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American Robotics announced its plans to acquire Israeli Airobotics. The new deal should prove a good fit, as both companies play similar roles within the broader industrial drone space. While there’s bound to be a fair bit of redundancy, Ondas notes that such a merging would give the combined companies a better global foothold in a rapidly expanding category.  American Robotics’ primary play is Scout, a fully autonomous drone system operating on remote sites without direct human oversight. Airobotics offers an all-in-one autonomous drone solution. The company’s Optimus drone launches out of an automated docking space that serves as a base and transmits data to the quadcopter. Applications include emergency response, mapping and surveying. “American Robotics and Airobotics have matured different elements of the DIB ecosystem, and this business combination allows for an accelerated offering set that furthers our leadership position in a broader set of market opportunities,” American Robotics CEO Reese Mozer tells TechCrunch. “Longer term, the Scout System and the Optimus System will be different models existing within the same product family, with each specializing in a different set of use cases. See the attached infographic highlighting the primary differences between the two current platforms.”

Samsung is launching its gaming hub for its 2022 smart TVs and monitors today. The hub brings together the game streaming apps into a single location, with access to Nvidia’s GeForce Now, Google Stadia, Utomik, Twitch, and Microsoft’s new Xbox TV app. Amazon Luna is said to be available soon, integrating into the Samsung Gaming Hub UI.  HDMI-connected video game consoles are featured inside the hub, alongside passthrough controller inputs so you can use a single controller instead of having to pair multiple ones. That means popular Bluetooth headsets and controllers will work across multiple apps, services, and devices through the Samsung Gaming Hub.  The biggest new addition to the gaming hub is Microsoft’s Xbox TV app. While Stadia, GeForce Now, and Twitch are available across a variety of TVs, the Xbox app is currently exclusive to the Samsung Gaming Hub and provides access to Xbox Cloud Gaming. Fortnite is available to stream free of charge, but you’ll need an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription to play more than 100 games. 

Something that we have noted would be coming this year is a new Atom series. Specifically the Intel Atom C5000 series. Two weeks ago, Intel announced the 1st 6 models in the Intel Atom C5000 series lineup, although there is not too much information out there on the new chips.  - Here is what we were able to put together in terms of the new Atom SKUs:  These SKUs are on the lower core count end of the spectrum ranging from 4-8 cores and still dual-channel DDR4 memory (up to 256GB supported.) The official specs say that all of the new parts have QAT onboard which is going to be a bigger feature further into 2022 - 2023. Most are still looking at the Intel Atom C3000 devices for edge networking. At some point, Intel will be transitioning to new generations. The C-lineup tends to be the one that is often found in servers.  One of the biggest challenges with covering the new Atom launches is that Intel has little by way of a formal press release process for them (@Iintel IoTG, please fix this). In 2017 we at the start of availability for the original Intel Atom C3000 series SKUs. We only knew about it because OEMs were telling us that Intel was not planning a launch so we decided to hold our own launch. Hopefully, we will get more from Intel and be able to update this soon. Also, stay tuned for more on Snow Ridge which also was refreshed today.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing has developed a new artificially intelligent (AI) combat drone. The MQ-28A Ghost Bat drone — so named for the Australian mammal known to travel in packs, detecting and hunting prey — is reportedly able to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks autonomously via onboard sensors. The Australian government's  Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) have given their drone the name 'MQ-28A Ghost Bat' as a military designation and a name for an Australian-made military fighter aircraft  Choosing the name Ghost Bat, the ghost bat is a mammal native to Australia known to work together in a pack to detect and hunt, reflecting the unique characteristics of aircraft Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance sensors and capabilities, and is a fitting name for this pioneering capability. The Ghost Bat drone will fly alongside manned fighter jets, jamming radar, firing on targets and conducting surveillance. Boeing has already completed a series of successful test fights on the Ghost Bat drone. 

LG Display has come up with more uses for transparent screens with its innovative new concepts that will be on display at CES 2022: the OLED Shelf, Shopping Managing Showcase, Show Window, and Smart Window. LG Display simply creates concepts that other companies can adopt and introduce to the market.  Its OLED Shelf, visible at the top of this story, consists of two 55-inch transparent OLED displays mounted on top of one another, with a shelf at the very top. LG Display says it’s ideal for the living room, where it can display art, a TV show, or one on each of the two screens simultaneously. Always on Display Mode ensures that the screen can stay on all the time. If there was a piece of art on display, that image could stay put just like a painting, all while blending into the wall behind it. While the OLED Shelf is built for the home, LG Display says its Shopping Managing Showcase is meant for “luxurious” department stores. A transparent OLED display is attached to a sleek wooden stand, and when placed in front of physical products, it looks like it could create a futuristic shopping experience. It adds an overlay to the items behind it, which means storeowners could add graphics that highlight certain parts of their products, or even use the display to provide funky visual effects. We saw a video where flowy graphics drew our eye to one of the perfume bottles in the display above, giving it a lustrous halo effect.

It sure looks like China is converting Cold War fighters into flying drones. Dozens of Shenyang J-16 fighter planes, spotted in satellite photos, are still present at China's military airfields, despite the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) retiring the type in 2010. China could use the planes in a conflict, either masquerading them as modern jets, or using the drones to carry out combat missions of their own.  The J-16 is a copy of the Soviet Union's MiG-19, a single-seat, twin-engine fighter that made its debut in the mid-1950s. The fighter was provided to the PRC, where at least 2,000 were manufactured under license by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. The J-6 was China's 1st supersonic fighter jet, but had several limitations, with early versions lacking an air-to-air radar.  According to Defense News, reports surfaced in China in 2013 that the PLAAF was turning the planes into drones, "for use either as a decoy to overwhelm adversary air defences by their sheer numbers, or as a rudimentary unmanned combat aircraft."  The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command recently released photos showing the PLAAF’s J-6 unmanned aircraft conversion. Blurred serials suggest active service; at least 50 can be seen in @planet imagery from September at 1 of 2 bases known to be operating the type.

Samsung who is definitely not immune to chip shortage effects to impact launches, a new report claims that Samsung has started HVM (High Volume Manufacturing) production of components that will be found in the upcoming Galaxy S22 series.  -  A report from WinFuture states that flex cables that connect to various circuit boards inside the Galaxy S22 models are being rolled off the production line. These parts are for the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra and have been manufactured in Asian plans since the middle of last week. Volume production has already reached 10s of 1,000s of units, but there were some quality control issues,  with some margin of error expected. Samsung intends on commencing Galaxy S22 pre-orders from February 7, with an official launch happening a few days after. Looking at the aforementioned pre-order date, it is safe to conclude that Samsung is being careful with its approach, hence the latest report discussing HVM plans. With Apple working frantically to improve iPhone 13 supply chain issues, which we assume will take a few weeks, it is the perfect opportunity for Samsung to provide some worthy Android competitors to customers that are readily available. All Galaxy S22 models are expected to launch in the Snapdragon 895 and Exynos 2200 chipset variants, and just like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, the Galaxy S22 Ultra will get S-Pen support. 

Siemens Gamesa will develop an 80-acre (32-hectare) site at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal in Portsmouth, Virginia, which will ultimately become an offshore wind hub. The company entered a land lease agreement with the Virginia Port Authority, supported by Virginia state incentives for site improvements.   The new factory will be built “upon execution of a firm order” for the 2.6 gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial Project with Dominion Energy. 

Siemens Gamesa claims it’s the 1st commitment by a global offshore wind turbine manufacturer in a US-based supply chain.  The manufacturing facility will create around 260 jobs, and Siemens Gamesa also intends to create around 50 service jobs to provide operations and maintenance services for the offshore wind farm. Bringing the 1st offshore wind blade factory to the US is another historic moment for our industry’s development and critical to our ongoing efforts to localize a robust supply chain.  US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said: "Offshore wind energy will create jobs and economic prosperity across the country, and with President Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda, we’re showing that the US is open for business on clean energy."

The Navy is massively fast-tracking a new fleet of unmanned underwater vehicles to more safely perform a range of submarine-like missions to include reconnaissance, countermine operations, and even undersea attack.  Manned submarines can function in more of a command and control capacity to a large extent, operating as motherships able to operate a large fleet of surface and undersea drone boats. Drone submarines provide an unprecedented mix of additional attributes of great relevance to maritime warfare. A principal element of this is endurance. After all, unmanned submarine-like drones can operate for months at a time given that they do not require crew shifts.  Electromagnetic Systems are working together to provide the emerging Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle with advanced power for propulsion and energy storage systems.  The LDUUV mission, according to a 2015 study from the International Journal of Advanced Research in Artificial Intelligence is to “conduct missions longer than seventy-days in open ocean and littoral seas, being fully autonomous, long-endurance, land-launched with advanced sensing for littoral environments,” a paper called “Military Robotics: Latest Trends and Spatial Grasp Solutions” from the National Academy of Sciences.

In a company statement, GA-EMS explained that the new high-tech integration is intended to improve undersea drone performance, to include extended endurance. “Over the course of the last two years, the motor has undergone lab testing, and power system has completed underwater testing. Both systems have performed successfully, demonstrating capabilities to both power and propel underwater vehicles. Together, the systems are proving to be key technologies to provide the combined power, energy density, and improved vehicle performance necessary to help meet the objectives,” Scott Forney, the president of GA-EMS, said in the statement.

The study emphasizes “long endurance” and “autonomy” as signature features of large undersea drones, something which can of course extend the length of time possible for undersea surveillance missions. Larger drones may also be engineered with a stronger propulsion system to maneuver undersea. At the early stages, launches will begin on land before slowly migrating toward ocean launches as part of a networked manned and unmanned group of vessels. The emergence of these kinds of systems will of course greatly inform tactics and strategies as they can massively multiply undersea presence without necessarily increasing risk. Large undersea drones may also quite likely be configured to fire weapons such as torpedoes, especially if they are networked with undersea “host ships” or “mother ships.”  

Lasers are particularly effective as short-range air defense systems against Unmanned Aerial Vehicles because most of them are fairly slow. Here's What You Need to Know: By 2022, the Army plans to deploy its first four-vehicle platoon of eight-wheel Stryker armored vehicles equipped with a turret-mounted 50-kilowatt laser. These will eventually become a standard support asset in U.S. brigade combat teams, alongside a Stinger-missile armed Strykers.  After decades of being confined to experimental prototypes and Star Wars movies, laser weapons today are on the verge of entering wide-scale service, whether in the hands of infantry, mounted on trucks, armored vehicles, warships and even Air Force fighters. Lasers focus beams of light to produce intense heat. They have virtually inexhaustible “ammunition” and are very cheap per shot compared to a missile or even a cannon shell. They are also extremely quick and precise, though they tend to lose coherence over distance. The more powerful the laser, the further it can go and the quicker it burns through its target—but the larger its power supply and cooling system have to be.

The Army hopes that ground-based lasers will provide an effective and cost-efficient means to defend against two major new threats which threaten to overwhelm existing air defenses: drones and surface-skimming cruise missiles. Both are proliferating rapidly around the globe, and both were employed in a recent attack that knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s daily oil production—despite the facilities being covered by both short- and long-range air defense systems.  Lasers are particularly effective as short-range air defense systems against Unmanned Aerial Vehicles because most of them are fairly slow. That gives a laser ample time to burn through the drone’s skin and damage critical bits of the airframe. Anti-drone lasers have been extensively tested (see a video here), and were recently reportedly used in combat for the first time when a Turkish laser used by a faction in Syria shot down an enemy drone. By 2022, the Army plans to deploy its first four-vehicle platoon of eight-wheel Stryker armored vehicles equipped with a turret-mounted 50-kilowatt laser. These will eventually become a standard support asset in U.S. brigade combat teams, alongside a Stinger-missile armed Strykers.  However, jet-powered cruise missiles pose a bigger challenge to lasers. Even slower cruise missiles tend to scream towards their targets at 500–600 miles per hour. That leaves a laser little time to burn through the missile’s skin target. Furthermore, because a laser exerts no kinetic force to “push” a missile of target, it must somehow inflict heat damage to a component which will prevent the missile from sailing forward on sheer momentum to hit its target. That may involve detonating the missile’s warhead, frying its terminal seeker (if it has one), or damaging its engine and flight control fins.  The Army has already been mandated by Congress to deploy an Indirect Fire Protection Capability (IFPC) that can shield troops on the ground from cruise missile attacks. As an interim measure, the Army announced early in 2019 it would procure two batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system as Increment 1 of the IFPC program. Iron Dome was designed for shooting down unguided projectiles, but has some applicability to cruise missile defense.  However, for Increment 2, the Army wants a mobile laser system more powerful than that on the Stryker. Originally, that looked like that would come in the form of the 100 KW High Energy Laser (HELAS) which would be mounted on a tactical truck. In May 2019, the Army $130 million contract to Lockheed and Dynetics to develop a HELAS combined fiber laser. Rolls-Royce would furnish an integrated power & thermal management system.  However, in August 2019 an article on Army.mil revealed that the Army now sees the 100 KW system as merely an interim step to developing either a 250 or 300 KW weapon that can handle “more stressing threats”—by which they surely mean cruise missiles. Furthermore, they expect the first four-vehicle HEL-IFPC prototype platoon to be ready by 2024. According to Sydney Freedberg of Breaking Defense, the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Analysis had earlier reported that a 300 to 600-kilowatt laser was necessary to reliably burn down cruise missiles before they reach their target. That level of power would allow the laser to begin toasting an incoming missile from further away, and inflict more damage in a shorter amount of time. That could significantly increase the odds of disabling a cruise missile before it can cause much harm.  The odds of a successful shoot-down might remain lower against supersonic cruise missiles or forthcoming hypersonic weapons (which exceed five times the speed of sound), but most of the former at least are designed for use against ship, not land targets.  The potentially threefold power increase from the current HELAS laser seems ambitious. However, the 100 KW HELAS reportedly combines a battery with an M250 turboshaft helicopter engine (used in the OH-58 and OH-6 scout helicopters) that generates 300 KW of power, and has thermal management for up to 200 kilowatts. Therefore, it’s possible scaling up the HELAS laser’s power may be feasible without starting with a new design.  The HEL-IFPC laser system will be mounted on a truck, rather than an armored vehicle. Thus, if it enters service, it would likely primarily be deployed behind the frontlines defending headquarters, ammunition and fuel dumps, fixed radars, and key bases or facilities. Those all happen to be attractive targets for expensive land-attack cruise missiles.  The Army is not the only service seeking land-based directed energy weapons. The Air Force is reportedly testing three different microwaves defensive weapons which could be used to disrupt or disable drones.

Air traffic control audio has revealed details of the highly advanced 'drone' that eluded a police helicopter in military airspace above Tucson, AZ.  The recording obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration this week by The Drive reveals the sophisticated capabilities of the drone as it ran circles around police and federal helicopters in February.  The recordings show that pilots and air traffic controllers were baffled by the drone, which they described as 'super sophisticated' and possibly satellite-controlled, and hovered over Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.  During the nearly 70-minute chase, the drone often toyed with the pursuing helicopters by hovering directly over their rotors, baffling the crews and leading one to call it 'super sophisticated.'  It was not visible with night-vision goggles and eventually exceeded the maximum flight ceiling of the helicopters, escaping the pursuers.  'They can't tell if its a quadcopter or what. They assume it's a drone, but they're following it,' one controller is heard saying.  FBI officials told Tucson TV station KOLD that the drone 'orbited' the helicopter several times and led the copter on a circular, hour-long chase.  The tactical flight officer on the Tucson PD helicopter said in the report that the drone 'maneuvered all over the city' at over 10,000 feet. Crews are also heard saying that it was difficult to estimate the size of the mystery craft, which was difficult to visually identify due to its high speed and maneuverability.

As the chase wore on, crew members repeatedly wonder aloud why the apparent drone's battery hadn't run out of power. 'This would be like no battery I've ever seen,'  Another recording reveals a phone call between the Air Traffic Control tower at Tucson International Airport and the Tucson Police Department helicopter crew.  'Yeah was definitely a drone,' one TPD helicopter crew member tells the controllers. 'I just couldn't tell you - I couldn't give you its dimensions as it was moving... too sketchy for us to.'  'From what I can tell just from its position light, you know, I would have to imagine it was larger than a quadcopter, and I guarantee you it was nothing like a quadcopter from how long it was up,' the crew member said.  'It has to be satellite-driven because there's no line-of-sight, there's no cell phone coverage that could have dealt with that, so it has to be satellite-driven, which is pretty freakin' sophisticated,' he added.

'I assure you it was not a quadcopter, and it was the most advanced drone we've dealt with over the last decade here. Its abilities were pretty incredible, um, I just - I can't tell you exactly its size,' the crew member said.