Signal back issues from April 1998:
Behind the lines
Apr 01, 1998; ... (In addition to being president and chief executive officer of AFCEA, Lt. Gen. C. Norman Wood, USAF (Ret.), is also the publisher of SIGNAL Magazine. The following is a recent column from the Dallas Morning News by Bob St. John, reprinted with permission. "Some folks' success is no surprise" ...
Spacecraft paint clearer weather prediction picture
Apr 01, 1998; ... New satellites that are based on the HS 601 spacecraft model will provide more accurate location information about severe storms and other weather phenomena, resulting in more precise warnings to the general public and industry. Two additional geostationary operational environmental satellites ...
Army supports light fighters
Apr 01, 1998; ... The U.S. Army's approximately $1.1 billion investment in science and technology base programs is structured to enable significant, revolutionary improvements over current capabilities. The efforts involve unique research programs in areas such as armor and armaments and in shaping and adapting ...
Architecture provides security
Apr 01, 1998; ... Capitalizing on commercial offthe-shelf and existing products within government's inventory, a low-cost, low-risk satellite broadcast system will provide highly secure voice, video and data transmissions to troops worldwide. The system will enable U.S. military forces to quickly set up and ...
Restriction effects studied
Apr 01, 1998; ... The U.S. Air Force is establishing the baseline for adding global air traffic management capabilities to its special mission forces to address operational restrictions imposed by the emerging communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) environment. The ...
Cold bird flies
Apr 01, 1998; ... A combination of de-icing and anti-icing technology is increasing the operations capability of Predator unmanned aerial vehicles (see page 43). A glycol-based weeping wing leading-edge system, heated air data system and supporting software protect the wings and tailplanes from accumulating ice ...
Getting E-mail on the move
Apr 01, 1998; ... Wireless electronic (e-)mail applications based on global system for mobile communications (GSM) smart cards will add enhanced communications capabilities to mobile telephones. The technology will deliver Internet-based e-mail and other services to mobile users at a low cost by exploiting the ...
United Kingdom enlarges footprint
Apr 01, 1998; ... An Australian subsidiary of a U.K firm has received its first major contract in its native land. The Australian army has signed a renewable 12-month contract for the support and maintenance of rugged hardware for the Australian Army Tactical Command Support System. The equipment will include the ...
Modem standards defined
Apr 01, 1998; ... The International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations agency, has agreed on the technical specifications for 56-kilobits-per-second modems and has initiated the formal approval process. The recommendation, designated V.90, is expected to be used for applications such as Internet and ...
Rescue operations strengthened
Apr 01, 1998; ... A newly designed airborne search and rescue system enables military forces to carry out safe and accurate, one-pass pickup and rescue missions under severe combat conditions. The approach could replace the current hazardous direction-finding method of search and rescue operations. The ...
SIGNAL's guide to surfing savvy
Apr 01, 1998; ... Thousands of people have spent the winter months in front of their television sets watching awards programs. Whether it was the People's Choice Awards or the Academy Awards, each recognized excellence in the specific industry. Surfers have their own awards to keep an eye on, with recognition ...
Association's planning coincides with seed corn research funds
Apr 01, 1998; ... The U.S. Defense Department is embarking on its annual delicate budget balancing act with Congress, seeking adequate funding for acquisition, operations and maintenance, and research and development programs in fiscal year 1999. The need to find the right funding mix to meet security ...
Innovation microelectronics emerge from federal research
Apr 01, 1998; ... Making molecules out of mountains is the new mission for a stalwart government laboratory of the Cold War. Scientists are tapping laboratory expertise honed from years of weapons research to develop new microelectronic technologies and devices. Items such as basic semiconductor ...
Organic compounds illuminate novel light-emitting diodes
Apr 01, 1998; ... Laboratory experts hone molecular expertise to aim for large-scale display applications. Scientists are refining the use of organic compounds in light-emitting diodes to permit construction of largescale panels for displays. Employing these compounds permits fabrication methods that ...
Federal, corporate cooperation cultivates speculative proposals
Apr 01, 1998; ... Collaborative efforts prove instrumental in bringing innovative technologies to market. Government and corporate partnerships are accelerating the pace of progress on information technology projects and yielding direct economic results. Research and development conducted under the ...
President proposes research and development funding increases
Apr 01, 1998; ... The Clinton administration views financial support of research and development programs as an investment in the country's future. Acknowledging the substantial returns the United States has already received from investments in ...
Designers embed, consolidate antennas to ease proliferation
Apr 01, 1998; ... Increasing reliance on information systems threatens to leave ships, aircraft bristling with protrusions. Increased bandwidth capabilities, improved electronic sensor systems and greater varieties of wireless communications are forcing engineers to design new classes of antennas that ...
Enhanced linking capabilities meet multiple military demands
Apr 01, 1998; ... Intelligence community seeks small, low-cost devices to enhance battlefield awareness. he military's demand for real-time communications and the ability to relay vital information around the battlefield is compelling the development of advanced antenna technologies. Various commands are ...
Solitary denizens of the deep prowl seabeds autonomously
Apr 01, 1998; ... Electronics born of aircraft applications allow tetherless craft to survey, explore underwater dvanced inertial guidance systems and increasingly versatile computers are allowing untethered, unmanned underwater vehicles to cruise seabeds for longer periods with more precise position ...
Unmanned aerial vehicles help block, evade military assaults
Apr 01, 1998; ... Commercial satellite communications links crucial in moving sensor information around the battlefield. Numerous Defense Department airborne reconnaissance programs aim to provide users with data and imagery more quickly, coupled with the ability to manipulate them to meet their ...
Tactical control system is basic UAV building block
Apr 01, 1998; ... Atlantic Alliance expresses interest in flexibility, options; participates with German aerial platform. The Defense Department's tactical control system is a program structured to provide joint warfighters with a surface command. control, communications and data dissemination system for ...
Defense department re-establishes C3I functions at assistant secretary level
Apr 01, 1998; ... Simultaneously, airborne reconnaissance office enters realignment phase, returns individual service funding. The Defense Department is reversing its earlier decision to divide the office of the assistant secretary of defense for command. control, communications and intelligence into two ...
Capital capsules
Apr 01, 1998; ... Model Finds Soft Landing A National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) proposed spacecraft design undergoing drop testing is relying on farming methods to reduce costs. To remain cost effective, researchers need to reuse the spacecraft's one-sixth scale composite model ....
Agency's path broadens information services
Apr 01, 1998; ... The General Services Administration's new Federal Technology Service is building on its telecommunications foundation as it embarks on a number of procurement initiatives. The latest acquisition programs are in both communications and information technology arenas. To reflect its ...
Free-market Internet is coming this fall to a computer near you
Apr 01, 1998; ... The Internet may face big changes this year when government moves from lead actor to audience member in the drama of web management. When responsibility for assigning domain names shifts from government to industry, the simple address suffixes of cyberspace-.com, .gov, .org, .edu, .net-could ...
Government hastens electronic commerce
Apr 01, 1998; ... There are some who might call Tony Trenkle a $500 billion man. This description is based on his involvement with the government's high-dollar-value electronic commerce programs. Head of the General Services Administration's (GSA's) office of electronic commerce and the co-chair of the federal ...
Catalog compatibility to make on-line purchase a good deal
Apr 01, 1998; ... The belief that necessity is the mother of invention may spur government and industry's information technology leaders to seek interoperability between government on-line catalog purchasing systems. Now tackling this issue are two organizations that recognize the inherent problems in current ...
On-line commerce is virtual boon for federal procurement
Apr 01, 1998; ... An increasing number of U.S. government employees are now being instructed to buy their electronics and communications equipment directly from on-line sales centers and to just charge it. By eliminating the long-held tradition of purchase-order procurement, federal agencies are following ...
Interactive Web site helps clarify standards issues
Apr 01, 1998; ... A federal agency's newest web site demonstrates how an Internet presence can effectivelyand creatively-illustrate that organization's impact on the U.S. economy. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's most recently launched site compares, through interactive examples, a city's ...
Trading reams for bit streams aids administration of grants, reasearch
Apr 01, 1998; ... Converting information from paper to electronic data format, the National Institutes of Health's office of extramural research is developing an electronic research administration system. Part of a collaborative interagency approach, this effort aims to improve the management of grants and ...
CIREN rings bell to knock out traffic accidents and injuries
Apr 01, 1998; ... Nowhere is the value of information technology more important than in a national research network. This National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's crash injury research and engineering network is designed to save lives and to help prevent harm from automobile collisions. The crash ...
Urge to merge information systems may be cure for what ails medicare
Apr 01, 1998; ... One U.S. government agency plans a database consolidation effort that will provide more efficient claim processing for the nation's biggest health insurance plan. The Health Care Financing Administration, within the Department of Health and Human Services, is inching forward with a strategy to ...
British government embraces volpe's data fusion device
Apr 01, 1998; ... A U.S.-government-developed data fusion device known as the broker machine is being embraced by the United Kingdom to enable rapid communications among information technology platforms that use different formats. While the British are exploiting this technology, most U.S. federal agencies have ...
Costly storage tank fines lurk underneath surface
Apr 01, 1998; ... Explosions from a buried financial time bomb could begin having an impact on unsuspecting individuals and organizations in less than a year. A new $15,000-per-day fine is the triggering mechanism for an environmental protection regulation that could bring costly blasts at widely scattered U.S ....
Agency's data base catalogs, tracks environmental threats
Apr 01, 1998; ... Pooling huge amounts of data from its numerous and widely disparate databases, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is launching a massive on-line repository. This new data warehouse aims to centralize and standardize new and existing information critical to the process of environmental ...
Nations seek standards, criteria for safe nuclear power operation
Apr 01, 1998; ... Despite enduring memories of the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl nuclear power plant disasters, experts assure that nuclear facility safety procedures worldwide have been successful for the past 30 years. Those systems, however, are aging. This realization is spurring a small group of nations to ...
Joint tactical radio spurs rapid technology insertion
Apr 01, 1998; ... Software applications for waveform generation and processing replace older hardware intensive systems r mhe Defense Department's joint tactical radio initiative is aimed at developing a programmable, modular communications system that fulfills the requirements of all the U.S. armed ...
Worldwide data, imagery flow from global broadcast service
Apr 01, 1998; ... Commercially available technology provides highbandwidth tactical force mobile communications. Commercial satellite direct broadcast technical advances are providing significant increases in data delivery rates to small, readily mobile receiver terminals. This space-based communications ...
Defense department constructs global communications network
Apr 01, 1998; ... Demand assigned multiple access technology equals private sector links for mobile battlefield commands. Military communications are moving from point-topoint links for tactical operations into the global network environment with worldwide satellite communications connections. In much ...
Federal information requirements hinge on efficiency techologies
Apr 01, 1998; ... Doing more with less is the mantra of gurus for improving government service to the public. Government must rethink the way it does business, using technology to automate processes for a shortened response time and more efficient operations. These efforts should range from acquisition ...