India Defence notes India’s Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi’s recent remarks that Indian Air Force (IAF) plans to acquire more advanced fighters, sophisticated defence systems and smart long-range weapons, as the country’s “strategic boundaries have been redefined” by its growing energy needs and participation in disaster management operations. Tyagi said the current scenario “necessitated a strategic reach to safeguard our national interests”.
Tyagoi acknowledged the effect that delays in the LCA Tejas fighter were having on India’s force structure, but noted that India would react in a number of ways. His response touched on everything from AWACS and revised MiG-21 modernization numbers to precision weapons and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The ability to use open-source operating systems like Linux with “clusters” of computing hardware that include many commodity components has really changed the supercomputing landscape. Complex physics-based problems that are three dimensional and time-dependent are especially difficult, and benefit greatly from the additional computing power per dollar that’s rapidly becoming available. This has had a significant impact in sectors like movies and TV, energy, and pharmaceuticals – not to mention the defense industry.
The DoD’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) recently placed an order with Linux Networx for 5 supercomputers as part of the Technology Insertion 2006 (TI-06) initiative. They are part of a broader effort to modernize the US DoD’s computing capabilities, by providing the supercomputer services, high-speed network communications, and expertise for U.S. Defense laboratories. The recipients, and the type and capabilities of the systems they received, are detailed below:
The Associated Press reports that Center Industries Corp. in Wichita, KS received a contract extension that calls for the production of 980,000 more ammunition magazines for the M16 rifle and M4A1 carbine. More than 80 of the 248 people who work at the plant will be involved in fulfilling the contract, which the company has had since 1997. About 75% of Center Industries’ workforce is disabled.
The company has a number of quality-related certifications, and holds a 100% quality rating with the US Department of Defense over almost 1.3 million parts shipped. Center Industries expects to have sales in excess of $22 million in 2006, and also does work for the state of Kansas, Spirit AeroSystems and Cessna Aircraft Co., among others.
OriginLab’s Origin and OriginPro software is powerful scientific graphing and data analysis tool with over 100,000 users. This includes seats in defense industry organizations like NASA, BAE Systems, Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, et. al.
Collaboration is good – and in a small step toward that end, they have just launched a desktop application analogous to Adobe’s Acrobat Reader called Origin Viewer. The software enables OriginLab users to share packages of data, graphs, and analysis with colleagues who use competing scientific software products, and also provides free software component files necessary to read and write .OPJ files for custom application development. See this page for more information, and download links.
Okland Construction Co. Inc. in Salt Lake City, UT won a $17.5 million firm-fixed-price contract for Design and Construction of a Software Support Facility at Hill Air Force Base, UT that is expected to be complete by Sept. 27, 2009. There were 30 bids solicited on July 19, 2005, and 6 bids were received by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Sacramento, CA (W91238-06-C-0008).
Hill AFB provides worldwide engineering and logistics management for the F-16 Fighting Falcon and A-10 Thunderbolt II fighters, and the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The base also performs depot maintenance of the F-16, A-10 and C-130 Hercules medium transport aircraft.
