
backplane features high-speed RF and
optical I/O connectivity. The platform in-
cludes OpenVPX computer and network- Elma Electronic Inc. elma.com
ing modules, support for IEEE1588 preci-
sion timing, dual high-wattage pluggable

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   9

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 displays. Data items required to achieve as FPGA, processor, passive devices, vol- for Linux and VxWorks operating sys-
the highest levels of safety certification atile memory, and nonvolatile memory, tems, and a BuiltSECURE foundation for
are available. in addition to more specialized compo- system security engineering support.
The VPX3-1260 3U VPX 8th Gen Intel nents. It can replicate the capabilities of The Apex rugged server from Gen-
Xeon E-2176M single-board computer a custom ASIC for embedded security, eral Micro Systems is for today’s ener-
from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, and supports analog-to-digital convert- gy-conscious data center, where effi-
offers a leap in performance over pre- ers and digital-to-analog converters for cient server design pays big total cost
vious generations of Core i7 and Xeon applications where RF inputs must be of ownership dividends by balancing
processors in the smallest 3U form fac- digitized and processed. It can be de- power consumption, performance, and
tor. Leveraging Intel’s first-ever six- ployed for ground platforms, aircraft, shelf/floor space. Apex combines mil-
core processor, the VPX3-1260 is de- unmanned vehicles, naval vessels, and itary reliability, security, and SWaP
signed to deliver more than 50 percent weapons that may inadvertently fall into a rackmount server. A 22-inch
more processing power than previous into the hands of an enemy who de- 2U short rack modular blade serv-
for-core designs. The VPX3-1260 of- sires to reverse engineer the architec- er system is designed for subsystem
fers 10-Gigabit and 40-Gigabit Ethernet ture to exploit this technology against modularity, maximum performance
connectivity for fast data transfer and our military forces. at 8-gigabit-per-second speeds, flex-
high network productivity. It has a lo- The EnsembleSeries LDS3517 3U AI ible add-in, and add-on options — all
cal NVMe local solid-state drive, and is OpenVPX blade with BuiltSECURE tech- based upon VPX interconnects. Apex
built to VITA 47 standards. It provides nology from Mercury Systems is a 3U can replace as much as 17U of equip-
high non-throttling performance, and OpenVPX single-board computer pow- ment in a 2U height. Add-in I/O is avail-
offers Intel’s latest Trusted Comput- ered by an eight-core Intel Xeon D pro- able ranging from M.2 and XMC, to U.2
ing features, such as Intel Boot Guard cessor with FPGA co-processing, Eth- and PCI Express. An internal four-slot
and UEFI Secure Boot, and offers Intel ernet fabrics, and mezzanine site. It and external two-slot x16 PCI Express
Software Guard Extensions (SGX) for offers a PCI Express data and expan- chassis support GPGPU deep learning
secured run-time software enclaves. sion plane for high speed I/O or mod- and supercomputing modules from
The Rugged Video Gateway Range ule interconnect, dual 10 Gigabit Eth- AMD and Nvidia, or FPGA and ASIC
product family from Curtiss-Wright De- ernet control plane interfaces, support coprocessors.
fense Solutions provides a flexible build-
ing block for complex video management
and integration. It’s interoperable with
the Curtiss-Wright RVG range enabling The Modest3D software suite from packages one Intel Xeon scalable pro-
complex, scalable, solutions. For exam- Modest Tree in Halifax, Nova Scotia, cessor socket with as many as 28 cores
ple, the format converter can combine is designed for the rapid creation of in a 15-pound subrack. An optional
in a video management system with the 3D and virtual reality training solu- FAA-compliant UPS power case pro-
RVG-SD1 digital video switch and/or the tions. It includes the Modest3D Editor vides more than 100 minutes of auton-
RVG-SA1 analog video switch. Other el- and Modest3D Xplorer content develop- omous operation. The SWaP-optimized
ements are available for configuring a ment tools. Modest3D Editor helps cre- RESmini meets military specifications
complete VMS — include rugged LCD ate advanced 3D applications for task and brings next-generation integrated
touchscreen mission displays, and dig- training. Modest3D Xplorer helps cre- enterprise-class server technology to
ital HD video recorders. ate immersive product presentations mission-critical military, industrial,
The BuiltSECURE System-in-Package rapidly, as well as realistic virtual re- and commercial applications.
(SiP) Secure Processor from Mercury Sys- ality training without coding. The OpenVPX System Manager from
tems incorporates several types of de- The RESmini XR6 rugged enter- Elma Electronic monitors the health of an
vices — typically memory and a pro- prise-class server from Mercury Sys- OpenVPX chassis and its boards, reports
cessor — in one package. Mercury’s tems is a tactical cloud that can host anomalies, and takes any necessary cor-
BuiltSECURE SiP technology incorpo- sensitive missions in theater and op- rective action. It maintains an invento-
rates several discrete components, such erate on almost any power source. It ry of the components and sensors in the

10 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE06-15.indd 10 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 chassis and receives event reports and module bays that accommodate sev- X-Band radar applications within the
failure notices from boards as well as en to 12 single- and double-slot mod- 8.5-to-10.5 GHz range. The MMIC com-
any intelligent field replaceable units in ules, which function in a plug-and- bines a T/R switch, low-noise amplifi-
the chassis. It negotiates power needs play fashion and can be mixed and er, and a power amplifier. The receive
before powering up, and uses E-Keying matched according to application path offers 25 dB gain with a low noise
to instruct the boards only to enable needs. It is designed for applications figure of 2.2 dB. The transmit path has
compatible links, reducing improper that require minimum size, weight, a small signal gain of 33 dB, delivers 3
board insertions. Monitoring features and power (SWaP) for standardized Watts of saturated power with a PAE
include power management, cooling compute, storage, PCI Express expan- of 32 percent, and has 25 dB of large
control, event sensor logging, electron- sion, networking, and management signal gain. The FEM is robust up to
ic keying, and card hot-swap monitor- modules. Users can mix more than 2 Watts of input power into the ANT
ing. A Web server interface provides a five module types, each sharing com- port eliminating the need for a limiter.
graphical representation of the chas- mon attributes to enable users to plug The QPM1002 is fabricated on Qorvo’s
sis. Complete sensor information can and pull modules according to specif- QGaN25 0.25-micron GaN-on-SiC pro-
be obtained with a mouse click on the ic system needs. cess. It is packaged in an over-mold en-
image of the FRU to query. The Qorvo QPM1002 from Qorvo in capsulated 5-by-5-millimeter QFN sur-
The Themis HDversa Computing Plat- Greensboro, N.C., is a gallium nitride face-mount package, and performs well
form from Mercury Systems has 12 MMIC front-end module designed for in a high temperature environment. 

2018 Innovation Awards

RELIABILITY IN THE MOST

RUGGED ENVIRONMENTS
Next-gen wire fault testing
with the ATS-6100 WFT
• Precise isolation of hard and soft faults
• Patented low energy, high voltage (LEHV) and spread
spectrum time domain reflectometer (SSTDR) technologies
• Configurable Windows-based software

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TEST SOLUTIONS ELEVATING performance

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 2018 11

AstTesREV_MAE_1812 1 CurWri_MAE_1812
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 2018 Innovation Awards

Precision VPX Backplane 1U Rugged Rack Mount Server with

Channel Characterization for Two Fully Isolated Domain
Optimal System Performance The S1U-MD “Cyclone” is a unique ultra-rugged, 1U
Elma’s VPX Backplane Probe Card Test Fixture enables rack-mount, lightweight multi-domain server system is
electrical characterization of differential signal channels designed to provide two fully-independent and isolated
across card slots between any two high-performance Intel® Xeon® E5 v4 servers, 26 Ethernet
points on 3U or 6U VPX ports, dual add-in PCIe cards, as well as two sets of four
backplanes. It is a removable SAS/SATA/NVMe drives—all in 1U height.
development tool used by
Elma to provide extremely
precise signal measure-
ments, repeatability,
mechanical robustness
and ease of use during
critical VPX channel characterization for systems in high
performance ISR applications.

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ElmaEleSCRev_MAE_1812 1 GenMic1_MAE_1812
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Rugged, Fully Sealed, Intel ®

Xeon® E5 CPU Server with

Removable Drive(s) and Switch
The S402-SW “Tiger” is a third-generation, fan-less
(conduction-cooled) fully rugged, low cost Intel® Xeon® E5
server. It is designed to provide the highest level of server-
class performance possible in a fully ruggedized, conduction-
cooled system, operating up to -40° C to +85° C.

www.gms4sbc.com

12  
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICSwww.militaryaerospace.com
GenMic2_MAE_1812 1 11/28/18 4:49 PM
MerTrrust_MAE_1812 1 11/19/18 2:09 PM

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 ARINC 429 Multi-Bit Binary Atrenne’s D2D-34S ATR
Decoder, 1 Cubic Inch Supports Lab Development
Tfifi ARfifiC 429 Mfifififi-Bfifi Bfififififi Dfifififififi (fiR429/4D) fififi AND Rugged Deployment
fififivfififi fi fifififi fifififififi fifififififi fififi fifi fifi fififififi fifififi fifififi fi The D2D-34S ATR chassis from Atrenne Computing
fifififififi ARfifiC 429 fifififi fififififi, fififivfififififi fi fififififififififi fifififififififi Solutions in Brockton, Mass. supports the development-
fifififififi fififi fifififi fifififififififi fififififififi fifi fifififififi fi 2x4 fifi 3x8 to-deployment program (D2D) life cycle, maximizing use of
fififififi fififififi. Tfifi fififififi fifififi fifififififi fifi fififi fiR429/4D fifififiwfi COTS components for development and demonstration with
fififi fififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififi upgradeability for deployment, for reduced risk, reduced
fiwfifififi fifi fiEXfiYfifi Mfififififi. Tfifi fififififififi fifi fifififififififi, fifififififi schedule, and reduced costs. This approach allows the
fififi qfififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififi customer to use the same platform from lab and software
fifivfifififififififififi fifiqfififififififififi fifi DO-160. development to the release in the final mission application.

www.appliedavionics.com/mae www.atrenne.com

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11/28/18 4:43 PM 1 11/27/18 3:43 PM

Modular 2U Short Rack,

Complete Server/Switch/NAS/
Flex VPX™/GPGPU expansion
Thfl S2U “Aflflfl” flfl fl rflvflfluflflflflflry 2U flhflrfl rflck (22flflflch)
mflfluflflr flflflflfl flflrvflr flyflflflm flflflflgflflfl fflr fluflflyflflflm
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(8 Gflflfl)fl flflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflfl
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SERVER FOR UAV SYSTEMS.

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www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   13

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 2018 Innovation Awards

MerSafe_MAE_1812 1 11/19/18 2:01 PM

MerLDS3517_MAE_1812 1 11/19/18 2:16 PM

World’s Highest Power GaN-on-SiC SMALLER. LIGHTER. FASTER.

RF Transistor for Avionics
Qfifififi’fi QPD1025L fifi fihfi fififififi’fi hfifihfififi pfifififi fififififififi
fififififififi fifi fififififififi fififififififi fiGfiNfifififiSfiCfi Rfi fififififififififififi
Opfififififififi fififih 1fi8KW fifi 65 fififififi, fihfi QPD1025 fifififififififi fihfi
fififififififififififi fifififififi fifififififififiy fififi fifififififififi fifififih fififififififififi fififi
Lfififififi fifififififififi fififi fifififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififi
fippfifififififififififi Thfi QPD1025L fififififi fififififififififi fifififi fififi
fifififiy fiy fififififififififififi fihfi fififififififififififififififififififififififififififififififi
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fihfifififih RfiMWfi

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14  
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICSwww.militaryaerospace.com
Qorvo2_MAE_1812 1 11/29/18
ZMicro_MAE_1812
10:04 AM 1 11/14/18 9:46 AM

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MerRes_MAE_1812 1 11/19/18
MerThemis_MAE_1812
2:38 PM 1 11/19/18 1:55 PM

GaN MMIC FEM for X-Band

Radar Applications
The Qorvo QPM1002 is a single-chip, gallium nitride (GaN)
X-band front-end module (FEM) for radar applications from
8.5 to 10.5 GHz. Encapsulated in a tiny 5 mm x 5 mm
plastic package, the FEM meets the cost, robustness, size
and high RF power requirements of next-generation active
electronically scanned array (AESA) radars. Available now
through RFMW.

www.rfmw.com/ProductDetail/QPM1002-Qorvo/615014/

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   15

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 S PECIA L REPORT

Military organizes
for cyber warfare
U.S. warfighters work aggressively to protect computers and networks, just as they would
do to protect territory, airspace, sea lanes, and access to space. By J.R. Wilson

Cyber warfare specialists serving with

THE UBIQUITOUS USE of computers has the Maryland Air National Guard’s 175th its ISR capabilities to know and under-
elevated the significance of military Cyberspace Operations Group engage in stand what EW/CW abilities that poten-
weekend training at Warfield Air
signals intelligence (SIGINT), imagery tial adversaries employ.
National Guard Base in Middle River, Md.
intelligence, geospatial intelligence, “One of the biggest challenges we have
measurement and signature intelligence, and technical is just keeping up,” admits Giorgio Bertoli, senior engineer at
intelligence to far greater significance than ever before. the Intelligence & Information Warfare Directorate (IIWD)
That same explosion of technology also leads to the rapid within the Army Communications-Electronics Research, De-
evolution of two new classes of military conflict: electronic velopment and Engineering Center (CERDEC) at Aberdeen
warfare (EW) and cyber warfare (CW). It is the Pentagon’s Proving Ground, Md.
responsibility to keep America and her allies at the cutting “The Internet is only 30 years old, yet look at how much
edge of offensive and defensive EW/CW — and to use all of it has grown in just that time,” Bertoli says. “So there’s no

16 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE16-21.indd 16 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 The Right RF Parts.
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1812MAE16-21.indd 171
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2:18 PM
 S PECIAL REPORT

reason to believe the next 20 or 30 years enemy assaults by denying an oppo- cyber warfare superpower, also has
will not be just as changeable — from nent the advantage of, and ensure unified its cyber capabilities. Russia
the Internet of Things, to autonomous friendly unimpeded access to, the EM has employed cyber warfare at least
vehicles, and to wearable computing. spectrum. EW can be applied from air, twice in the past decade — in its 2008
“Trying to keep up with those is a sea, land and space, and can target hu- military incursion into Georgia and in
major challenge,” Bertoli continues. mans, communications, radar or other a 2014 cyber attack on Ukraine.
“The Army is embracing this change military and civilian assets. Israel also is considered one of the
and trying many ways to change their world’s new breed of cyber super pow-
processes to improve their speed of ca- Targeting computers ers, based in part on its estimated 10
pability enhancement, and their speed Cyber warfare represents the use or percent share of global computer and
of acquisition. There is still a lot of work targeting of computers, online control network security technology sales.
to be done, but we are aware of pend- systems, and networks through offen- While not as active or public as the
ing challenges and gearing-up to sup- sive and defensive acts of electronic others, the United Kingdom in recent
port those.” espionage and sabotage. While it of- years has invested heavily in expand-
ing its cyber capabilities to
become the European center
of cyber warfare technology.
Although less is known
about the cyber warfare
developments of Iran and
North Korea, of those tightly
closed societies are suspect-
ed in several cyber attacks —
North Korea against U.S. cor-
porations like Sony, and Iran
in a host of attacks across
Southwest Asia — especial-
ly against Saudi Arabia.
Some pundits have de-
clared the world has entered
into a new, multi-polar Cold
War, with its own cyber war-
fare equivalent of the origi-
nal Cold War’s doctrine of
Personnel of the 780th Military Intelligence Brigade set up deployable cyber tools overlooking the mock Mutual Assured Destruction
city of Razish at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif.
(MAD), in which the U.S. and
SIGINT was born in January 1904, ten is equated with EW, which is the Soviet Union refrained from the use
during the Russo-Japanese War, when subject of several programs and stud- of nuclear weapons because the oth-
a British cruiser intercepted a wire- ies throughout U.S. Department of De- er side would respond in kind. While
less transmission to mobilize the Rus- fense (DOD), cyber warfare has been de- this new, unofficial “digital equilib-
sian fleet and passed it on to Japan, clared a domain of war with the 2010 rium” has been followed by the five
then a British ally. It was the first act creation of the joint U.S. Cyber Com- cyber warfare superpowers, Iran and
of electronic warfare, defined by the mand, which brought together the in- North Korea have launched serious at-
military as any action involving the dividual cyber capabilities of the Army, tacks, with Iran, in particular, seeking
use of the electromagnetic (EM) spec- Navy, Air Force and Marines. to cause real damage.
trum or directed energy to control the China, which has touted its inten- In the event of a direct conflict be-
spectrum, attack an enemy or impede tion to become the world’s dominant tween any of the Five, however, each

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 S PECIAL REPORT

nation’s full cyber warfare capabilities “A lot of the government side is a lit- has its own internal effort, but we’re
likely will be employed, possibly as a tle helter-skelter on cyber,” says Steve still working on treaties and interna-
first strike. That still may be avoided, Edwards, director of secure embedded tional law to develop a governance on
especially as artificial intelligence (AI) solutions at the Curtiss-Wright Corp. cyberspace,” Wittstruck says, adding
comes into play, making cyber war- Defense Solutions Division in Ashburn, that military authorities still don’t have
fare far more precise and effective, says Va. “We don’t do back office enterprise cyber warfare doctrine, training, lead-
Richard Wittstruck, associate director, systems; we deal with hardware that ership development, facilities, and pol-
field-based experimentation and inte- gets deployed air-land-sea. There are icy completely nailed down.
gration at CERDEC’s Space and Terrestri- lots of people involved and they’re still In a digital world, where most tech-
al Communications Directorate (STCD). trying to figure out how to have a co- nologies are readily available to anyone,
hesive strategy. coordinated, constant, and comprehen-
Parallel attacks Everyone has his own opinion about sive countermeasures are mandatory.
“In field artillery, we can have single what’s important in cyber warfare, Ed- “Cyber is the new IED [improvised
shots or volleys,” Wittstruck explains. wards says. “Even with commands in explosive device], which began in the
“In cyber, it’s very rare to have a sin- the same service, you get different early ‘90s in Bosnia with explosives
gle-shot weapon; it’s usually multiple perspectives. Within each division, put in a pothole and covered with gar-
parallel attacks in hopes one or more they are working on that. We’ve tak- bage,” says CERDEC’s Wittstruck. “It
strikes hit the target. Artificial Intelli- en part in a couple of meetings on the was prolific, effective, and random
gence (AI) will enable offense to do more Air Force side and the standardization and anybody could do it who had the
of those attacks, but also allow defense push they’re trying to make across the knowledge and access to materials.
to put up more barriers simultaneously. Air Force, but it’s a slow process.” The same is true today with cyber, al-
So you really will have machine-to-ma- Under today’s military structure, the though they also need to be able to ac-
chine warfare. AI may become the nu- individual service cyber commands fo- cess a network.”
clear deterrent element, because you cus on the needs of their warfighters. Despite this, the military can search
know I can do it, I know you can do it, Some of the technologies and materiel cyberspace constantly for abnormal-
so we go to the negotiation table — dig- are the same, but how they are applied ities or alerts that something has
ital MAD. Still, the general public needs can be different. CYBERCOM functions changed. “The challenge is things can
a better understanding of cyber warfare. as an umbrella command, setting na- change very rapidly, so in a matter of
“We keep speaking in geek-speak tional policy and ensuring there is no milliseconds, you can go from having
within the community, and until we duplication of effort. a good day to having a bad day,” Witt-
can translate that into terms the av- “There also are areas of agreement struck says.
erage person can understand, it will and exchanges of people in terms of “Once something does occur, it doesn’t
be hard to help people understand cy- DOD working with other agencies, such mean that’s a combat loss; you just have
ber is not something foreign; it’s just a as Homeland Security,” says Army CER- to manage it, determine the effect on
new environment we operate in,” Witt- DEC’s Wittstruck. “Cyber cuts across your fighting capability, and have a con-
struck says. “In some ways, it’s a gen- several different departments and tingency plan on getting back.” This is
erational thing. Those who grew up in there are interagency agreements and called a primary alternate contingen-
a digital world — born with a comput- statutory authorities. Cyber is so pro- cy emergency (PACE) plan. “This is a
er in the crib — are very comfortable lific, every federal agency has a cyber combined arms fight,” Wittstruck says.
talking about all these terms, but the component, which makes it a lot easi- “Cyberspace is what some call the fifth
digital dinosaur is almost still trying er in a digital age to communicate and domain and we bring many of those
to learn how to spell cyber.” cooperate across those boundaries.” combined arms principals to bear on
This holds true for the military, as force effectiveness and planning.”
well — even though each service has Problems with cooperation Defensive cyber warfare can face
a cyber component in CYBERCOM, and Such cooperation becomes more prob- a variety of attack types, depending
DOD puts increasing levels of people lematic when sharing cyber warfare ca- on whether the enemy wants to deny,
and money into cyber research. pabilities among allies. “Each country degrade, or disrupt computers and

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 S PECIAL REPORT

networking — or any combination of it a high-level hacker who can pene- make the difference between degrada-
the three. It also depends on the tar- trate network defenses without a care tion, disruption and denial.
get — military enterprise, subnet, plat- if the target knows about it or not. If Even so, not everyone sees cyber
form, individual warfighter or unit. Or the same person makes multiple at- as a potential 21st Century Pearl Har-
they may target civilian infrastructure tacks, he or she is likely to leave digital bor, as several government officials
and just turn the lights on and off to fingerprints reflecting the techniques have warned.
tell civilians they are no longer in con- they use, which may help identify and
trol and can be attacked at any time,” locate the attacker. For now, howev- Keeping the lid on
Wittstruck says. er, cyber forensics is unlikely to find “Granted, there are thousands of at-
a “smoking gun”. tacks every day on various targets, a
Difficult to trace The effects of a cyber attack can last lot of them using automated systems
Modern military satellite surveillance long after the attacker has disconnect- churning away and looking for weak-
covers most of the planet, making it ed. Shutting down a power grid, for ex- nesses or openings,” says CERDEC’s
virtually impossible to hide an attack ample, could leave thousands, even Bertoli. “For the most part, commer-
by missiles, aircraft, ships or land forc- millions, of people without electrici- cial service and security providers have
es, enabling the target to strike back ty to heat or cool their homes, pump made great strides and most of those
against the attacker’s home base. That gas for cars and trucks, light homes activities are blocked at various plac-
is not the case with a cyber attack, how- and streets (an open invitation to loot- es within the infrastructure.”
ever, which is extremely difficult to ers, who also would not have to worry For would-be cyber criminals, how-
backtrack. Even if a cyber attacker can about alarms), get fresh water because ever, pulling off an attack is easier said
be traced, it can be impossible to tell if the pumping stations are down, treat than done. “Cyber attacks are not near-
the attack came was the nation from patients in hospitals The only remedy ly as easy to pull off as you might as-
which the attack was launched, a non- is for the power company to have the sume,” Bertoli says. “Going after a hard
state group, or even individual operat- necessary remediation, redundancy, target requires some serious effort —
ing from within that nation. and repair capabilities in place; how you have to know what defenses the
Sorting out cyber attackers is called quickly it performs those functions will target has, for example. So while there
cyber forensics, which has had expo-
nential growth in recent years as the
cyber threat has become more pro-
nounced. Backtracking requires that
the attack is still in progress. Once it
ends, different methods must be em-
ployed. Still, without that critical link
between the attacker and the tar-
get, determining the attacker’s IP ad-
dress is almost impossible with cur-
rent technology.
More frustrating to cyber defend-
ers is how cheaply perpetrators can
launch cyber attacks; it doesn’t require
a lot of money or infrastructure, only
the necessary skills and the ability to
access the target.
How a cyber attacker gets to the
target represents another line of in- The Cyber Operations Center at Fort Gordon, Ga., is home to signal and military intelligence
vestigation. Does the attacker have noncommissioned officers, who watch for and respond to network attacks from adversaries
someone on the inside helping, or is as varied as nation-states, terrorists and “hacktivists.”
20  
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 S PECIAL REPORT

not just kinetic effects in which they

were well versed, but also cyber attacks,
GPS denial, spoofing They had to learn,
sometimes on the fly, how to deal with
that. The Army’s cyber warriors don’t
operate in a vacuum, but in a combined
arms fight. So we focused on a brigade
fight working with partners.”

Keeping in practice
Cyber Blitz 2019 will pivot to the Pacific
and work with Pacific Command to de-
termine what elements should be the
subject of focus. Wittstruck predicts
they will integrate cyber into some as
yet unnamed element in that exercise.
Cyber defense is not exclusively an
Cyber operations specialists from the Expeditionary Cyber Support Detachment, 782nd end user concern, it begins at the be-
Military Intelligence Battalion (Cyber), from Fort Gordon, Ga., provide offensive cyber ginning, with the contractors who build
operations as part of the Cyber-Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) Support to Corps and the systems, subsystems and compo-
Below (CSCB) program during the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, nents that comprise a cyber or cy-
National Training Center Rotation.
ber-protected program.
are threats we must take into consid- cyber in military exercises, including “The threats are ubiquitous,” notes
eration, it is unrealistic to believe one some, such as the Army’s Cyber Blitz, David Sheets, senior principal secu-
guy in his basement, acting alone, could dedicated to cyber warfare. The Army rity architect at Curtiss-Wright De-
bring down the Internet or any major has conducted three such exercises, fense Solutions. Defense contractors,
infrastructure system.” each incorporating what was learned he says, “have to understand the risks
Perhaps the notion of a Cyber Pearl from previous efforts and the latest and make sure we have all the correct
Harbor is somewhat overblown. “Could technologies. procedures and processes in place so
an adversary mount a meaningful at- Cyber Blitz 3 involved more than we can tell our customers we have
tack against a critical infrastructure 700 participants from 25 organizations, done the due diligence to assure they
component to cause harm? Absolute- including the Marines. The integrated will have a secure system once they
ly,” he says. “But could it cause the same campaign has matured through those put all the boards and such together.
kind of loss of life as a Pearl Harbor or exercises to improve how to go “from That impacts our supply chain man-
9/11? Probably not. Our power structure space to mud” in support of the tacti- agement, production flow, all of which
is pretty resilient and could recover from cal commander in a fight against a re- have to go together to insure there are
an attack fairly quickly. I would not put gional peer in kinetic and non-kinetic no kinks in the armor as you integrate
cyber in the same category as a Pearl effects, such as cyber. these systems.
Harbor or 9/11. I don’t think anybody “Cyber Blitz was born as the result of “Multiple people have been trying to
would really want to make that kind of the Cyber Center of Excellence and CER- wrap their heads around the intersec-
cyber attack on its own, except perhaps DEC, back in 2015, wanting to demon- tion of cyber security and safety critical
a terrorist organization. So while some strate and validate the concepts of that systems and how those work togeth-
scenarios are pretty scary, I don’t think doctrine before it was updated to the er,” Sheets says. “I don’t think anyone
they jump to that level.” Army writ large,” says CERDEC’s Witt- has a good answer to that yet — there
To help prepare for and defend struck. “We established our first Cyber is a lot of synergy in some areas, while
against cyber attacks, the U.S. mili- Blitz in 2016, in which a unit had to fight in others, cyber may say one thing and
tary services have begun including their way through a validated scenario, safety something else.” 

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 TECHNOLOGY F CUS

Secure data storage for on technology and susceptible to cy-

ber threats and the destruction of that

battlefield networking technology. And now you have lone ac-

tors who can take down networks and
cause global problems at far less cost
than a nuclear weapon.”
Designers and systems integrators struggle with keeping data Almost every military, government,
secure in proliferating networked devices, and blending systems academic, and industrial organization

with new and legacy information storage technologies. in the world today has at least an of-
fice, if not a full command, devoted to
cyber and electronic security. Although
BY J.R. Wilson that has placed a greater emphasis on
security, especially at various levels
Information is the fuel that drives 21st Military forces today rely on infor- of “data at rest”, it also has been done
Century military tactics, techniques, mation technology more than ever be- largely on an independent basis.
and procedures (TTPs) and the foun- fore. “We are becoming more and more “Our biggest question in terms of
dation on which all offensive and de- dependent on technology — and the cyber and physical security is where is
fense actions depend. more dependent we become, the high- DOD going. There are huge numbers of
While the emphasis best known to er the threat,” Castle says. “We will be briefings on it and we really want to un-
the public is the collection of infor- more rather than less vulnerable as derstand how all those are going to join
mation, securing the collected data we become more and more dependent together in a uniform strategy for DOD
from the point of origin to eventual
archiving is of equal, if not greater,
importance. The increasingly rapid
evolution of technology also is keep-
ing security measures in a constant
state of flux.
“With the emergence of so many
technologies, it’s hard to predict which
technologies and security measures
will be adopted — and some that are
adopted may not last long,” says Drew
Castle, vice president of engineering at
Chassis Plans LLC in San Diego.
“Estimates are there will be 40 bil-
lion interconnected devices by the end
of next year,” Castle continues. “Look at
new technologies that are being devel-
oped by individuals at home and won-
der how many will be adopted widely,
what will trickle into the DOD [U.S. De- The battlefield of today is a monolithic data network, with data continually flowing from
partment of Defense] space.” ground units, to aircraft, to satellites. This wouldn’t be possible without secure data storage.
22 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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 TECHNOLOGY F CUS

meeting their future cyber and phys- to new developments in security and of Standards and Technology that de-
ical security requirements for storage security-breaking capabilities. Require- scribe government computer security
and networking,” says Chassis Plans ments also reflect what the military policies, procedures and guidelines. “So
President Mike McCormack. perceives as the greatest threat to se- the biggest concern at DOD is the cy-
“I think that is still a work in prog- cure information storage at the time. ber threat,” McCormack says.
ress. DOD is trying to understand what Still, it must take into account every Dealing with legacy systems
is the threat, how sophisticated is it, step along the way to creating and im- What is certain is the demand for
how can they counter and mitigate that, plementing security measures, with higher levels of security for military in-
offensively and defensively, McCor- those requirements becoming perva- formation storage only will increase as
mack says. “The big question for us is sive across the network stream as well the ability of an ever-widening list of
what do we do in the next few years in as in networked storage. potential adversaries to penetrate leg-
terms of where DOD is going.” acy and current state-of-the-art grows.
That especially is true for legacy sys-
Complicated picture tems, which tend to have proprietary
That question is getting more compli- security methodologies, making up-
cated for those supplying securi- grades difficult.
ty systems; contractors are told “There is a level of encryption,
only the requirements — phys- but it is proprietary in most leg-
ical or software encryption or acy systems, where now FIPS
both — but not how or where 140-2 is an industry standard
the end system will be used. with regard to encryption,”
“Depending on the mis- says Amos Deacon III, presi-
sion and application, it goes dent of Phoenix International
into the ability to meet FIPS in Orange, Calif. “Going back
[Federal Information Process- 10 or 20 years, companies de-
ing Standard] compliance with veloped their own proprietary
your servers, depending on the encryption techniques, certified
customers perceived risk and how by NSA, but that is really expensive
to mitigate that risk,” McCormack to do. And each future change has to
says. “In most cases, the customer be reviewed and re-certified.”
won’t discuss with us the utilization These legacy systems can be diffi-
of the data being stored, just ask what This chart outlines a process for designing cult — if not impossible — to upgrade
we can do to mitigate their risk. That trusted computing systems with secure data sufficiently to comply with modern
storage.
may be FIPS compliance, potential out- data storage security standards. “For
side corruption from an EMP [electro- legacy systems, you’re looking at a
magnetic pulse] blast and so on.” “I would say physical capture is the forklift upgrade,” Deacon says. “If you
Systems integrators are trying to biggest threat, but a four-star general have a system using hard disk drives
keep information security risks to a might say cyber security, being able to that have been operating for more than
minimum. “It really depends on what gain remote access,” McCormack con- five years, you have the output power
the customer wants us to do to miti- tinues. “The threat is greater, including and performance requirements of new
gate the risk, whether physical securi- at the personal level, if you don’t have technologies, in many cases, making it
ty, tamper-proofing, or encryption lev- the proper firewalls in place.” ineffective to try to continue using the
els. They give us the requirements and Third-party DOD information from older equipment and upgrade interfac-
that’s what we develop our products to a contractor to the military also has to es. You just put in a whole new system
meet,” McCormack says. have cyber security safeguards in place rather than a legacy tech refresh.”
Those requirements evolve not only to comply with NIST 800, which are In a lot of those systems, the soft-
with new missions but also in response documents from the National Institute ware was written for that specific

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 TECHNOLOGY F CUS

environment and equipment — which when it is removed from the deployed technologies available in the market-
may have been out of production for asset and returned to a lab,” says Ja- place,” Wade says. “In just hard drives,
many years. The solution is to move son Wade, president of ZMicro in San there are numerous solutions with
to new systems, many of sel f- enc r y pted
them Linux-based, which drives. The way
enables the use of indus- you get a solution
try-standard encryption for the end user is
techniques. to bring togeth-
er a system that
Physical security works in concert
Although the bulk of to- with the mother-
day’s data storage security board, the hard
is software-focused, physi- drive, and Opal
cal security remains an im- 2 compliance. To
portant part of most security systems, Diego. “So you have to look at how you provide the strongest level of securi-
especially active, online storage at fixed are cooling the drive, how it can be re- ty, you will put a layer on top of that
locations and inactive, offline archi- moved without degradation, and pro- using software encryption.”
val storage. tection against the environment.” The Opal Security Subsystem Class
“If you want secure data, that is se- Sometimes the answer is combin- is a hardware-based hard drive stan-
curity in terms of encryption, but also ing technologies. “The state-of-the- dard developed by the Trusted Com-
security of the physical drive, especially art is really when you combine the puting Group (TCG) in Beaverton, Ore.,

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PhoInt_MAE_1812 1 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS D E C E M B E R11/28/18 25
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 TECHNOLOGY F CUS

information was extracted from its

computer systems.
“The encryption routines have pro-
gressed since then to the point that,
while not impossible, it is a lot tougher
to access data,” says Phoenix’s Deacon.
“The use of solid-state storage devices
also allows you to physically destroy
the data in a much more complete and
faster manner. The P-3 was using hard
disk drives and there is no way to re-
ally quickly erase data on those drives
short of destroying the media itself.”
Security keys are the key ingredi-
ents of today’s solid-state drives. “With
solid-state, in addition to the encryp-
tion level, where you destroy the keys
to the data, there are physical ways
Solid-state drives used in manned and unmanned airborne surveillance present a unique
security challenge; if an aircraft is captured there may be no one available to physically to erase the data much more quickly,”
destruct or initiate a process to eliminate the sensitive data. Deacon says. “Even if you pull the pow-
er to that device, as soon as power is
to encrypt rotating media hard drives, controller interface and storage pro- reapplied, the erasure procedure would
solid-state, and optical drives. The ben- tocol created to accelerate the trans- continue, so the use of solid-state tech-
efits of hardware encryption include fer of data between enterprise and nology has allowed for an increase in
the ability to work with any operating client systems and solid-state drives the ability to secure data should it fall
system, transference of the encryption (SSDs) over a computer’s high-speed into a bad actor’s hands. But anti-tam-
process’ computational load to dedicat- PCI Express bus. per also will have to be through soft-
ed processors, reducing stress on the ware, to have the tamper evident and,
host CPU, and thwarting cold-boot at- Anti-tamper proactively, to automatically sanitize
tacks by storing the encryption/decryp- The need for physical anti-tamper se- the data or block the intrusion once it
tion keys in the hard drive controller curity was highlighted in 2001 when is detected.”
rather than in system memory. a U.S. Navy EP-3E ARIES II SIGINT air- Deacon agrees with McCormack that
“We’re in a sea-change with storage craft collided with a Chinese J-8II in- physical capture is a greater threat to
in terms of the advancement of NVMe- terceptor jet and was forced to land classified data than remote access.
based storage modules,” Wade says. on China’s Hainan Island. The P-3 was “You may not have the opportu-
“Moving forward, all hard drives will dismantled by the Chinese military nity to press the button — software
be NVMe-based and that will provide before being returned to the U.S. and command or physical button — to de-
four times the read/write speed. And an undisclosed amount of classified stroy the data,” Deacon says. “Then
hard drives with Opal-2 compliance and
encryption will become standard,” he
adds. “What will become more and more
seamless is management of the drives,
how they are erased, how the keys are
managed. At a certain point, that will be-
come inherent to all hard drives.” Data security requires a system level approach including self-encrypting drives, host support
NVMe, which stands for non-vol- for secure encryption key management, and physical security features that support robust
atile memory express, is a host transportability
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 TECHNOLOGY F CUS

you have to rely on the level of en- levels of physical and digital security satellites. It also has made no secret
cryption. The level of computing pow- in place, but still be vulnerable due to of its intention to become the world
er these days requires a higher lev- a third-level supplier’s use of compo- leader in cyber and electronic warfare.
el of encryption, typically AES-256 nents made in China. The U.S. military has protocols in place
on a fixed 140-2 device. The beauty The People’s Republic of China has blocking the use of Chinese and Rus-
of AES-256 is the use of encryption become the world’s leading produc- sian software and electronics to combat
keys, which are what allow you to ac- er of electronics, from the smallest counterfeit parts and potential “back
cess the system — and the combina- connectors to major systems, such as door” security holes.
tion of keys is massive.”
It’s extremely difficult to break in to
one of today’s secure hard drives. “To
put it in perspective, breaking into a
256-bit key by brute force would take
something like 50 supercomputers
checking a billion AES keys per second

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“Part of the conversation today is how corporations, and the military, yet its spread of viruses because security in
to reduce vulnerability, but a lot of things primary evolution is in the least secure the home, especially, does not protect
are made in China, including most pro- environment of all — the home. against cyber attacks. If someone at-
cessors. There are processes and proce- tacks my thermostat, which is connect-
dures in place to verify component pro- Networked vulnerabilities ed to my computer, that allows access
viders,” says ZMicro’s Wade. “What’s at “Who is driving the technology? Look to my bank accounts.”
issue is the potential of vulnerabilities in at the Internet of Things, with total- “It’s like building the interstate,” he
hardware, which always needs to be ad- ly interconnected homes and people continues. “It improved transporta-
dressed. And that brings you back to the who are remote working,” McCormack tion, but fatalities increased massive-
system-level approach, with Opal drives warns. “Having everything connected ly. Between 2005 and 2012, we saw a lot
and 256-level encryption and hardware is fantastic. But that also will be the big- of ransomware attacks. Then we got
that supports TPM tech.” gest threat. It allows the exponential smarter. Each home, office, and defense
Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is component must have
an international standard for a secure more and more firewalls
cryptoprocessor — a dedicated micro- and security measures to
controller that secures hardware by isolate them within great-
integrating cryptographic keys. The er wide area networks.”
technical specification was written The rapid and univer-
by the Trusted Computing Group. The sal spread of new electron-
International Organization for Stan- ic and computing technol-
dardization (ISO) and Internation- ogies has increased the
The Data Transport System (DTS1) from Curtiss-Wright
al Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) vulnerability of today’s
Defense Solutions is a rugged network attached storage
standardized the specification as ISO/ deployed military to data
(NAS) file server for use in unmanned aerial vehicles;
IEC 11889 in 2009. unmanned underwater vehicles; and intelligence, interception, spoofing,
Sometimes it all comes down to the surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft. and tampering.
political situation at any given time.
“China has now become an adversary COMPANY LIST
in technology and political and eco-
nomic power in the world, says Chas- Aitech Defense Systems DRS Tactical Systems Inc. Mercury Systems
sis Plans’s McCormack. “DOD and the Chatsworth, Calif. www.leonardodrs.com/ Andover, Mass.
www.rugged.com products-and-services/ www.mrcy.com
world in general are realizing we have leonardo-tactical-systems
Barracuda Networks Pentek Inc.
to find other sources that are TEA [tech- Campbell, Calif. Elma Electronic Inc. Upper Saddle River, N.J.
nology exchange agreement] compli- www.barracudanetworks.com Fremont, Calif. www.pentek.com
www.elma.com
ant. But Taiwan is TEA compliant, but Cavium Networks Phoenix International
get a lot of their components from Chi- San Jose, Calif. Extreme Engineering Orange, Calif.
www.caviumnetworks.com Solutions www.phenxint.com
na,” he says. Verona, Wis.
Chassis Plans LLC Trusted Computing Group
“Do you have processes in place to www.xes-inc.com/about/
San Diego Beaverton, Ore.
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General Micro Systems org
nents that are counterfeit or have been Crystal Group
Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
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Conduant
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Longmont, Colo.
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On the near horizon is another ad- Solutions
Kontron
Ashburn, Va.
vance that influences the data se- www.kontron.com
www.conduant.com
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28 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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 TECHNOLOGY F CUS

“That is a consideration to make sure the staff is trained on

that is holding back the de- the threats that are out there; hu-
ployment of some systems,” man beings are the weakest points
says Phoenix’s Deacon. “For of entry and make mistakes, so the
example, the fusing of sen- training has to be there to under-
sors, such as proposed for stand security requirements, even
the Joint STARS recapital- in the smallest companies. You nev-
ization program, taking a er know where a thumb drive has
number of independent sen- been or came from, so you have to
sors on-platform and shar- make sure you keep physical media
ing that data.” from coming into a facility.”
Necessar y solutions As more sensors and platforms
might not be available for The Compact Network Storage 4-slot (CNS4) conduction collect and process more and more
some time. “The technolo- cooled high-performance data recorder from Curtiss-Wright data, transferring it over high-speed
Defense Solutions offers scalable storage and encryption
gy to do that does not exist networks to real-time displays,
options for capturing critical data in a harsh environment.
right now and potentially short-term and archival storage,
that won’t be available for the greater the need for multiple
another 15 or 20 years,” Deacon says. “So there is a risk of layers of hardware- and software-based encryption and
the cancellation of the JSTARS recap program for this fused anti-tamper solutions.
sensor approach because being able to move that much data As ZMicro’s Wade notes, “Everything is a potential vul-
around in a real-time environment can’t yet be done — and nerability if you’re not paying attention to it.” 
once you do get there, you run into security problems.”
Determining what security measures to implement in a
given system often involves the end user deciding what ca-
pabilities are most important to the mission.
“There are tradeoffs you constantly have to make and
SMALLER.
evaluate,” says ZMicro’s Wade. “For example, if the cus-
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drives; if they are looking for it to be validated, that reduc-
LIGHTER.
es the number of available drives. Yet if a customer identi-
fies high-speed processing as a paramount factor, software
encryption might not work, despite providing a greater lev-
FASTER.
el of security, but with a performance hit. But with the ev-
er-increasing performance of today’s processors, the level
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www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 2018 29
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1812MAE22-29.indd 29 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 RF&
m i crowave
Army to make AH-64E Apache
attack helicopter more capable Air Force eyes airborne communications
at sea and deadlier overall
The U.S. Army has released new details
node with artificial intelligence
BY John Keller
about its plans for improving the AH-64E
Apache attack helicopter as part of the HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. — U.S. Air
future Version 6 upgrade package. The Force communications experts are
updates will include a major boost in the looking for companies able to design
Apache Guardian attack helicopter mari- an airborne communications node able
time capabilities, make it easier for them to gather, process, and distribute im-
to team up with a much broader range portant battlefield information.
of unmanned aircraft, and improve the Officials of the Special Programs Di-
helicopter’s general ability to collect and vision of the Air Force Life Cycle Man-
share information, engage hostile targets, agement Center’s C3I&N Directorate
and avoid threats. The Army’s Apache at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is- Air Force researchers are working on a new
Attack Helicopter Project Office presen- sued a request for information for the battlefield airborne communications node
tation shows that the service completed Multi-Domain Command and Control to gather, process, and distribute important
integrating the Version 4.5 capabilities into Mobile Node Capability project. information.
the AH-64E fleet in 2017 and plans to fin- Air Force experts want to hear from
ish with the Version 6 updates by 2026. companies able to design airborne com- managing data availability, open artifi-
The Army first began receiving AH-64Es, munications nodes able to ingest data cial intelligence development environ-
previously known as the AH-64D Block III securely at high data rates via existing ment, and security; disseminating data
and also called the Apache Guardian, in and future military airborne and sat- to specific users securely in a delay-tol-
2011. The helicopter will remain the ser- ellite communications links. erant network; developing autonomous
vice’s primary attack helicopter through at This node should be able to per- operation; and manage size, weight,
least 2048, though the gunship version of form artificial intelligence (AI) func- and power consumption (SWaP).
the Future Vertical Lift family of aircraft is tions like data prioritization, data nor- Air Force experts are looking for an
supposed to reach initial operational capa- malization, and semantic enrichment; airborne communications node ma-
bility in 2034. enable AI products; and export relevant tured at least to a developmental lev-
data and AI products. This communi- el (technology readiness level 4), with
Air Force scraps Boeing cations node should be able to man- estimates of how long it would take to
upgrade of AWACS radar age several different levels of security. achieve a demonstrable system (tech-
signal processing The idea is to gather, process, and nology level 6).
The U.S. Air Force terminated a Boeing Co. disseminate important information to Companies interested were asked
contract to update the radar on its flagship warfighters quickly to exploit enemy to email eight-page white papers by
AWACS radar surveillance aircraft after weaknesses on the ground, on the air, 5 Dec. 2018 to the Air Force’s Gregory
the company encountered major delays at sea, and in cyberspace. This com- Ketcham at gregory.ketcham@us.af.
in developing hardware and software, munications node also should be able mil. For questions or concerns contact
according to budget documents. Instead to mitigate enemy electronic warfare Gregory Ketcham by phone at 781-225-
of continuing the $76 million contract with (EW) and cyber attacks against com- 0601, or by email at gregory.ketcham@
Boeing, “the Air Force determined the best mand-and-control communications. us.af.mil. 
approach for providing this critical capa- Technical challenges include se-
bility would be to replace the legacy radar curely blending legacy and future com- More information is online at https://www.fbo.
processor and its related components,” mand-and-control data links; manag- gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/ESC/FA87826-19-X-HNJK/
ing incoming data quickly and securely; listing.html.

30 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE30-31.indd 30 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 Ball Aerospace to build first WSF-M Captain Hope Cronin, a service spokes-
woman, said in an email. “Several compa-
microwave imaging weather satellite nies responded to the Air Force’s request for
information, and a request for proposal is
BY John Keller
currently being developed.” Boeing was on
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Spacecraft designers at contract to provide improved radar digital
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in signal processing “in a specific flight envi-
Boulder, Colo., are moving forward with ronment to meet a classified requirement,”
a project to develop a next-generation for its E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and
weather satellite with a passive micro- Control System surveillance aircraft, Cronin
wave imaging radiometer instrument said. The E-3 Sentry airborne warning and
to measure the direction and speed of control system (AWACS), which are modi-
Ball Aerospace is developing the Weather
ocean winds, as well as the intensity fied 707-320 commercial planes, are recog-
System Follow-On-Microwave (WSF-M)
of global hurricanes. satellite with a passive microwave imaging nized by their saucer-shaped, rotating radar
Officials of the U.S. Air Force Space radiometer to measure winds at sea and the domes that can spot and classify aircraft as
and Missile Systems Center at Los An- intensity of global hurricanes. far as 250 miles away.
geles Air Force Base in El Segundo, Ca-
lif., announced a half-billion-dollar or- has a flight vehicle testbed, ground sup- Navy recognizes
der to Ball Aerospace last month for the port equipment, and a satellite able to electromagnetic battlespace,
Weather System Follow-On-Microwave sense, sore, and transmit microwave convergence with cyber
(WSF-M) satellite project. raw sensor data to measure wind speed A new U.S. Navy policy recognizes the
The Air Force is awarding $255.4 mil- and direction at the ocean’s surface — electromagnetic spectrum as a warfighting
lion to Ball Aerospace to develop and including the intensity of tropical cy- domain on par with sea, land, air, space
build the WSF-M space vehicle 1. Ball clones like hurricanes and typhoons. and cyber. The policy pushes an enter-
originally won a $93.7 million contract The WSF-M launch segment con- prise approach to all activities necessary
last year to get started on the WSF-M sists of launch vehicle, launch support for Navy electromagnetic spectrum (EMS)
project to design and build the WSF-M facilities, and launch services. Its con- operations, including the department’s
low-Earth-orbit satellite with a pas- sists of a primary and backup ground roles and responsibilities for developing,
sive microwave imaging radiometer services operations center, as well as implementing, managing, and evaluating
instrument and hosted government the Air Force Satellite Control Network electromagnetic battlespace programs,
furnished energetic charged particles (AFSCN) Space Ground Link System policies, procedures, and controls, accord-
sensor to provide ocean surface vec- (SGLS) and Unified S-Band (USB)-capa- ing to the policy, which took effect on 5
tor wind and tropical cyclone intensi- ble ground stations. The ground seg- Oct. The EMS enterprise includes all elec-
ty capabilities. ment incorporates WSF-M mission soft- tronic systems, subsystems, devices, and
The WSF-M will be a next-genera- ware, including WSF-M command and equipment that depend on using the elec-
tion polar-orbiting satellite to provide control software and senor data pro- tromagnetic spectrum. The role of spec-
the kind of space-based terrestrial en- cessing software. trum warfare and its potential convergence
vironmental sensing capabilities now On this contract Ball Aerospace with cyber and electronic warfare (EW) has
provided by the Defense Meteorologi- will do the work in Boulder, Colo., and been a big topic in military circles over past
cal Satellite Program (DMSP) and the should be finished by January 2023.  several years, with strategists divided on
Naval Research Laboratory’s WindSat how to manage the two battle domains.
spacecraft. For more information contact Ball Aerospace U.S. Army Cyber Command leadership
The WSF-M system will have a online at www.ball.com/aerospace, or the Air anticipates the domain to possibly replace,
space segment, launch segment, and Force Space and Missile Systems Center at cyber in warfare planning. 
ground segment. The space segment www.afspc.af.mil.

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 UN M A N N ED
vehicles
General Atomics to build year’s worth of MQ-9
Reaper unmanned combat drones
BY John Keller
such as dual ARC-210 VHF/UHF radi-
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio — Unmanned os with wingtip antennas for simulta-
aerial vehicle (UAV) experts at Gener- neous communications among multi-
al Atomics will build additional MQ-9 ple air-to-air and air-to-ground parties;
Reaper unmanned aircraft for surveil- secure data links; and an increased
lance and attack under terms of a $263.4 data transmission capacity. The Reap-
million contract. er Block 5 can carry heavier payloads
Officials of the U.S. Air Force Life Cy- or additional fuel.
cle Management Center at Wright-Pat- The turboprop-powered, multi-mis-
terson Air Force Base, Ohio, are ask- sion Reaper armed drone can fly for General Atomics will build additional MQ-9
ing the General Atomics Aeronautical more than 27 hours without refueling Reaper unmanned aircraft for surveillance
and attack under terms of a $263.4 million
Systems segment in Poway, Calif., at speeds to 240 knots at altitudes to
contract.
to produce the MQ-9 Reaper combat 50,000 feet. The medium-endurance
drones in the fiscal 2018 production UAV can carry payloads as heavy as
configuration. 3,850 pounds, including 3,000 pounds The sophisticated combat UAV has
The Reaper, a variation of the Gen- of external stores like Hellfire missiles redundant flight-control surfaces; can
eral Atomics MQ-1 Predator UAV, is de- and the Small Diameter Bomb. fly remotely piloted or autonomous-
signed for surveillance and attack mis- The Reaper can carry as many as ly; has a MIL-STD-1760 stores man-
sions using a suite of airborne sensors four Hellfire missiles, two GBU-12 agement system; seven external pay-
and the AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground Paveway II laser-guided bombs, or two load stations; C-band line-of-sight data
missile. Last December Air Force offi- 500-pound GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack link control; Ku-band beyond line-of-
cials started a project to integrate the Munitions (JDAMs). Twice as fast as sight and satellite communications
Raytheon laser-guided small diameter Predator, the Reaper carries 500 per- data link control; more than 90 per-
bomb (SDB) on the Reaper. cent more payload and has nine times cent system operational availability;
The latest version of the combat the horsepower, General Atomics offi- and can self-deploy or fly aboard C-130
UAV, the Reaper Block 5, has increased cials say. utility aircraft.
electrical power, secure communica- The Reaper has a fault-tolerant flight This aircraft has been acquired by
tions, auto land, increased gross takeoff control system, triple-redundant avi- the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. De-
weight, weapons growth, and stream- onics system, and is powered by the partment of Homeland Security (DHS),
lined payload integration capabilities, Honeywell TPE331-10 turboprop en- NASA, the United Kingdom Royal Air
compared with earlier Reaper Block 1 gine, integrated with digital electron- Force, the Italian Air Force, and soon
versions. ic engine control (DEEC) to improve en- others, company officials say. On this
The Block 5 model has a high-ca- gine performance and fuel efficiency order General Atomics will do the work
pacity starter generator and upgraded at low altitudes. in Poway, Calif., and should be finished
electrical system with a backup gen- The Reaper can carry electro-opti- by November 2021. 
erator that can support all flight-crit- cal and infrared (EO/IR) sensors, Lynx
ical functions. multi-mode radar, multi-mode mari- For more information contact General Atomics
The MQ-9 Reaper armed drone has time surveillance radar, electronic sup- Aeronautical Systems online at www.ga-asi.
three independent power sources to port measures (ESM), laser designators, com, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management
accommodate new communications and a variety of weapons. Center at www.wpafb.af.mil/aflcmc.

32 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE32-33.indd 32 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 Raytheon BBN to tap into sea life to help detect
and track enemy submarines and UUVs
BY John Keller
DARPA and BBN are trying to devel- DARPA and BBN scientists will
ARLINGTON, Va. — Marine scientists at Ray- op a two-stage system that first can study natural and modified organ-
theon BBN Technologies Corp. in Cam- sense and detect the presence of an isms to determine which ones best
bridge, Mass., are investigating new underwater vehicle and respond with could support sensors able to detect
ways of using sea life to detect and an output signal or other observable the movement of manned and un-
track potentially hostile manned sub- behavior; and second to develop a de- manned underwater vehicles. The
marines and unmanned underwater tector to observe, record, and interpret idea is to capture and interpret the
vehicles (UUVs) over vast areas of the responses of these marine organisms
world’s oceans. with networked hardware.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Ad- “The U.S. Navy’s current approach
vanced Research Projects Agency to detecting and monitoring underwa-
(DARPA) in Arlington, Va., announced ter vehicles is hardware-centric and re-
a potential $6.4 million contract to Ray- source-intensive,” says Lori Adornato,
theon BBN last month for the Persistent the DARPA PALS program manager. “As
Aquatic Living Sensors Bio-Acoustic So- Military researchers are looking into using a result, the capability is mostly used at
sea life to help track the movements of
nar System (PALS) program. the tactical level to protect high-value
submarines and unmanned underwater
PALS seeks to capitalize on living assets like aircraft carriers, and less so
vehicles (UUVs)
things in the ocean to augment ex- at the broader strategic level.
isting hardware-based maritime so- the organisms’ responses, and report “If we can tap into the innate sens-
nar to tap into the innate abilities of analyzed results. ing capabilities of living organisms
marine organisms to sense and re- The complete PALS system also will that are ubiquitous in the oceans, we
spond to disturbances caused by sub- seek to discriminate between target can extend our ability to track adver-
marines and UUVs. The DARPA PALS vehicles and other sources of stimu- sary activity and do so discreetly, on
contract to Raytheon BBN is for $3.3 li, such as debris and other marine or- a persistent basis, and with enough
million, and has options to increase ganisms, to limit false alarms. precision to characterize the size and
that to $6.4 million. The world’s vast oceans and seas of- type of adversary vehicles,” Adorna-
DARPA and BBN researchers will fer seemingly endless spaces where U.S. to says.
work together to apply those abilities adversaries can maneuver undetect- Sea life adapts and responds to its
to detect, characterize, and report on ed, DARPA officials say. The U.S. mili- environment, DARPA officials explain,
manned or unmanned underwater ve- tary deploys networks of manned and prompted by evolution to sense tactile,
hicles ranging from small autonomous unmanned sensors to monitor adver- electrical, acoustic, magnetic, chemi-
vessels to large nuclear submarines. sary activity, but the scale of the task cal, and optical stimuli. Raytheon BBN
Because marine organisms are is daunting and hardware alone can- researchers will develop hardware,
ubiquitous, self-replicating, and large- not meet every need. software, and algorithms to translate
ly self-sustaining, sensing systems Sea life, however, offers a potential organism behavior into actionable in-
that use marine organisms as their new advantage, DARPA officials say. formation and then communicate it to
foundation would be discreet, cost-ef- Marine organisms are attuned to their military authorities. 
fective, and provide persistent un- surroundings, and may be able to help
dersea surveillance with a minimal monitor strategic waters such as straits For more information contact Raytheon BBN on-
logistical footprint, DARPA officials and littoral regions for enemy subma- line at www.raytheon.com/ourcompany/bbn, or
explain. rines and UUVs. DARPA at www.darpa.mil

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Vehicle-mounted laser weapon

could help Marines knock Boeing to upgrade infrared search and
down UAVs on the move track (IRST) for Navy jet fighter-bombers
A battlefield laser weapon designed to
destroy or disable enemy unmanned aerial U.S. Navy air combat experts are asking passive system does not emit RF ener-
vehicles (UAVs), already in use by the U.S. electro-optics engineers at the Boeing gy like radar does, and can help con-
Army, is giving U.S. Marine Corps leaders Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to up- ceal the presence of its aircraft.
a glimpse at how they might melt drones grade infrared search and track (IRST) The system for jet fighters, which
soon. The Compact Laser Weapon System, sensors for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet Boeing is buying from the Lockheed
or CLWS, is already part of the Army’s jet fighter-bomber to enable the aircraft Martin Missiles and Fire Control seg-
Mobile Expeditionary High Energy Laser to detect, track, and attack enemy air- ment in Orlando, Fla., uses infrared
program. The vehicle-mounted weapon craft in a stealthy way without mak- search and track technology to detect
is deployed on Stryker vehicle in Europe ing its presence known. and provide weapon-quality track solu-
and has been part of field experiments. tions on potentially hostile aircraft.
The Boeing creation is a 5-kilowatt laser The electro-optical IRST Block I, also
that can shoot down UAVs, attack snip- called the IRST21 Sensor System, fits
ers, breaching obstacles, setting-off unex- on the front of the Super Hornet’s cen-
ploded ordnance, denying enemy landing terline fuel tank. Two years ago, Navy
zones, and to defend ports or airfields. The leaders approved a restructured pro-
laser can mount atop the Joint Light Tactical gram that foregoes full-rate production
Vehicle (JLTV) or other light battlefield vehi- of Block I sensors and proceeds direct-
cles, or it can go on a tripod and hooked ly to the Block II system.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are upgrading
to a generator to knock down UAV threats The IRST consists of a passive long-
the infrared search and track systems on
at a medium-sized forward-operating base Navy Super Hornet jet fighter-bombers. wave infrared receiver, a processor, iner-
or on the perimeter of a larger installation. tial measurement unit, and environmen-
Officials of the Naval Air Systems tal control unit. The infrared receiver,
Pentagon wants more Command at Patuxent River Naval Air processor, and inertial measurement
money for directed-energy Station, Md., announced a maximum unit fit inside the sensor, which attaches
weapons for drone-swarm $131.6 million order Thursday to the to the front of the fuel tank mounted on
and missile defense
Boeing Co. Defense, Space & Security the Super Hornet’s BRU-32 bomb rack.
The U.S. military will request more money segment in St. Louis to build and up- The Navy developed the IRST Block I
to develop lasers, microwave beams, and grade weapon-replaceable assemblies using components from the F-15K/SG air-
other directed-energy weapons to fight off to optimize the Block I low-rate initial craft’s infrared receiver, which is based
missiles and drone swarms, the Pentagon’s production F/A-18E/F IRST. on the IRST design of the now-retired
top weapons engineer says. “You’re going The order includes technical risk Navy F-14 Tomcat jet fighter. IRST Block
to see, in upcoming budgets for missile reduction related to an engineering II will include improvements to the in-
defense, a renewed emphasis on laser scal- change proposal, and asks Boeing ex- frared receiver and updated processors.
ing [meaning scaling up the power of laser perts to provide integration and tac- At this stage, existing IRST Block I
weapons] across several technologies,” tics development. systems will support testing and tac-
says Michael Griffin, defense undersecre- The Super Hornet’s IRST is a long- tics development. Navy leaders say they
tary for research and engineering. “In my wave infrared detection system that will begin the Block II operational tests
opinion, we are no more than a few years can detect and lock weapons onto en- in 2020. The Navy intends to produce
away from having laser weapons of mili- emy aircraft without using radar. The 170 IRST systems.
tary utility,” Griffin says. “In units of ones system detects hot spots on aircraft — Even amid electronic attack or heavy
particularly their engine exhaust. The RF and infrared countermeasures, IRST

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1812MAE34-36.indd 34 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 provides autonomous, tracking data long ranges, and enable them to fire their Martin will do the work in Orlando, Fla.,
that increases pilot reaction time, and air-to-air missiles at maximum ranges. and in St. Louis, and should be finished
enhances survivability by enabling Data from the IRST system can stand by April 2022. 
first-look, first-shoot capability, Lock- alone or fuse with other on-board sen-
heed Martin officials say. sor data situational awareness. Lock- For more information contact Boeing Defense,
The IRST’s stealth characteristics can heed Martin also is developing an IRST Space & Security online at www.boeing.com/
enable Super Hornet pilots to make pos- pod for the F-15C and F-16 jet fighters. defense, Naval Air Systems Command at
itive identification of enemy aircraft at On this order Boeing and Lockheed www.navair.navy.mil.

DARPA eyes microelectronics optical interconnects for

high-performance embedded computing boards
BY John Keller Since the end of clock frequency scaling in the mid-
ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. military researchers are asking the mi- 2000s, the microelectronics industry progressively has em-
croelectronics industry to find ways of using optical inter- braced parallelism to sustain performance growth, DARPA
connects on high-performance embedded computing boards researchers explain. Constraining the benefits of parallel-
to enhance bandwidth, power efficiency, channel density, ism, however, is not computation at individual nodes, but
and link reach.
Officials of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) have released a broad agency announce-
ment for the Photonics in the Package for Extreme Scalabil-
ity (PIPES) program.
PIPES seeks to enable disruptive system scalability by
developing optical signaling technologies for digital micro-
electronics. The program will employ intimate integration
of photonics with advanced integrated circuits to yield un-
precedented system connectivity.
The project seeks to integrate photonic interconnects
on state-of-the-art multichip modules for system prototyp-
ing; advance embedded optical signaling performance with
emerging component tech-
nologies, photonic-electronic
integration techniques, scal-
able architectures, and mul-
tiplexing concepts; develop
low-loss optical packaging
and reconfigurable switch-
ing technologies; and, estab-
The DARPA PIPES project aims to lish a domestic ecosystem
use optical interconnects on
that gives military systems
high-performance embedded
computing boards to enhance designers access to new ca-
bandwidth, power efficiency, pabilities for in-package pho-
channel density, and link reach. tonic signaling.

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Radiall_MAE_1812 1 11/16/18 9:48 AM

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 ELECT RO
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or twos, we can roll out tens of kilowatts. by data movement between embedded learning, advanced sensors, and wire-
That is within a factor of two or three of computing nodes. less interfaces.
being useful on a battlefield, airplane or While short-reach connects is pos- While optical signaling is common
ship” to take out enemy drone swarms, sible today between on-chip cores today in such systems at the board and
Griffin says. A space-based weapon that and within multi-chip modules using rack levels, it has not yet been integrat-
could destroy boost-phase missiles would high-bandwidth electrical links, this ed within component switch chips, cen-
require power in the megawatt class. One interconnect performance rapidly de- tral processing units (CPUs), and graph-
big question remains: whether missile-de- grades at the longer lengths of circuit ical processing units (GPUs).
fense satellites will make it into the Missile boards and beyond because of unfavor- The PIPES program revolves around
Defense Review. able scaling with frequency and reach. three technical areas: photonically en-
This restricts off-chip I/O capacity, re- abled multichip modules; photonics for
Medium-wave infrared duces system performance, and lim- massive parallelism; and interconnect
(MWIR) camera for electro- its scalability. fabrics to facilitate package-level pho-
optical imaging introduced Granted, photonic transceiver mod- tonic I/O in future systems.
by Sierra-Olympic
ules can enable optical signaling with PIPES is a 42-month program divided
Sierra-Olympic Systems Inc. in Hood River, high bandwidth and minimal loss over into three phases: demonstration of con-
Ore., is introducing the Ventus 275 medi- long distances with optical fiber, yet op- cepts, components, and function; inte-
um-wave infrared (MWIR), 640-by-512- tical I/O typically comes in pluggable gration and prototyping; and establish-
by-15-micron imaging engine for security, modules on circuit boards, connected ing scalability, complexity, and maturity.
surveillance, fixed monitoring, military, and to MCM packages with electrical links Companies interested were asked
unmanned vehicle applications. The com- whose power dissipation and density to upload abstracts to the DARPA BAA
pact MWIR camera core weighs about 2.5 limit overall performance. Website by 20 Nov. 2018 at https://baa.
pounds, and is designed for OEM integra- Instead, DARPA researchers are try- darpa.mil, and to submit full propos-
tors of surveillance system enclosures and ing to find improvements by reducing als no later than 17 Jan. 2019 online at
other imaging gimbals. It has an f/5.5, signaling energy and latency, while in- www.grants.gov/applicants/apply-for-
19–275 millimeters continuous zoom (CZ) creasing overall signaling capacity and grants.html.
optic. The Ventus 275 features include an component density. This is where the Email questions or concerns to Gor-
indium antimonide focal plane array and PIPES project comes in. don Keeler, the PIPES program man-
a finely tuned athermalized and parfocal Developing efficient, high-band- ager, at HR001119S0004@darpa.mil. 
zoom lens with a 28.4–2-degree horizon- width, package-level photonic signal-
tal field of view (HFOV). The image pro- ing should have substantial influence More information is online at https://www.fbo.
cessing engine provides advanced image on high-performance computing, on gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/HR001119S0004/list-
enhancements including electronic image big-data applications that use machine ing.html.
stabilization, automatic-and-manual gain
control, adaptive contrast control and
optional target tracking and detection. Lockheed Martin eyes satellite sensor payload
The electro-optical imaging device also
features a shutter-based non-uniformity providers for next-gen missile warning
correction (NUC) and an environmental- Lockheed Martin Corp. has down-selected Raytheon and a Northrop Grumman–Ball
ly-sealed front lens element. Several out- Aerospace team to compete to provide the satellite sensor payload for the Air Force’s next-gen-
put interfaces include analog NTSC/PAL eration missile warning satellite system. This competition will be part of the first-phase con-
video, H.264/MJPEG IP video, and 14-bit tract for the next-generation overhead persistent infrared (OPIR) Block O Geosynchronous
Camera Link digital video. For more infor- Orbit (GEO) satellite, which will replace the service’s current Space-Based Infrared System
mation contact Sierra Olympic online at (SBIRS) expected to be phased out within the next five years. The award includes develop-
https://www.sierraolympic.com/products/ ment scope through critical design review. A final down-select is expected at the end of the
details/ventus-275.  CDR phase in 2020. 

36 DECEMBER 2018 MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS www.militaryaerospace.com

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 PRODUCT
applic at ions
DRS engineers build the shipboard elec-
tronics CPS using commercial off-the-shelf
(COTS) hardware and software such as Blade- SOLID-STATE MEMORY

Center technology that supplies common infra- Radiation-hardened memory

structure for processing and network fabric. from DDC picked for NASA
The CPS consists of a rugged enclosure BioSentinel space project
CONTRACT MANUFACTURING and three subsystems: the processing sub- Space flight computer experts at the Space Dynam-
DRS to provide electronics system, the storage and extraction subsys- ics Laboratory at Utah State University in North
manufacturing on rugged tem, and the I/O subsystem. Logan, Utah, needed radiation-hardened high-den-
shipboard computers The processing subsystem provides the sity NAND Flash memory for the Pearl single-board
Electronics manufacturing experts at Leon- computing resources to execute combat sys- computer they designed for the NASA BioSentinel
ardo DRS Laurel Technologies in Johnstown, tem application programs on Navy surface CubeSat spacecraft. They found their solution from
Pa., will build shock-resistant open-archi- ships. The storage and extraction subsystem Data Device Corp. (DDC) in Bohemia, N.Y.
tecture computing systems for U.S. Navy provides data storage for CPS operating sys- The Pearl single-board computer is to
destroyers and cruisers under terms of an tem (OS) image storage, program storage, be used as the flight computer on the NASA
$8.6 million order. data extraction, and database management. BioSentinel CubeSat satellite space mission to
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Com- The I/O subsystem, meanwhile, interfaces the study the effects of solar radiation on organisms.
mand in Washington are asking DRS Laurel processing and storage hardware to various The Pearl computer board, along with DDC’s
to build 18 technical insertion (TI) 16 Com- external elements. Flash memory, is baselined for use on several
mon Processing System (CPS) water-cooled Oracle provides for the Common Pro- different upcoming missions for NASA and the
core computing system cabinets and six TI-16 cessing System open-standard middleware, U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).
CPS water-cooled advanced storage area net- designated SAFfire, for the CPS to support BioSentinel CubeSat will deploy as part of
work cabinets. high-availability management of mission-crit- the first flight of the Space Launch System (SLS)
The CPS provides a common comput- ical combat system. SAF stands for Stan- — the largest rocket ever developed, and will
ing infrastructure for ship combat systems, dards Availability Forum, an industry con- enable astronauts to explore destinations far
including rugged computer processing, sortium of companies that develop open into the solar system.
memory, data storage and extraction, and standards-based products. The overall CPS DDC’s 192-gigabit NAND Flash provides the
I/O interfaces for combat systems. is designed with a shock-isolating enclosure CubeSat spacecraft with compact high-density
Other contract manufacturers for the Navy that protects unhardened COTS components memory to enable the satellite’s use of triple
CPS include Global Technical Systems (GTS) from the intense shock and vibration that modular redundancy (TMR) error correction for
in Virginia Beach, Va., as well as Northrop can occur on Navy surface ships — includ- operation without failure, DDC officials say.
Grumman Corp., IBM Corp., and GoAhead ing hits from missiles and torpedoes. The The NAND Flash uses radiation-mitigation
Software, which has been acquired by Oracle CPS comes in air- and water-cooled versions. RAD-PAK technology that provides spot shield-
Corp. in Redwood City, Calif. On this order DRS will do the work in John- ing against space radiation. RAD-PAK enables
CPS runs Navy combat system software stown, Pa., and should be finished by Decem- DDC to deliver the latest commercially available
applications in naval surface warship com- ber 2019. For more information contact DRS microelectronics in a space-qualified package,
bat systems such as Aegis Modernization, Laurel Technologies online at www.leon- providing designers with high-performance
Aegis new construction, Surface Electronic ardodrs.com/locations/drs-laurel-technolo- space-grade solutions at affordable costs.
Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), and gies-johnstown-pa, or Naval Sea Systems RAD-PAK-based space solutions offer a total
other Navy programs. Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.  dose immunity of 100 kilorads or higher, and
have been qualified by NASA, ESA, JAXA. and
www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   37

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 PRODUCT
applic at ions

thousands of missions for over 20 years without and MQ-9 Reaper attack unmanned aerial vehi- (UAVs). They found their solution from Persistent
flight failures. cle (UAV). Systems LLC in New York.
DDC’s hermetically sealed RAD-PAK NAND Fuzing provides mechanical, electro-me- Persistent Systems and Insitu, a Boeing com-
Flash devices come in a ceramic flat package with chanical, and electronic safe/arm products for pany, have entered into a five-year agreement
radiation-hardened shielding. They are based on general-purpose and penetration bombs, mis- for Insitu to incorporate Persistent’s Wave Relay
as many as eight 32 Gb x8 NAND Flash die (256 siles, and rockets. MANET technology into Insitu UAVs.
Gb), and use single-level cell (SLC) Technology for Kaman is the sole source of the Joint Program- Installing Persistent’s MANET radios on
fast read and write capabilities and boot times. mable Fuze (FMU-152 A/B) to the Air Force, and unmanned aircraft will enable Insitu UAVs to join
The BioSentinel mission is funded by the been the sole provider of the JPF to the Air Force land-, air-, and sea-based networks to enable
Advanced Exploration Systems program within warfighters to share voice and data, including
the Human Exploration and Operations Mission imagery, video, and text.
Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. The agreement between Persistent and
Partner organizations include NASA Ames Insitu enables Insitu to join the Wave Relay Eco-
Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.; NASA system, an alliance of companies using Wave
Johnson Space Center in Houston; Loma Linda Relay MANET radios. This will enable Insitu’s
University Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif.; UAVs to work seamlessly with all other Wave
and the University of Saskatchewan in Saska- since 2002. Kaman also provides the JPF to 26 Relay MANET-enabled products.
toon, Saskatchewan. other nations. Kaman produces the JPF at facili- “Integrating the Wave Relay MANET into our
For more information contact DDC online ties in Orlando, Fla., and in Middletown, Conn. products gives our systems a critical communi-
at www.ddc-web.com, or the Space Dynamics The has projectile velocity measurement equip- cation capability, enabling a wholly networked
Laboratory at Utah State University at www. ment, projectile impact media, high-speed pho- field solution,” says Matt Bartow, Insitu’s chief
sdl.usu.edu/solutions/hardware/pearl. tographic equipment, and lighting for night fir- technology officer.
ing and tests to help in JPF production. Ad-hoc networking enables warfighters
On this order Kaman will do the work in operating in the same region to create RF net-
WEAPONS FUZING Orlando, Fla., and Middletown, Conn., and works on the fly to enable data networking, in
Air Force chooses Kaman to should be finished by June 1, 2020. For more areas where no communications infrastructure
provide programmable fuzes information contact Kaman Fuzing & Pre- exists. Each Persistent Systems radio acts simul-
for airborne weapons cision Products online at www.kaman.com/ taneously as a transmitter, receiver, and network
U.S. Air Force airborne weapons experts needed fuzing-precision-products/about-us. node — similar to a cell phone tower.
special fuzes that enable aircraft pilots to pro- The Wave Relay MANET adapts quickly and
gram weapons in flight. They found their solu- continuously to fluctuations in terrain and other dif-
tion from the Kaman Corp. Fuzing & Precision WIRELESS NETWORKING ficult environmental conditions to make the most
Products segment in Orlando, Fla. Persistent Systems to provide of connectivity and communications performance.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Man- mobile ad-hoc networking The Wave Relay MANET’s proprietary rout-
agement Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., (MANET) for unmanned aircraft ing algorithm enables users to incorporate vast
announced a $52 million order to Kaman on Unmanned aircraft designer Insitu in Bingen, numbers of meshed communications devices
Wednesday for 15,000 FMU-152 A/B Joint Pro- Wash., needed mobile ad-hoc networking into the network in which the devices them-
grammable Fuzes (JPF). (MANET) capability for the company’s ScanEa- selves form the communication infrastructure.
The JPF enables air crew to program weapon gle, ScanEagle2, ScanEagle3, Integrator, and Persistent Systems Wave Relay radios each
settings in flight while weapons are mounted to RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aerial vehicles use three antennas instead of one to boost com-
the aircraft, and is for several different weapons, munications range and power, as well as to mit-
including general-purpose bombs and guided igate the effects of multipath and other inter-
bombs that use JDAM or Paveway kits. ference to keep data communications open and
Aircraft that can use the JPF on their weap- operating at high bandwidth.
ons include the F-15E jet fighter-bomber, F-16 For more information contact Persistent
jet fighter, F-22 fighter, A-10 ground-attack jet, Systems online at www.persistentsystems.com,
B-1 and B-2 strategic bombers, B-52 bomber, or Insitu at www.insitu.com. 
38  
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICSwww.militaryaerospace.com

1812MAE37-38.indd 38 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 To submit new products for consideration,

new products
contact John Keller at jkeller@pennwell.com.

TEST AND MEASUREMENT operating specs that include altitudes to 12,000

Spectrum analyzer for aerospace feet, temperatures of 0 to 50 degrees Celsius,
and defense introduced 5 to 95 percent noncondensing humidity, and applications. The AP571 provides single-function
by Rohde & Schwarz resistance to vibration and shock. This system MIL-STD-1553 communications, while the AP572
Rohde & Schwarz in Munich is expanding the also offers a high-power redundant power sup- provides full multi-function databus communica-
company’s Spectrum Rider FPH family of hand- ply and RAID options for additional hard drive tions. Both models provide one dual redundant
held spectrum analyzers with three new base redundancy. The heart of this computer system is channel with four open/ground avionics level
models providing frequency ranges from 5 kHz a long-life system board using the Intel Xeon scal- discrete I/O signals in addition to IRIG-B I/O and
to 6 GHz, 13.6 GHz, and 26.5 GHz for everyday able microprocessors. It also provides four 3.5- Trigger I/O. A high-performance system-on-chip
measurement tasks in aerospace and defense, inch drive bays, a slim-slot fed optical drive, two (SoC) architecture has dual-core RISC processors
mobile net wor k USB 2.0 ports, as much as one terabyte of RAM, tightly coupled to large programmable logic for
testing and broad- and ability to run Windows 10, Windows 7 Pro, host CPU offload and real-time functionality. With
casting. These test and other 32- and 64-bit operating systems. The 128 megabytes global RAM on-board for data
and measurement scheduling and buffering, the modules can oper-
d e v ic e s o f f e r a ate dependably at full bus rates. A variety of car-
capacitive touch- rier cards are available to host a mix of as many as
screen and a four AcroPack I/O modules on PCI Express, VPX,
unique frequency or XMC embedded computing form factors. For
upgrade concept more information contact Acromag online at
via keycodes. Since www.acromag.com.
upgrades require
neither downtime nor recalibration, users can
upgrade their base models. The Spectrum Rider CP SysCool thermal management system extends TEST AND MEASUREMENT
FPH is a tool for verifying signal transmission the life of the computing system, reduces power Oscilloscopes for optical network
over 5G, broadcast, radar and satellite commu- consumption, and lowers overall system noise testing introduced by Keysight
nications links. Higher-frequency models enable levels. The system also can support as many as Keysight Technologies Inc. in Santa Rosa, Calif.,
the rugged Spectrum Rider FPH to perform mea- 4x NVIDIA Tesla graphics processing units in one is introducing the Infiniium UXR-series of oscillo-
surement tasks in the field and lab. Weighing package. For more information contact Chassis scopes for high-speed serial and optical network-
5.5 pounds, the Spectrum Rider FPH spectrum Plans online at www.chassis-plans.com. ing test, measurement, and development. These
analyzers have a battery that lasts more than models range from 13 to 110 GHz of analog
six hours. For more information contact Rohde bandwidth to enable designers create designs in
& Schwarz online at www.rohde-schwarz.com. AVIONICS any generation of DDR, USB, PCI Express, or other
Rugged Mini PCI Express serial technologies, as well as PAM4, 5G, radar,
MIL-STD-1553 avionics modules satellite communications, and optical designs.
RACKMOUNT COMPUTERS introduced by Acromag These oscilloscopes deliver a low noise floor and
Rugged computer for Acromag in Wixom, Mich., is introducing two high vertical resolution to ensure measurements.
vehicles, ships, and aircraft rugged AcroPack MIL-STD-1553 communication
introduced by Chassis Plans modules based on the Mini PCI Express card stan-
Chassis Plans LLC in San Diego is introducing the dard — the AP571 and AP572 — for commercial
HPC M5U-22 rugged high-performance computer off-the-shelf (COTS) military and commercial avi-
(HPC) for a wide range of ground, vehicle, ship- onics applications. These Mini PCI Express mez-
board, and aircraft installations. The HPC M5U- zanine modules deliver a SWaP-optimized solu-
22 is based on a ruggedized 5U enclosure with tion for avionics test, simulation, and monitoring
www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS  D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 8   39

1812MAE39-40_c3.indd 39 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 new PRODUCTS
Keysight also announced two additional solutions RUGGED COMPUTERS networking performance while minimizing size,
that, when paired with the company’s Infiniium Small-form-factor rugged weight, power, and power consumption (SWaP).
UXR-series oscilloscopes, offer an end-to-end computer for signal processing It is a small-form-factor (SFF) system with one 3U
solution from stimulus to analysis for PAM4 and introduced by X-ES VPX Intel Xeon D single-board computer hosting
400G, 600G, as well as terabit coherent opti- Extreme Engineering Solutions Inc. (X-ES) in Verona, a 10 Gigabit Ethernet Switched Mezzanine Card
cal interconnect designs. These solutions include Wis., is introducing the XPand6215 commercial- (XMC) networking module and one 3U VPX Xilinx
N4391B Optical Modulation Analyzer (OMA) — off-the-shelf (COTS) rugged computer system for a Kintex Ultrascale field-programmable gate array
a compact, real-time oscilloscope-based OMA wide range of signal processing applications. Based (FPGA) module with FireFly connectors. In the first
designed specifically for complex optical data on the Intel Xeon D-1500 family of processors and slot, the XPedite7670 single-board computer has
transmission and terabit measurement challenges; the Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale FPGA, the XPand6215 an Intel Xeon D-1500 processor that has as many
and M8194A 120 gigasamples per second arbi- offers several high-speed fiber-optic interfaces as 16 Xeon-class cores in one, power-efficient sys-
trary waveform generator (AWG) — Keysight’s on the front panel. With a compact design, the tem-on-chip. The XPedite7670 hosts an XPort3305
fastest AWG delivers a level of stimulus perfor- XPand6215 makes the most of processing and 10 Gigabit Ethernet XMC module, which provides
mance for generating challenging formats such a 10GBASE-SR Ethernet port through a fiber-optic
as 64 gigabaud 64QAM (quadrature amplitude connector on the XPand6215 front panel. The sys-
modulation) and other wideband modulation tem includes an integrated 28-volt DC power sup-
schemes. For more information contact Keysight ply and MIL-STD-461 EMI filtering. For more infor-
online at www.keysight.com. mation contact X-ES online at www.xes-inc.com.

PRODUCT & LITERATURE SHOWCASE

1812MAE39-40_c3.indd 1 40
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11/7/18 12:03 PM
1:52 PM
 RF AND MICROWAVE

RF coaxial probes for RF and microwave test and

measurement introduced by Pasternack
Pasternack Enterprises in Irvine, Calif., is introducing an extended line of RF
SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES
coaxial probes that reach into the 40 GHz operating frequency range for use in Phone: 1-800-869-6882 / International Callers: +1 512-982-4277
RF and microwave components, high-speed communications, and networking. E-mail: MAEM@kmpsgroup.com
Web: www.mae-subscribe.com
The RF coaxial probes are for sig-
nal integrity test and measurement, GROUP PUBLISHER Alan Bergstein

chip evaluation, coplanar waveguide, 603 891-9447 ⁄ alanb@pennwell.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Keller
Gigabit SERDES, substrate character- 603 891-9117 ⁄ jkeller@pennwell.com
ization, and test fixture applications. ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jamie Whitney
603 891-9135 ⁄ jamiew@pennwell.com
The probes include four models that
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR WESTERN BUREAU J. R. Wilson
deliver 10 dB maximum return loss 702 434-3903 ⁄ jrwilson@pennwell.com

over a frequency range of DC to 40 ART DIRECTOR Meg Fuschetti

PRODUCTION MANAGER Sheila Ward

GHz. These probes come in GS and
SENIOR ILLUSTRATOR Chris Hipp
GSG configurations with a pitch of
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Debbie Bouley
800 or 1500 microns and a 2.92-mil- 603 891-9372 ⁄ debbieb@pennwell.com
AD SERVICES MANAGER Glenda Van Duyne
limeter interface. They are gold-plated and have compliant pogo pin contacts
918 831-9473 ⁄ glendav@pennwell.com
that allow for a wide range of probing angles. These RF coaxial probes can be MARKETING MANAGER Adrienne Adler
used by hand, with or without a probe positioner, and can be cable mounted 603 891-9420 ⁄ aadler@pennwell.com

or mounted with Pasternack’s multi-axis probe positioner. For more information

contact Pasternack online at www.pasternack.com. 
www.pennwell.com

EDITORIAL OFFICES
PennWell Corporation,
Military & Aerospace Electronics

A DV E R T I S E RS I N D E X 61 Spit Brook Road, Suite 501, Nashua, NH 03060

603 891-0123 ⁄ www.milaero.com
ADVERTISER PAGE
SALES OFFICES
Applied Avionics, Inc. .......................................................................................13 EASTERN US & EASTERN CANADA & UK
Bob Collopy, Sales Manager
Astronics Test Systems ....................................................................................11 603 891-9398 ⁄ Cell 603 233-7698
FAX 603 686-7580 ⁄ bobc@pennwell.com
Atrenne Integrated Solutions .........................................................................13
WESTERN CANADA & WEST OF MISSISSIPPI
Crystal Group .....................................................................................................13 Jay Mendelson, Sales Manager
4957 Chiles Drive, San Jose, CA 95136
Curtiss Wright ...................................................................................................11 408 221-2828 ⁄ jaym@pennwell.com
REPRINTS Jessica Stremmel
Elma Electronic Inc. ..................................................................................... 9, 12
717 505-9701 x2205 ⁄ Jessica.stremmel@theygsgroup.com
General Micro Systems Inc. ..................................................................... 12, 13 DIRECTOR LIST RENTAL Kelli Berry
918 831-9782 ⁄ kellib@pennwell.com
Interface Concept ................................................................................................8
For assistance with marketing strategy or ad creation,
Mercury Systems ................................................................................. 12, 14, 15 please contact PennWell Marketing Solutions
Kaci Wheeler
Pasternack Enterprises ...................................................................3, 17, 23, C4 918 832-9377 ⁄ kaciw@pennwell.com

Pentek ................................................................................................................. C2 CORPORATE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Mark C. Wilmoth
Phoenix International.......................................................................................25
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT
Pico Electronics Inc. ............................................................................................1 AND STRATEGY Jayne A. Gilsinger

CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER, PENNWELL MEDIA Robert Brighouse

Qorvo ............................................................................................................ 14, 15
TECHNOLOGY GROUP
Radiall..................................................................................................................35
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHING DIRECTOR & CMO June Griffin
RGB Spectrum................................................................................................... 40
Systel Inc. ............................................................................................................27
Z Micro ......................................................................................................... 14, 29

www.militaryaerospace.com MILITARY & AEROSPACE ELECTRONICS DECEMBER 2018 41

1812MAE39-40_c3.indd 3 12/5/18 12:03 PM

 Largest In-Stock Selection of

Waveguide
Components
All Available for
Same-Day Shipping

RF Solutions
From RF Engineers

Pasternack’s RF Engineering team has assembled the largest selection of in-stock and ready to ship waveguide
components covering RF, microwave and millimeter-wave bands up to 110 GHz. With 20 different waveguide categories
and over 500 designs including adapters, power amplifiers, detectors, bandpass filters, PIN diode switches, attenuators,
horn antennas and more, Pasternack has the waveguide components you are looking for. Whether it’s waveguide
products or any of the other 40,000 in-stock components we carry, our Application Engineers stand ready to deliver
solutions for all your RF project needs.

866.727.8376
visit pasternack.com today!

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