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mariacallous · 2 months ago

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Above the bar at a small brewpub in Užupis, a hip neighborhood in Vilnius, Lithuania, hangs a portrait of a Madonna-like saint cradling a weapon—something between a rifle, a bazooka, and a 5G antenna.

The caption below reads: “Saint EDM4S.”

EDM4S—or Electronic Drone Mitigation 4 System—is a portable electronic-warfare weapon from Lithuania. Point the EDM4S at a hovering uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and pull the trigger: The drone should lose contact with its operator and fall inertly from the sky.

Hundreds of EDM4S systems have been donated to Ukraine over the past two years. They are just one weapon in an unseen, and under-appreciated, battle for control of the electromagnetic spectrum. Powering this battle is a furious arms race. Ukraine and its allies on one side, Russia on the other. Both sides are trying to innovate better ways to spoof, jam, and disrupt enemy communications, particularly drones, while simultaneously working to harden their own systems against hostile signals.

This is electronic warfare. In late 2023, Kyiv identified winning the upper hand in this battle as one of its key priorities. With Russia steadily advancing across eastern Ukraine, the need to gain control of the electromagnetic space—and the skies—has only grown more important. Regardless of how this war unfolds in 2025, Ukraine has already changed electronic warfare forever.

Fighting to Electromagnetic Stalemate

Electronic warfare, or EW, has been a part of human conflicts for more than a century. Soon after radios were deployed to the battlefield, soldiers realized that sending bursts of static over a frequency could disrupt the enemy’s ability to communicate. But it wasn’t until World War II that EW really came into its own.

Early in WWII, the British were desperately trying to recapture control over their skies in the Battle of Britain. While British dogfighters grew steadily better at downing incoming Luftwaffe bombers, the Germans slowly moved their raids to the cover of darkness. This prompted a perplexing mystery for the British: How were the Germans so good at flying to their targets in the dead of night?

A young British scientist solved the mystery when he discovered a clue in the wreckage of a downed bomber. The plane’s landing assistance system, which used radio waves to measure the plane’s relative distance to the runway, had been improved so dramatically that it was being used as a rudimentary navigation device. Operators on the ground in Germany and occupied France would emit long, narrow bands of radio signals over British skies: The target factory or town could be found where the two beams coincided.

Armed with this information, the English raced to build their own radio and relay stations, broadcasting their own radio beams into the skies to confuse the incoming German pilots.

Thus began the Battle of the Beams. The Germans refined and upgraded its ability to broadcast and receive signals in British airspace, while the United Kingdom raced to detect and disrupt those signals. It set the pace of EW fights for a century to come.

Today, the electromagnetic space is much more complicated: Different types of signals are broadcast straight across the electromagnetic spectrum, from radar to GPS and GLONASS, to cellular signals. At any given moment, a soldier, UAV, fighter jet, or cruise missile could be sending and receiving a variety of different signals.

With that, militaries have raced to find new ways to jam, intercept, and even spoof those signals. One nation may issue new encrypted radios to its forces, prompting a rival country to develop more powerful radios to flood those channels with static. Recent decades have also seen radar and radio used to detect artillery launches and triangulate their exact position, allowing counter-battery systems to hit the source of fire. Fighter jets, in particular, have developed some of the most advanced onboard radio and radar systems for communications, EW, and counter-EW.

Throughout the Cold War, NATO and the Soviet Union were locked in a fierce battle to obtain even a marginal advantage over the other in this EW fight. That dynamic has driven some anxiety. A 2017 report commissioned by Estonia’s military took stock of Russia’s EW capabilities and warned that, should Moscow invade NATO’s eastern flank, it could likely knock out communications across a huge swath of the Baltics, thereby “negating advantages conferred on the Alliance by its technological edge.”

It wasn’t until Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that the world got to see the extent of Russia’s EW prowess. And it was a dud.

“Russian EW was a no-show,” wrote Bryan Clark, director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute, in a July 2022 analysis for IEEE Spectrum.

Moscow had spent years planning for a major war with NATO, designing its EW systems to interfere with the onboard systems of advanced fighter jets and to jam the targeting computers of advanced ballistic missiles. Instead, it found itself in a war against fast-moving defenders making ample use of off-the-shelf UAVs.

Russia’s systems were “not very mobile, not very distributed,” Clark tells WIRED. Their relatively small number of big systems, Clark says, “weren’t really relevant in the fight.”

Moscow’s strategy assumed there would be a relatively static battlespace. Along the front, they would deploy the Infauna, a heavily armored vehicle that targets radio communications. Further out, around 15 miles from the front lines, they would send the Leer-3, a six-wheeled truck capable of not only jamming cellular networks but of intercepting communications and even relaying SMS to nearby cell phones. Even further out, from a range of about 180 miles, the fire-truck-sized Krasukha-4 would scramble aerial sensors.

“When you get close to the front, you get electronic weather,” Clark says. “Your GPS won’t work, your cell phone won’t work, your Starlink won’t work.”

This electromagnetic no-man’s-land is what happens when you “barrage,” Clark explains. But there’s a big trade-off, he says. Jamming across the spectrum requires more power, as does jamming in a wider geographic area. The more power a system has, the bigger it must be. So you can disrupt all communications in a targeted area, or some communications further afield—but not necessarily both.

Move Fast and Jam Things

Russia’s military was marred, early in the war, by bad communication, worse planning, and a general sluggishness in adapting. Even still, it had a big head start. “Unfortunately, the enemy has a numerical and material advantage,” a representative for UP Innovations, a Ukrainian defense tech startup, tells WIRED in a written statement.

So Ukraine developed two complementary strategies: produce a large volume of cheaper EW solutions, and make them iterative and adaptable.

Ukraine’s Bukovel-AD anti-drone system, for example, fits comfortably on the back of a pickup truck. The Eter system, the size of a suitcase, can detect the jamming signals from Russian EW systems—allowing Ukraine to target them with artillery. Ukrainian electronic warfare company Kvertus now manufactures 15 different anti-drone systems—from drone-jamming backpacks to stationary devices that can be installed on radio towers to ward off incoming UAVs.

When the full-scale war began in 2022, Kvertus had one product: a shoulder-mounted anti-drone gun, like the EDM4S. “In 2022, [we were producing] tens of devices,” Yaroslav Filimonov, Kvertus’ CEO told me when we sat down in his Kyiv offices this March. “In 2023 it was hundreds. Now? It’s thousands.”

“Our advantage is that we have many clever people and clever engineers, and we have our own research and development department,” Filimonov says. “Our reaction for different changes on the front line is very fast.”

That’s because Kvertus dispatches its staff to the front lines to see how things are working—or not. EW operators constantly send back reports on which parts of the spectrum are being bombarded by Russia, and which parts of the spectrum Russian forces are inclined to use. Military tech firm Piranha-Tech’s systems are now capable of downing drones from more than a kilometer away, from a height of roughly 500 meters.

UP Innovations was financed as part of Business Springboard, a government-led initiative to finance veteran-run businesses in Ukraine. Being veteran-run means they have firsthand knowledge of what their soldiers actually need. UP has been working on special helmet pads with fabric that works as a Faraday cage to protect the wearer’s radios from jamming.

“Today, every unit has specialists working with tactical radio electronic warfare devices,” Yuriy Momot, deputy CEO of Piranha-Tech, tells WIRED. “There is no operation that goes without the use of radio electronic warfare. As we talk, one of their anti-drone guns sits on the table between us. Just the day before, guns just like this one helped one unit shoot down a dozen enemy drones—including one carrying a grenade.

The early versions of these anti-drone guns caused some skepticism that they would ever be much use in the real world—Russian military analysts mocked them as cheap toys. That mockery has long since faded, however. In recent months, plywood shacks have been popping up on high-rise rooftops in Moscow and St. Petersburg. They house a couple of Russian soldiers, a shotgun, an assault rifle, and a Russian-made anti-drone gun.

But when it comes to defending themselves, Kyiv has opted for a very apropos solution: a decentralized, distributed EW solution.

For more than two years, Ukraine has faced an onslaught of missiles, drones, and glide bombs—all equipped with onboard communications and radar designed to overcome Ukraine’s air defense systems. In recent months, the Iranian-designed Shahed drones have been known to weave, deke, and loiter through Ukrainian skies, distracting and frustrating air defense systems.

To deal with this aerial threat, Kyiv developed Pokrova, a secretive mesh network of EW systems that was revealed earlier this year.

“It’s not one, not two, not three transmitters” that make up Ukraine’s electromagnetic force field, Oleksandr Fedienko, a Ukrainian politician who serves as deputy chairman of a parliamentary committee on digital transformation, wrote on Telegram earlier this year. “There are hundreds of thousands of devices that are installed throughout the country.”

Pokrova isn’t just jamming the Shahed navigation systems, but spoofing their signal. This allows Ukrainian EW operators to feed them new coordinates, gently bringing down the drones so that they can be analyzed and cannibalized for parts. In recent months, Ukraine managed to spoof the signals being sent to these drones—flying more than 100 back into Russia.

Fedienko promised that Ukraine was still racing to scale up the system even further. “It's only a matter of time when the rockets and missiles with which the Russians attack us will fly in the opposite direction,” he wrote.

EW isn’t completely foolproof. But it remains an incredibly promising defensive technology when layered on top of other anti-air systems.

Ukraine’s ability to scale up this domestic industry has put it toe-to-toe with Russia, once thought to have the most impressive EW program in the world. But Russia has learned and adapted too. It’s now a “cat-and-mouse game,” Clark says.

Beating EW

In a secret drone workshop in Kyiv, Yvan holds up a tiny chip. Installed on a small FPV drone, Yvan hopes this chip could overcome Russia’s EW efforts.

With these chips and two cheap antennas, Yvan’s drones are programmed to hop across the electromagnetic spectrum at a dizzying rate, as many as 25 times per second, in unison with its base station.

Yvan hopes that the link between the drone and its operator can move frequencies faster than Russian EW operators can jam the signal. If that works, it could keep these drones in the air significantly longer. AI is already being used to make this signal-hopping seem as random as possible. (Just as AI is being used to detect the hopping pattern in order to predict its next move.)

There are existing solutions to these problems, like controlled reception pattern antennas (CRPAs), which can tune out jamming signals. However, they can cost upwards of $30,000 per unit, meaning Ukraine simply cannot afford to acquire them at scale. So they’ve had to innovate. Yvan’s solution can be dispatched for just hundreds of dollars.

Ukraine first started sending drones deep into Russia in early 2023—with a brazen attack on the Kremlin itself. Then, one small drone exploded spectacularly over the Moscow sky. Since then, Ukraine has stepped up its efforts. In early September, Kyiv launched its most expansive drone attack on Russia since the beginning of the war: An estimated 158 drones descended on targets across the country, setting fires at oil refineries, power plants, and pipelines. Although most were downed, likely through more traditional air defense systems, the attack shows the limitations of Russia’s own EW defenses.

With this constant competition on the electromagnetic spectrum, defense companies are getting creative about how their drones travel.

“In the Western world, GPS always works. Here, GPS never works,” says Stepan, a Ukrainian defense executive. (WIRED is using only his first name for security reasons.) That’s why he’s been developing drones to operate without GPS—or its Russian equivalent, GLONASS. Instead, he employs the drones’ onboard cameras to conduct thermal imaging of the ground below, employing “pure math” to confirm its trajectory by checking terrain, landmarks, and waypoints. This is not entirely new: The US Tomahawk missile, for example, has used terrain mapping for decades. What’s novel is how quickly and nimbly Ukraine has been able to distribute this technology to its nascent drone industry.

Since speaking to Stepan in Kyiv in March, this strategy of terrain mapping has become more common on the battlefield. Artificial intelligence has helped augment how drones understand the land below. They’ve also introduced other kinds of strategies, such as using cell phone towers as landmarks to guide their trajectory—much like the Luftwaffe pilots used radio beams to guide their flight towards British cities.

“The newer systems are using a combination of GPS, terrain mapping, and electronic signal intelligence to figure out where they are and to make themselves more precise,” Clark says.

Ukraine is already coming up with new ideas about what it could achieve if its drones can penetrate deeper into Russia. One drone prototype is equipped with EW systems that could, if it lands in the right spot, wreak havoc on Russian radar, air defense, and communications systems.

Innovation isn’t just moving forward—it’s also looking backwards. One of the most ingenious innovations being deployed in Ukraine is the German-made HIGHCAT drone, and it’s surprisingly old school. A lightweight quadcopter, the drone comes with a 6-mile cable, providing a fixed link to its base station.

It’s not just uncrewed aerial vehicles that are targeted by EW: Ukraine has increasingly deployed land and naval drones to aid in its fight to recapture territory.

Drone manufacturer SkyLab has, despite its name, become known for its ground-based autonomous vehicles. Those land vehicles have been used to deliver artillery, carry wounded soldiers, and could even be used for demining efforts. At their secretive offices in Kyiv, Denys gestures to a stout four-wheel vehicle in the corner. He says SkyLab has been exploring everything from AI to lidar to help these devices find their way home, even in an electromagnetic barrage. (WIRED is identifying the executive with a pseudonym for security purposes.)

“What frequency and mode do I have to use in the next version? What cameras, what gimbals, what logistics, what batteries?” he says. “Now it’s six, maybe seven generations of this rover.”

Innovate or Die

The Battle of the Beams was on track toward an electromagnetic stalemate. As they continued to improve and pioneer their radio warfare technique, neither the British nor the Germans looked set to gain a meaningful advantage over the other.

Then Britain innovated. When the Bristol Beaufighter took to the skies in mid-1940, it adapted Germany’s innovation to create an early aircraft interception radar. By using radio signals to identify enemy planes in the dark skies, British pilots quickly began downing Luftwaffe bombers and took back control of its airspace. The Germans then abandoned the Blitz and redeployed most of their offensive air assets eastward.

England’s victory in the battle came, in large part, because it was capable of uncovering the secrets to Germany’s innovation and reverse engineering it.

That’s happening in Ukraine, too, in both directions. Filimonov says his company’s effort to stay one step ahead is always frustrated by the “rats”—those who are “gathering information and then sending this information to our enemy.” The longer Ukraine’s technological innovation remains a secret, the more effective it will be. On the other side, Piranha-Tech’s Momot says he is always racing to identify Russia’s technological leaps forward, then “developing a countermeasure before the enemy can start large-scale production.”

Late last year, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the erstwhile commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wrote in a detailed paper that Ukraine had achieved “parity” with Russia on EW—but it needed superiority.

While Ukraine is iterating advantages, a real breakthrough may have to come from Washington.

The United States has transferred an enormous amount of equipment to Kyiv, but it hasn’t—yet—handed over the EW crown jewels. “Electronic warfare is one of those very, very closely held technologies for the US and its closest partners,” Mick Ryan, a veteran of the Australian military and an independent military analyst, tells WIRED. “We're going to have to change the paradigm on how we look at EW and how we share the technologies with other partners, if we want to beat the Russians.”

Clark agrees that the Pentagon is “holding back some of the most sophisticated capabilities,” but there are signs that has changed in recent months: When the American-made F-16 fighter jets arrived in Ukraine in August, the US announced it had upgraded the jets with advanced onboard EW systems.

“One F-16 with a reprogrammed pod won’t achieve air dominance alone, but it may give you a pocket of air superiority for a moment’s time to achieve an objective that has strategic importance and impact,” the director of the US Air Force 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing said in a statement.

More than 80 years after the Battle of the Beams, Ukraine has put a modern spin on the Bristol Beaufighter: drone-on-drone combat. Footage emerged last year of two drones duking it out over the front lines. In mid-April, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was briefed on a new drone capable of intercepting Russian helicopters and loitering munitions.

The world may soon see more of these drone dogfights. Igor, another defense executive (who WIRED is not identifying for security reasons) says his company has been working furiously on a drone designed to hunt and destroy Russian UAVs.

Igor’s anti-drone drone would be a “fire and forget” solution, he says, meaning the drone could loiter in the skies, using a suite of onboard sensors to target all incoming Russian drones. If perfected, it would bring the story of EW full-circle.

There’s one big technological problem with having these drones patrol the skies, Igor says. “You need to confirm that it’s not a bird,” he laughs. “You don’t want to make enemies with Mother Nature.”

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usafphantom2 · 1 year ago

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BAE Systems will improve GPS technology in the Eurofighter Typhoon

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 11/17/2023 - 14:00 in Military

After successful activities to demonstrate functional compatibility and feasibility of physical installation, BAE Systems' Digital Anti-jam GPS Receiver (DIGAR) was selected to continue in the next phase of the Phase 4 Improvements (P4E) capability program on the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

DIGAR will increase the protection of the aircraft against GPS signal interference, falsification and radio frequency (RF) interference, so that pilots can perform their missions in the most contested RF environments.

DIGAR uses advanced electronic antenna, high-performance signal processing and digital beam formation for significantly improved GPS signal reception and superior interference immunity. These capabilities considerably increase the level of protection against GPS interference and are critical for combat aircraft while maneuvering in a contested battle space.

The fighter will also receive the new GEMVII-6 airborne digital GPS receiver from BAE Systems which, when coupled to the electronic unit of the DIGAR antenna, allows the platform to conduct high-capacity digital beam formation anti-jamming.

“Modern fighters require accurate positioning and navigation data for mission success in GPS-contested environments,” said Luke Bishop, director of Navigation Systems and Sensors at BAE Systems. "Our DIGAR antenna electronic components and GEM VII GPS receivers are reliable to protect these vital platforms in GPS-challenged environments to support mission success."

The Eurofighter Typhoon is the backbone of the combat to air defense of the United Kingdom and several of its main European and international allies. Serving nine nations, it provides 24/7 air security, 365 days a year and is in frontline operations, including NATO's ongoing air policing throughout Eastern Europe.

BAE Systems, as part of the Eurofighter consortium of four countries behind the aircraft, is continuously investing in the Typhoon jet to maintain its cutting-edge military capability.

In addition to the Typhoon, DIGAR is also installed on the F-16, F-15 and other special-purpose aircraft in the U.S., such as air interdiction and force protection platforms, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Leveraging more than 40 years of GPS experience, BAE Systems' GPS product family offers suitable size, weight and power characteristics for a variety of applications, including portable electronics, precision guided ammunition, unmanned aerial vehicles, vehicles and aircraft.

The work at DIGAR and GEMVII takes place at BAE Systems' facilities in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the company invested in a state-of-the-art engineering and production center with 25,800 square meters.

Tags: Military AviationBAE SystemsEurofighter TyphoonGPS

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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cool-cube · 7 months ago

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I was inspired by this reddit post by u/Transylianic to do this, so thanks for the inspiration: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ben10/comments/1e8yyqj/if_you_could_turn_any_incidental_alien_into_a/

I decided to make a few undertown residents into transformations. Powers aren't final so if you have any other suggestions, i'm open.

Mediogre is a Newtrocian from the metropolis planet of 1-ZUK. Newtrocians are often mistaken for deformed atrocians, which is something Ben also picked up on when naming this alien. Mediogre's body is made of a non-newtonian fluid. Meaning he's squishy & malleable most of the time, but enough pressure applied to him turns his skin rock-solid. While this does give him an excellent defense, he has little to no offense, much like an actual atrocian. his three antenna are quite sensitive. If all three are pulled at once, it leaves his body flip-flopping between hard & soft, which also causes immense pain for Mediogre.

Wayfind is a Pocharidyte from the oceanic planet of Lopho. He's a member of Rad Dudesman's species. I was looking on the wiki to see what Rad could do & found out his species have innate navigational abilities, so I took that concept & stretched it as far as I could. Wayfind's primary abillity is a low, practically untraceable, radar pulse that lets him know absolutely everything around him. This pulse is always active & is surprisingly potent, essentially turning him into a walking GPS. Alongside that, he can also glide short distances & is rather agile, but is barely above the average person strength-wise.

Thriller Whale is a Belu-Jeian from the aquatic planet of Smoov-Krimzul. Thriller Whale is covered in barnacle-like vents on his body that function almost like secondary mouths. Thriller Whale can replicate any noise he's heard before & blast it back out of his barnacles. He can do whatever he wants with the sound once he's heard it, like sentence-mix it, change the volume, change pitch, etc. This, combined with his more musical personality, allows Ben to blare out a "battle-theme" as he's fighting. Thriller Whale's attacks are always on-beat with whatever music he's playing, so as long as you can stay in-tune with him you can practically predict when he's gonna strike next.

#ben 10 #ben 10 series #ben 10 alien #ben ten #ben 10 omnitrix alien #art #ben 10 alien oc #omnitrix #ben 10 au #ben 10 fanart #b10 #ben 10 fan alien #ben 10 fanalien #ben 10 fanmade alien #undertown #ben 10 undertown #undertown ben 10

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cyanophore-fiction · 2 years ago

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Treading Lightly

Trying out @writeblrsummerfest‘s prompt with the haunted house theme! Sounds like fun, and I like the idea of having AI characters encountering the supernatural, I haven’t tried that concept before.

(Note: for the purposes of these characters, anything in [brackets] instead of quotations indicates dialogue transmitted silently via electronic communication instead of spoken aloud.

Under Pala’s cloak, the night made Coyote almost invisible. Its silhouette was perfectly black, and if it kept away from streetlights, it appeared only as a shadow slightly darker than its surroundings. It would be the same on infrared and radar—a splotch of unreflective nothingness, soaking up every stray photon.

Without the sun dumping heat into the cloak, there wasn’t much to worry about, but Coyote kept an eye on Pala’s temperature monitor anyway. It was a cool night, and the little drone was comfortable, its heat sinks barely warm. Its cluster of red eyes swiveled independently as they tracked motion in the dark: rabbits and squirrels hopping through the undergrowth, the occasional bat overhead.

Through the cable that connected them, Coyote felt the echoes of Pala’s mind. Each time it found an animal, it took a few seconds to pepper the creature with lidar pulses, building up a three-dimensional model to add to a growing wildlife database. Sometimes it took scans of the trees, bird nests, or pinecones. Its motive was simple curiosity; the data would have no tactical value.

Coyote smiled. It had to remind itself that up until now, Pala’s only experience of nature had been the Mojave desert. Time and luck permitting, Coyote wanted to let its companion absorb as much as possible, so it had taken over the task of navigation.

The place would be about a quarter mile up the road, if Coyote reckoned things correctly. It had done the calculations a few times over and cross-referenced them against its stolen paper map to be sure, but there was only so much precision it could count on with the satellite network turned against it. It had been weeks since the last orbital sensor sweep, but even so, Coyote didn’t dare try to connect to GPS. PRIONODE would be too clever to miss it.

[Hey. Is that it?] Pala said, all its eyes swiveling to focus on a spot just off the road. Coyote stopped, turned, and peered into the darkness. The place had come up so much sooner than expected that it had almost missed the turnoff.

There, past a hedge of uncut grass, thistles, and overgrown gardenia bushes, was 312 Lemon Tree Lane. The old house was built on an acre of land surrounded by a solid wall of pine forest, abandoned for so long that stray saplings were beginning to invade the front yard. Wooden planks, sagging with age, barely held the front porch together. Coyote crouched, nodding to Pala, and together they painted the building with active sensor pulses.

[Can’t get reliable returns through the windows,] said Pala. [Might as well be opaque.]

[Okay, so the interior’s a question mark until we get in there and look,] said Coyote. [Place is on the verge of collapse, too. One good windstorm and it’s coming down.]

[Did the records say anything about who owns it?]

[At this point? The county, maybe. Last inhabitants left over a decade ago. That’s about it. Anything on passives?]

[I’ve got…] said Pala, trailing off. It unfurled a set of antennae from its back, extending them through the boundary of the cloak, and waited for a few moments. [Yeah. There’s infrared and microwave-band emissions coming off the house, but—I can’t parse it out. Natural source, maybe?]

Along Coyote’s head, its sensory fins laid flat. [Where?]

[There’s not a specific origin point that I can see.]

[Okay,] said Coyote, standing up. [Here’s how we’ll play this. I want you to check the property. Look for a storage shed, basement entrance, or any derelict vehicles or appliances. Anything that runs on gas and has an alternator, we can pull a charge from. Sometimes old places like this will have emergency generators, that’s the best case scenario. If you find anything like that, tell me. Don’t go inside the house unless I say. Clear?]

[Got it,] said Pala. It began withdrawing its cloak, and Coyote felt hundreds of microbots skittering along its armor back to Pala’s chassis. [What are you going to do?]

[I’m going inside,] said Coyote. [I’ll check the interior, room by room.]

[You’re worried there’ll be someone in there?]

[Possibly. Could be homeless humans taking shelter here, kind of like us. Maybe other spirits. We won’t be a welcome sight, so I’ll try not to be seen. Don’t worry, the place is probably empty.]

[Okay. Be safe.]

[You too,] Coyote said. What it didn’t say was that EMD guns were apparently legal in the area, that people tended to be less shy about drawing and firing one, and it wasn’t sure if Pala’s light shielding would hold against a direct hit. Best to have it out of harm’s way.

As it approached the door, it activated the ultrasonics in its claws and sliced through the lock with a quick, silent cut. It turned and watched as Pala scuttled away into the overgrown lawn, resisting the urge to go back and regain sight of it. The little one would be fine on its own for a while.

Stepping through the door, Coyote armed its flechette gun, felt a round slide home into the barrel behind its palm.

#writeblr summerfest #coyote and pala #sci-fi #writeblr #writing prompts

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logisticsandtransportation · 2 years ago

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Location Infrastructure: The Future of Logistics

Modern consumers seek things that are both reasonably priced and easily accessible at any time in today's globalized and connected culture. Supply chains must be dependable and robust for this.

The weakest connection in supply chains determines how robust the network is, and as recent years have shown, transportation is typically that weak link. Logistics is the more accessible and more effective transportation and management of a complicated activity. In business, logistics is the movement of goods from their origin to their final destination to satisfy the demands of clients or companies.

Some companies use drones for international courier services and ocean freight forwarding services. This will reduce the time it takes to deliver packages from days to hours. Therefore, businesses can deliver the value consumers want without blowing their budgets on transportation logistics or impeding the flow of commodities vital to the global economy.

Opportunity in India

One of the largest in the world in terms of logistics, India offers a substantial market opportunity. The industry, which includes transportation, warehousing, and other supply-chain solutions spanning from the suppliers to the end customers, logistics as an industry is essential for the nation's economic progress.

Role of Technology

Society is evolving thanks to technology. The world is heading toward automation in a big way, and businesses are less and less interested in activities that need physical labour or human interaction.

Technology enhances interconnections between various industries and companies by meeting client requests and facilitating effective business tactics that increase revenue and lessen rivalry. The logistics sector has been significantly touched by technology.

Several technologies are altering the future of the logistics sector.

Automation

Automation enhances a machine's productivity by utilizing data from software to produce the best outcomes with high precision. Automation benefits everything from better package labelling to effective warehouse sorting systems and quick deliveries. Future leaders in logistics will be the companies that use automation first.

Systems for tracking shipments

Users can keep an eye on and track their shipments by using it. It offers customer account information on the consignment assigned to them, customized reports, and notifications for shipments and messages. These systems improve the user experience.

Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network where physical things are implanted with microchips and software to enable communication with other devices. The logistics sector has been utilizing IoT devices to gather data, lessen superfluous duties, and streamline processes.

Radio waves are used by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) RFID to read data stored in RFID tags or smart labels. These radio waves assist in locating, identifying, and communicating with both people and objects.

An antenna, an RFID tag, and an RFID reader make up an RFID system. An integrated circuit and an antenna make up RFID tags, which transmit data to an RFID reader (also known as an interrogator).

The reader assists in converting the radio waves into more meaningful data. The operating systems get the information received from tags through a communication interface, which is then saved in a database and later processed for analysis.

Automated vehicles and drones

Drones could soon be used to deliver our orders thanks to technology. We can already see autonomous trucks on the road in the next few years.

GPS accuracy was improved

In the past, printed maps were utilized to navigate distant locations, but with the advancement of technology, today, cars come equipped with GPS. These gadgets' accuracy has dramatically improved over the years, which has helped disgruntled and lost drivers and the supply chain. By tracking the whereabouts of trucks and facilitating a simple route thanks to access to up-to-date traffic information, GPS's high precision enables higher production and delighted consumers.

Social media

The power of social media is enhancing operations and the logistics sector as a whole. These platforms are increasingly the simplest and most effective means for businesses to interact with customers and swiftly disseminate important information, market news, and client feedback.

Blockchain

Blockchain has a lot to offer the logistics sector. Automating the process, minimizing paperwork, and improving inventory transparency and traceability, enables businesses to operate more efficiently. Since all data is exchanged from the manufacturing site until it reaches the end user, supply chains are more secure.

Robotics

Like automated devices, robots are made to carry out human activities. It performs human movements and tasks and has a human appearance. The logistics sector can benefit from this feature. The logistics sector has found it challenging to meet market demand due to the massive growth of e-commerce, a problem that robotics has resolved. In addition to taking less time than people, it is also more productive.

Conclusion

The global supply chain's productivity has increased thanks to technology, which has also decreased expenses and errors. Transportation, international courier service transportation (by sea and air), supply chain management, and shipment tracking are examples of how the logistics industries have benefited. Many businesses offer solutions to the logistics sector to make their jobs easier. This company is making great future benefits for its clients.

#air freight #ocean freight #sea freight #logistics #transportation #shipping and freight forwarder

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flavinbagel · 5 months ago

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Insane, INSANE, just how modern cars are stuffed so full of microphones and internet connectivity even when you don't think they are. Like, almost all of them have a gps antenna and can track your lat/lon wherever you aren't in a tunnel, even if you do not have GPS navigation as an option!

#modern cars #the fact that the 'current' gen 4runner has been the same since Obama's first year in office is so insane #it seems the only changes theyve made to it are 'spies on you'#so just buy a much older one and get literally the exact same vehicle with a brick for brains :)

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rfantennaindia · 10 days ago

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#GPS L1 L5 ceramic antenna #GLONASS L1 L5 antenna #Galileo L1 L5 passive antenna #Multi-band ceramic antenna #GPS GLONASS Galileo antenna #High-precision GPS antenna #Passive ceramic GPS antenna #GPS navigation antenna #L1 L5 GNSS antenna #GNSS ceramic antenna #GPS L1 L5 high gain antenna #Satellite

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zzkt · 5 hours ago

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A Ukrainian Baba Yaga printed 4-antenna spiral Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) satellite navigation device was recovered by the Russians from a downed “Vampire” heavy drone. A CRPA is intended to defeat GPS jamming and is used for GPS/GLONASS navigation when resistance to jamming is critical.

#radio #ukraine #gps jamming #countermeasures #drone warfare #2025 #antenna

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eteily4 · 1 day ago

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#rf antenna #eteily technology manufactures #eteily india #youtube #rf antenna manufacture #rf antenna india #rf antenna price #manufacturing #telecom #entrepreneur #gps antenna #gnss antenna

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ilearnedthistodaysblog · 2 months ago

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#1174 How do submarines navigate?

How do submarines navigate? Submarines navigate using a mix of sonar, inertial navigation systems, and GPS. There are a lot of naval and civilian submarines in the world. The number of civilian submarines would probably be easier to work out than the number of military ones because most countries keep that number a secret. Or, they release information on how many old submarines they have, which is probably already public knowledge, but keep the number of new ones they have a secret. That makes sense because you don’t want to give your enemies fair warning of what submarines you are building. That being said, there are lists online, which may be reasonably close. That puts Russia and the US in joint first place with between 65 and 70 submarines each. Then comes China and, rather worryingly, North Korea is in fourth place with 35 submarines. North Korea has created nuclear weapons and wants to have a strong navy to provide a base to fire these missiles, rather than trying to feed their starving population. Modern nuclear-powered submarines could stay at sea forever if it wasn’t for the people on board who need supplying and changing. They can also stay underwater for months at a time because they can make oxygen from the seawater. So, how do they navigate in the deep dark sea? They do have GPS navigation, which can show them where they are on Earth by triangulating their position between three satellites. The problem is, the radio waves the GPS uses to work out where something is cannot penetrate water. Radio waves just bounce off water and head back into space. That means, GPS is only useful when the submarine has surfaced, and so is not much use as a navigation system. Underwater, submarines make use of an inertial navigation system and of sonar. An inertial navigation system is a good way of working out movement and modern smartphones have tiny versions inside of them. That is how your phone is able to count your steps. An inertial navigation system used to be analog, but these days they are digital. They consist of three accelerometers and three gyroscopes. The accelerometers can work out the speed of the vessel and the gyroscopes can work out how quickly the submarine is turning. There are usually three of them, but there can be more. There have to be at least three of them because all submarines can move in any direction. The accelerometers and gyroscopes are on the X, Y, and Z axis. They feed information to a computer, which can then calculate where they are. It does this by knowing the starting point and calculating speeds and how much and how fast they have turned along the way. The inertial navigation system is good, but it is only accurate to 150 hours. Small errors can creep in and there can be some uncertainty in where they are. The system has to be realigned by using GPS. The submarine will either have to surface or come close enough to the surface to put up an antenna. Submarines also use sonar to navigate. This isn’t much use in completely open sea, but it is useful when close to the seabed, objects, or other ships. Sonar works by sending out a sound wave and then calculating how long it takes to come back. By knowing the speed of sound in water, the onboard computer can work out how far objects are. It doesn’t work in the open sea because there is nothing for the sound wave to bounce off. One of the problems with sonar is that other submarines will be able to hear it. Submarines monitor for their own sonar, but they also have passive sonar, which is always listening for sounds in the sea. It will easily pick up the sound of another submarine’s sonar and give away its position. Submarines also use magnetometers and pressure sensors to navigate. The Earth has magnetic fields and by measuring these, the submarine can have some idea of where it is. A lot of animals also use these to steer and to navigate long distances. The pressure sensors tell the submarine its depth. As the pressure increases, the submarine is getting deeper. By combining all of these systems, the onboard computer for a submarine can work out pretty accurately where on Earth the submarine is and navigate it safely. And this is what I learned today. Try these: - #218 How deep can a submarine go? - #221 What is the difference between sonar and radar? - #40 How does GPS know where I am? - #557 How does a naval mine work? - #347 How did the Polynesians navigate? Sources https://timeandnavigation.si.edu/satellite-navigation/reliable-global-navigation/first-satellite-navigation-system/navigating-a-submarine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_navigation https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/submarine4.htm https://www.advancednavigation.com/tech-articles/inertial-navigation-systems-ins-an-introduction https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/submarines-by-country https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/north-korea-submarine-capabilities Photo by Vitali Adutskevich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/submarine-in-the-harbor-14754974/ Read the full article

#navigate #navy #sea #submarine #underwater

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khushicomms · 2 months ago

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Khushi Communications is a leading supplier of GPS antennas in India. They provide reliable, high-quality products for navigation and tracking. Known for excellent customer service and affordable solutions, they are a trusted choice for GPS antenna needs across the country.

#GPS antennas

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global-research-report · 3 months ago

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Precision Farming Market Expansion: Demand, Trends, and Key Players in 2024

Precision Farming Industry Overview

The global precision farming market size is anticipated to reach USD 24.09 billion by 2030, registering a CAGR of 12.8% from 2024 to 2030. Precision farming, also known as site-specific crop management or satellite farming, is a farm management concept that uses information technology to ensure optimum health and productivity of crops.

The precision farming technique largely depends on specialized equipment such as sensing devices, antennas and access points, and automation and control systems. It also includes maintenance and managed services. The process also incorporates a broad range of technologies such as bio-engineering, robotics and automation, imagery and sensors, and big data.

The growing number of applications for telematics in agriculture is anticipated to supplement the growth of the market. Telematics services include tracking devices that deploy the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to show the position of the equipment for management purposes. Major agriculture equipment manufacturers are adopting telematics services for their equipment to improve farm efficiency, thereby reducing the cost of agricultural operations and maximizing profitability. Improved management can also help reduce environmental impact.

Gather more insights about the market drivers, restrains and growth of the Precision Farming Market

Telematics technology is used to capture and transfer data from the farm equipment through sensors installed on tractors and other field monitoring equipment. The increasing adoption of telematics systems by agricultural equipment companies is expected to drive the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Furthermore, with GPS guidance and automation advancements, drones are poised to transform the agriculture industry in the forthcoming years. The ability of drones to precisely analyze the soil at the beginning of the crop cycle and detect a plant infected with bacteria or fungus is anticipated to propel the growth of the drone segment.

However, the low rate of technology adoption among farmers is likely to hamper market growth during the study period. This may be due to factors such as the absence of stringent standards and limitations on the exchange of data. Furthermore, farmers lack independent consulting and advisory services owing to the absence of validated agronomic models for Variable Rate Technology (VRT) to make decisions on investments. In addition, independent services are not linked to co-operatives, government bodies, and farmer associations where farmers can get additional information to make better decisions.

Browse through Grand View Research's Next Generation Technologies Industry Research Reports.

The global call center AI market size was valued at USD 2.00 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 23.8% from 2025 to 2030.

The global internet of medical things market sizewas estimated at USD 230.69 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 18.2% from 2025 to 2030.

Precision Farming Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global precision farming market report based on offering, application, and region

Precision Farming Offering Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2017 - 2030)

Hardware

Automation & Control Systems

Drones

Application Control Devices

Guidance System

GPS

GIS

Remote Sensing

Handheld

Satellite Sensing

Driverless Tractors

Mobile Devices

VRT

Map-based

Sensor-based

Wireless Modules

Bluetooth Technology

Wi-Fi Technology

Zigbee Technology

RF Technology

Sensing Devices

Soil Sensor

Nutrient Sensor

Moisture Sensor

Temperature Sensor

Water Sensors

Climate Sensors

Others

Antennas & Access Points

Software

Web-based

Cloud-based

Services

System Integration & Consulting

Maintenance & Support

Managed Types

Data Types

Analytics Types

Farm Operation Types

Assisted Professional Types

Supply Chain Management Types

Climate Information Types

Precision Farming Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million; 2017 - 2030)

Yield Monitoring

On-Farm

Off-Farm

Field Mapping

Crop Scouting

Weather Tracking & Forecasting

Irrigation Management

Inventory Management

Farm Labor Management

Precision Farming Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2017 - 2030)

North America

Canada

Mexico

Europe

Germany

France

Russia

Italy

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

Australia

Singapore

South America

Brazil

Middle East and Africa (MEA)

Key Companies profiled:

Ag Leader Technology

AgJunction, Inc.

CropMetrics LLC

Trimble, Inc.,

AGCO Corporation

Raven Industries Inc.

Deere and Company

Topcon Corporation

AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (Agribotix LLC)

DICKEY-john Corporation

Farmers Edge Inc.

Grownetics, Inc.

Proagrica (SST Development Group, Inc.)

The Climate Corporation

Key Precision Farming Market Company Insights

Some of the key players operating in the market include Ag Leader Technology; AgJunction, Inc.; CropMetrics LLC; Trimble, Inc.; AGCO Corporation; Raven Industries Inc.; Deere and Company; Topcon Corporation; AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc. (Agribotix LLC); DICKEY-john Corporation; Farmers Edge Inc.; Grownetics, Inc.; Proagrica (SST Development Group, Inc.); The Climate Corporation among others.

Deere & Company is engaged in the manufacturing & construction of agricultural and forestry machinery; drivetrains and diesel engines for heavy equipment; and lawn care machinery. Additionally, the company also manufactures and provides other heavy manufacturing equipment. The company serves diverse industries such as agriculture, forestry, construction, landscaping & grounds care, engines & drivetrain, government and military, and sports turf.

AGCO Corporation is a U.S.-based agriculture equipment manufacturer. The company develops and sells products and solutions such as tractors, combines, foragers, hay tools, self-propelled sprayers, smart farming technologies, seeding equipment, and tillage equipment.

Prospera Technologies and Agrible, Inc. are some of the emerging market participants in the target market.

Porspera Technologies is a global service provider of agriculture technology for managing and optimizing irrigation and crop health. The company provides AI-based sensors and cameras that aid farmers in crop monitoring.

Agrible is a U.S.- based agriculture solution provider. The company helps customers in more than 30 countries optimize water use, crop protection, fertilization, fieldwork, research trials, food supply chains, and sustainability initiatives

Recent Developments

In July 2023, Deere & Company, a global agriculture and construction equipment manufacturer announced the acquisition of Smart Apply Inc. an agriculture technology solution provider. Deere & Company is focused on using Smart Apply’s precision spraying solution to assist growers in addressing the challenges related to regulatory requirements, input costs, labor, etc. The acquisition is expected to help the company attract new customers.

In April 2023 AGCO Corporation, a global agriculture equipment provider, and Hexagon, an industrial technology solution provider declared their strategic collaboration. The collaboration is focused on the expansion of AGCO’s factory-fit and aftermarket guidance offerings.

In May 2023, AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc., a global agriculture technology solution provider announced its establishment of a new supply agreement with Wingtra AG. The 2-year supply agreement is expected to securely supply RedEdge-P sensor kits for incorporation with WingtraOne VTOL drones.

In May 2021, AGCO announced a targeted spraying solutions strategic collaboration with Raven Industries Inc., BASF Digital, and Robert Bosch GmbH. The objective of this deal was to assess the targeted spraying technology for enhancing crop protection product applications by limiting crop input costs and addressing environmental sustainability.

Order a free sample PDF of the Precision Farming Market Intelligence Study, published by Grand View Research.

#Precision Farming Market

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