Comtech Telecommunications Corp. (NASDAQ: CMTL), a world leader in secure wireless communications technologies, announced today, that during its third quarter of fiscal 2021, its Location Technologies group, a division of Comtech’s Commercial Solutions segment, was awarded a $1.3 million contract renewal to support messaging services.

“This valued customer has relied on Comtech for over 20 years for short message service center support,” said Fred Kornberg, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. “We have a proven track record with this tier-one mobile network operator and our messaging technology serves as the mainstay for its customer offering.”

The Location Technologies group of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. is a leading provider of precise device location, mapping and messaging solutions for public safety, mobile network operators, and enterprise solutions. Sold around the world to mobile network operators, government agencies, and Fortune 100 enterprises, our platforms locate, map, track and message.

Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, said the U.S. Navy plans to conduct four tests to assess its network integration capabilities in 2021, FedScoop reported Wednesday.

The tests will “allow us to bring more networks into that network-of-networks construct,” he said Wednesday at a Center for a New American Security event. “So that’s testing more data on more networks and introducing more battle management aids to put the end-user in a position where they can see the battlespace better.”

Gilday said the tests will enable the service to merge more systems with new applications and combine siloed networks into the “network-of-networks” operation to provide internet of things (IoT)-like capability for the Navy. 

Network integration is one of the four components in the service’s plan to advance the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept. The other three are battle management applications, agile software development and common data standards.

“The reason why this is so important is, first off, we need to maintain decision advantage over the adversary,” Gilday said of the tests.

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National Institute of Standards and Technology researchers and collaborators have determined the direction or the “angle of arrival” of an incoming radio signal using an atom-based sensor.

“This new work, in conjunction with our previous work on atom-based sensors and receivers, gets us one step closer to a true atom-based communication system to benefit 5G and beyond,” Chris Holloway, project leader, said in a statement published Monday.

To determine the signal’s direction of arrival, researchers measured the phase differences of an experimental 19.18 gigahertz signal at two different locations inside the sensor filled with cesium atoms.

The research, which is part of the NIST on a Chip program and the agency’s research on advanced communications, could lead to the development of an atom-based communications platform that could be smaller and less susceptible to noise and interference.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) plans to conduct its invoice payment processing using the Delphi eInvoicing System, an internet-based portal designed for financial management activities and expects to complete the transition to the new platform on May 21st.

OPM said in a Federal Register notice posted Wednesday the migration will require OPM vendors to submit invoices through the new system to receive grant payments.

According to the agency, OPM's Office of Chief Financial Officer is working with the Department of Transportation (DoT) and its Enterprise Services Center on the effort.

The real-time invoicing tool is designed to streamline invoice and payment processing and to deliver more accurate invoice status reports.

The General Services Administration (GSA) intends to partner with local and state governments to expand the use of a website that offers single sign-in services to users of programs funded by the federal government, Nextgov reported Wednesday. 

Login .gov provides a cloud-based authentication service that protects the privacy of users. Adopters of the service can access Medicaid, Medicaid managed care plans and other federal government services offered at the local level using one account and password.

Matthew Burrell, a spokesman for GSA, said the agency adopts the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)-defined best security practices for the identity verification service. Burrell added that local and state agencies that will use Login .gov services will pay technical onboarding and other usage-based costs.

The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology (DHS S&T) Directorate has developed a new technology designed to track firefighters in scenarios where it is difficult to find exits of the burning building.

DHS S&T said Tuesday it worked with firefighters in Worcester, Massachusetts, to design the Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders (POINTER).

POINTER allows emergency response teams to pinpoint firefighters in centimeters and navigate safe exit paths. A transmitter, a receiver and a laptop-based tracking station compose the POINTER system.

S&T has been working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 2014 to develop POINTER as a portable, wearable location system.

The technology uses magnetoquasistatic fields to track firefighters in three dimensions. These fields can pass through most building materials, at a better rate than acoustic, GPS and radio-frequency signals.

“MQS fields are not blocked or reflected by the materials found in most buildings due to weak response of the materials to magnetic-dominant fields,” said Darmindra Arumugam, principal investigator and senior technologist at JPL.

NASA and DHS S&T will continue POINTER's development throughout the rest of the year, with planned simulations for warehouse, town house and row home scenarios.

NASA held the second round of hot firing in a new test series for the RS-25 engine, a component of the Space Launch System rocket that would eventually send astronauts to the Moon.

The space agency said Wednesday it performed the test on Tuesday at Mississippi-based Stennis Space Center. The engine fired for a total of over eight minutes during the test.

Aerojet Rocketdyne, the RS-25 program's prime contractor, will collect the resulting data as it begins to make a new batch of RS-25 engines. NASA plans to conduct a total of seven tests under the new series.

A set of four RS-25 engines generates 1.6 million pounds of thrust upon launch and two million pounds as the rocket ascends. SLS will serve as a critical component of the Artemis program, which aims to revive manned space exploration. 

The program's uncrewed test flight is scheduled to launch late this year. Syncom Space Services handles facility operations for the tests.

The U.S. Air Force will investigate system defects following an incomplete launch sequence of a hypersonic booster weapon over the Point Mugu Sea Range off the coast of Oxnard, California.

The Air Force said Tuesday that the test, which took place on Monday, saw launch issues with the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress subsonic bomber that carried the booster vehicle as part of the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon initiative.

Testers and engineers from the Global Power Bomber Combined Test Force and 419th Flight Test Squadron will return the ARRW booster vehicle to test following assessments. B-52H returned with the booster vehicle safely retained onboard the aircraft during the exercise.

“While not launching was disappointing, the recent test provided invaluable information to learn from and continue ahead. This is why we test,” said Brig. Gen. Heath Collins, program executive officer for weapons and director of the Armament Directorate at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

The flight test, intended to be the eighth assessment for the ARRW program, focused on evaluating the weapon’s aircraft release, performance and separation capacity.

The U.S. Navy has laid the keel of a future guided-missile destroyer in Maine, signifying the start of the ship’s construction.

The service said Tuesday that it held a keel-laying ceremony at Bath Iron Works’ shipyard for the future USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. or DDG 124, with the attendance of Thomas Harker, acting secretary of the Navy; Col. Harvey Barnum, the ship’s namesake; and Martha Hill, ship sponsor and wife of Barnum.

Marty Fish, a welder at BIW, helped Barnum sign the keel plate, which now also features the initials of Hill as the ship sponsor.

“Col. Barnum has spent his life in service to our country and it is an honor to lay the keel of his ship,” said Capt. Seth Miller, program manager for the DDG 51 class.

DDG 124 is a Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with the Aegis Combat System Baseline 9, which offers updated radar technology and boosted computing power for augmented air and missile defense.

BIW also produces the Carl M. Levin, Louis H. Wilson Jr., Patrick Gallagher and John Basilone destroyers.