BAE debuts new vehicles at AUSA

The Folks at BAE debuted several military vehicles at this year's Association of United States Army (AUSA) meeting and exposition, including spotlighting a truly different kind of vehicle --one that's designed to bridge the gap between heavy duty commercial vehicles and military patrol vehicles. This one caugh t my eye....

Dubbed "Sentinel", the off-road vehicle merges the best qualities of both light military and civilian commercial vehicles and offers multiple mission possibilities to a varied customer base.

"Sentinel is a true multi-mission vehicle in every sense of the word," said Chris Chambers, line lead for BAE Systems. "Sentinel can be armoured to provide varying levels of mission-specific protection to the vehicle's occupants. While it can also be fitted with defensive technologies it is also extremely agile and can easily and cost-effectively maintained with off-the-shelf components because it is built on an enhanced commercial truck chassis," added Chambers.

Since Sentinel's body design is both modular and adaptable, it can be customized to specific customers and their mission requirements.

"Every mission, for every customer comes with its own unique set of logistical and tactical challenges, "Chambers said. "Because of that, we knew Sentinel needed to be more than just a military or a commercial vehicle. It had to offer the best qualities and features of both in one flexible solution," (read more here)

Latest Blast Mitigation Technology at AUSA

new BlastRide™ seat for military vehicles, the only seat on the market to successfully combine an active damping system with the latest shock absorption technology.

The BlastRide seat was developed by QinetiQ North America's Technology Solutions Group in response to concerns about the explosive and shock impacts that soldiers sustain while traveling in military vehicles. The system provides protection from both primary (blast) and secondary (slam down) impacts while reducing soldier fatigue during long convoys over rough terrain. (Read more here )

Avaya launches a Unified Communications UC Benchmark

by Ted Ventresca

Over the years that I've covered the Military and Federal IT Communications space I have heard Generals and IT leaders asking for bundled, end to end solutions that can enhance or build upon existing infrastructure...enter the Avaya Aura™ Application Server 5300 Release 2.0. Desgined to provide a secure, next-generation, SIP-based UC solution that integrates voice, video, multimedia conferencing and collaboration with the dynamic capabilities enabled by Instant Messaging, live chat sessions and other presence-based communications.

The solution ensures mission critical communications for the war fighter offering high levels of security and resiliency and helps boost productivity by creating more intuitive and integrated user experiences. It can also provide service portability enabling communications from virtually anywhere and reduces operating costs by simplifying and centralizing network management functions and delivering optimal traffic routing.

This new release meets Department of Defense (DoD) and federal government security and service assurance requirements, and complies with the DoD Unified Capabilities Requirements (UCR) 2008 specification including support for AS-SIP, IPv6 and V.150.1. The solution has been granted JITC certification and has been added to the US DoD Unified Capabilities Approved Products List (APL) by the Defense Information Systems Agency.

"This is the first UCR 2008 UC solution in the market today that meets the US Federal Government's strict requirements for next-generation communications," said Steve Derr, vice president, Sales and Engineering, Avaya Government Solutions. "This product launch builds on Avaya Government Solutions' ongoing commitment to driving innovation that helps make critical government communications more reliable and secure, as well as more cost effective. The software-based architecture and deployment flexibility provides a solution to satisfy most government communications needs for new installations or to complement existing infrastructures."