The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) has awarded a firm-fixed-price contract to Northrop Grumman Corporation for the fabrication, testing and delivery of AN/UPX-24(V) interrogator sets, the company has announced. Under the nearly $11.5 million follow-on production contract, Northrop Grumman will provide five AN/UPX-24(V) identification friend or foe (IFF) processor sets in an open-architecture configuration to enhance the situational awareness and threat identification capabilities of naval ships. As a core component of the AN/UPX-29(V) shipboard interrogator system, the AN/UPX-24(V) interrogator set is a major subsystem that provides a centralized identification system for ships by determining whether aircraft or ships equipped with IFF transponders are friendly or unknown forces.
APIC Corporation, Culver City, California, recently announced that it has received a U.S. Naval Air Systems Command Small Business Innovation Research Phase I contract to design an integrated optical code division multiple access (CDMA) network system that addresses multi-level security at speeds beyond what is possible with electronics. CDMA provides efficiency, security, and multi-access benefits in wireless communications. APIC's system takes the basic ideas of CDMA and implements it in fiber optic network.