The U.S. Air Force has awarded $172 million to Northrop Grumman to manage the payload technology for a battlefield communications system.

This one-year contract, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, provides the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node with payload operation and support.

The BACN system allows ground troops to reach needed support over mountainous terrain with imagery, video, voice and data. The system can also act as a high-altitude relay, including airdrop and airstrike operations.

The system is designed to work with the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system and the BD700 manned aircraft platform, flown by the Air Force as the E-11A. Last September, Grumman received $265 million for support of four BACN E-11A aircraft.

Work on the contract will be conducted in San Diego, Calif., and other overseas locations, with completion expected by Jan. 23, 2019.

A total of $56 million will be obligated from fiscal 2018 overseas contingency operation and maintenance funds at the time of the award.

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Map of ionospheric disturbances to help improve radio network systems
Kazan, Russia (SPX) Jan 17, 2018
SAU AstroChallenge employees are convinced that this new map of medium-scale travelling ionospheric disturbances will help find out the reasons of the emergence of such phenomena in midlatitude areas. MSTIDs have not yet been thoroughly studied. They significantly impact the distribution of radio signals, so appropriate research is of great practical importance. The paper, titled "Collocat ... read more

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