Navy electronic warfare experts choose test and measurement instruments from Aeroflex for counter-IED work
CRANE, Ind., 14 March 2012. U.S. Navy electronic warfare experts needed arbitrary waveform generators (AWGs) -- electronic test and measurement instruments that generate repetitive or single-shot electrical waveforms -- for Navy and U.S. Marine Corps electronic warfare systems designed to detect and defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs). They found their solution from the Aeroflex Inc. Test Solutions segment in Cupertino, Calif.
The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Crane Division in Crane, Ind., awarded Aeroflex Cupertino an $11.5 million contract Tuesday for AWGs and AWG components to support expeditionary electronic warfare systems development at Crane.
Electronic warfare experts at NSWC Crane’s Ground Expeditionary Electronic Warfare Division perform research and development on counter-IED technologies. AWG test instruments generate electrical waveforms based on an internal or external trigger source. Designers then can inject the resulting waveforms into a target device to test and analyze its progress through the target device. AWGs can generate any arbitrarily defined waveshape.
These kinds of devices are particularly important for counter-IED devices because they can mimic IED trigger devices -- typically cell phones, garage door openers, or a similar simple electronic device that generates an RF signal. AWGs also can help counter-IED systems designers fine-tune the performance of their systems.
Aeroflex Cupertino, also known as Aeroflex Powell Inc., specializes in digital broadband test and measurement instruments for wireless and satellite communication technologies. systems designers use the company's data acquisition, playback, and recording systems to develop and debug government and consumer communications and entertainment products.
Among the Aeroflex Cupertino test and measurement products with automatic waveform generation capability are the company's 3410 series digital RF signal generators, and 3020 Series PXI RF signal generators.
The Aeroflex 3410 series is for wide bandwidth modulation systems such as 802.11a, WiMAX, LTE or multicarrier UMTS. The unit is an agile RF signal generator that operates at frequencies from 250 kHz to 6 GHz, and combines wide frequency cover and vector modulation for testing wireless communication systems and components.
The Aeroflex 3020 series are 3U PXI modular RF signal generators with an integrated dual-channel arbitrary waveform generator for RF test systems for design verification and manufacturing to frequencies as high as 6 GHz.
On the current contract, Aeroflex will do the work in Cupertino, Calif., and should be finished by January 2016. For more information contact Aeroflex Test Solutions online at www.aeroflex.com, or NSWC Crane at www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/crane.
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John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
