Developed as part of AV’s holistically integrated C-UAS strategy, Halo_Shield introduces a unique, tile-based layered defense architecture that is open, scalable, and adaptable to today’s evolving threats. The system is designed to support emerging homeland defense priorities by enabling resilient, area-wide protection of high-value U.S. and allied partner assets, including borders, military installations, and other critical infrastructure. AV is currently demonstrating capabilities and has deployed Halo_Shield tiles at select critical sites.

“The character of the air threat has fundamentally changed,” said Wahid Nawabi, chairman, president, and chief executive officer at AV. “Cheap, massed, and coordinated aerial systems are stressing traditional point defenses. Halo_Shield is our answer—a collaborative, modular approach that brings together the best of AV and a trusted supplier ecosystem to close those gaps.”

At the core of Halo_Shield is a mission-tailored, distributed and domain-specific tile architecture—comprising Sentinel, Terrestrial, Nautical, Aerial and Celestial tiles. Each tile delivers a specialized combination of sensors, effectors, and command-and-control capabilities, drawing on technology from AV and its trusted ecosystem of suppliers. The result is a cost-efficient defense architecture that is offense-ready, extends protection beyond point defense and sustains decisive situational advantage in contested battlespaces across air, land, sea and space.

Designed for plug-and-play integration, Halo_Shield is deployable as portable fly-away kits and integrates seamlessly with existing customer sensors, effectors, and command-and-control frameworks—delivering scalable, resilient, area-wide protection with minimal training and personnel demands. Powered by AV_Halo, AV’s unified software platform, the system is purpose-built yet agnostic, designed to incorporate new capabilities while seamlessly integrating with customers’ existing command-and-control systems.

“Halo_Shield is engineered like an edge processing-capable set of tiles for modern air defense,” said Larry Lloyd, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at AV. “Each tile is a self-contained capability that can operate on its own or snap together to build exactly the defense architecture a mission demands. That modularity lets operators scale, adapt, and reconfigure in real time as threats evolve, without redesigning the system or retraining the force. It’s how you move from static point defense to a living, mission-tailored shield.”

Source: AeroVironment

Stay in the know with breaking news from across the IC and IC contracting landscape by becoming a paid subscriber to IC News. Your support makes our work possible.

The post AV unveils Halo_Shield appeared first on Intelligence Community News.

“Receiving this award reflects our success to date in the advancement of this technology and our continued commitment to work alongside the government and deliver assured data access to the Warfighter in a timely fashion,” said Dr. Dan Moran, vice president and general manager of Cubic Secure Communications. “Halo will deliver compact, power-efficient, and resilient satellite connectivity to meet critical mission needs in multiple domains.”

Halo is a software-defined antenna system for hybrid SATCOM operations. It supports simultaneous transmission and reception in Multiple bands, enabling high-throughput, multi-beam communications. Designed for resilience, Halo maintains redundant network paths and connects seamlessly across multiple constellations. Halo enables end-users to have a single device that can securely leverage SATCOM services from multiple commercial and government satellite providers.

Built on open standards and optimized for ultra-low size, weight, and power (SWaP), Halo is scalable across many platforms and missions. The system features a flat-panel active electronically scanned array (AESA) with 2D beam steering, delivering robust and flexible connectivity for modern defense operations.

Source: Cubic

Help IC News continue to bring you breaking news from across the IC and IC contracting landscape. Join our paid subscribers today.

The post Cubic wins AFRL contract for Halo SATCOM antenna appeared first on Intelligence Community News.

Capella Space owns a constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, wholly designed, manufactured and operated in-house. This constellation has been in commercial operation since January 2021, delivering high quality SAR data to end-users and mission partners around the world, 24/7/365. Capella’s SAR data has been in use operationally across the globe in many applications, including oil spill detection, border monitoring, forest management and the support of national defense missions.

Capella was the first US company to demonstrate end-to-end, fully automated operation of a SAR constellation. They were also first to use an Inmarsat Data Relay System, first to deliver 30-second multi-look imagery (dwell), first to partner with AWS on a cloud native SAR platform and first to deploy a 3.5m mesh-based reflector from a small-sat.

Capella’s speed to delivery, end-to-end mission capability, mature manufacturing capability and proven on-orbit track record are key ingredients for enabling future HALO missions.

“Owning and operating our satellite constellation enables us to quickly launch new satellites, deploy new capabilities and offer actionable solutions tailored to meet diverse mission needs,” said Frank Backes, CEO of Capella Space. “We have built a platform around agility in design, quality in manufacturing, and speed in operation through automation – all of it enabled by a world-class team. We look forward to leveraging all of that in support of the SDA’s unique missions.”

“SDA is proud to welcome 19 vendors into the first-ever HALO pool,” said SDA Director Derek Tournear. “This creative award solution enables SDA to quickly compete, build, and fly demonstration missions to burn down risk for the future of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. We also hope, through the HALO pool, to build a broader base of vendors that can compete for work on operational layers of future tranches.”

Source: Capella Space

IC News delivers the situational awareness you need to get ahead and stay ahead in the IC contracting space. Subscribe today for full access to 10,000+ articles, plus new articles each weekday.

The post Capella Space secures SDA contract appeared first on Intelligence Community News.

The USAF contract is to investigate, design, develop, test and demonstrate the capabilities of the HERMes system. It also directs Cubic to expand the HCB communication system’s technical capabilities, such as developing the hardware used for the solution. Such expansion increases the range of operating frequencies, enables code and algorithm optimization, and will be backed by research into alternative capabilities to augment both the type and number of operational platforms.

“Cubic is committed to ensuring aerial networks produce a connectivity and user experience in the battlefield that mirrors what our warfighters experience in their everyday lives: high throughput, high availability and data when they need it,” said CMPS President Paul Shew.

Under development since 2008, Halo facilitates a high bandwidth, resilient, ad hoc multi-link mesh network using novel digital beamforming techniques. Cubic’s HERMes research and development effort aims to enhance and mature the Halo capability.

“We’re excited to complement ongoing efforts to transition Halo to the warfighter with parallel efforts like this new Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) project to innovate and make Halo even better,” said Scott Rosebush, vice president and general manager of Cubic’s Secure Communications business.

Source: Cubic

Help IC News continue to bring you breaking news from across the IC and IC contracting landscape. Join our paid subscribers today.

The post Cubic wins Air Force contract for HERMes system appeared first on Intelligence Community News.

This recent award adds scope to develop an Advanced Networking capability and a Unified User Experience (UUX) to simplify the task for Airmen to setup Common Data Links (CDL) using the HALO software-defined digital beam-forming antenna system.

Following last year’s highly successful flight of the prototype HALO system on a NASA WB-57 communicating simultaneously with multiple ground stations, Cubic recently conducted an initial demonstration of technology that will enable a High-Capacity Backbone (HCB) solution with an open air, full duplex CDL link between next generation HALO systems. This represents a significant milestone resulting from its partnership with AFRL to reduce risk for HCB by demonstrating the building blocks before final integration with the full HALO System.

“Cubic’s HALO Team is making exceptional progress in building the Gen 3 HALO despite a pandemic and a global shortage of electronic parts,” said David Harris, vice president of Cubic Mission and Performance Solutions. “Verifying the Gen 3 building blocks’ design is a significant milestone toward network demonstration and production.”

As an industry leader in protected communications, Cubic’s portfolio of products includes the Multiband Miniature Transceiver (MMT) and Nano Modem Transceiver (nMT) Software Defined Radios (SDR); HALO Software Defined Antenna; and the Merlin Protected Waveform.

Source: Cubic

If you enjoyed this article, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep our site ad-free.

The post Cubic wins Aerial Layer Mesh Network R&D contract appeared first on Intelligence Community News.