Military & Aerospace Electronics

applicat ions

THERMAL MANAGEMENT

Global Technical providing thermal
management for shipboard
embedded computing

U.S. Navy shipboard electronics experts needed ways to tap shipwide air conditioning to provide thermal management for onboard rackmount embedded computing racks and cabinets. They found their solution from Global Technical Systems in Virginia Beach, Va.

Officials of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in Lakehurst, N.J., announced an $11.9 million order to Global Technical Systems to develop and deploy an efficient cooling system for Navy shipboard computers.

This order involves the third phase of the Navy’s Improved, Flexible Infrastructure Compatible, Open-Loop Air-Cooled Computer Rack and Cabinet project, which seeks to eliminate standard computer cooling fans by bringing in cooled air from the ship’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and exhausting hot air from the top of the computer racks near air returns.

Global Technical Systems experts will help the Navy install and evaluate a new air conditioning and electronics thermal-management system appropriate for naval vessels. If tests are promising, this

MUNITIONS

Raytheon to build lightweight missile to arm UAVs and aircraft U.S. Air Force airborne weapons experts are asking the Raytheon Co. to build a lightweight missile and glide bomb that features low collateral damage and is suitable for launch from a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), military manned aircraft, and surface warships.

Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., announced a $104.9 million contract to the Raytheon Missile Systems segment in Tucson, Ariz., to build, test, and support the AGM-176

Griffin missile.

Griffin is a lightweight, pre-cision-guided munition that can launch from the ground, from the air as a rocket-powered missile, or drop from the air as a guided bomb. It carries a relatively small

13-pound warhead for low-collateral damage, as well as for use in irregular warfare.

The munition comes in
two versions. Griffin A is an
unpowered precision munition
that can be dropped by aircraft
from a rear cargo door or a door-
mounted launcher. Griffin Block
II B is a short-range missile that
can be fired from UAVs as well
as manned helicopters, attack
aircraft, U.S. Air Force AC-130W
gunships, and U.S. Marine Corps
KC-130J tankers.

Griffin is less than half the weight of a Hellfire round and offers GPS-aided inertial guidance and a semi-active laser seeker.

It has a 10-mile range when air-launched, and a 3-mile range when launched from the surface. Three Griffins can be carried in place of one Hellfire. The Griffin missile and launch assembly is also lighter than the Hellfire, allowing more to be mounted on the Predator.

The U.S. Navy has tested the Griffin as a laser-guided shipboard missile to attack fast-moving small boats. Raytheon also is developing the Griffin C with dual-mode guidance; and the Griffin C-ER, which will be an extended-range missile.