Test Your Aerospace Defense Knowledge
The aerospace defense industry has continued to grow more dynamic and complex. From cost and time pressure to configurability and flexibility, today’s systems are increasingly breaking the legacy mold by using new approaches. While some areas appear more dynamic than others, you can see the adoption of novel technologies and techniques in all of them: space/satellite, electronic warfare (EW), military communications (MilCom), avionics, and spectrum monitoring and signal analysis. To gauge your knowledge of these aerospace defense industry segments, take our quiz.
Admittedly, keeping up with trends across these various segments is no easy task. The following application areas, for example, will increasingly be impacted by many trends:
- Radar/EW: In this area of aerospace defense as well as others, artificial intelligence (AI) will be an increasingly prominent presence. For radar and EW, AI enables systems to learn and immediately react to new and unforeseen threats. If a military jet flies into an area, for example, it can more quickly ascertain an understanding of the EM environment and develop optimal techniques for it.
- Avionics and navigation: Using global navigation systems and new techniques, these systems are advancing to provide higher accuracy and backup methods for navigation.
- MilCom: While military communications previously relied strictly on military solutions, they are now using new formats from commercial solutions. Benefits include wider bandwidths and broader data flow.
- Space/satellite: In addition to using higher frequency bands, the space/satellite industry is focusing on keeping antenna costs down. Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) systems also promise new capabilities with lower investment and less reliability concerns per satellite, as constellations compensate for individual performance issues.
- Spectrum monitoring and signal analysis: Knowing what is in one’s spectrum is key. Aerospace defense customers need to capture and analyze more spectrum in a shorter period of time. To investigate wider bandwidths in the future, data processing speeds will continue to increase.
Be prepared for more technology innovations that cross different aerospace defense segments. Phased array antennas, for example, increasingly include very high power, solid state devices. Digital transmit/receive modules are becoming more common as well.
The impetus for much of this evolution stems from defense departments and militaries worldwide striving to build smaller, more capable forces that deploy quickly and effectively. To ensure successful military operations and mission success, information flow is critical across all warfare domains – air, sea, land, and space. As a result, this industry increasingly focuses on the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum.
Take our quiz to find out if you are an expert on the various aerospace defense segments.
If you feel like you could use a refresher, an upcoming webinar provides an overview of the latest aerospace defense trends and how test and measurement is evolving to support them. Please visit our site to register for that webinar, titled “Aerospace & Defense Challenges Demand Novel Test & Measurement Approaches.”