The low-cost LM 400 satellite bus is customisable for multiple applications and supports the Pentagon’s Modular Open Systems Architecture for defence missions.
Author: DataFloren
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To Protect Satellites, Secure Your Networks, Chief of Space Ops Says
Cyber attacks can undermine space-based capabilities, Gen. Chance Saltzman said.
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AFRL Receives NTS-3 Satellite for Testing, Planned Launch Late This Year
L3Harris Technologies [LHX] recently delivered its Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) space vehicles directorate’s integration and test building at Kirtland AFB, N.M., AFRL said on Jan. 27. AFRL had planned to launch the 1,100-pound NTS-3 in March to demonstrate advanced protection technologies for GPS and other positioning, navigation and […]
The post AFRL Receives NTS-3 Satellite for Testing, Planned Launch Late This Year appeared first on Defense Daily.
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L3Harris delivers experimental navigation satellite
WASHINGTON — L3Harris delivered the experimental Navigation Technology Satellite-3 to the Air Force Research Laboratory for its final phase of integration and testing, keeping the program on track for a late 2023 launch.
AFRL announced the delivery Jan. 26, which brings the lab closer to conducting the first U.S. positioning, navigation and timing experiment in almost a half century.
“This major milestone marks the transition from space system development at contractor’s facilities to the final stage of integration and test activities,” program manager Arlen Biersgreen said in a statement.
AFRL awarded L3Harris an $84 million contract in 2018 to develop NTS-3, which will serve as a testbed for future GPS capabilities including steerable beams that provide regional coverage, a reprogrammable payload that can receive updates while on orbit and built-in defenses against signal jamming. The lab and the Space Force are also considering how the satellite could augment the current GPS constellation as standalone small satellites.
The program’s scope also includes development of NTS-3 ground receivers, which allow military users to take advantage of the satellite’s advanced PNT capabilities.
In its first year on orbit, the satellite will conduct more than 100 experiments to test different technologies and performance techniques. In the meantime, the program has been using the satellite in ground experiments and exercises, including the Army’s PNT Assessment Exercise last August.
With the satellite now on hand, Biersgreen said AFRL and L3Harris are conducting functional and performance tests. These include the first evaluation of the satellite’s radio frequency broadcast capability. Once the tests conclude, the lab will test the satellite’s performance in conditions meant to simulate the space environment.
Data from NTS-3 ground testing will be available to the Space Force and other partners on the program in the coming months, he said.
As the program’s continue preparations for NTS-3′s launch, the Space Force and the Air Force are making plans for how they will use the technology. The Space Force is in the throes of a force design study that will recommend changes to the current PNT architecture.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, on the other hand, is closely tracking the user segment, which includes the PNT receivers.
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A Smart Sight Provides Tactical Operators with Counter-Drone Overmatch at Long Range
After less than three years of development, Smartshooter has reached the final milestone of the Individual Weapon Overmatch Optic (IWOO) program, successfully passing the system’s Technology Readiness Review (TRR). As part of this phase, two prototype systems were taken through a series of live-fire tests by IWTSD to ensure the system met the contract performance requirements. The systems performed well and fired day and night, using clip-on night vision devices.
The post A Smart Sight Provides Tactical Operators with Counter-Drone Overmatch at Long Range appeared first on Defense Update:.
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Airbus demonstrate A400M as a drone carrier
Germany’s Bundeswehr and Airbus have jointly carried out the world’s first successful launch and operation of a Remote Carrier flight test demonstrator from a flying A400M.
The firm say that “multiplying the force and extending the range of unmanned systems” will be one of the future roles of Airbus’ military transport aircraft in the Future Combat Air System (FCAS).
“The excellent collaboration with our German customer and partners on the A400M UAV Launcher campaign is further evidence of how the development of FCAS will take innovation and technologies to the next level,” said Airbus Defence and Space CEO Michael Schoellhorn.
“FCAS as a system of systems is starting to take shape now.”
The firm added that the device for launching Remote Carriers from a flying A400M was developed in just six months.
“For the test flight, it was loaded onto the ramp of a Bundeswehr A400M, from which the Remote Carrier demonstrator, a modified Airbus Do-DT25 drone, was launched. After the release, the Do-DT25’s engines were started and it continued in powered flight mode. The crew on board the A400M then handed over control to an operator on the ground, who safely commanded and landed the drone.
Remote Carriers will be an important component of FCAS. They will fly in close cooperation with manned aircraft and support pilots in their tasks and missions. Military transport aircraft such as the A400M will play an important role: as motherships, they will bring the Remote Carriers as close as possible to their areas of operation before releasing up to 50 small or up to 12 heavy Remote Carriers. These will then join manned aircraft, operating with a high degree of automation although always under a pilot’s control.”
You can read more on this here.
The post Airbus demonstrate A400M as a drone carrier first appeared on UK Defence Journal.