Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Chrysler Group LLC and NASA to Share Knowledge on Advanced Technologies



- Chrysler Group LLC and NASA launch collaboration that facilitates technology and resource sharing
- Newly formed alliance will focus on new and emerging technologies for Chrysler Group and NASA
- Alliance proudly builds upon past successes

Defense News: AUBURN HILLS, Mich., April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Chrysler Group LLC and NASA today announced a three year alliance to share information related to advanced technologies in several areas of mutual interest. The alliance allows Chrysler Group and NASA to tap into existing and emerging space exploration and automotive technologies. The shared knowledge will be used in their respective activities.

"This is a great opportunity to share knowledge and data in areas where both Chrysler Group and NASA have a vested interest," said Scott Kunselman, Senior Vice President, Chrysler Engineering. "We value the opportunity to work with NASA and will implement what is learned to further improve our Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep® and Ram Truck products."

Several advanced technology topics are being investigated for synergies and shared interest, including: materials engineering, robotics, radar, battery systems and other energy storage mediums.

Project teams have been assigned to different technologies, and each team includes a Chrysler Group and a NASA technical specialist. Chrysler has already benefited from the alliance from shared research on reliable surface navigation sensors.

Chrysler Group has a history of working with NASA on America's space efforts. In 1961, Chrysler built Redstone rockets for the Mercury Project which put the first American in space. Also, Chrysler built boosters to power the first two Apollo spacecraft into earth orbit, including the program's first manned mission in 1968. This new alliance will continue Chrysler Group's relationship with NASA and cutting edge technology.

About Chrysler Group LLC

Headquartered in Auburn Hills, Mich., Chrysler Group LLC's product lineup features some of the world's most recognizable vehicles, including the Chrysler 300, Jeep Wrangler and Dodge Ram. Fiat will contribute world-class technology, platforms and powertrains for small- and medium-sized cars, allowing Chrysler Group to offer an expanded product line including environmentally friendly vehicles.

Follow Chrysler news and video on:

Chrysler Connect blog: http://blog.chryslergroupllc.com

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chryslercom and www.twitter.com/chrysler

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/pentastarvideo

Streetfire: http://members.streetfire.net/profile/ChryslerVideo.htm

Raytheon Completes Second Communications Upgrade for Environmental Satellite in Antarctica


Defense News: COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., April 13, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Raytheon Company (NYSE:RTN - News) has successfully completed a major communications upgrade in Antarctica for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program.

The upgrade of the satellite communications link at McMurdo Station provides better operational performance, supporting higher data rates for off-continent communications. McMurdo Station is the largest of the three U.S. Antarctic Program research stations operated and managed by the National Science Foundation. NSF and NPOESS are collaborating to host NPOESS SafetyNet™ ground-receiving stations at McMurdo.

"The upgrade of the communications systems at McMurdo is essential for timely mission data delivery from the McMurdo ground station to the NPOESS data processing centers," said Bill Sullivan, Raytheon's NPOESS program manager. "This provides McMurdo with faster network speeds to do its missions in a more effective way."

Raytheon upgraded two satellite earth station antennas and expanded the satellite bandwidth to support 20 megabits per second communication. This new system upgrade went into operations Jan. 9.

The upgrade completes a four-year effort to modernize the electronics of the two large NSF satellite communications antennas 20 miles from McMurdo. The antennas are at NSF's Black Island Telecommunications Facility, a remote, wind-swept island that provides a clear view of satellites low on the northern sky. The Black Island facility supports all of NSF's off-continent satellite communications for NSF-funded U.S. Antarctica Program science research program and staff operating at McMurdo.

"Working in close collaboration with NSF and the NPOESS teams, we have successfully accomplished a critical milestone for both agencies," said Doug Whiteley, government Command, Control and Communications lead for the NPOESS program.

NPOESS was designed to serve as the nation's next-generation, low Earth-orbiting operational weather and climate monitoring system, providing timely and essential data to civilian and military users. The government recently announced its plans to restructure NPOESS and is developing a transition plan.

Raytheon is part of the NPOESS team led by Northrop Grumman Corporation, which serves as the prime contractor with overall responsibility for the NPOESS program development effort.

Raytheon Company, with 2009 sales of $25 billion, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security and other government markets throughout the world. With a history of innovation spanning 88 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as a broad range of mission support services. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 75,000 people worldwide.

Note to Editors:

Raytheon is demonstrating its space, environmental and cyberspace capabilities in booth No. 503 at National Space Symposium April 12-15 in Colorado Springs.

MBDA Extends Global Software Licensing Agreement With AdaCore

AdaCore - Home


Leading Missile Company Adopts SPARK Pro and AdaCore's GNAT Pro Development Environments as Corporate Standard

Defense News:
PARIS and NEW YORK, NY and BATH, ENGLAND--(Marketwire - 04/13/10) - AdaCore today announced a new global licensing agreement with world-leading missile systems company MBDA. The three-year agreement will see the MBDA Group of companies extend its existing contract with AdaCore to now include the SPARK Pro high assurance software development toolset, as well as the GNAT Pro development environment.

The combined contract, which covers 80 developers, will enable MBDA to benefit from a single access point for all software and support queries, as well as the advantages of using a single development platform that spans the tightly integrated SPARK Pro and GNAT Pro.

This builds on MBDA's existing long-term commitment to the Ada programming language and use of SPARK Pro and GNAT Pro as corporate standards. MBDA is already using the toolsets on its mission-critical missile systems.

"Successfully developing reliable, high integrity software is critical to MBDA's world-leading portfolio of products," said Colin McDonald, Software Performance Evaluation Manager, MBDA. "The Ada language is the perfect fit for our global needs as it delivers unsurpassed safety and reliability. The combination of GNAT Pro and SPARK Pro provides a complete solution across the entire development process, backed up by comprehensive support for our projects."

"Global, long-term contracts such as this one give us the opportunity to associate major customers with our technology roadmap," said Cyrille Comar, Managing Director, AdaCore. "The combination of GNAT Pro and SPARK Pro provides an integrated solution to the development and verification of the most critical parts of high integrity systems. MBDA's input and feedback on the evolution of this solution allows us to stay focused on the needs and trends of the industry we serve."

MBDA chose AdaCore and GNAT Pro due to the wide variety of platforms they support, including native hosts, such as Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris and GNU/Linux. The contract covers GNAT Pro, SPARK Pro and the SPARK Pro Black Belt edition, which features support for concurrent programming and integral proof checker.

"This extended licensing agreement with MBDA demonstrates the major benefits of our close working relationship with AdaCore and the advantages it brings to our global customer base," said Keith Williams, Altran Praxis Managing Director. "It shows that for the creation of innovative, high integrity systems, the combination of SPARK Pro and GNAT Pro is the natural choice."

Ada is a state-of-the-art, internationally standardized language that has proven its value for developing large, long-lived applications where safety and reliability are essential. It has consequently become a leading language in commercial and military avionics, air traffic control, high-speed rail systems and nuclear power systems.

SPARK Pro was created by Altran Praxis, the international specialist in critical systems engineering and safety assurance, and AdaCore, the leading provider of commercial software solutions for the Ada language. SPARK provides the foremost language, toolset and design discipline for the engineering of high-assurance software. It combines Praxis' renowned SPARK language and verification tools, with the GNAT Programming Studio (GPS) and GNATbench development environments from AdaCore. Frontline support is provided through GNAT Tracker, AdaCore's web-based support system.

At the heart of AdaCore's GNAT Pro is a full-featured, multi-language (Ada, C, C++) development environment complete with libraries, bindings generators and a range of supplementary tools, including code coverage, code metrics, documentation generator and code standard checker. All its technology combines the flexibility and freedom associated with open source development and the assurance that comes from knowing that all tools go through a rigorous quality assurance process. It is based on the widely used GCC technology and is backed by rapid and expert support service.

About MBDA
With industrial facilities in four European countries and within the USA, MBDA has an annual turnover of EUR 2.7 billion and an order book of EUR 11.9 billion. With more than 90 armed forces customers in the world, MBDA is a world leader in missiles and missile systems.

MBDA is the only group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and future operational needs of the three armed forces (land, sea and air). In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and countermeasures products already in operational service and more than 15 others currently in development.

MBDA is jointly held by BAE SYSTEMS (37.5%), EADS (37.5%) and FINMECCANICA (25%). www.mbda-systems.com

About AdaCore
Founded in 1994, AdaCore is the leading provider of commercial software solutions for Ada, a state-of-the-art programming language designed for large, long-lived applications where safety, security, and reliability are critical. AdaCore's flagship product is the GNAT Pro development environment, which comes with expert on-line support and is available on more platforms than any other Ada technology. AdaCore has an extensive world-wide customer base; see http://www.adacore.com/home/company/customers/ for further information.

Ada and GNAT Pro see a growing usage in high-integrity and safety-certified applications, including commercial aircraft avionics, military systems, air traffic management/control, railroad systems, and medical devices, and in security-sensitive domains such as financial services.

AdaCore has North American headquarters in New York and European headquarters in Paris.www.adacore.com

About Altran Praxis
Altran Praxis is a specialist systems and software house, focused on the engineering of systems with demanding safety, security or innovation requirements. Altran Praxis leads the world in specific areas of advanced systems engineering and innovation such as: ultra low defect software engineering, Human Machine Interface (HMI), safety engineering for complex or novel systems and tools (such as SPARK) /methods for systems engineering. It offers clients a range of services including turnkey systems development, consultancy, training and R&D. Key market sectors are aerospace and defence, rail, nuclear, air traffic management, automotive, medical and security. The company operates globally with active projects in the US, Asia and Europe. The headquarters of Altran Praxis are in Bath (UK) with offices in Sophia Antipolis, London, Paris, Loughborough and Bangalore. Altran Praxis is an expertise centre within, and wholly owned by, Altran which is a global leader in innovation engineering and employs 17,000 staff across the world.www.altran-praxis.com

Contact:



Press Contacts
Jamie Ayre
AdaCore
press@adacore.com
Jessie Glockner
Rainier Communications (for AdaCore)
adacore@rainierco.com
Tel: 508-475-0025 x140
Leena Chauhan
Altran Praxis
press@altran-praxis.com
Tel: +44 (0) 203 1170884
Chris Measures/Richard Morgan
Speed
altranpraxis@speedcommunications.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7842 3200

MISTRAS Creates One of the Largest Gantry Scanning Systems to Date

NDT

Defense News:
PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., April 13, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MISTRAS Group, Inc. (NYSE:MG - News) has joined forces with HITCO Carbon Composites, Inc. to produce a 12-axes Ultrasonic C-Scan imaging gantry scanning system, one of the largest scanners built thus far for the inspection of aerospace carbon composite components.

The 24 foot long, 16 foot high and wide system will be used by HITCO for the scanning and inspecting of aerospace carbon composite components. With its towering twin scanning axes, the system will have the ability to inspect virtually any component within its realm using Ultrasonic Thru-Transmission and Pulse Echo Scanning.

Along with the size and versatility, the system will include state-of-the art software from MISTRAS Group and Resource Engineering, Inc. (REI), a supplier of precision positioning systems. The combination of MISTRAS' UT digital data acquisition package with REI's advanced mechanical gantry and motion control package will provide HITCO the ultimate in a precision UT gantry system.

HITCO Carbon Composites, Inc. was founded in 1922 and manufactures composite structures and materials primarily for aerospace and defense applications. HITCO continues to be an innovative leader in the advancement of carbon composite components within the SGL Group, strategically focusing on new projects for aerospace/aircraft and defense applications.

About MISTRAS Group:

MISTRAS offers one of the broadest services and technology-enabled asset protection solutions portfolios in the industry used to evaluate the structural integrity of energy, industrial and public infrastructure. Mission critical services and solutions are delivered globally and provide customers the ability to extend the useful life of their assets, improve productivity & profitability, comply with government safety and environmental regulations and enhance risk management operational decisions.

MISTRAS uniquely combines its industry leading products and technologies -- 24/7 on-line monitoring of critical assets, mechanical integrity (MI) and non-destructive testing (NDT) services, and its proprietary world class data warehousing & analysis software -- to provide comprehensive and competitive products, systems and services solutions from a single source provider.

For more information, please visit the company's website at http://www.mistrasgroup.com or contact Nestor S. Makarigakis, Marketing Communications (MARCOM) Manager at marcom@mistrasgroup.com.

The MISTRAS Group, Inc. logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6966

Federal and Department of Defense Agencies Live in RightNow Secure Government Cloud



RightNow Offers Certified and Accredited, Secure Government Only Cloud; Available for Agencies Today

Defense News:
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Willard HotelRightNow (NASDAQ: RNOW - News), a leading provider of secure cloud solutions for Federal government agencies and the Department of Defense (DoD), today announced that agencies such as the DoD’sDefense Media Activity, GSA, and AHRQ are live within the RightNow Secure Government Cloud.

Released last April, the RightNow Secure Government Cloud meets intense levels of security certification and accreditation (C&A) to help agencies reap the benefits of a secure government-focused cloud, such as rapid time to deploy, frequent access to solution innovation, increased reliability, and lower cost of ownership.

Federal Agencies Live in the RightNow Secure Government Cloud

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is live in RightNow’s Secure Government Cloud. GSA is using RightNow CX, the customer experience suite, delivered via the secure cloud to improve operational efficiency and provide exceptional citizen support.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is also live in the RightNow Secure Government Cloud. AHRQ’s mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. Information from AHRQ's research helps people make more informed decisions and improve the quality of health care services.

With RightNow, AHRQ was able to seamlessly migrate to the cloud and address security requirements, privacy issues, accessibility concerns, and the technical support needed for a quick transition.

“AHRQ embraced the ability to move into RightNow’s government hosting environment with its higher security profile because this meshed well with our certification and accreditation process for Web services.”
Gerri Michael Dyer, Electronic Dissemination Advisor, AHRQ

In addition, using RightNow’s secure cloud CX solutions, AHRQ can:

  • Support 30 different web resources and various projects including Health IT
  • Manage incoming web inquiries, reducing demand on agents and efficiently routing issues to appropriate subject matter experts for fast resolution
  • Provide constituents with a central, self-learning knowledge foundation to easily find answers themselves, 24X7
  • Have a dialogue with consumers, researchers, clinicians, educators, employers, and providers on health care issues and information products
  • Facilitate technical assistance questions to ensure communications and information technology products are accessible
  • Quickly add content for website reference on new resources or the latest research available
  • Analyze customer feedback to see what information is most popular and to modify available content to address recurring questions

“RightNow helps us keep our fingers on the pulse of target audiences and be responsive to them. We can quickly gauge what issues are important and what information is most relevant to their needs. Our customers find it an effective channel for communicating with us on what AHRQ is doing and providing suggestions and valuable feedback to our programs.”
Gerri Michael Dyer, Electronic Dissemination Advisor, AHRQ

High Security Cloud for Department of Defense

Department of Defense agencies such as the U.S. Air Force Personnel Center (AFPC) and Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) are also moving their RightNow solutions to the highly-secure, Department of Defense (DoD) Cloud.

RightNow’s defense-ready hosting capabilities can help the DoD reap the cost savings of a secure Cloud today. The DoD requires an unparalleled level of security and RightNow’s hosting capabilities use DITSCAP/DIACAP to ensure compliance with DoD Instruction 8500.2, meet US Federal security standard FISMA (NIST 800-53), and include a 24x7 dedicated security and information assurance team.

RightNow is the Secure Government Cloud Leader

RightNow is a leader in bringing the cloud delivery model to government clients and has successfully served the U.S. government for more than ten years. 170 government clients have already implemented RightNow’s cloud based solutions including Center for Medicaid Services, Department of Agriculture, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, Department of State, Department of Treasury, Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Aviation Administration, General Services Administration, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Social Security Administration, United States Postal Service, American Forces Information System, Defense Travel Management Office, Future Combat Systems, National Security Agency, and United States Marine Corps to name a few.

Also nearly every U.S. cabinet level agency, Army, Marines, Air Force, members of the Intelligence Community and DoD, rely on RightNow CX to deliver real-time information, when and where it's needed. RightNow CX solutions are offered on the Apps.gov cloud application platform, a federal government initiative led by the General Services Administration.

“With a focus on improving the customer experience, RightNow provides a market-leading solution for governments looking to enhance service delivery and interactions with their constituents.”
Datamonitor March 2009 report, Decision Matrix: Selecting a CRM Vendor in Government

For more information about secure RightNow government cloud solutions available today, please check out our new Safe Switch Program.

About RightNow

RightNow is helping rid the world of bad experiences one consumer interaction at a time, seven million times a day. RightNow CX, the customer experience suite, helps organizations deliver exceptional customer experiences across the web, social networks and contact centers, all delivered via the cloud. With more than eight billion customer interactions delivered, RightNow is the customer experience fabric for nearly 2000 organizations around the globe. To learn more about RightNow, go to www.rightnow.com.

RightNow is a registered trademark of RightNow Technologies, Inc. NASDAQ is a registered trademark of theNASDAQ Stock Market.