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Technology Aims to Help Drones ‘Learn’ to Share Airspace

NASA continues to experiment with collision-avoidance technology using Ikhana, the agency’s remotely piloted unmanned aircraft from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc.

Equipped with “detect and avoid” electronics — including a prototype radar system engineered by Poway-based GA-ASI — Ikhana recently went through 11 flights and had 200 encounters with other aircraft, following a specific script.

One of two things happened during the exercise: Ikhana detected one or more approaching aircraft and sent an alert to its remote pilot to take action. Alternately, Ikhana itself took action on its own by flying a preprogrammed maneuver to avoid the collision.

NASA, which offered the update in mid-September, called it an aviation first, and said the exercise yielded good data to study. Flights took place in the high desert near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif.

Though called Ikhana in NASA circles, the aircraft model is also known as the Predator B or the MQ-9 Reaper.

In other news, GA-ASI has signed a 10-year lease at an air park in Grand Forks, N.D. to establish an academy to train pilots to fly remote-control, unmanned aircraft. Financial terms of the lease were not disclosed. GA-ASI is starting a side business to provide pilots to fly the U.S. military’s unmanned aircraft.

The business will build a 1,600-square-foot hangar at the Grand Sky business park in Grand Forks, according to a Sept. 21 announcement from Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.).

The U.S. government, including its Customs and Border Protection agency, operates GA-ASI Predators and Reapers, as well as Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Global Hawk, out of Grand Forks Air Force Base. Business interests in Grand Forks are working to establish a business park devoted to unmanned aircraft.

GA-ASI said in a Sept. 22 statement that, in addition to its own crews, it planned to train members of foreign militaries to fly the company’s unmanned aircraft. Training will start in early 2016. The business plans to train up to 60 flight crews per year, and said the North Dakota facility will complement its training facilities in the California desert. In addition to training, the academy might test systems to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national airspace, GA-ASI said.

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Parking Aplenty? Not in Barrio Logan, where parking can be a real mess. BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair is working to ease congestion near its shipyard there. Under a new agreement with Ace Parking, some shipyard employees will get to park at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and then take a shuttle to their job at the yard. BAE, a public company based in the United Kingdom, has made other accommodations including changing shift times. The Port of San Diego helped broker the deal.

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Training Aids: Cubic Corp. said on Sept. 21 that it received nearly $20 million worth of contract orders from the U.S. Army for its laser-based war games training system.

The system, called I-MILES IWS, uses laser emitters that attach to military weapons and on-body sensors to replicate combat; it records data from the high-stakes game of laser tag for later review. I-MILES IWS stands for Instrumentable-Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System Individual Weapon Systems. The Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation awarded the work.

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Leaning In: “Lean In Circles” may be coming to a military installation near you. Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that the Pentagon was behind the peer-to-peer support groups called Lean In Circles. According to an announcement from Carter’s office, such circles will be allowed monthly within Defense Department facilities, among military and civilian employees, and may be held before, during or after normal work hours.

Carter made the announcement after holding a Lean In Circle at the Pentagon Sept. 21 with a dozen Defense Department employees — military and civilian — as well as Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who is the author of the influential 2013 book “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.”

Carter’s office said such groups will help the military keep good employees.

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Short Takes: Starbucks recently dedicated its second military family store in the San Diego area, at 2828 National Ave. in National City, near Naval Base San Diego. Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) hires veterans for its military family stores. The corporation has pledged to hire 10,000 veterans and military spouses by 2018. This is Starbucks’ ninth military family store. It dedicated its first-ever military family store in February in Oceanside. … The federal government recently certified GIS

Surveyors Inc. of Poway as a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business, which means that the government can give it preference for contracts. The firm specializes in providing GIS (short for geographic information systems) and land-surveying services, and its work has taken it to military installations throughout the Southwest. U.S. Marine Corps veteran Paul Loska is president.

Send San Diego defense contracting news to bradg@sdbj.com.

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