GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
Neuron | January 06, 2022
Neuron, a leader in aviation technology and air traffic critical national infrastructure, has leveraged the Hedera network, the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public ledger for the decentralized economy, in a UK government-sponsored trial to demonstrate the capability to safely track the movements of military, enterprise, and government drones once out of visual line of sight. The trials, which took place at Port Montrose in Scotland on 29 April 2021, and at Cranfield University during October 2021, used sensors to track the drones, recording flight data via the Hedera Consensus Service. Over time, Neuron's vision is to provide a decentralised platform for a range of mobility solutions including drones, air taxis, autonomous vehicles and ground robots. Neuron will do this by connecting sensors, vehicles and management systems to provide a trusted network which can be used for data sharing, record keeping and potentially even decision making.
Niall Greenwood, CCO of Neuron, said, "Until now, drones have had limited benefit for governments and private enterprises, because they could not be flown safely out of line of sight and therefore could not be used for long distance deliveries, transport, or inspections. With this trial, leveraging Hedera Consensus Service, we have made unmanned, long distance drone travel possible using safety-critical aviation infrastructure. Each flight creates millions of data points, which no other public ledger has been fast enough to log and correctly order. By leveraging the Hedera Consensus Service we can gather, store, and order this data immediately, giving us a real time 'radar system' for drones."
Neuron sensors pick up data points on each drone's location and direction. From there, the Hedera Consensus Service provides a unique method of logging and timestamping the data from each drone flight onto Hedera's decentralized public ledger. The Hedera network operates at a higher speed and performance, with a lower cost per transaction than any other public distributed ledger technology (DLT), offering a scalable basis for drone flights to be adopted across industries. The Hedera network offers all applications the highest grade of security possible (ABFT), ensuring data protection for users.
The trial was sponsored by the UK government's department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and took place as part of a series of experiments by BEIS to explore the use of drones. The trial by Neuron successfully demonstrated safely tracking drone flights once out of sight, allowing the drones to fly longer distances safely and securely. Drones for the MediDrone trial are supplied by DJI, the World's largest drone manufacturer.
Neuron aims to deploy its solution for all drone use cases, transforming industries and supply chains in the UK and internationally. Applications for drone flights leveraging the Hedera-powered radar system in healthcare include remote medical testing, transportation of medical supplies to difficult locations, movement of equipment from hospital to hospital, Covid-19 test kits and beyond, as demonstrated across the UK on-demand.
The Hedera Consensus Service has already been adopted in healthcare solutions in the UK through its usage by Everyware and the NHS to track the cold storage of COVID-19 vaccines, in the Middle East through MVC's use for their track and trace system for pharmaceuticals in Bahrain, and in the US through its collaboration with SAFE and Acoer to provide COVID-19 track and trace systems for Arizona State University, E&I Cooperative, and major enterprises.
"Through this trial, Neuron has exhibited an extraordinary feat, allowing unmanned drones to safely exist in the sky. The Hedera Consensus Service enables the use of drones to transport essential equipment across long distances, which has enormous implications in the fields of healthcare and national security in particular. We are excited to continue Hedera's work in these sectors, particularly following our notable partnerships with Everyware and Hala Systems, and to see diverse industries realise the benefits of the Hedera Consensus Service."
Mance Harmon, CEO and Co-Founder of Hedera Hashgraph
About Neuron
Neuron provides services to enable pilotless flights globally, from drone deliveries and search and rescue, to air taxis and cargo deliveries. With a simple intuitive connection to its API alongside consultancy services, operators and UTM service providers are able to get access to airspace which was previously thought to be inaccessible. With partners on 3 continents and some of the world's leading experts in ATM, sense and avoid, drone regulation and computer science, the team is focused on transforming the way people live their lives.
About Hedera
The Hedera network is the most used, sustainable, enterprise-grade public ledger for the decentralized economy. The platform is governed by a council of the world's leading organizations, including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Chainlink Labs, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, EDF (Électricité de France), eftpos, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura Holdings, ServiceNow, Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank Group, Swirlds, Tata Communications, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group.
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CYBERSECURITY
iDirect Government | November 05, 2020
iDirect Government (iDirectGov), a leading provider of satellite communications to the military and government, today announced that the Evolution® platform has been enhanced with information assurance (IA) and cybersecurity as a part of a multi-layered approach to security. Two main technology advancements in Evolution 4.2.2.0 include SHIELD, a security service for remotes, and Communication Signal Interference Removal (CSIR™), a real-time streaming technology to mitigate interference. These enhancements are fully integrated across iDirectGov’s 9-Series satellite modems. To address vulnerabilities in satellite modems, SHIELD provides periodic IA security updates for the 9-Series modems. These remote-side packages are created using the same capability that the Defense Information Systems Agency's (DISA’s) Assured Compliance Assessment Solution (ACAS) recognizes. When installed, SHIELD addresses vulnerabilities based on the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) and Nessus ID database on the satellite modem and delivers IA posture across the SATCOM network.
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GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
SAIC | January 04, 2022
Science Applications International Corp. was awarded prime contract positions on the General Services Administration (GSA) ASTRO multiple-award, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity family of contracts. Managed by GSA’s Federal Systems Integration and Management Center (FEDSIM) office, SAIC is one of only six companies awarded all 10 contracts. The award of the GSA ASTRO contracts is an innovative and strategic addition to SAIC’s existing portfolio of contract vehicles accessible to customers across the federal government.
Under this potential 10-year, new-business family of contracts, the awards provide contract access for Department of Defense and federal civilian customers to SAIC’s technical expertise and experience in providing a broad array of services to support manned, unmanned and optionally manned systems, robotics and platforms.
GSA ASTRO has no defined ceiling value and is a family of 10 separate contracts, or pools, each representing a different scope of work. The pools include data operations, mission operations, aviation, ground, space, maritime, development/systems integration, research, support and training.
About SAIC
SAIC® is a premier Fortune 500® technology integrator driving our nation’s technology transformation. Our robust portfolio of offerings across the defense, space, civilian and intelligence markets includes secure high-end solutions in engineering, digital, artificial intelligence and mission solutions. Using our expertise and understanding of existing and emerging technologies, we integrate the best components from our own portfolio and our partner ecosystem to deliver innovative, effective and efficient solutions that are critical to achieving our customers' missions.
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