Military electronics rely
on the latest technologies
to gain that allimportant
edge, often
with life or death in the
balance. Their components
and circuits must withstand the
temperature extremes of the desert, the
salt spray of the ocean, and the highacceleration
forces of fighter jets.
Whether it’s in favor of their roughand-
tumble origins or despite them, these
technologies often significantly influence
those found in commercial and consumer
products. Some, like spread-spectrum
communications and code-division-multiple
access (CDMA), eventually migrate
from military to commercial applications.
And there’s no reason to believe
that new technologies bound for today’s
military won’t become the driving forces
behind tomorrow’s consumer products.
GET WITH THE PROGRAM
Military
electronic technologies are generally
developed according to the needs of
major programs, such as the U.S. Navy’s
Cruiser Modernization Program and
the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems
(FCS) program.
With Lockheed Martin as the prime
contractor, the Cruiser Modernization
Program includes an upgrade of as
many as 22 existing Aegis-systemequipped
cruisers. The Aegis Weapon
System, which incorporates the Navy’s
most advanced computer-controlled
radar system, the SPY-1, is also the maritime
weapon system of choice for cruisers
in Australia, Japan, South Korea,
Norway, and Spain.
The program also provides for new
vessels. For instance, take the DD(G)
destroyer’s Advanced Gun System,
which can fire shells guided by the Global
Positioning System (GPS) at distances
to 100 nautical miles. The CG(X) cruiser
has a hull designed for stealth operations
and a new air-defense radar system that
detects low radar-cross-section (RCS)
threats at extended distances. Both vessels
are designed for reduced crew size
and operating costs.
The U.S. Navy’s Combined Engagement
Concept (CEC) intends to integrate
the defenses of naval forces at sea
by combining sensor information from
ships and aircraft within 2500 square
miles. The U.S. Air Force and Marine
Corps are developing similar networkcentric
systems.
Because all branches of the armed
forces are concerned with controlling
costs, Lockheed Martin has sought
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology
solutions as part of managing
the large program. For instance, the
prime contractor selected the Aydin Displays
subsidiary of Video Display Corp.
for a 20.1-in. COTS flat-panel display
to be integrated into the Aegis Weapon
System’s Operational Readiness Test
System (ORTS).
Honeywell Electronic Materials
launched new materials for flat-panel displays
aimed at reducing power consumption
and manufacturing costs. The project
was funded by a grant from the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA) and managed by the Army
Research Laboratory (ARL) and the United
States Display Consortium (USDC), a
public-private group devoted to promoting
flat-panel display technology.
Based on thin-film transistors, the new
material enhances the amount of visible
light that passes through the display
while only absorbing less than 1% of
the light. The material also achieves planarity
in excess of 90%. It supports the
design of lightweight and rugged flexible
displays for a variety of airborne and
vehicular applications.
The U.S. Army’s FCS program has
been called a “System of Systems,” with
14 subsystems, the soldier, and a secure
wireless network to link them all. Managed
by Boeing and Science Applications
International Corp. (SAIC), the
FCS will equip next-generation troops
with remote-controlled robotic tools
and weapons.
Such technologies include manned
ground vehicles (MGVs), unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAVs), and unmanned
ground vehicles (UGVs). The FCS,
which not coincidentally resembles a
real-life video game, includes advanced
sensors and a wireless network with
high-speed data and video capacity to
connect soldier operators with their
robotic “partners.”
The FCS program represents a contract
worth about $21 billion over its
lifetime. It’s currently in its System
Development and Demonstration phase
(2003-2014), with full deployment
scheduled for 2015. Some of the technologies
under development are being
put to the test under battlefield conditions
in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This past October, Army Chief of Staff
General George W. Casey Jr. provided
members of Congress with a review of
some of those FCS technologies at
work. The technologies included several
UGVs, such as the PacBot tactical robot
developed by iRobot and Honeywell
Aerospace’s Micro Air Vehicle (MAV)
UAV (Fig. 1).
Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory
(NRL) are challenging the performance
limitations stated in Moore’s
Law by pursuing research on semiconductor
devices that rely on electron spin
rather than electron charge. Traditionally,
semiconductor devices used charge
flow through device junctions and size
scaling to achieve higher speeds and frequencies
in devices (see “R&D At NRL
And DARPA” at www.electronicdesign.com, Drill Deeper 17629).
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