The people who build remotely piloted aircraft in Poway are also busy developing collision avoidance technology.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. said recently that it successfully flew one of its unmanned Predator B aircraft with a sense-and-avoid system in early September at its Gray Butte site, near Palmdale. GA-ASI is working with Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) and the Federal Aviation Administration on the project, called Air Collision Avoidance System for Unmanned Aircraft. The system would allow the Predator to take evasive action.
GA-ASI will now support a NASA program to test the system on the space agency’s Predator B.
GA-ASI also noted the first flight tests of Due Regard Radar, preproduction air-to-air radar for sense and avoid. One of the goals: detect small, private aircraft more than 10 miles away.
In other unmanned news, National Defense magazine reported that Northrop Grumman Corp.’s X-47B unmanned aircraft might take part in automated aerial refueling tests in 2015. Northrop Grumman’s Rancho Bernardo office is the center of the company’s unmanned aircraft programs. The National Defense Industrial Association publishes the magazine.
Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) also said recently that it delivered the first operational large version of its MQ-8 Fire Scout, an unmanned helicopter, to its U.S. Navy customer.
• • •
A New Year, A New Launch: The U.S. Navy compares its planned network of five Mobile User Objective System satellites to cellphone towers in the sky. The analogy is good but it only goes so far as these are tactical networks for the military.
A new satellite will launch from Florida in January. Lockheed Martin Corp. is prime contractor for the spacecraft, and while the company does its work elsewhere in California, a core group of San Diego employees does the buying for the Navy. Those 45 government employees work at the communications satellite program office, which shares space with SPAWAR headquarters at the old aircraft factory on Pacific Highway.
Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the Navy recently provided a status update on the five MUOS satellites.
MUOS-1: In space. The satellite was launched in February 2012 and operational in November of that year.
MUOS-2: In space. Launched in July 2013 and handed over to the Navy later that year.
MUOS-3: Finished. Recently shipped to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and awaiting launch.
MUOS-4: Recently completed thermal vacuum testing in Sunnyvale and set for final tests. Scheduled for launch in the second half of 2015.
MUOS-5: Integration and testing in progress. Launch expected in 2016.
The satellites support legacy communication systems, but their new feature will offer the equivalent of a 3G wideband Code Division Multiple Access network supporting Internet-like traffic.
The Navy is buying the satellites under a fixed-price contract.
• • •
Canadian Contract: Kearny Mesa defense contractor Cubic Corp. said on Dec. 9 that it received a $12 million contract amendment to provide urban warfare training aids for the government of Canada.
The business is providing the Canadian military an urban operations training system. According to Cubic (NYSE: CUB), the new system will complement a weapon effects simulation, force-on-force engagement training system that Cubic provided in 2006.
Work is expected to continue through December 2015. Cubic is the prime contractor on the system and said that it expects more task orders.
The system is similar to other Cubic training products in that it collects information from players during war games, and stores that information so soldiers and their instructors can review the training scenario afterward.
In unrelated news, Cubic said on Dec. 8 that it received a contract to improve U.S. Navy electronics, specifically a data link system that handles video among other types of data. The work could be worth as much as $1.3 million. SPAWAR, the U.S. Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, awarded the deal.
Send San Diego defense news to bradg@sdbj.com.