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Autonomous technology is cool

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer
Johannesburg, 22 Feb 2008

Autonomous technology is cool

BAE Systems' developments in the area of unmanned ground vehicles have taken a step forward with the integration of autonomous technologies onto a Supacat vehicle.

The autonomous technology at the heart of the BAE Systems Supacat-based unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) was originally developed by BAE Systems Australia as the Vehicle Management System (VMS) and ground mission systems for the Kingfisher UAV (unmanned air vehicle)

This latest milestone, which involved the BAE Systems UGV autonomously driving and navigating itself around a 100-acre paddock at the company's UAV Flight Test Facility in West Sale, Australia, demonstrated the ability to take the common systems/common architecture approach, already used by BAE Systems in its UAV development activities, into the land domain.

Boeing wins laser contract

The Boeing Company has been awarded a $49 million US Air Force contract to advance the state of the art in laser technology.

Under the Laser Application Support and In-house Research and Development contract, Boeing will support research, design, development and testing at Air Force Research Laboratory sites at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

Supporting the Laser Centre of Excellence, the joint Department of Defense/academic programme partners the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Research Lab, Air Force Institute of Technology, University of New Mexico and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. The centre's efforts include gas, hybrid electric-gas and chemical laser systems.

Tetra chooses EADS

EADS Defence & Security is to provide Tetra infrastructure and support to Spain's Autonomous Community of Valencia.

Tetra network operator leader in Spain, Abertis Telecom, has been given responsibility to construct and deploy the network and has to maintain and operate it for 10 years with a demanding service level agreement.

The Comeds network will be dimensioned to support up to 15 000 users from various organisations such as civil protection, autonomous and local police, health urgency, fire brigades, forest guards, control and management of public resources and any emergency, security and rescue services.

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