Feb 27, 2010, post by awatrobski
The U.S. Air Force’s Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS) B8 satellite, built by Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), has surpassed its 10-year design life of on-orbit service in providing secure and reliable communications capabilities for the warfighter.
Launched from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 20, 2000, the B8 satellite is one of 14 DSCS III spacecraft designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems for the MILSATCOM Systems Wing at the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.
The satellite is also the first of four DSCS III satellites to feature Service Life Enhancement Program (SLEP) upgrades that enabled a 200-percent increase in communication capacity over original DSCS III spacecraft with its 50-watt Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers.
“The high performance and longevity of the DSCS III constellation is direct testimony to a joint U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin team dedicated to providing the warfighter with secure and reliable satellite communications,” informed Kevin Bilger, Lockheed Martin’s vice president and general manager of Global Communications Systems. “The DSCS III constellation has provided the Department of Defense with its core communications capability for over two decades and will continue to make a significant contribution to our national security well into the future.”
The system delivers uninterrupted secure voice and high-data rate communications to Department of Defense users; essential tools in monitoring events and deploying and sustaining forces anywhere in the world. In 2009, the overall DSCS III constellation surpassed 200 years of on-orbit operations, the longest total operational experience of any U.S. military communications satellite constellation.
Lockheed Martin is also progressing on the Department of Defense’s highly secure communications satellite system, the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) program. As the successor to Milstar, AEHF will increase data rates by a factor of five, permitting transmission of more tactical military communications, such as real-time video, battlefield maps and targeting data. The first AEHF spacecraft has completed final testing and is planned for delivery to the Air Force in second quarter 2010.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, production, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation reported 2009 sales of $45.2 billion.
Feb 25, 2010, post by awatrobski
Utilicraft Aerospace Industries, Inc. (Symbol: UITA.PK) informed about a $780K Private Placement Memorandum to raise new capital to take the Company in a new direction as described below.
As part of the new direction of UITA as an aerospace technology development holding company, the Company is reviewing strategic acquisition possibilities – or the in-house development – of a Light Observation Aircraft (LOA) program intended for disaster “emergency first response” missions.
It is to be a “rapid deployment” observation aircraft, equipped with the latest electronic surveillance equipment for rapidly detecting life-signs of disaster victims trapped in debris or damaged structures over a wide search area in the shortest amount of time – as a search and rescue (SAR) airborne platform electronically transmitting coordinates to and from ground rescue teams.
John J. Dupont, President and CEO of UITA informed, “The ability of this aircraft to be shipped with wings detached (to fit in a container, or military transport aircraft pallet) will make it readily available to be air-lifted to nearby regional staging areas for immediate SAR sorties. Rapid global deployment is vital to the mission capability of this type of aircraft because time is of the essence when searching for survivors immediately after the disaster.”
The LOA Program also has a commercial, domestic law-enforcement, border patrol, and global military market potential.
What is more, the Company is reviewing strategic acquisitions of various developmental aircraft solutions for a “small STOL aircraft” to accommodate “tactical” humanitarian shipments to and from remote off-airport makeshift airstrip staging-hubs, with the capability of lifting and delivering the much needed food, water, and medical supplies directly into the heart of the stricken area — directly to disaster victims. The need to accommodate medical remote operations bringing immediate surgical relief to victims is also a consideration.
The Company has partnered with a veteran humanitarian shipper to further solidify its research and its operational capabilities. See more about UITA.PK at www.utilicraft.com.
This Press Release is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a solicitation of funds, and contains “forward-looking” statements.
Feb 25, 2010, post by awatrobski
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Police forces all over the UK will soon be able to draw on unmanned aircraft from a national fleet, according to Home Office plans. Last month it was announced that modified military aircraft drones will carry out surveillance on everyone from protesters and antisocial motorists to fly-tippers, and will be in place in time for the 2012 Olympics.
Surveillance is only the start, however. Military drones quickly moved from reconnaissance to strike, and if the British police follow suit, their drones could be armed — but with non-lethal weapons rather than Hellfire missiles.
The flying robot fleet will range from miniature tactical craft such as the miniature AirRobot being tested by Essex police, to BAE System’s new HERTI drone as flown in Afghanistan. The drones are cheaper than police helicopters — some of which will be retired — and are as wide as 12m in the case of HERTI.
Watching events on the ground without being able to act is frustrating. Targets often got away before an unarmed drone could summon assistance. In fact, in 2000 it was reported that an airborne drone spotted Osama bin Laden but could do nothing but watch him escape. So the RAF has been carrying out missions in Afghanistan with missile-armed Reapers since 2007. From the ground these just look like regular aircraft.
The police have already had a similar experience with CCTV. As well as observing, some of these are now equipped with speakers. Pioneered in Middleborough, the talking CCTV allows an operator to tell off anyone engaging in vandalism, graffiti or littering.
Unmanned aircraft can also be fitted with speakers, such as the Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), which could not only warn fly tippers that they were breaking the law but also be loud enough to drive them away.
The LRAD is a highly directional speaker made of a flat array of piezoelectric transducers, producing intense beam of sound in a 30-degree cone. It can be used as a loudhailer, or deafen the target with a jarring, discordant noise. Some ships now carry LRAD as an anti-pirate measure: It was used to drive off an attack on the Seabourn Spirit off Somalia in 2005.
LRAD makers American Technology prefer to call its product a device rather than a weapon, and use terms such as “deterrent tones” and “influencing behaviour.” Police in the US have already adopted a vehicle-mounted LRAD for crowd control, breaking up protests at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh last year, although there have been warnings about the risk of hearing damage.
The LRAD has been tested on the Austrian S-100 unmanned helicopter, and the technology is ready if there is a police requirement.
But rather than just driving them away, a police drone should be able to stop fleeing criminals in their tracks. Helicopters already mount powerful searchlights, and strobe lighting capabilities can turn such systems into effective nonlethal weapons. High-intensity strobes can cause dizziness, disorientation and loss of balance making it virtually impossible to run away.
This effect was first harnessed in the “Photic Driver” made by British company Allen International in 1973. However, it has taken improvement in lighting technology (such as fast-switching Xenon lights) and an understanding of the physiology involved to make such weapons practical.
A “light based personnel immobilisation device” developed by Peak Beam Systems Inc has been successfully tested by the US military, and work to mount it on an unmanned helicopter in the States is under way.
This sort of light would be too dangerous for a manned aircraft because of the crew being affected. But an unmanned “strober” could be a literal crime stopper, and something we could see deployed within the next couple of years.
Even the smallest drones could be used for tactical police operations. As far back as 1972 the Home Office looked at model aircraft as an alternative to rubber bullets, literally flying them into rioters to knock them off their feet.
French company Tecknisolar Seni has demonstrated a portable drone armed with a double-barrelled 44mm Flash-Ball gun. Used by French special police units, the one-kilo Flash-Ball resembles a large calibre handgun and fires non-lethal rounds, including tear gas and rubber impact rounds to bring down a suspect without permanent damage — “the same effect as the punch of a champion boxer,” informed makers Verney-Carron.
However, last year there were questions over the use of Flash-Ball rounds by French police. Like other impact rounds, the Flash-Ball is meant to be aimed at the body — firing from a remote, flying platform is likely to increase the risk of head injury.
Another option is the taser. Taser stun guns are now so light (about 150 grams) that they could be mounted on the smaller drones. Antoine di Zazzo, head of SMP Technologies, which distributes tasers in France, says the company is fitting one to a small quad-rotor iDrone (another quad-rotor toy helicopter), which some have called a “flying saucer”.
Robots are already the preferred way of approaching possible bombs without putting officers lives at risk. In the future, police may prefer to deal with potentially dangerous suspects the same way, tackling them remotely using a taser if the situation requires it.
But tasers are controversial. In 2008 the Met rejected government plans for a wider issue of tasers to non-specialist officers because of the fear they could cause, and there have been numerous complaints of abuse. For some, the arrival of a hovering law-enforcement drone with a video eyes and a 50,000-volt taser at the ready might be a police technology too far.
