Articles by Dan Massé, Associate Technical Editor

A joint US Air Force/Lockheed Martin-led team announced that it has successfully completed thermal vacuum testing of the first Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous (GEO-1) satellite, one of the most significant program milestones that validates spacecraft performance in a simulated space environment. The US Air Force’s SBIRS program...

Raytheon Co. has received Foreign Military Sales contract awards totaling $1.1 B to fund new production of the combat-proven Patriot Air and Missile Defense System for Taiwan. The awards include ground-system hardware through an initial contract valued at $965.6 M and an initial spares contract valued at $134.4 M....

The nation’s fleet of B-2 stealth bombers will all receive a new Northrop Grumman Corp.-developed radar system following the US Air Force’s decision to authorize full-rate production of the units by the company’s Radar Modernization Program (RMP). The decision, made by the assistant Secretary of the Air Force for...

Harris Corp., an international communications and information technology company, has received a $228 M order from the US Marine Corps to provide Falcon II AN/VRC-104 high-frequency radio systems for use in US Department of Defense (DoD) MRAP-All Terrain Vehicles (M-ATV). The contract was awarded by the US Marine Corps–Systems...

The end-of-life for a semiconductor product can leave OEMs of systems with long lifecycles scrambling for a supply of vital parts, forcing them into a difficult procurement situation. Some have turned to the so-called “gray market”, a term that refers to the fraudulent manufacturing and distribution of counterfeit semiconductors....

The demands of cost reduction and greater efficiency in cellular base station design are leading to a rapidly growing market for remote radio heads. According to a new study from ABI Research, this market is on track to exceed a value of $1 B in 2014. Cellular base stations...

Wi-Fi has taken the entertainment device market by storm, with cameras, gaming devices (handheld and consoles), and personal media players (PMP) incorporating the technology within the past few years, reports In-Stat. Wi-Fi enabled entertainment device shipments will increase from 108.8 million in 2009 to 177.3 million in 2013. “While...

RFaxis, a fabless semiconductor company focused on innovative, next-generation RF solutions for the wireless connectivity markets, announced that B-Link Electronic Ltd. has selected RFaxis’ RFX2402 and RFX2402H RF Front-end Integrated Circuits (RFeIC™), along with the new RFaxis high-gain antenna solution, for integration into the B-Link family of WLAN products....