Mayflower Communications Company, Inc., Awarded Navy SBIR Phase II and III Contracts

Burlington, MA – 07 August 2002 – Mayflower Communications Company, Inc., a technology leader in GPS and Communication Data Link technology, headquartered in Burlington, MA has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II and III contract totaling $1.35 million from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, VA. The Navy/DoD SBIR Program is a highly competitive and successful program. It funds R&D projects geared towards meeting DoD objectives at small technology companies, which also have the potential for commercialization in the private sector. The DoD SBIR program funded projects totaling $773 million in FY 2002.

The objective of this Navy/Mayflower SBIR project – Low-Cost High Anti-Jam GEU for Gun-Launched Projectiles – is to develop and deliver low-cost, high performance GPS anti-jam (A/J) modules and an inertial navigator suitable for use in guidance and control of a projectile using commercially available low-cost instruments such as micromachined silicon accelerometers. The program’s intent is to realize accurate navigation and guidance capability in the presence of GPS jamming at a much lower cost by integrating a set of components whose costs have been driven down by the competition resulting from high volume commercial applications. The outcome of this Phase II/III program will be a flight-qualified, low-cost GEU with enhanced GPS anti-jam (A/J) capability. This GEU will be suitable for use in gun-launched projectiles including Navy ANSR, ERGM, and Hyper Velocity projectiles, and Army Ex Caliber, and other PGMs. The low-cost tactical GPS/inertial guidance and navigation package could also be used in less demanding commercial applications including general aviation aircraft, automotive vehicles, farm vehicles and mobile robots.

Mayflower has enjoyed working with the U.S. Navy in enhancing the accuracy of Navy Precision Guided Munitions for over a decade. Our R&D work in advanced GPS navigation receiver, GPS anti-jam (A/J) electronics, and command data link for retargeting has been supported over the years by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Office of Naval Research (ONR), NAVAIR (Patuxent River, China Lake and Pt. Mugu) and NAVSEA (Dahlgren Division) Command. “This proven Mayflower track record of successful R&D work for the Navy, as well as our ongoing R&D work for the US Army CECOM and AMCOM, has culminated in Mayflower being selected by the US Navy NAVSEA Command, Dahlgren Division to build and deliver the GPS anti-jam electronics module and the GPS/inertial navigation module for Navy Precision Guided Munitions, PGMs, such as the Navy ANSR projectile,” said Dr. Triveni Upadhyay, Founder and Chairman of Mayflower Communications Company.

Mayflower’s GPS navigation and anti-jam product, developed and delivered under this SBIR Program, will be integrated into the Navy ANSR projectile Tactical Guidance Electronics Unit (TGEU). The ANSR projectile, a fast spinning airframe, employs a novel navigation concept that uses accelerometers only (AO) instead of a full complement of accelerometers and gyros. This innovative AO concept was developed by Mr. John Fraysse at NAVSEA, Dahlgren Division for reducing the GEU cost of future Navy rolling PGMs. The Mayflower GPS anti-jam product, specifically developed for rolling ANSR airframe, is ideally suited for achieving the Navy cost reduction goal for the GEU. According to Fraysse, “Mayflower’s A/J concept was selected because it ‘raises the bar’ with respect to the present State-of-the-Art for small body projectiles and missiles and has general application to low-cost airframes being developed in the Navy and Army Tech Base programs.”

Mayflower Communications, a privately held company, is a leader in advancing radio navigation and communication technology with a strong focus on GPS anti-jam technology and its integration with other sensors, such as an inertial navigation sensor. Since the company’s inception in 1986, Mayflower has developed and patented advanced GPS anti-jam technologies and products, such as adaptive temporal filter (ATF), adaptive spatial filter (ASF) and combined adaptive spatial-temporal filter (ASTF) to mitigate both narrowband and wideband GPS jamming threats.

Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), under Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), is among the largest research and development (R&D) centers in the United States. The NSWCDD mission is to provide research, development, test and evaluation, engineering, and fleet support for surface warfare systems, surface ship combat systems, ordnance, mines, amphibious warfare systems, mine countermeasures, special warfare systems, and strategic systems.

Mayflower Communications will be exhibiting its technology and products at the 5th Annual Space and Missile Defense Conference and Exhibition in Huntsville, AL sponsored by the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Association and the National Defense Industrial Association-Tennessee Valley Chapter, and the Air Defense Artillery.