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    • > 2009 Archives
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Military Programs

Lynx Radar

General Atomics and Sandia are reducing the size, weight, and power requirements of a new synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system for unmanned aerial systems. The new Lynx II radar provides all-weather precision capability to detect time-sensitive targets and offers a long-range, wide-area surveillance capacity. Following successful Lynx II field tests, the General Atomics Radar Systems director stated that the Lynx II could not have happened without Sandia. General Atomics is to deliver 33 Lynx II radars in 2008 and 2009; the first six have been delivered to the Iraqi Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Program.

Kauai Test Facility

Sandia supported eight missions in 2008 at the Kauai Test Facility (KTF) for the US Missile Defense Agency and US military programs. Five missions were in support of the Navy’s Ballistic Missile Defense Aegis program, two were in support of the Army’s Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense program, and one was in support of a Navy fleet exercise. The schedule for 2009 shows the same amount of activity at KTF. 2010 and beyond includes additional programs with the Army, Navy, and the University of Hawaii.

Key Data Processor

The Key Data Processor (KDP) is a custom microcircuit that securely provides the next-generation cryptography mandated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for all military Global Positioning System receivers. Sandia’s trusted design center pioneered numerous external interfaces and processes to develop this first major microelectronic product fabricated in DoD’s IBM Trusted Foundry. Sandia demonstrated first-pass success with the 130-nanometer KDP-III system, which has been seamlessly integrated into two receiver platforms. Sandia now has generated a KDP-IV design on the 90-nanometer IBM process.

DARPA Strategically Hardened Facility Defeat Program

 A multidisciplinary team from across the Labs completed Phase I of the DARPA Strategically Hardened Facility Defeat Program, which seeks to develop an end-to-end system to defeat deeply buried strategic facilities. The team achieved tenfold improvements in rock penetration performance; developed new, high-accuracy algorithms for subsurface sensing; and demonstrated a novel compact power system. When integrated in Phases II and III, these enabling technologies will provide the long sought nonnuclear strike capability to hold an adversary’s most critical assets at risk. Phase II has been awarded to advance the feasibility demonstration system to an operational concept.

Satellite Shootdown

Sandia provided modeling and simulation to assist the US Missile Defense Agency and US Navy in shooting down an errant satellite in February 2008. The Missile Defense Agency asked Sandia to deliver in nine days the required “hit point” to prevent significant pieces of the satellite from reaching the Earth. The team delivered the calculations and supported real-time assessment of the event at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., where decisions were made that a second intercept shot was not required.

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