Raytheon is being given a $1 billion contract to create new jammers that will be integrated into the U.S. Navy’s Boeing EA-18G Growler aircraft, the U.S. Department of Defense announced in its Wednesday evening digest of contracts. The deal tasks the company with designing, manufacturing, and delivering 15 of the Next Generation Jammer, or NGJ, pods.…
Hammock-Style Headrest Brings Comfort to Airplane Snoozing
Flying in economy class hurts. Being crammed into your seat in an almost vacuum-packed fashion is an open invitation to full-body stiffness. And then there is your head. There is simply no position you can put your head in to avoid waking up from a nap without an aching neck. Thankfully, someone has created an…
How & Why 3D Printing Will Be Brought to America’s Schools
In the decades since it was unveiled, 3D printing and the technologies related to it have evolved immensely. Strides continue to be made with 3D printers, which makes using the technology more and more advantageous to a wide variety of people. Knowing this, a variety of groups are attempting to bring the technology to users…
New Balance to Release Extremely Limited Edition 3D Printed Shoe
New Balance is releasing a sleek-looking new shoe with a 3D-printed midsole, but consider these facts before you plan to make a purchase: the running shoe will be extremely hard to come by due to limited quantities, and will cost hundreds of dollars. The American shoe manufacturer announced in a statement Monday that just 44…
Report: 47% of American Jobs Are Vulnerable to Automation
Nearly half of the jobs in America today are vulnerable to automation, with these threats being even more likely in a number of well-known cities, according to a report from Citigroup. Released earlier this year, the report found that 47 percent of jobs in America are at risk because of the growing reach of automation.…
FAA Mulling Letting Commercial Drones Fly Over Crowds
The Federal Aviation Administration is combing over a report made by a committee of drone experts that it had previously tasked with developing a plan for allowing small drones to fly over groups of people not involved with the flight. According to a statement issued Wednesday on the FAA’s website, the Micro Unmanned Aircraft Systems…
Boeing & Lockheed Martin Battle to Woo India for Fighter Jet Contracts
India’s Ministry of Defence jointly met with representatives from Lockheed Martin and Boeing Tuesday to discuss each manufacturer’s interest in building fighter jets for the country’s armed forces. According to a report by Indian publication The Economic Times, Keith Webster, director of International Cooperation at the Office of the U.S. Defense Secretary, sat in on…
Raytheon, DRS Technologies to Develop New Night Vision System for Army
Raytheon and DRS Technologies will work together to create the 3rd Generation Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) B-Kit under a four-year, $56 million contract from the U.S. Army. According to Raytheon, which announced the contract in a media statement Tuesday, the companies will engineer, manufacture, and produce the system, which will replace the 17,000 2nd Generation…
Intel Acquires Italian Company to Advance Functional Safety of IoT Ventures
Intel expects functional safety to play a major role in the IoT market segment in the coming years. In fact, the company predicts that nearly a third of the segment will need to place a greater focus on functional safety by 2020. A recent acquisition made by the company shows just how faithfully it follows…
Lockheed Martin-Built ‘Mini-Missile’ Successfully Launched in Test
A Lockheed Martin Miniature Hit-to-Kill interceptor was successfully shot from a Multi-Mission Launcher Monday during an exercise held at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. According to a media statement from Lockheed Martin, the launch was held so that the “agility and aerodynamic capability” of the missile could be examined. The…
U.S. Navy Awards $1.2B for Construction of Destroyer Ships
The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries two separate contract modifications worth more than $600 million each to build DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) announced in a Wednesday statement. The contract modifications awarded to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works and Huntington…
$750M U.S. Army Contract Granted for Ammunition, Mortar Weapons Systems
The following is a listing of the most noteworthy U.S. Department of Defense contracts announced in the past week. To view all the contracts announced by the U.S. Department of Defense, go to http://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts. Monday, March 28 Orbital ATK was awarded a $750 million Army contract for “non-standard” ammunition and “non-standard” mortar weapon systems. The Army received…
U.S. Navy Awards $1B in Contract Options for Combat Ship Construction
Lockheed Martin and Austal USA are each being awarded $564 million contract options to construct Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) for the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Defense said in its Thursday digest of military contracts. Lockheed Martin will build LCS 25, a Freedom-class variant of the LCS. The option exercised to build the ship…
Fli Charge Announces New Line of Wire-Free Power Products
Intelligent Product Solutions, a product design and development company focused on mobile and wearable technologies, has designed five products that will take advantage of Fli Charge’s wire-free power and charging technology. Fli Charge came to IPS looking for a partner that could assist in designing and developing a product line that would stand out in…
Company to Sell Pistol That Looks Like a Smartphone
An American startup company has developed a pants pocket-sized gun that appears no different than a smartphone. Ideal Conceal‘s hammerless, double-barreled .380 caliber gun transforms from its faux smartphone state to a fireable pistol with one click of the safety. The company’s CEO and inventor of the gun, Kirk Kjellberg told Product Design & Development that the…
Scientist Successfully Takes Flight in Flying Electric Scooter
Thomas Senkel is a bit of an adrenaline junkie. How else would you classify a person who builds and flies an electric scooter attached to a canopy? Senkel recently took flight in his prototype, named the Skyrider One, for approximately 46 minutes above Spain’s Canary Islands. Senkel thinks, according to a report by Gizmag, that…
Oshkosh Defense Awarded $243M Deal for 647 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles
The following is a listing of the most noteworthy U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) contracts announced in the past week. To view all the contracts announced by the U.S. Department of Defense go to http://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts. Monday, March 21 Boeing was given a $184.9 million Army contract to produce an undisclosed amount of Apache helicopters. The…
Chinese Citizen Pleads Guilty to Hack of U.S. Defense Contractors
A Chinese businessman pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring to hack computer systems held by U.S. defense contractors for the purpose of stealing vital military information and export-controlled data with the intention of submitting it to China. According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Su Bin, 50, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District…
NASA Launches 7,745 Pounds of Cargo to ISS
More than 7,700 pounds of NASA-owned cargo launched Tuesday evening from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida toward the International Space Station aboard an Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft carried by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, NASA announced in a media statement. The flight marks the fifth cargo delivery Orbital ATK has conducted…
U.S. Navy Launches Missile Featuring 3D Printed Part
The U.S. Navy’s Fleet Ballistic program launched Trident II D5 ballistic missiles with 3D printed parts for the first time ever during flight tests held last week, the missiles’ manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, announced in a statement to the media. The 3D printed part, known as the “connector backshell,” was equipped to three of the missiles,…
Army Awards Oshkosh Defense $433M to Upgrade Heavy Tactical Vehicles
Oshkosh Defense secured a hefty amount of cash Monday, landing three U.S. Army contract modifications totaling more than $433 million to provide upgrades to a number of heavy vehicles, the U.S. Department of Defense announced in its Monday digest of labor contracts. The most lucrative of the three agreements, worth $197.2 million, is for upgraded…
Raytheon Given $573M Contract for Continued Missile Production
The following is a listing of the most noteworthy U.S. Department of Defense contracts announced in the past week. To view all the contracts announced by the U.S. Department of Defense go to http://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts. Monday, March 14 Pacific Defense Solutions was awarded two Defense Logistics Agency contracts totaling more than $27.8 million for the development…
Self-Tying Nike Shoe Adapts to Wearer’s Feet
The future has officially met the foot. Nike unveiled a shoe on Wednesday that not only ties itself, but does so with such precision that it creates a perfect fit for each wearer. The Nike HyperAdapt 1.0 will be the first of the brand’s shoes to feature this new technology, known as “adaptive lacing.” The…
Today in Engineering History: Eli Whitney Patents the Cotton Gin
Top U.S. Department of Defense Contracts for March 8-11
The following is a listing of the most noteworthy U.S. Department of Defense contracts announced in the past week. To view all the contracts announced by the U.S. Department of Defense go to http://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts. Tuesday, March 8 Sikorsky Aircraft was awarded a $387.1 million Army contract option for 35 UH-60M helicopters. The labor will be…