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Lives Saved by Tactical NAV & Enemy Forces Killed or Captured

Thursday, March 12th, 2020

Several years ago we showcased Tactical NAV, a Command and Control app for mobile devices.

SSD received this note from the developer.

We are still developing it and are now completely upgrading the Android platform.

Got a Facebook message from a U.S. Soldier today that I thought was worth sending your way. I’m protecting his name due to security concerns, but this happened very recently.

It’s humbling to hear that TACNAV is still making a difference for our troopers in combat – that’s what it’s all about.

Glad to hear they are still in the fight.

Posted in Comms, Tac Apps, Veterans | 28 Comments »

Germany Joins ESSOR – Rohde & Schwarz commissioned for national implementation

Sunday, February 23rd, 2020

Rohde & Schwarz has been named as the German industrial representative for the ESSOR project and is participating in the development of a European wideband waveform for tactical interoperability in multinational operations.

In mid-December 2019, the Budget and Defense Committee of the German parliament agreed to join the European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR) project – the trans-European interoperability initiative for armed forces at the tactical level. Approval of the participation proposal also initiated national implementation of the current OC1 (operational capability) phase of the ESSOR wideband waveform, which is part of the large-scale project “Digitalization of Land Based Operations” (D-LBO). Rohde & Schwarz has been named as the national champion and joins the group of member-state companies that have been working on the implementation of ESSOR since 2008.

ESSOR is a long-term program, managed by OCCAR , in which the national champions from Italy, Spain, France, Finland, Poland and now also Germany are leading the joint enterprise a4ESSOR S.A.S. as prime contractor. The overarching objective is further development of capabilities in the area of secure communications technology to improve the interoperability of the armed forces. In concrete terms, ESSOR OC1 defines the joint development and updating of an interoperable, trustworthy, robust and wideband radio waveform for connected armed forces.

“Rohde & Schwarz is proud to take its place in the ESSOR community. With our experience in software defined radio and associated waveforms from many years of development of our own products as well as SOVERON D (known from the SVFuA development project) for the German armed forces, which is ramping up for series production in 2020, we are very well prepared for this. This is complemented by our expertise as an architect of secure communications networks and approval for encryption up to the highest classification levels in Germany, the EU and NATO,” comments Hartmut Jäschke, Executive Vice President of the Secure Communications Division and member of Corporate Management of Rohde & Schwarz.

The partner companies are Thales (France), Leonardo (Italy), Indra (Spain), Radmor (Poland) and Bittium (Finland), which have been developing the OC1 phase since 2017.

The high data rate waveform (HDRWF) developed for ESSOR OC1 is designed for operational and tactical unit command and IP connectivity at the brigade, battalion and lower levels. It features flexible configuration and adaptability to demanding scenarios, and it offers soldiers versatile and robust MANET networks on their national radio systems for combined missions and in the framework of territorial and collective defense.

With support from the European Defense Fund, ESSOR will be augmented with additional waveforms, for example for specific use cases or for air based operations. “The collaboration of European industry and provision of the most advanced commercially available SDR in the form of SOVERON D will give major projects of the German armed forces, such as D-LBO, an enormous boost in the connected, secure and jam-proof transmission of voice and data,” concludes Mr. Jäschke.

Posted in Comms, International, Press Release | Comments Off on Germany Joins ESSOR – Rohde & Schwarz commissioned for national implementation

Sneak Peek – Atlantic Signal SPEAR line

Friday, February 21st, 2020

Next week Atlantic Signal will introduce the next generation in Executive Protection Comms – The SPEAR line.

Posted in Comms | 7 Comments »

US Army Taps Persistent Systems to Develop Secure Comms for Robotic and Autonomous Systems

Thursday, February 20th, 2020

Company adapting MPU5 for contested manned-unmanned ops

For Immediate Release

NEW YORK, N.Y.—January XX, 2020—Persistent Systems, LLC (“Persistent”) announced today that it has been awarded a $5.4M contract by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command C5ISR Center to develop Protected Communications for Manned-Unmanned Teams (MUM-T).

The Army envisions a next-generation Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) that can be networked with up to four unmanned Remote Combat Vehicles (RCVs) and their assorted sensor/weapons payloads – and, in turn, networked with the broader force and command structure.

For that to happen, these manned-unmanned teams will need a robust, secure, and high-throughput communications network.

“The Army wants RCVs that can be remotely operated in groups over very long distances, in cities, forests, and open terrain,” said Brian Soles, VP of Business Development for Persistent. “These manned-unmanned teams will also have to deal with the threat of enemy hacking and jamming.”

The MPU5 with its Wave Relay® MANET was previously selected by the Next Generation Combat Vehicle cross functional team (NGCV-CFT) and the Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) as the MANET network of choice for RCV Phase 1 and has been under evaluation by the U.S. Army for over a year.

Persistent is a leader in the mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) domain. Its MPU5 forms a highly scalable, peer-to-peer network that does not rely on external communications infrastructure to operate or run through a vulnerable central node. The MPU5, which has already been deployed on a variety of unmanned platforms, has:

• An onboard Android™ computer, that hosts and runs command-and-control and situational awareness software;

• A 3×3 MIMO configuration with up to 10 watts of transmit power, providing a usable throughput exceeding 100 Mbps; and a

• Built-In HD Video Encoder/Decoder to distribute multiple real-time HD video feeds to team members on demand.

As part of its 14-month-long contract, Persistent is working with the C5ISR Center’s Space and Terrestrial Communications Directorate to adapt the MPU5 to meet the anti-jam and cyber hardening demands of MUM-T operations.

“The application of the work done under this contract won’t be limited to vehicles,” Soles said. “The idea is to get these same hardened capabilities to dismounted soldiers, which will greatly enhance our ability to operate against more sophisticated adversaries.”

The development initiatives on this contract are already underway and will continue through 2020.

www.persistentsystems.com

Posted in Comms, Contracts, Press Release | Comments Off on US Army Taps Persistent Systems to Develop Secure Comms for Robotic and Autonomous Systems

How To Connect Single and Dual Downlead Cables to Your Ops-Core AMP Communication Headset

Sunday, February 16th, 2020

gentexcorp.com/ops-core

Posted in Advertiser, Comms | 2 Comments »

Introducing the Wndsn High-Viz Quadrant Telemeter

Wednesday, January 29th, 2020

“I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things.” –Henri Matisse

Wndsn Messtechnik is introducing the latest iteration of one of the most popular Wndsn Telemeter products. After more than a thousand units sold, the new white Wndsn Quadrant Telemeter is released in the beginning of 2020 in a high-contrast, high-visibility version with a number of new features.

The Wndsn Quadrant Telemeter is a measurement and calculation instrument for indoor and outdoor use, its users require attributes such as ruggedness, durability, and integrity of the various scales. For black and transparent instruments, Wndsn uses cast Acrylic that works reliably under these conditions and is deep-engraved.

To increase legibility without losing durability in the process, after various tests examining legibility, resilience, and resistance of different surfaces, a new material has been chosen: A sandwich acrylic consisting of a black core with matte white outer surfaces that are cut through by engraving, thereby exposing the black material underneath for high contrast and scales that cannot wear off (a requirement that prohibits simply printing the scales).

Other new and updated features on the Wndsn High-Viz Quadrant Telemeter are:

1. A 100 MIL mark on the angular size scale, it’s a special value for various calculations, one of which being the point where an object of unknown size has a height of 0.1x the known distance, or vice versa.

2. Another scale mark, just as easy to miss; this one is also to be found on the angular size scale and is located at 7.5°. Wndsn’s naked-eye astronomy users have asked for this one, 7.5° equals 30 minutes of earth rotation and the mark can be used against a fixed star to measure minutes passed in the sky.

3. The slope/tan scale on the quadrant side received a makeover and got redesigned according to the updated Wndsn style guide for logarithmic scales. The result is a more refined scale with higher precision and better readability.

Wndsn Telemeters are wallet-size distance and altitude nomographs developed in the Wndsn applied science lab. They combine a thousand years of civil engineering, surveying, navigation, and astronomy in durable, low-tech, high utility instruments that can be brought anywhere, are self-containing, and independent of external, modern technologies.

The Wndsn Quadrant Telemeter is a naked-eye observation instrument for measuring angles via various inputs and sighting methods. In addition, the Quadrant Telemeter is a graphical, analog computer providing functions to directly process or convert the acquired values.

Scales on the Wndsn Quadrant Telemeter:

+ angular size and distance

+ height or depth of object

+ altitude or elevation

+ computation of sine, cosine, and tangent from a given angle and back

+ degree and slope quadrant

+ shadow square

+ inclinometer

The various engraved scales enable the user to copy dimensions from the real world onto a small ruler in their hand, and read the matching distances directly from the instrument, thereby computing arbitrary navigational distances and other essential information about the world around us, as long as a triangle is formed between user, scales, and object of interest.

Under certain conditions or in cases where laser rangefinders tend to fail or result in errors, Wndsn Telemeters prevail and can be used as primary or “second opinion” tools, to cross-check values obtained with different means, or in austere situations when other methods fail or are unavailable.

The credit-card sized instrument is handmade in Germany and manufactured in the spirit of astronomical instruments of the Renaissance, built by the likes of Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, and Gemma Frisius. The scales are laser-engraved and precision-cut into 3 mm black, acrylic with white, matte surfaces. The device carries the Wndsn maker’s marks; scientific instructions are engraved and supplemented by a printed how-to in both English and German. A 240-page printed manual is included as a PDF and is also available separately at Wndsn or via bookstores.

The new Wndsn High-Viz Quadrant Telemeter is available at:

store.wndsn.com/products/wndsn-quadrant-telemeter-wqtm-75x7x500q90i30-white-acrylic

Alexander Becker

Wndsn Messtechnik UG (haftungsbeschränkt)

Obentrautstr 43

D-10963 Berlin

Germany

+491723904525

info@wndsn.com

store.wndsn.com

Posted in Comms, Fieldcraft, Press Release | 3 Comments »

MCSC Approves Procurement of New LAV Intercom System

Monday, January 27th, 2020

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va.—In December 2019, the Program Manager for Light Armored Vehicles at Marine Corps Systems Command approved the initial procurement of the TOCNET-G4 Intercom System—or G4 ICS—for use in the Family of LAVs.

The G4 ICS is the LAV communication management system that allows Marines to easily communicate, both internally and externally, improving communication and situational awareness on the battlefield.

“We’re providing a communication capability that offers tremendous utility for Marines,” said Dan O’Conner, the project lead for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance payloads and capabilities for PM LAV.

The G4 ICS is an easy-to-use tactical communication system comprising a user interface that adapts well to the operational environment of the LAV. The equipment provides enhanced audio quality and performance, said O’Conner.

The intercom also controls the entire

communication suite within the LAV. The G4

ICS gives Marines a single point-of-control for

radios, GPS systems and other technologies rather than having to independently manage each system.

“Not only is it simple to use, [G4 ICS] is interoperable with the existing communication suite within the Marine Corps platform,” said Kim Bowen, deputy program manager for LAV. “It also has the ability to easily add a wireless capability.”

In 2017, the Light Armored Reconnaissance Operational Advisory Group identified upgrading the LAV intercom system as their top priority after receiving complaints from Marines about the legacy ICS. A frequent criticism was the older-generation ICS experienced shutdowns causing a loss of communication and lengthy reboot times.

The G4 ICS is a modern ICS that is more fault-tolerant to LAV electrical fluctuations that cause ICS shutdowns and subsequent reboots. In the unlikely event that the G4 ICS does reboot, the G4 ICS will reboot in a few seconds, said O’Conner.

Stakeholder involvement

PM LAV incorporated Marine Corps stakeholders into the evaluation, assessment and selection process of the new ICS to ensure all parties participated in the selection of the system. The acquisition approach focused on assessing the technology’s value and utility for end users, and strategically conducting test and evaluation trials early in the process to better inform decisions, said O’Conner.

“By doing this, we can deliver an improved ICS to the fleet approximately a year earlier than if we followed traditional acquisition methods,” said O’Conner.

In June 2018, PM LAV conducted market research seeking viable candidates for a replacement intercom system. In April 2019, Marines representing all Light Armored Reconnaissance battalions assessed three candidate systems in a Systems Integration Lab during a user evaluation to provide feedback on performance, utility and usability.

After narrowing the search to two systems, a Limited User Evaluation took place in Twentynine Palms, California, and finished at Camp Pendleton, California, in August 2019.

In November 2019, Marine Corps Operational Test and Evaluation Activity—who helped plan the LUE and managed the conduct of the evaluation—provided an independent System Assessment Report, which provided data to support the selection of the G4 ICS. The SAR provided data that clearly showed the G4 ICS performed superior to its competitor.

“We wanted a reliable and easy-to-maintain system that would meet the current and future needs of the user.” said Steve Myers, MCSC’s program manager for LAV. “That is why [Marines] were involved in every step of the process.”

Initial Operational Capability for the new ICS is scheduled for fiscal year 2021, and Full Operational Capability is slated for fiscal year 2022.

By Matt Gonzales, MCSC Office of Public Affairs and Communication | Marine Corps Systems Command

USMC photo by LCpl Nathaniel Q. Hamilton

Posted in Comms, Guest Post, MARCORSYSCOM, USMC | 1 Comment »

The Spot Family of Products Offers a Safer Way to Communicate with SOS Capabilities and Peace of Mind for Outdoor Enthusiasts

Thursday, January 23rd, 2020

Covington, La. (January 21, 2020) – SPOT, L.L.C., a wholly owned subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc. (NYSE: GSAT), and the leader in satellite messaging and emergency notification technologies, will be showcasing its affordable satellite communications solutions at the upcoming SHOT Show in Las Vegas, January 21 – 24.

As SPOT technology rapidly approaches 7,000 rescues initiated worldwide, hunters and outdoor enthusiasts continue to rely on SPOT products for remote safety and communication, asset location tracking and a mapping interface that offers protection for users. Via dedicated S.O.S. functions, SPOT initiates two rescues a day on average, and delivers location-based messaging and life-saving emergency notification technology to hundreds of thousands of users worldwide. Of the nearly 7,000 rescues the brand has executed to-date, approximately 30% are hunting, hiking and mountain sports related, proving that SPOT products should be a part of every outdoor enthusiast’s kit.

The newest addition to the SPOT family, the SPOT X®, offers users 2-way messaging functionality, the flexibility of connecting to a smartphone via Bluetooth® wireless technology to send and receive satellite messages direct from the device or . SPOT X is an ideal communication device for outdoor enthusiasts who frequently go off the grid, offering reliable connectivity and tracking. Other SPOT products include:

SPOT Gen3® is a rugged and affordable satellite messenger providing off the grid messaging, GPS location tracking, emergency alerts, extended battery life, and extreme GPS tracking upgrade at 2 ½ minute intervals.
SPOT Trace® is a GPS tracking device allowing users to track anything, anytime and anywhere by receiving theft-alert SMS texts or emails when movement is detected.

As part of a SHOT Show exclusive offer, attendees can receive any SPOT device for FREE with the purchase of an annual service plan. To receive this offer and learn more about SPOT products and services, stop by booth #1910.

About SPOT LLC

SPOT LLC, a subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc., provides affordable satellite communication and tracking devices for recreational and business use. SPOT messaging devices use both the GPS satellite network and the Globalstar Satellite Network to transmit and receive text messages and GPS coordinates. Since 2007, SPOT has provided peace of mind by allowing customers to remain in contact with family, friends and co-workers, completely independent of cellular coverage and has helped initiate nearly 7,000 rescues worldwide. For more information, visit FindMeSPOT.com.

Note that all SPOT products described in this press release are the products of SPOT LLC, which is not affiliated in any manner with Spot Image of Toulouse, France or Spot Image Corporation of Chantilly, Virginia. SPOT Connect is a trademark of Spot LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Posted in Comms, Press Release | Comments Off on The Spot Family of Products Offers a Safer Way to Communicate with SOS Capabilities and Peace of Mind for Outdoor Enthusiasts