everything RF recently interviewed Rodger H. Hosking, the Director of Sales at Mercury Systems. He was previously vice president and co-founder of Pentek, Inc. With over 30 years in the electronics industry, Rodger has produced hundreds of articles and technical presentations focused on radar, communications, software radio, and digital signal processing. He holds patents in frequency synthesis and spectrum analysis techniques, and BSEE and MSEE degrees from Columbia University in New York.
Q. Could you provide a brief overview of Mercury Systems' history and share how the company has evolved over the years?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury Systems, founded in 1981, is a technology company that delivers mission-critical processing power to the edge to solve the most pressing aerospace and defense challenges. Initially focused on high-performance computing solutions, Mercury has expanded through strategic acquisitions, enhancing its capabilities in secure processing, RF technologies, and edge computing. Today, Mercury Systems is known for its focus on innovation, open systems architecture, and partnerships with government agencies and major defense contractors around the world, supplying advanced technologies for radar, EW, and missile defense systems. The “core” of the Mercury Processing Platform includes the critical technologies necessary for mission success, including signal, compute, data management, display, and security, in standard product form and custom integrated solutions, from silicon to system scale, with our key differentiators: purpose-built, trusted and secure, software-defined, and open and modular.
Q. Can you give us an overview of your RF & Microwave product portfolio?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury offers high-performance, ruggedized components and subsystems that support next-generation radar, EW, signals intelligence (SIGINT), and secure communications systems. These products include RF and monolithic microwave ICs (MMICs) and multichip modules, and direct RF FPGAs with wideband data converters using system-in-package (SiP) and system-on-module (SoM) form factors. These high-performance products provide SWaP-optimized solutions for airborne, ground, and naval platforms covering the radio frequency spectrum up to millimeter-wave bands. Mercury’s onshore manufacturing facilities offer a secure and trusted supply chain.
Mercury’s RF and MMIC chip-scale technology is a significant product line in this segment, providing critical signal processing functions at the edge for RF signal frequencies as high as 40 GHz. Hundreds of available products include tuners, filters, switched filter banks, tuneable filters, slope-correction filters, broadband low-noise amplifiers, gain blocks, RF switches, attenuators, and splitters. An ongoing stream of new designs advances this technology, yielding a wealth of SWaP-C reduced, high-performance off-the-shelf and custom devices and sub-assemblies.
Q. How important is the RF & Microwave segment to Mercury's overall business, and what role does it play in the company's growth?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury’s RF and microwave business segment plays a significant role in the company’s revenue, profitability, and strategic growth. Mercury invests heavily in R&D to develop next-gen RF technologies, including advanced GaN-based power amplifiers, MMICs, millimeter-wave components, subsystems, and edge processing solutions. Growing defense needs for 5G, hypersonic weapons, AI-driven warfare, and next-gen radar systems is driving increased demand for Mercury’s RF and microwave expertise. This segment will remain a key driver of Mercury's expansion and competitive positioning in the defense electronics market.
Q. What are the key benefits of using direct RF solutions for processing broadband signals in today's complex communications environment?
Rodger H. Hosking: Direct RF solutions enable the digitization of wideband RF signals directly at signal frequencies up to 36 GHz, thus eliminating the need for analog frequency up/down-conversion, by allowing direct digitization of RF signals in both transmit and receive signal chains. It supports multi-domain operations, including 5G, SATCOM, radar, and EW applications. Direct RF reduces signal propagation delays, enables near-instantaneous AI and ML analysis of broadband signals, and speeds real-time decision-making in electronic and ISR. Direct RF enhances detection, classification, and jamming capabilities in contested environments to support modern battlefield communication systems with real-time signal processing over wide frequency bands. Direct RF unifies multiple capabilities (EW, radar, and 5G) into a single, flexible platform, reducing cost and complexity across multiple domains (land, air, sea, space, cyber) without major modifications.
Q. Can you tell us about the Direct RF FPGA System on Modules that Mercury has developed?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury offers three generations of direct RF FPGA system-on-module (SoM) products. The first is based on the AMD monolithic RFSoC (RF system-on-chip) announced in February 2017, offering eight 5 GS/s 14-bit ADCs, eight 9.8 GS/s 14-bit DACs, powerful Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA fabric, hardware digital up/down converters, six ARM processors, and two 100 Gb Ethernet interfaces. Mercury first developed the Quartz SoM mezzanine card, using extensive signal integrity analysis and shielding to maintain maximum RF dynamic range, superior gigabit serial interface performance, and high isolation of switching power supply noise. In 2018, Mercury shipped the first Quartz 3U OpenVPX carrier card product containing this SoM. The SoM architecture strategy leverages the sophisticated design of the SoM, which maintains full performance of the RFSoC, on various SoM carrier cards, which are far less demanding designs than the SoM. Mercury is now shipping its family of six Quartz SoM carrier products, adding the 3U SOSA aligned VPX card, PCIe card, two small form factor subsystems, and a ruggedized weatherproof chassis. Mercury also offers a SoM carrier design package so customers can create custom SoM carrier products to fit unique application spaces. All Quartz SoM-based products can digitize 2 GHz of instantaneous signal bandwidth for transceiver applications, including multi-channel phased array systems for radar, EW, communications SIGINT, and countermeasures, with dramatic reductions in SWaP-C and time to market.
When Altera offered Mercury early design access to the Agilex 9 Direct RF SoC FPGA Series featuring 64 GS/s 10-bit ADCs and DACs, powerful Agilex 9 FPGA resources, and multiple ARM processors, we opted to base our new Agilex 9 product family on our proven and flexible SoM architecture. The Agilex 9 ARGW014 device features four ADCs and DACs, while the AGRW027 device features eight ADCs and DACs and roughly twice the FPGA resources of the former device in a larger multi-chip module. Mercury developed and shipped its DRF2580 SoM (with AGRW014) installed in Mercury’s DRF4580L small form factor subsystem in September 2024. The DRF5580 SOSA-aligned 3U VPX card will ship in the spring of 2025. In December 2024, Mercury announced its DRF2270 SoM based on the eight-channel AGRW027 along with the DRF5270 SOSA aligned 3U VPX card, both shipping in the summer of 2025. Other derivative products based on both Agilex 9 SoMs will be announced throughout 2025. Mercury is also offering carrier design packages for these SoMs for unique customer-developed carrier products.
Q. Could you elaborate on Mercury's OpenVPX and SOSA-aligned products? How significant is this portfolio in addressing market demands and supporting Mercury's strategic goals?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury’s OpenVPX and SOSA-aligned products include high-performance, ruggedized mission computing and processing modules optimized for real-time defense applications, advanced RF and microwave modules supporting EW, SIGINT, and radar low-latency, high-bandwidth networking modules for secure data transfer in military environments, and rugged, high-capacity data storage solutions for ISR and other mission-critical operations.
Mercury’s OpenVPX and SOSA-aligned products address critical DoD market demands for improving multi-vendor interoperability, accelerating development and deployment of cutting-edge technologies, improving field upgradability to address new threats, speeding the adoption of AI, machine learning, and big data analytics, countering emerging threats like hypersonic weapons and adversarial jamming, and enhancing battlefield interoperability. For example, Mercury’s SCFE3920 3U OpenVPX FPGA processor board was selected by Boeing as an integral part of the next-generation KC-46A Remote Vision System (RVS) 2.0. Designed for high-speed data processing and seamless system integration, Mercury’s boards will connect directly to cameras on the plane to process the high-resolution color video feeds that provide KC-46A operators with a clear and precise view of refueling operations. As the DoD continues prioritizing open architectures, our OpenVPX and SOSA-aligned portfolio will drive significant revenue growth and strategic partnerships with major defense contractors.
Q. How does Mercury's technology support advanced electronic warfare (EW) systems in maintaining spectrum control and countering evolving EW threats? Can you elaborate on the role of your broadband RF modules, AI-enabled processing boards, and application-ready platforms in these solutions?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury’s broadband RF modules utilize high-performance RF and MMIC components essential for radar, EW, and communications signal acquisition and generation at the edge. Mercury’s open architecture, rugged, high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) solutions enable real-time AI-driven signal analysis for enemy radar and communication signals to quickly identify and counter threats, respond dynamically with countermeasure waveform generation to jam or spoof adversarial signals that degrade enemy capabilities, and operate effectively in contested and congested electromagnetic environments. Mercury solutions are vital for maintaining electromagnetic dominance in modern warfare.
Q. Mercury offers a range of space-qualified products — how important is this segment for your business, and is it a growing area? Could you share insights into Mercury’s development and screening process for space-grade products?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury’s space-qualified products represent an increasingly important segment of the company’s business, particularly as demand for high-reliability, radiation-tolerant electronics grows in defense and commercial space applications. The expansion of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, next-generation missile defense systems, and military communications and surveillance satellites are all driving greater needs for advanced processing, RF, and secure computing solutions that can withstand the harsh conditions of space. Mercury will deliver a number of space-borne subsystems that leverage its commercial products and deep expertise in data recording, data processing, and subsystem integration for defense applications. The radiation-tolerant solution comprising Mercury’s SCFE6933 processing board, employing AMD Versal™ AI Core series FPGAs, and the company’s new RH304T solid-state data recorder with 4.5 terabytes of storage capacity will complete the requirements for a satellite data recording system application. This sector is a growing area for Mercury, as the company continues to invest in its radiation-hardened and space-qualified product lines. Mercury’s recent acquisitions and technology developments further reinforce its commitment to expanding its footprint in the space domain.
Mercury develops space-grade products with a rigorous design, testing, and screening process to ensure reliability in harsh space environments. Our approach aligns with military and aerospace standards (such as MIL-STD and NASA Level 1/2) while integrating cutting-edge commercial technologies. Mercury leverages radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant components to withstand cosmic radiation, and uses radiation testing (total ionizing dose - TID, single event effects - SEE, and displacement damage - DDD) to qualify components. We conduct extensive thermal cycling, shock, and vibration testing to meet launch and space operational conditions, utilize lot screening to filter out defective semiconductor wafers, perform burn-in testing to ensure longevity and performance under extreme conditions and perform failure analysis (FA) and destructive physical analysis (DPA) for defect detection. Mercury adapts COTS components with radiation mitigation techniques including error correction, redundancy, and shielding. We also follow ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and implement DoD Trusted Foundry compliance for supply chain security, while ensuring traceability and counterfeit protection through stringent supplier vetting.
Q. Mercury has established strategic partnerships with major semiconductor companies like Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA. Can you tell us more about these partnerships and how these collaborations have enhanced your product offering?
Rodger H. Hosking: Mercury’s strategic partnerships with Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA have significantly enhanced its product offerings by integrating cutting-edge commercial computing technologies into secure, high-performance solutions for defense and aerospace applications.
Over the decades, Mercury has established a track record of integrating the latest devices from these key vendors into system-on-module, multichip module, and board-level products. These trusted partnerships afford Mercury advanced device roadmap disclosures and early access to design documentation and engineering assistance. Close collaborations with commercial partners allow Mercury to deliver ruggedized, AI-driven, and high-speed processing systems tailored for mission-critical operations, including EW, radar, space, and avionics.
Intel Xeon Scalable Processors are used in Mercury’s rugged, SWaP-optimized edge computing systems for real-time battlefield analytics. Mercury’s RES X08 rugged servers, also powered by Intel Xeon processors, deliver high-performance computing for radar, EW, and AI-driven command-and-control systems.
AMD EPYC processors are used in Mercury’s rugged GPU-accelerated edge computing platforms to power AI-driven ISR and hypersonic missile defense systems, and are coupled with AMD’s Radeon GPUs to enable high-speed AI workload platforms in radar, SIGINT, and EW. Mercury’s DMEA-accredited packaging facility combined AMD’s VC1902 Versal AI Core adaptive SoC FPGA die along with Jariet Technologies Electra MA 64 GS/s ADC and DAC chiplets on a substrate to create the RFS1140 SiP measuring only 50 x 50 x 5 mm. It supports four direct RF transceiver channels for RF signals up to 32 GHz, and powerful AI and FPGA signal processing resources.
NVIDIA A100 and Jetson edge AI GPUs are used in Mercury’s ruggedized military hardware for AI-driven EW, radar, and ISR applications. Mercury’s rugged AI edge computers use NVIDIA’s GPU technology to provide real-time AI-powered situational awareness for EW and satellite-based ISR.
By leveraging Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA’s cutting-edge technologies, Mercury is able to enhance EW and radar processing with real-time AI acceleration and secure, ruggedized computing, and expand into space-based AI computing, helping satellites and space-based ISR platforms process and act on data in real-time.
Q. Who are the primary customers for your solutions? While you work with the U.S. government, do you also collaborate with aerospace and defense sectors in other countries? Outside of the U.S., which regions represent your largest markets?
Rodger H. Hosking: Outside of the United States, Mercury’s largest markets are primarily in regions with strong defense, aerospace, and EW modernization programs.
In NATO-aligned countries, we see a strong demand for EW and secure computing solutions driven by rising geopolitical tensions. Here, Mercury has strong partnerships with major European defense contractors including BAE Systems, Thales, Airbus, and Leonardo to supply high-performance computing, radar, and EW technologies. Key programs include UK's Tempest 6th-gen fighter program, NATO EW and SIGINT modernization efforts, Galileo global navigation satellite system (GNSS), and space-based ISR, AI-driven satellite defense programs.
In Asia-Pacific markets Japan, Australia, and South Korea are major buyers of EW, radar, and secure computing technologies to counter regional threats. Japan and Australia’s increasing space defense investments align with Mercury’s radiation-tolerant microelectronics and AI-driven space computing solutions. South Korea and India’s modernization of EW and C4ISR capabilities create strong demand for Mercury’s AI-enabled battlefield analytics.
Middle East markets include Israel, a key market for advanced EW, radar, and secure AI computing. Mercury’s high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) solutions align with Israeli missile defense (Iron Dome, David’s Sling) and AI-powered ISR systems. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are modernizing their defense industries and investing in advanced radar, EW, and AI-driven intelligence platforms. Expansion of missile defense capabilities across the region increases demand for Mercury’s sensor fusion and RF technologies.
Canada, a close U.S. ally and a participant in NORAD and NATO, is investing in next-gen radar, ISR, and space-based defense capabilities. Mercury provides ruggedized AI-driven computing solutions for Arctic surveillance, space-based ISR, and maritime domain awareness.
Q. What is Mercury System’s product roadmap for the next three years?
Rodger H. Hosking: Over the next three years, Mercury Systems will develop new products extending next-gen RF and sensor processing for battlefield ISR, radar, and hypersonic missile tracking. We will enhance our AI-powered solutions for cognitive EW to improve real-time adaptive countermeasures and provide adaptive spectrum control for contested environments. Mercury will invest in new technologies for space-qualified microelectronics and AI-driven onboard processing for defense and commercial satellites and will extend the range, agility and performance levels of direct RF solutions for wideband multi-mission deployed systems. We will innovate cyber-resilient, trusted microelectronics to ensure secure supply chains and mission integrity and expand onshore, trusted semiconductor and microelectronics production. Mercury remains committed to secure, open standards computing solutions (MOSA, SOSA, OpenVPX) to enable rapid upgrades of new technology for our warfighters. By integrating AI, trusted microelectronics, and modular open architectures, Mercury is positioning itself as a key U.S. defense technology leader for next-gen warfare, space security, and mission-critical computing.
