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Archive for the ‘Comms’ Category
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Friday, January 14th, 2022TRX Systems Selected by the U.S. Army to Deliver Dismounted Assured PNT System (DAPS)
Thursday, January 6th, 2022GREENBELT, MD. (PRWEB) JANUARY 06, 2022
TRX Systems, developer of NEON® GPS-denied location solutions, has been selected by the U.S. Army to provide a next-generation Dismounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) System (DAPS). The TRX DAPS solution employs a lightweight soldier-worn device that enables dismounted warfighters to successfully conduct operations when operating in GPS challenged, degraded, or denied environments.
Military equipment can be the subject of enemy electronic attacks, potentially resulting in a loss of location awareness that can put Army missions at increased risk. The TRX DAPS solution alerts the user when their position isn’t reliable and then leverages multiple sensors and timing sources to provide the best soldier position possible within the GPS degraded operational environment. The solution is designed to replace the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) with support for both a standalone configuration and integration with the Nett Warrior ensemble.
The TRX DAPS solution leverages the company’s proven experience in delivering GPS-denied location technology to thousands of military, public safety, and security users worldwide. The solution combines inputs from small, body-worn sensors and other sources to provide assured PNT while meeting the challenging Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) needs of dismounted soldiers already physically burdened with heavy equipment loads.
“Maintaining assured PNT is paramount to the situational awareness of U.S. warfighters in the many conflict zones around the world,” said Carol Politi, President and CEO of TRX Systems. “When initial units are fielded in mid-2022, the TRX DAPS solution will deliver a balance of the highest possible level of integrated PNT capabilities with the smallest package that can be fielded for dismounted warfighters.”
For more information, visit www.trxsystems.com.
Counting Elephants – The Hark-1 Radio
Saturday, January 1st, 2022As Vietnam heated up, the Agency’s need for eyes on the Laotian panhandle increased beyond the support that could be provided by Thai PARU and RTSF advisors. As a result, the CIA was forced to look for other solutions to communicate with its illiterate Lao Theung road watching teams targeting the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
To tackle this problem, the Agency came up with a radio that used pictograms to communicate what a team saw. Crafted from a modified USAF survival unit, the Hark-1 or Hark Box was released early in 1967.
Note the depictions of armor, artillery, AAA, trucks, porters, soldiers, time of day, and direction of travel. The circular button at the center was used to transmit the tally of what was seen moving north and southbound on the trail to an airborne relay station. While the radio doesn’t appear to have a pictogram for elephants, it was given the affection moniker “the Elephant Counter” by Paramilitary Officers involved in the project. To avoid detection, the Hark road watching teams – sometimes numbering up to twenty-four road watchers on a target like the Mu Gia Pass – would be inserted via unmarked “Pony Express” CH-3s very far from their objective.
On the third slide you can see the Hark-1 with antenna deployed in front of Case Officer, Gene Norwinski during a briefing in Savannakhet. The project was wrapped up in 1969 having been overshadowed by a variety of Pentagon projects and new sensors and night vision capabilities like those present on the AC-130.
Written by @Immurement
Draper Inventors Honored for Antenna Designed to Evade Detection
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021CAMBRIDGE, MA—December 20, 2021—Draper has earned an award for its patent of an antenna technology that shows promise for improving reception and evading detection in locations where signal complexity might be a problem. Military units may benefit when the antenna is installed in their communication devices.
The achievement was recognized by the Boston Patent Law Association at its 11th Annual Invented Here! event Nov. 12, 2021.
Antennas can, of course, be designed to receive and transmit a range of signals, including GPS, cellphone and Wi-Fi. Making signals difficult to detect is desirable in many military contexts, such as stealth aircraft. But devising an invisibility cloak isn’t easy for antennas used for typical military uses, such as beacons and radar systems.
A major challenge for designing any antenna is the noisy and complex environments it might encounter. Military antennas, for instance, interact with multiple frequencies, which requires multiple layers of protection for the antennas and their signals to remain undetected. The result can be an antenna wrapped in a protective layer, called a radome, which can be “expensive, complex and time-consuming” to design, build and maintain, according to the patent.
Draper addressed the challenge of unwanted signal detection by devising a scheme for antennas of various types that can be tuned by adjusting the frequency selective surfaces, or FSS. FSS is a thin, repetitive surface designed to reflect, transmit or absorb electromagnetic fields based on the frequency of the field.
Engineers at Draper designed the antenna to dampen or hide its presence without impacting its effectiveness. They did so by developing an FSS that has the ability to automatically change how the FSS resonates to an incoming radar signal without degrading signal reception to the antenna. The result is a lower radar signature of the antenna. If a different radar frequency needs to be mitigated against, then the tunable FSS which is embedded in the antenna element can be tuned to the new radar frequency without degrading the performance of the desired communications frequency.
The inventors responsible for the patent “Frequency Selective Surface Antenna Element” are Amy Duwel, John Grandfield and Jacob Treadway. The patent application was prepared and submitted by Sunstein LLP.
The Boston Patent Law Association, established in 1924, is one of the oldest associations of intellectual property lawyers and professionals in the U.S. The BPLA’s Invented Here! award highlights inventions made by New England inventors or New England companies.
Romeo Six Operator PTT
Friday, December 17th, 2021
The Romeo Six Operator PTT (Push-To-Talk) takes a different look at PTT’s. Giving users a more ergonomic design and customization options to meet mission needs. Increased Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) resistance and reduced crosstalk bleed over provide better performance, without increasing the footprint. A multitude of variations are available for different mission sets and requirements.
It’s available via GSA from Regulus Global at GSA Contract # 47QSWA21D007S
Decision Dominance: SCI TOCNET-G4 Vehicular Intercom System Receives New Networking Capability from Persistent System
Tuesday, December 7th, 2021Firmware upgrade for Persistent Systems mobile ad hoc networking devices allows dismounted troops, headquarter staff, to seamlessly communicate with vehicle crews
NEW YORK, Nov. 30, 2021 — Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”) a leader in mobile ad hoc networking (MANET), announced today that its MANET solutions have undergone a firmware upgrade, enabling them to interface with SCI Technology’s TOCNET-G4 unified voice management system for tactical military vehicles.
With this new capability, troops moving in, out of, and around vehicles can use their handheld MPU5 MANET devices to seamlessly connect with vehicle crews via the TOCNET-G4 intercom system, even under the most chaotic battlefield conditions. The result is increased connectivity, improved situational awareness, and improved decision dominance during a military engagement.
“Before this upgrade, you had to deal with crackly audio and messy headset plug-ins, which was not ideal when you’re taking fire. Now everything is smooth, fast, and automatic,” said Nicholas Naioti, VP of Business Development at Persistent. “Anyone on Persistent’s Wave Relay® MANET can communicate on the TOCNET-G4, so now headquarters has a direct line to an individual vehicle driver.”
The TOCNET-G4 is connected to the Persistent Systems Wave Relay® MANET via the GVR5, a dual-band networking radio developed for tracked and wheeled vehicles in conjunction with General Dynamics Mission Systems. Through the GVR5, troops using Persistent’s handheld MPU5 devices can communicate with vehicular crews on the TOCNET-G4 system.
“Everything is ethernet-based,” said Ed Reber, director of the Army C3T business area at General Dynamics Mission Systems. “There is no need for extra cabling, which reduces cost and logistics requirements. With this capability, you can just ‘dial’ a specific crewman or connect with someone who is part of a force operating in a specific location.”
The TOCNET-G4 is currently on, or being tested with, 50-plus military platforms. These include the JLTV, GMV 1.1, Stryker, LAV, and NGCV MET-D.
“The ubiquity of SCI Technology’s TOCNET-G4 unified voice management system means that the firmware upgrade to Persistent’s MANET hardware will benefit a lot of users,” said Shaun Fischer, Director of Portfolio Management at SCI Technology.
WARNORD – USSOCOM Science and Technology Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) 22.1 Pre-Release
Tuesday, December 7th, 2021SOFWERX has put out word that the USSOCOM Science and Technology Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) 22.1 submissions will open 12 January 2022.
Special Areas of Interest
PHASE I:
SOCOM221-001: Low SWaP Tactical Ultra-Secure Communications System
DIRECT TO PHASE II:
SOCOM221-D002: Ultra-Compact Long Range Machine Gun Optic
SOCOM221-D003: Miniature Aiming Ranging Laser
SOCOM221-D004: Advanced Precision-Variable Power Scope
(Link to all DoD SBIRs www.dodsbirsttr.mil)
SBIR Process Timeline
01 December 2021: Topics and instructions posted
12 January 2022: DoD begins accepting proposals
TBD: Virtual Industry Q&A sessions
10 February 2022: Solicitation closes and proposals evaluations/award starts
By 6 months after award: Phase I complete
For Phase 1 Topics only: If appropriate, an RFP may be provided with a typical 30-day proposal timeline at or around the end of Phase 1
To lean more visit events.sofwerx.org/sbir22.1.
COMSAT Jump Kit with Secure Network for ATAK
Monday, November 22nd, 2021SupplyCore demonstrated a satellite-based comms system combined with a local secure wireless network for Android Team Awareness Kit at the recent WEPTAC in Arizona.
The COMSAT Certus Jump Kit connects TAK with IRIDIUM Secure global service. It’s the long haul solution you’ve been seeking for TAK.
The COMSAT Certus Jump Kit offers IP data sessions up to 704kbps (down)/352kbps (up) and Streaming up to 256kbps. PTT ready, there are also three high quality voice lines as well as location tracking.
The empty weight of the kit is 12 lbs and goes up to 44 lbs with four standard BB-2590 batteries. In addition to battery use, you can also connect the system to 12 VDC power.
Bryodyn Technologies enables your TAK system by providing simple Android End User Device provisioning through their Mission Builder system. Once set properly configured, TAK can be connected to their Tactical Internet Gateway which helps guards against transmission intercept and ensures secure communication. It provides site-to-site VPN, integrated GPS with web blocking, secure firewall, 256-bit encryption, and protection against denial of service (DoS) attacks.
Features of the TIG:
• Up to Three (3) GE WAN Ports
• Up to Eight (8) GE LAN Ports
• Built in Wi-Fi 802.11ac/a/b/g/n
• Up to Four (4) LTE Modems (dual SIM
cards per modem)
• Cellular 3G / 4G / LTE / FirstNet / Int’l
• WAN Smoothing & Traffic Steering
• Automatic Primary & Backup Recovery of Modems
• SATCOM / VIASAT / Microsware integration support via WAN Port
• MANET (Trellisware, Silvus, Persistant
Systems) integration support via LAN port
• Private or Tactical LTE integration support via LAN port
• SpeedFusion SD-WAN Bandwidth Bonding
• VPN Encryption AES-256-GCM
• CSfC Software Compatible
By combining these system you can run a secure wireless network for your TAK enabled EUDs and offer worldwide reach back.
The COMSAT Certus Jump Kit and Bryodyn Technologies products are available for unit and agency purchase from SupplyCore.
