TTI’s VP military and aerospace, Gia Hayes, explains why premium components, flexible systems and trusted partners are essential in military and aerospace applications
Significant future technology and international relations/freedoms depend on how we harness the sky above. Data reporting and forwarding between CubeSats and ground infrastructure; internet service to underserved regions; military terrain and asset monitoring; global transport management; remote sensing; deep space exploration and more depend on how adeptly we develop these opportunities.
For those in the dynamic, critical and competitive military/aerospace industry that requires precision, dependability and coordination, the following are three areas to be mastered to remain competitive:
Premier products: A system is only as effective as its individual components. That means authentic and available ones. Dependable supply chains are crucial. Beyond that, the rigors of space’s harsh environments require products to be robust, flexible, efficient, space-saving and secure.
Only space-grade or mil-spec parts will do for long-duration or human spaceflight missions. However, for low earth orbit and limited life systems, a quality distribution partner can help recommend commercial-grade off-the-shelf parts or even automotive-grade components to provide significant savings when budgets impact mission certification requirements.
Flexible Systems: Since design is a volatile and dynamic process, speed, flexibility and adaptability are necessities if, or more likely, when plan A gets sidetracked. Knowing how to coordinate and optimize the parts to complete the project is an exercise that requires an efficient, resilient system.
With space exploration companies doing more iterative testing programs where they launch, test and revise, they need a component source that can be fast and flexible with the right product on the shelf to make required changes a reality.
Trusted partners: The right partner is the one who can supply the component needs today and who knows the customer, their inventory and their corporate goals enough to know what their needs will be tomorrow—and then be able to deliver the goods.
Just as satellites need control rooms, tracking and monitoring capabilities on the ground, companies need component suppliers to keep them on the right track. With multiple launch operators trying to get systems into orbit before competitors and bills-of-materials changing overnight, customers need a reliable distributor with the speed, flexibility and capability to provide what they need, when they need it.
TTI has a long history of providing high-reliability, mil-spec and space-level components since the Apollo days when some of its first sales were high-performance passive components going into aircraft for defense systems. Today the company offers quality electronic components for everything from satellite constellations to launch vehicles. TTI is creating a new online Space Resource Center with articles, videos and news in space-age components.
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