BAE Systems' work on a U.S. military project for adaptive radar countermeasures for airborne electronic warfare systems has been extended.

The extension for Phase 3 of the Adaptive Radar Countermeasures project was issued by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and is worth $13.3 million.

"The Phase 3 award from DARPA recognizes the progress our team delivered at the end of Phase 2," said Louis Trebaol, ARC program manager at BAE Systems.

"In Phase 2, we successfully demonstrated the ability to characterize and adaptively counter advanced threats in a closed-loop test environment. We will now continue to mature the technology and test it against the most advanced radars in the U.S. inventory in order to successfully transition this important technology to the warfighter."

Under the contract modification, BAE Systems' work will include the planned completion of algorithm development, advanced readiness testing, and key milestones for transitioning the technologies to airborne platforms, such as fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

BAE Systems said current electronic warfare systems have limited ability to quickly adapt to new and advanced threats because they rely on a database of known threats with predefined countermeasures.

Using advanced signal processing, intelligent algorithms, and machine learning technique future EW systems will be able to isolate unknown hostile radar signals in dense electromagnetic environments, and then rapidly generate effective electronic countermeasures.

DARPA's contract modification brings the cumulative value of BAE Systems' overall ARC contract to $35.5 million.

FNSS, PT. Pindad design medium-weight tank
Ankara, Turkey (UPI) Nov 4, 2016 –

Turkish and Indonesian companies have completed a joint design for a medium-weight tank and started production of a prototype.

The Modern Medium Weight Tank by FNSS of Turkey and PT. Pindad features advanced ballistic and mine protection, a broad range of fire power, advanced electronic controlled systems and a heavy duty suspension system.

"MMWT comprises state-of-art modern technology platform with superior fire power supported with battle field management and laser warning systems, providing tactical awareness to the commander," FNSS said in its news announcement.

"It will have high-end mine and ballistic protection in its class and in this sense MMWT guarantees required fire support against battlefield threads with speed of response at a very short notice, providing superior survivability and mobility on the battlefield."

The vehicle will be fitted with an automatic electronic-controlled transmission with a minimum of 20hp/ton ratio, depending on the configurable protection system. Its six-wheeled suspension system will be built on torsion bars with double pinned tracks.

Its minimum operating range is about 279.6 miles.