BAE Systems

September 25, 2007 U.S. army soldiers will be the recipients of enhanced night vision goggles that use digital imagery to improve mobility and situational awareness under all lighting conditions, overcoming battlefield obscurants that would generally hinder vision. Under development by BAE systems as part of the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle program for the U.S. defense forces the helmet-mounted system will digitally combine video imagery from a low-light-level visible sensor and an uncooled long-wave infrared sensor onto a single color display located in front of the soldier's eye. Read More

August 9, 2007 BAE Systems are demonstrating a prototype Common Modular Power System (CMPS) at the Power and Energy Symposium currently being held at Troy, Michigan. This is in response to a need expressed by the United States Department of Defense for a power system that is able to provide 400amps of 28-volt DC power across the full rev range of a High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV or Humvee ) - a perceived requirement for 21st century warfighting. Read More

June 20, 2007 The design of autonomous systems for one of the largest Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) ever conceived, the Taranis, has been finalized ahead of schedule. The size of a Hawk trainer, the Taranis unmanned fast jet demonstrator will be focused on targeting and attack capabilities rather than the surveillance and reconnaissance roles predominately given to previous UAV programmes. While still built for stealth and speed, the aircraft will be able to test deploy a range of munitions over a number of targets and will be capable of high-level decision making to defend itself against manned and other unmanned enemy aircraft in “deep” operations. Read More

May 21, 2007 A hulking 100 metres long, the Astute is the largest, most heavily armed, stealthiest and most sophisticated submarine ever built for the Royal Navy. The massive nuclear sub, which will never need refuelling in its 25 year service life, is able to circumnavigate the globe underwater, producing its own fresh water and air for the crew - and its range is only really limited by the need for fresh food supplies. From every angle, it is an engineering masterpiece, spoken of as one of the great engineering achievements of all time and more complex than the space shuttle. Britain's Royal Navy is set to launch this new flagship in less than a month. Read More

February 8, 2007 The advent of precision guided munitions has completely changed the battlefield inside a few decades. Once bombs were dropped in vast numbers, as each one had a small probability of hitting its target. Then computers and advanced guidance entered the fray, and bombs became deadly accurate. Now the artillery section is getting in on the act. We reported last July that BAE had received a contract to participate in a competitive technical development program of a Precision Guidance Kit for use with Army cannon artillery ammunition which makes conventional cannon projectiles at least three times more accurate. Now the system is in testing and last month 21 155 mm projectiles were successfully fired equipped with the Precision Guidance Kit (PGK) test modules. Read More

January 6, 2007 Yet another potent UAV is in the development phase, this one for the UK Ministry of Defence to be constructed by a team headed by BAE Systems, together with Rolls-Royce, Smiths Aerospace and QinetiQ, plus MoD military staff and scientists. The four year project to develop a world-class UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) Technology Demonstrator Programme called Taranis. Ground testing of the UKP124 million Taranis project is expected to take place in early 2009 with the first flight trials taking place in 2010. Named after the Celtic God of Thunder, Taranis will be an unmanned fast jet demonstrator the size of a Hawk trainer - making it one of the world's largest UAVs - that will be stealthy, fast and be able to test deploy a range of munitions over a number of targets and be able to defend itself against manned and other unmanned enemy aircraft. Read More

September 30, 2006 The world got its first look at the Future Combat Systems (FCS) Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) Cannon Firing Platform last week. The NLOS Cannon is the lead Manned Ground Vehicle (MGV) of the U.S. Army's foremost modernization program - an integrated family of air systems and both manned and unmanned ground systems connected by a robust network. The 155-mm Firing Platform is the first step toward development of NLOS Cannon prototypes scheduled to begin testing in 2008. The NLOS Cannon Firing Platform features a 38-caliber length, fully automated 155-mm howitzer, and will soon be shipped to Army test facilities, where it will begin qualification of its ultra-lightweight cannon and breech. The Firing Platform will undergo testing through 2008. Test data from these tests will support obtaining a safety release, which will allow soldiers to begin testing the NLOS Cannon prototypes. Read More

April 14, 2006 BAE Systems' entry in the Army's Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) competition has successfully completed environmental tests that validate the weapon's ability to withstand battlefield conditions. Coupled with successful flight tests last year, these results demonstrate the maturity of BAE Systems' APKWS II offering. APKWS II will provide a low-cost, lightweight guided weapon that is effective against soft and lightly armored targets to fill the gap between the 70mm rocket and the Hellfire missile. The system will be used on all Army aircraft currently using the 70mm rocket. The BAE Systems/General Dynamics team is competing with Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to provide a new 2.75-inch guided rocket that will enable U.S. Army Apache and U.S. Marine Corps Cobra attack helicopters and other platforms to precisely engage non-armored targets with minimal collateral damage. The government is expected to announce the winner later this month. Read More

March 4, 2006 BAE Systems recently demonstrated its vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial system (UAS) at Fort Benning, Ga., for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.S. Army representatives. The unmanned system is designed to fly for more than one hour, and deploy a signals intelligence (SIGINT) payload, known as "WolfPack." As part of DARPA's Network Centric Experiment VIP Demonstration in January, BAE Systems integrated WolfPack with its UAS to demonstrate the deployment and relocation of the sensors. Read More