The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Center for Rapid Innovation has demonstrated a pneumatically-powered exoskeleton designed to reduce fatigue and increase the endurance of aerial porters who load and lift large cargo onto aircraft.

Forge System is supported by the Radical Improvements in Personnel Performance through Enhanced Development program, a Direct to Phase II Small Business Innovation Research project that aims to improve warfighters’ cognitive and physical performance.

“If this is optimized for the aerial porters’ particular missions, it is going to mean that teams will be able to load heavier objects on aircraft much faster using less people, which equates to saving the government and taxpayer money,” said John Florio, deputy director of CRI.

He added that the technology could also result in fewer injuries to personnel, leading to service members’ longer careers in the military.

Chief Master Sgt. Sean Storms, aerial port manager from 87th Aerial Port Squadron, and Senior Master Sgt. Brian Anders, assistant aerial port manager, demonstrated the exoskeleton during an event CRI held with the Air Force Reserve Command’s 445th Airlift Wing.

The Missile Defense Agency is seeking information from potential industry sources capable of providing ground sensor modeling and simulation services in support of the development and testing of radar systems.

In a request for information posted Thursday, the MDA Ground Sensors Directorate said it requires systems engineering, maintenance, verification and validation of real-time and non-real-time digital end-to-end radar models and real-time hardware-in-the-loop radar drivers.

MDA’s modeling and simulation efforts require the development of early radar representations and drivers that accurately simulate and stimulate tactical radars and maintain the fidelity of complex radar scenes.

The MDA Ground Sensors Directorate is headquartered in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, and oversees the development, testing and sustainment of missile threat sensors.

Responses to the RFI are due Oct. 24.

Oracle seeks to help law enforcement and first responders handle emergency situations through its new technology platform, Oracle Public Safety Services.

The platform is developed to provide emergency response workers with real-time information and situational awareness to help their decision-making process, the information technology company said Sunday. 

Oracle Public Safety Services is also designed to do away with data silos and remove manual busy work.

Oracle has utilized its cloud infrastructure and worked with local government authorities, emergency medical service experts and law enforcement technology professionals for the development of its public safety platform.

The Oracle Public Safety Services suite includes a computer-aided dispatch command center for emergency call management and dispatch, wearable computer communications and camera system for officers, real-time video communication tools, a touch-talk-listen tablet application for vehicle communication and coordination, as well a cloud-based law enforcement records and jail management systems. 

“We designed our systems to make the on-scene experience less isolating and emotionally charged by enabling responders to act as a blended team with someone monitoring the situation remotely,” said Steve Seoane, senior vice president and general manager for Oracle’s local government operations. 

Lt. Gen. Robert Rasch, head of the U.S. Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office, said RCCTO will keep a 50-kilowatt laser weapon version of the service’s Stryker-based Short-Range Air Defense system, dubbed Directed Energy Maneuver-SHORAD, in the development phase longer than planned as the office continues to learn and mature the technology, Defense News reported Friday.

“We want to make sure when we actually transition a program or a capability that we mature not just the prototype from an operational capability but have a good competitive space and good manufacturability processes in place as well to make that PEO successful,” Rasch told the publication in an interview.

He said he expects the Directed Energy Maneuver-SHORAD system to become a program of record in fiscal year 2024 before the program executive office for missiles and space assumes responsibility for the effort in FY 2025.

Rasch noted that the Army intends to launch a competition before transitioning the program to the PEO “but those are still decisions ahead … where we kind of want to leave some decision space for Army senior leaders.”

He said the service intends to deliver the first batch of 50KW laser weapon-equipped Stryker vehicles to a unit of warfighters at Fort Sill in Oklahoma by the end of 2022.

“We’ll be getting those within the next month, month-and-a-half … so we are in final build and final integration … but we’re making sure our industry partners get it right before we give it to the soldiers,” Rasch added.