Sensors and Robotics Technology Drives Military Market.

 Garnering significant attention in recent years has been surveillance and reconnaissance, sensors and robotics technology, along with products that assist in safeguarding military personnel and equipment.

As Scott Sacknoff, Manager of the SPADE Defense Index (AMEX: DXS) describes, "Whereas the SPADE Defense Index has been relatively flat throughout the month of September, as the chart shows, a number of homeland security companies have outperformed the benchmark from anywhere to 0.5% to nearly 8%."
Technology spending by the military is predominantly in two areas -- those that protect and defend soldiers and equipment that are put in harm's way and similarly those that enable the military to operate at a distance. "In the first case, there are considerable resources going into areas such as body armor, armor plating for more durable ground equipment, electronic and physical countermeasures, and equipment that enable soldiers to share information to improve field operations and reduce friendly fire.

A key focus within the military entails technology that helps to establish an advantage within the battlefield. By its very nature, this environment poses considerable challenges for technology demanding portability, durability and effectiveness. Robotics, surveillance and reconnaissance, sensors and communications are garnering considerable attention as companies work to solve the evolving needs of the military environment.

Robotics:
The U.S. military has been pursuing robotic technologies for years as they work to reduce the threat that soldiers are exposed to within hostile environments. The extent that robots can be used for military applications has expanded as innovative technology has opened up new possibilities through unmanned vehicles capable of remote surveillance and reconnaissance, weapons, explosives and threat detection.
DRS Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: DRS) is a leading supplier of integrated products, services and support to military forces, intelligence agencies and prime contractors worldwide. DRS focuses on defense technology as they develop, manufacture and support a broad range of mission critical systems.

As Patricia M. Williamson, Vice President, Corporate Communications & Investor Relations for DRS describes, "DRS's UAVs are small, lightweight, medium-range devices that are easy to assemble. They can be launched pneumatically without a runway or via wheels on a small runway and one model (Neptune™) can launch pneumatically from boats and land/float in water for recovery. They use GPS navigation, S-band data links and have increased payload capacity, which can include infrared sensors for target detection and command and control, video processing, etc. They are ruggedized and operate via proven autopilot."
The 6-foot long, 7-foot wing span air vehicle the Neptune™ can be launched and recovered on land or in water making it practical for many tactical mission scenarios. The Company's Sentry® air vehicle has a resilient and damage-tolerant carbon fiber airframe and includes a pneumatic launcher, which permits launches from confined, restricted or unimproved launch sites.

"Our UAVs are in demand by the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as special operations. Beyond our UAVs, we continue to see strong demand for our infrared technologies applied in surveillance and target detection missions on major U.S. Army and Marine Corps ground vehicles assets, helicopters and other aircraft, Navy ships and in night vision sighting devices that equip individual soldiers," states Williamson.

Surveillance & Reconnaissance:
Surveillance technology that includes sensors as well as reconnaissance devices has been a military segment that has experienced considerable evolution as innovators work with government to address battlefield and combat area requirements.

Argon ST (NASDAQ: STST) is a systems engineering and development company providing command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions. According to Argon ST's Jeffrey Brown, Strategic Business Development, "There is a need for persistent and pervasive surveillance in extremely demanding asymmetric battle spaces and demand by our military customers for interoperability, remote access and control as well as full net workability. There continues to be operational requirements for rapid development, deployment and integration of new capabilities into existing and new systems to meet constant changes on the battlefield

Technical solutions at Argon ST, "are developed based on a complete understanding of the war fighters most compelling operational problems which enables and empowers us to build systems that meet or exceed our customers' requirements.
Responding to the challenges of today's military Argon ST offers software based solutions built upon open architectures that maintain the operational flexibility of the design, enables scalability across a large number of platforms, both manned and unmanned, and enables signal detection, classification, recognition and geo-location.

"Argon ST is a true "full-spectrum" C4ISR company (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) with in-house sensor and processing capabilities that range from VLF through the entire RF spectrum up to and including the infrared, visible and ultraviolet spectrum. This enables us to meet the demands of our market for fully integrated multi-INT sensor solutions," states Brown.
There is great importance placed on sensors that are geared towards the demands of battlefield and hostile territory military requirements for effective and efficient detection, surveillance and intelligence.

"Our strength is our ability to integrate various sensors with different phenomenology (Radar, IR, Visible, etc.) and develop a comprehensive picture of the battle space. Another important tool is the development of queuing technology, technology that allows alerts the user when there is a potential threat, and helps fight user fatigue, which happens when a user mat view an image too long," adds Mackin.

Moving forward Dr. Mackin sees significant military demand for long-range threat detection in various environments around the world. Mackin explains, "The greatest demand continues to be the U.S. Department of Defense and the Intelligence community. More specifically, the ever increasing requirements for smaller multi-function systems that can operate autonomously in hostile environments yet still provide the data/information the war fighter requires for mission accomplishment."