Industry News

A DynCorp International subsidiary has been awarded a potential $700,000 contract by the Department of Homeland Security to provide elicitation and detecting deception training services to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement‘s office of international operations. The company said Tuesday its Phoenix Consulting Group will train the department’s visa security program agents to identify applicants who could be a potential threat to the […] More

The U.K.’s ministry of defense has unveiled a $1 billion initiative that seeks to encourage individuals and companies to develop technologies that can help British defense and security forces address mission challenges. MOD said Friday it will fully launch the Innovation Initiative in September with a prospectus, exhibits and a guide on how interested parties can apply for funds under the program. U.K. Defense Secretary […] More

Boeing has received Milestone C approval from Defense Department acquisition chief Frank Kendall for the KC-46A Pegasus aircraft the company will build to support aerial refueling operations of the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force said Friday it will award Boeing a pair of contracts within 30 days to manufacture the first two KC-46A low-rate initial production batches. […] More

A Grand View Research report predicts the global military radar market will reach $13.78 billion in value by 2024 due to an increasing demand for border safety. The use of radar technology in weapon guidance, air traffic control and collision avoidance systems is also projected to drive market growth, Grand View Research said Thursday. The projected growth will also be driven by a demand for […] More

Research and Markets predicts that the radar security market will continue growth to reach a value of $25.17 billion by 2022 at a compound annual growth rate of 5.9 percent as demand for the technology increases. Countries interested in radar security systems to protect their borders and critical infrastructure will help drive market growth, the market research company said […] More

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has asked industry to suggest ideas on how to protect U.S. warfighters from airborne threats with technology. DARPA said Thursday it published a request for information on deployable systems that can help fixed and mobile ground and naval forces to identify, track and neutralize small unmanned air systems. Jean-Charles Lede, DARPA program manager, said the agency seeks “novel, flexible […] More

Orbital ATK and NASA have scheduled the return of company-built Antares launch vehicle to flight in the second half of September after completion of the rocket’s stage test in May. According to a NASA blog entry posted Wednesday, Orbital ATK considered many factors when it targeted the September window such as the ongoing inspection and […] More

Approximately 50 percent of work that will result from U.S. missile defense funds for Israel will go to U.S. companies, Defense News reported Thursday. Barbara Opall-Rome writes Boeing and Raytheon as well as their U.S. subcontractors and suppliers will receive half of the production funds to support work for the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow missile defense programs […] More

The Energy Department‘s Office of Basic Energy Sciences has awarded a $450,000 grant to Xinghang Zhang, a professor at Purdue University’s school of materials engineering, to support his three-year research project on the strength of aluminum. Purdue said Aug. 9 the “Deformation Mechanisms of Nanotwinned Aluminum and Binary Aluminum Alloys” project will use a transmission electron microscope to analyze the […] More

The U.S. Agency for International Development has released the initial list of funding recipients under a $30 million competition that seeks to develop methods and tools for counter-Zika virus efforts. USAID said Tuesday it received almost 900 proposals worldwide for its Combating Zika and Future Threats: A Grand Challenge for Development and chose only 21 submissions across such categories as vector […] More

Cobham and telecommunications infrastructure provider Kapsch have installed a terrestrial trunked radio network on a new Metro railway line in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in an effort to provide communications services to emergency services and rail transport staff in support of the 2016 Olympics. The TETRA network installed at Rio de Janeiro’s Metro Line 4 route […] More

SRI International has spun off and unveiled an agriculture firm that aims to automate fruit harvesting operations through robotics. Abundant Robotics will leverage SRI’s agricultural robotics research efforts in order to commercialize systems intended for orchard agriculture automation, SRI International said Wednesday. “The first automated apple harvesting system that doesn’t bruise or damage the produce will […] More