Defense Systems

DOD ups research with Navy supercomputer

The Defense Department has increased its supercomputing capacity with the purchase of an IBM supercomputer for the Naval Oceanographic Office’s Major Shared Resource Center.

Defense Systems

Secure desktops and robotic recovery

General Dynamics C4 Systems has selected Dell’s OptiPlex 755 desktop PC as the hardware platform for its Trusted Virtual Environment; General Dynamics C4 Systems has selected Dell’s OptiPlex 755 desktop PC as the hardware platform for its Trusted Virtual Environment.

Defense Systems

Standards still emerging for military wireless nets

The military wireless network of the near future will incorporate civilian technologies such as Wi-Fi while accounting for all the ways that networking a battlefield is not like networking a coffee shop or even a city.

Defense Systems

Army studies biofuel cells for sensors

The Army is investigating whether a new type of fuel cell that uses biologically active enzymes as a catalyst could provide a longer-lasting power source for unattended ground sensors.

Defense Systems

Rugged PCs and filtering screens

The Land Warrior and upcoming Ground Warrior systems are only part of General Dynamics’ rugged military electronics business.

Defense Systems

Letters from the editor: Transformation

Defense Systems magazine has a renewed focus and a new design. In the past few months, we’ve been working toward a relaunch of this magazine to align it with what’s become the permanent evolution of networkcentric warfare and the reality that blurs the lines between the logistics chain, the back office and the front lines.

Defense Systems

Navy begins test of tube-launched UAV

A Navy rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle designed to be fired from a sonobuoy launch tube will enter what is planned to be a final phase of testing under a $10.5 million contract award to Lite Machines, of West Lafayette, Ind.

Defense Systems

Unmanned supply helicopter demonstrated

Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace have demonstrated to the Army and Marine Corps the feasibility of transporting supplies to ground troops by an unmanned helicopter

Defense Systems

Coast Guard stretches with Deepwater

After decades of using aging communications equipment and ships, the Coast Guard is attempting to create a comprehensive command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) system.

Defense Systems

COTS creates challenge

Almost every version of Microsoft’s operating systems can be found in the military, and the Army only recently upgraded its Standard Army Maintenance System from MS-DOS to Windows XP.

Defense Systems

Air Force leaders step down

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley told reporters that failure to maintain consistent technical and process discipline was the primary cause of the slips in nuclear security that ultimately led to his firing.

Defense Systems

APP speeds medical supplies

The Defense Logistics Agency has awarded three contracts to General Dynamics Information Technology to help streamline and strengthen the military’s medical supply chain.

Defense Systems

Africom builds cooperation with collaboration

Challenges inherent in Africom’s mission — focused more on promoting regional security than warfighting — call for a somewhat different structure and create a challenge for Africom’s C4 operations.

Defense Systems

Neural nets find niche

Artificial neural networks are close to being deployed on Navy ships as part of a firedetection system, based on work that the Naval Research Laboratory oversees.

Defense Systems

Debriefing: Joint Space Operations Center's departing director, Col. Stephen Whiting

Defense Systems contributor Sami Lais spoke recently with Air Force Col. Stephen Whiting, former JSpOC commander and director. In June, Whiting handed over command of JSpOC to Col. Richard Doltz after being selected for the Chief of Staff Air Force Fellows program.

Defense Systems

Game processor in warfighting apps

The advanced processor technology that lets Sony PlayStation 3 jet jockeys blow enemy fighters out of the sky in games such as “Warhawk” might soon help real warfighters do the same in combat.

Defense Systems

GAO eyes global strike ISR

If the Defense Department wants to hit targets across the world with rapidly deployable weapons, it must better synchronize weapons development with the pace of advancements in ISR technologies.

Defense Systems

Waved off

Once again, errors in the procurement process have thrown a major Air Force program’s future into doubt. And critics say that the Government Accountability Office report’s damning tone in this case indicates a wider problem in defense procurement.

Defense Systems

Army renews contract for munition logistics automation

The Army Joint Munitions Command has renewed a contract with Savi Technology to continue developing and supporting a government-owned software system that handles depot-level ammunition logistics.

Defense Systems

Instant picture

Instead of a visual scan that can take several minutes with a periscope, the camera can provide an instant full view of the surface.