Australia looks towards space with force restructure, investment and training
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
Northrop Grumman has announced that it has been awarded two US Air Force (USAF) contract modifications to continue operating and maintaining the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) system in support of overseas contingency missions. The news was announced 23 July 2012.
The contract modifications combined are worth $156 million to the company. Of this $106 million is to extend the deployment and operation of BACN payloads installed in three E-11A Bombardier Global Express BD-700 aircraft and three EQ-4B Block 20 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles until June 2013; while $50 million is for the platform maintenance support of three E-11A aircraft until February 2013.
BACN is a high-altitude, airborne communications and information gateway system that provides situational awareness and command and control coordination between warfighters and commanders. With a suite of computers and radio systems, BACN bridges and extends voice communications and battlespace information from numerous sources.
BACN was first deployed to support Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008.
Australia is looking to improve its presence in space with a focus on communications and creating a dedicated segment of its defence forces committed to the domain.
The Portuguese company’s naval communications system is in service across more than a dozen countries. It has turned to its home nation for support in developing a new vehicle based C2 system.
The Vision4ce Deep Embedded Feature Tracking (DEFT) technology software is designed to process video and images by blending traditional computer vision with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to present actionable information from complex environments.
Persistent Systems has been cleared by National Security Agency (NSA) to transmit sensitive data on commercial networks. The devices are added to the NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) component list which also includes other companies’ products providing the same security.
The release of the UK’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) has been long promised as mid-year. It is possible it could be as early as 2 June although the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) continues to play its cards close to its chest.
Intelsat outlines how its multi-orbit SATCOM architecture is enhancing connectivity and resilience for special operations forces operating in degraded and contested environments.