Lockheed Martin will integrate a 3-D printed part on the US Air Force's (USAF's) sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF 6) satellite, the company announced on 4 April.
The remote interface unit - an aluminium electronic enclosure designed to hold avionic circuits - will be the first 3-D printed part certified for use on a Lockheed Martin military satellite.
The process of 3-D printing allows the team to bring down the lead time for manufacturing the part time from six months to only one and a half months, with assembly time being reduced from 12 hours to just three hours. It also improves quality and consistency of the units.
AEHF is a global military satellite communications system that provides protected, assured communication for commanders and tactical warfighters. Lockheed Martin will deliver the fourth AEHF vehicle this year. AEHF-5 and AEHF-6 are in production and will be launched in 2018 and 2019.
The 3-D printed part for AEHF-6 was designed using a process called laser powder bed fusion, in which a laser melts and fuses aluminium metal powder to build a part based on a digital design.
The airborne three-domain, the two ground-based and the ¼ ATR OpenVPX-based cross-domain systems were engineered to provide real-time security across multi-domain operations.
DARPA’s Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) programme was set up to develop an autonomous tactical network and enable critical data flow in contested environments.
Why space is an essential part of modern military capabilities
Defence-secure mixed reality headsets can save hours, or even weeks, of travel time to fix defunct equipment or get subject experts effectively “on-site” where they are needed.
The Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (JCREW) counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) and Drone Restricted Access Using Known Electromagnetic Warfare (DRAKE) counter-UAS (CUAS) systems are mounted and dismounted RF jammers.
Adarga’s Vantage information analysis tool is in service with the UK MoD and individual UK forces. It builds on the company’s Knowledge Platform which processes, organises and analyses open source material, as well as information held by the user’s military, security and intelligence services.
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