Challenging Einstein’s seminal theory of relativity to the limits, how the very first stars and galaxies formed just after the Big Bang, the study of dark energy and the vast magnetic fields in the cosmos, and the age old question “Are we alone in the Universe?” – these are some of the key scientific goals of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project, led by the SKA Organization from Jodrell Bank Observatory in the UK, supported by 11 member countries: South Africa, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Italy, New Zealand, Sweden, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.

Aspen Systems
Marlborough, MA
508-281-5322
www.apspensystems.com

Aspen Systems are supplying Environmental Control Units (ECU’s) for critical communications electronics cooling for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV) being produced by Oshkosh Corporation. The first vehicle order under this contract was released by the Army on March 23, 2016 for 657 vehicles. The initial JLTV production contract calls for a delivery total of nearly 17,000 vehicles, while the total program is expected to result in over 50,000 JLTVs delivered to the US Military.

RGB Spectrum
Alameda, CA
510-814-7000
www.rgb.com

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is the Department of Defense's next generation strike aircraft weapon system for the Navy, Air Force, Marines, and US allies. The fifth-generation fighter brings cutting-edge technologies to the battlespace of the future. On July 31, 2015, the first squadron was declared ready for deployment after training, an important part of which was accomplished with Lockheed Martin’s high-fidelity Full Mission Simulator (FMS). RGB Spectrum’s DGy™ recording and streaming codecs and multi-channel video servers are core components in the FMS.

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions
Trelleborg Sweden
+46 410 670 00
www.trelleborg.com

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions has designed and built a new airframe/engine seal fire test facility located at its manufacturing facility in Northborough, Massachusetts in the U.S. This state-of-the-art fire test facility addresses aerospace manufacturers’ growing need to meet varyious fire test requirements in order to comply with industry and customer standards for vibration and air flow. Trelleborg is one of only a few seal manufacturers that deliver comprehensive in-house qualification testing, now including fireproof and fire resistance testing.

Unmanned Vehicle Systems (UVS) are reaching new levels of functionality and performance, and it’s not just for air vehicles either. Ground and underwater UVS programs are all taking advantage of the higher-performance computing platforms that are using highly integrated, multicore processors; faster and larger DDR and flash memory; as well as integrated I/O. Additionally, remote I/O subsystems are being implemented to distribute the processing power closer to the sensors and use packetized message passing — with multiple levels of security (MLS) — back to a smaller central vehicle and mission management computer.

The days of proprietary embedded computing systems in military systems are numbered. Proprietary systems, with the attendant vendor lock-in, tend to be platform specific, increasing the development and long-term maintenance costs. New platform: new design. The military has realized that this is an untenable approach.

Eventually, technology advances to the point where solutions that have been “good enough” for decades are no longer “good enough” for the innovations of today. The philosophy of “good enough” is widely applied when developing a new product or solution. Businesses have to make decisions about what new technology features will receive the most attention to keep projects within scope and completed on time.