(military and aerospace electronics europe.feb-mar 2006)(2006)

Special Report: Avionics

Technology Focus: Radstone on boardsand buses

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Welcome to the fi rst issue of Mili-tary & Aerospace Electronics Europe, the magazine for deci-

sion makers responsible for electronic com-ponents, subsystems, and systems for use in defence and aerospace applications and platforms.

Our goal at Military & Aerospace Elec-tronics Europe is to provide timely and authoritative technical information for en-gineers and executive, program, and opera-tional managers who need to understand the technology used for today’s and tomor-row’s military and aerospace electronic and optoelectronic systems for the warfi ghters of European nations.

Our research shows that the European military market, while not nearly the size of the U.S., shows steady growth nonetheless.

Industry researchers say they see a com-bined annual growth rate of some 2.8 per-cent in the European electronic warfare market over the period of 2004 to 2007. This growth will depend on the introduction of next-generation platforms like the Tigre, Eurofi ghter, and Saab Gripen. The strong-est Western European national markets for growth over the next eight to 10 years are the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Ger-many.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) mar-ket in Europe is also strong with expected growth to $4.9 billion by 2014, according to market research reports. The UAV programs leading the way are the United Kingdom’s WatchKeeper from Thales and the Eurmale from EADS.

In our fi rst issue of Military & Aerospace Electronics Europe we look at the technol-ogy for avionics in platforms such as the WatchKeeper in the Special Report section. The article also discusses the trend toward digital standards in avionics.

David Compston of Radstone Embedded Computing contributed our Technology Fo-

cus article on the military computing trends coming in 2006.

Our News section covers the latest devel-opments on electronic and optical technolo-gies for military and aerospace applications in Europe. The New Products section high-lights the new electronic and optical prod-ucts for military and aerospace electronics applications in Europe.

Our premiere issue closes with the U.S. Update page, which provides the latest, market analysis, contract wins, and technol-ogy developments originating in the U.S. defence sector.

Mostly every company I’ve spoken with at the many defence electronics conferences and trade shows during the last year say that the European defence market lacks a maga-zine that is focused solely on electronics for the warfi ghter. They want a vehicle that will enable to get word about their products to the decision makers at the military and sys-tem integrator level. Our magazine content will do just that.

Military & Aerospace Electronics Europe is also much more than a magazine. We’ve also created a content-rich Web site, www.milaeroeurope.com, with news updated daily.

In our upcoming May issue we look in depth at the latest trends in laser technology for weapons and communication.

I’d also like to hear from you. Please tell me what you think of our fi rst issue, any suggestions you may have, or areas you would like to see us cover. You can e-mail me at [email protected].

Your roadmap for defence electronics in Europe

John Mchale Exective [email protected]

PAGE 1 / FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 WWW.MILAEROEUROPE.COM

Industry researchers

say they see a com-

bined annual growth

rate of some 2.8

percent in the Euro-

pean electronic warfare

market over the period

of 2004 to 2007

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4 News DDC demonstrates high-speed 1553 technology

6 Analysts see network-centric warfare needs driving land-based C2 market

8 BAE Systems taps Engenuity’s VAPS to advance Eurofi ghter Typhoon

10 ESA names LogicaCMG to build satellite ground station

12 Lithuanian Border Guard orders Eurocopter EC 135 and EC 145

20 Technology Focus:Military computing trends to look out for in 2006

By David Compston, Director of Marketing, Radstone Embedded Computing

2006 promises to be an interesting year for the European military and defence market, not least because it is expected to be a year in which some signifi cant computing technology develop-ments will occur. The challenge for designers, developers, and users of military computing tech-nology is, as it has always been, to select not just the products offering the best price/perform-ance available today – but to assess the underlying trends that will mark a technology as having a long-term future or not. Although the European military computing market is more depend-ent on custom and modifi ed commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions than its counterpart in North America, the challenge is no less: the underlying technologies are the same. This article attempts to predict what 2006 will bring in terms of technology roadmaps

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& AEROSPACEELECTRONICS EUROPE

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CONTENTSFebruary / March 2006. Vol 1 Issue 1

14 Special Report:Avionics technology embraces digital standards

By John McHale, Executive Editor

Upgraded avionics for aircraft platforms – military and civilian – are not just about glass cockpits with multiple displays replacing traditional instrument panels, but about developing standard technology in an open architecture to adopt the latest high-performance computing technology.

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®NEWSJohn McHale

PAGE 08 / MARCH 2006PAGE 4 / FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 WWW.MILAEROEUROPE.COM

DDC demonstrates high-speed 1553 technology

CORK, Ireland -- Engi-neers at Data Device Corp. (DDC) teamed

with Boeing and Honeywell Aer-ospace to successfully complete a fl ight demonstration of a new technology that speeds up the transmission of tactical aircraft data.

The fl ight demonstration, con-ducted the end of 2005 from St. Louis, involved the Boeing F-15E1 Advanced Technology Demon-strator aircraft. The new technol-ogy is a High Performance 1553 data bus (called HyPer-1553¬) developed by DDC of Cork, Ire-

land and Bohemia, N.Y. A high-speed 1553 databus has

the potential to help give exist-ing aircraft, combat vehicles, and other military platforms much-needed capabilities such as sen-sor fusion, streaming video, and smart weapons, all with little or no changes to the original elec-tronic architectures.

“It removes a barrier to im-provements,” explains Darrel Hopper, principal engineer at the U.S. Air Force Research Labora-tory Human Effectiveness Direc-torate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. “If you want to put a better sensor on an airplane, it will push more bits through. If the bandwidth isn’t there, they can’t accept the technology from

the lab.”HyPer-1553 technology uses

existing MIL-STD-1553 bus infra-structure to transmit data at much higher rates than 1 megabit per second that present-day conven-tional MIL-STD-1553 data buses provide, DDC offi cials say. The new technology helps increase bandwidth between subsystems, which is becoming increasingly necessary for network-centric operations and sensor fusion ap-plications.

Because it is able to use the ex-isting MIL-STD-1553 infrastruc-ture, HyPer -1553 paves the way for avionics system upgrades in proven aircraft at a much lower cost and down time than would be required for other high data rate options that would require the installation of new wiring, DDC offi cials say. These types of upgrades also may be done incrementally because HyPer-1553 technology can operate in parallel with MIL-STD-1553 data buses.

“It can go faster than 120 meg-abits,” says Todd Decker, market-ing manager at DDC. We can do 160 megabits per second, but the error rate so far has been unac-ceptable.” DDC experts are keep-ing a close eye out for release of MIL-STD-1553B Notice 5 later this year. Decker says company engineers will make HyPer-1553 compatible with the new stand-ard as soon as possible.

Decker says high-speed 1553 could be instrumental in bring-ing relatively old aircraft into the digital battlefi eld age with little modifi cation. “We could create a new weapon subsystem that is 1553 and HyPer 1553 enabled,” he says. “The Joint Tactical Ra-dio System [JTRS] will connect aircraft to the Global Information Grid [GIG]. Designers could re-place an aircraft’s existing radio

with JTRS and connect to the GIG.”

The engineering challenges of designing high-speed 1553 have been formidable, Decker says. Asked why more 1553 providers have not yet jumped on the high-speed 1553 bandwagon, he says “high-speed 1553 is not for the timid. The technology investment is not trivial at this level.”

DDC’s approach uses technol-ogy plucked from the telecom-munications industry called quadrature amplitude modula-tion (QAM) and discrete multi-tone (DMT) to speed the fl ow of 1553 data. In addition, traditional 1553 ships one bit per clock cycle, but HyPer-1553 ships either 2, 4, 6, or 8 bits per cycle.

During the test, Boeing Phan-tom Works engineers used the HyPer-1553 data bus to transmit digital imagery data between a rugged chassis mounted in the forward equipment bay of the F-15E and a modifi ed Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) weapon mounted on a wing pylon station. DDC’s circuit card with the Hy-Per-1553 interface was mounted to a Honeywell general purpose processor on each end of the in-terface.

The test team successfully transferred data at 40 megabits per second over an existing 1553 data bus infrastructure in paral-lel with MIL-STD-1553 data be-ing transmitted at 1 megabit per second. The team also transferred data at 80 and 120 megabits per second on a second 1553 bus ded-icated to the higher speed data.

Modifying existing aircraft to carry modern high-speed net-works such as Fibre Channel, Fire Wire, or Gigabit Ethernet would require removal of 1553 twisted-pair wiring and connectors, as well as modifying subsystems and payloads that today use 1553.

High-speed 1553 technology from Data Device Corp. performed success-fully on the Boeing F-15E1 Advanced Technology Demon-strator aircraft.

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®NEWSJohn McHale


Analysts see network-cen-tric warfare needs driving land-based C2 market

LONDON – Analysts at Frost & Sullivan’s Aero-space & Defence Prac-

tice say they see the need for network centric warfare capa-bility driving defence spend-ing among European militaries for command and control (C2) in land-based applications. Eu-

ropean countries are bringing their defence forces into the 21 century and are integrating situational-awareness tools like command and control systems into their arsenals.

“The C2 market in Europe is projected to be worth $5.43 billion over the 10 years, span-ning 2005-2014,” says Christo-pher Dabrowski, senior defence analyst. “A large portion of the market is driven by large com-prehensive and often incremen-tal programmes in the tradition-

ally largest European militaries spenders.

“France has the largest spend-ing on a number of long-term C2 programmes across all segments of the market,” Dabrowski con-tinues. “The United Kingdom has the second largest spending, refl ecting a number of ongoing

battlefield d i g i t i s a -tion pro-grammes. Spain, Italy, Germany, the Neth-e r l a n d s , and Greece are also

particularly large spenders in the market. Many other, smaller Eu-ropean nations have articulated long term plans for the develop-ment of C2 systems on a mod-erate scale. There are a number of small countries, particularly those in Eastern Europe, with very modest C2 programmes and spending priorities.

Michael Boag, defence analyst for Frost & Sullivan, says the majority of opportunities in this segment will be for “component manufacturers that can offer en-

hancements and new technolo-gies as incremental development programmes proceed.”

The most business opportunity “lies in the vehicle battle man-agement systems segment, par-ticularly in smaller nations, that are modernising or planning to re-equip their mechanised infan-try assets. The market is highly competitive and offsets are a ma-jor concern for many European governments.

“This market is generally frag-mented, with many small domes-tic participants, including gov-ernment-run defence technical establishments working on vari-ous C2 initiatives,” Dabrowski says. “However, on several ma-jor projects the big primes like Thales, EADS, Lockheed Martin Corp., General Dynamics Corp., BAE Systems, and their associ-ated businesses are capturing the market.

Boag says that specialised local companies, which play in different markets, are selling software and hardware for C2 systems in their respective domestic territory.

For more information on Frost & Sullivan research visit www.defence.frost.com.

The time and cost of such modifi -cations for the most part simply is not practical.

“The Air Force estimates that it takes $1 million and six months to one year to rewire an existing aircraft,” Decker explains. Such an operation often requires tech-nicians to remove and replace the skin of the aircraft to get to the 1553 wiring. “You have to use that existing wiring in a whole new way, or you have to rewire the aircraft,” Decker says.

Even if the Air Force had the money to rewire existing aircraft -- which it does not -- it would take 15 to 20 years to do the job, which would put most platforms at the end of their useful lives, ex-plains the Air Force’s Hopper.

The U.S. Air Force is sponsor-ing efforts to increase the speed of 1553, but using existing 1553 twisted-pair wiring and con-nectors. The three-part program is under supervision of the Air Force Research Laboratory and

Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as well as the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

The program at the Air Force Research Lab is called MIL-STD-1553 Performance Capability Expansion to 500 Megabits Per Second. Its developments feed into the Air Force Ageing Aircraft System Program Offi ce at Wright-Patterson, and to the Ogden Air Logistics Center.

“The C2 market in Europe is projected to be worth $5.43 billion over the 10 years, spanning 2005-2014,”

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®NEWSCourtney E. Howard


BAE Systems taps Enge-nuity’s VAPS to advance Eurofi ghter Typhoon

BAE Systems, as part of the Eurofi ghter GmbH consortium, is responsi-

ble for designing cockpit display graphics and symbology for the Eurofi ghter Typhoon swing-role combat aircraft. Aiding BAE Systems’ Eurofi ghter Enhanced Process and Toolset (EP/T) team in this task is VAPS, a Human Machine Interface design tool from Engenuity Technologies Inc. of Montreal.

Designed with an eye toward the future, the Typhoon is en-

g i n e e r e d to keep pace with E u r o p e ’ s e v o l v i n g air-defence needs and r e q u i r e -m e n t s t h r o u g h 2010, and p e r h a p s b e y o n d . Yet, future-p r o o f i n g

a high-technology aircraft, espe-cially its cockpit design and tool-set, proved no mean feat for BAE Systems engineers.

The EP/T Team at BAE Sys-tems, faced with the challenge of designing cockpit display graph-ics and symbology that would prove useful well into the future, began its efforts using the compa-ny’s in-house design solution.

“Due to existing limitations with the tool, as well as the asso-ciated future development, main-tenance, and support overhead, we decided instead to employ VAPS, Engenuity’s HMI design tool,” reasons Russell Porter, Eu-rofi ghter EP/T Cockpit working group leader. “Using VAPS will allow us to address current tool-

set obsolescence issues, as well as support future developments of the Typhoon’s aircraft cockpit symbology set.”

Porter and the EP/T Team credit the VAPS system with streamlining the product-devel-opment workfl ow. “This is the fi rst time that a single toolset has been used by different specialists in different phases of the software life-cycle to derive a common product,” notes Porter. “The use of the VAPS toolset provides us with the capability to develop a graphics-based expression of the product that is employed from the front-end prototype and re-quirement capture phases, right through to the formalized deliv-erable product.”

Lending to life-cycle improve-ments, the use of a single software product ensures graphical com-patibility across the Typhoon’s cockpit rig and onto the aircraft. “We will be able to employ a sin-gle graphics expression to be used throughout development and to satisfy desktop animation graph-ics requirements,” Porter says.

Porter is likewise optimistic that VAPS could contribute to time savings in symbology de-sign processes. In fact, he antici-pates that VAPS—by eliminating unit test and code walkthrough phases, as well as speeding the time from concept to initial rig test—could trim more than six months off future enhancements to the Typhoon symbology set. By making the graphical specifi -cation and animation of symbol-ogy readily available, VAPS is said to reduce the time involved in modifying and updating exist-ing symbology.

Engenuity’s VAPS cockpit de-sign tool incorporates two ele-ments, DesignDoc and VAPS

QCG. DesignDoc’s automatic document generation utility produces Microsoft Word fi les highlighting the details of VAPS-built HMIs, aiding BAE Systems in recording and updating its documentation. At the same time, VAPS QCG quantifi able code generator for VAPS models, presents the team with test and validation evidence against sup-plier-provided QCG certifi able code. BAE Systems, by receiv-ing their suppliers’ certifi cation evidence documentation and test results, can satisfy DO-178B re-quirements.

The Eurofi ghter Typhoon has received Type Acceptance, the fi nal stage of clearance by the NATO Eurofi ghter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA), which marks the beginning of the aircraft’s operational life and ena-bles its much-anticipated deliv-ery to the four partner countries. To date, only one of the 620 Ty-phoons planned for these nations has been delivered.

The Eurofi ghter GmbH consor-tium—composed of U.K.’s BAE Systems, EADS-D, EADS-CASA, and Alenia Aeronautica—heads up the development and produc-tion of the Typhoon’s weapon system. BAE Systems, more spe-cifi cally, is charged with the task of designing various aircraft ele-ments, including displays and controls, integrated monitoring and recording, avionic integra-tion, defensive aids, aircrew equipment assembly, crew es-cape, electrical, fuel, and life sup-port.

For more information about the Eurofi ghter Typhoon, BAE Sys-tems, or Engenuity’s VAPS, visit www.eurofi ghter.com, www.bae-systems.com, and www.engenui-tytech.com/eurofi ghter.

VAPS, a Human Machine Interface design tool from Engenuity Technolo-gies is aiding BAE Systems engineers as they design cock-pit display graphics and symbology for the Eurofi ghter Typhoon swing-role combat aircraft.

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®NEWSBen Ames


ESA names LogicaCMG to build satellite ground station

LONDON, -- The Euro-pean Space Agency (ESA) has selected LogicaCMG

to develop the mission control software for ESA’s Aeolus wind mapping satellite.

The Earth Explorer Atmospher-ic Dynamics Mission (ADM-Aeo-lus) will provide global observa-tions of wind profi les from space to improve the quality of weather forecasts, and to advance under-standing of atmospheric dynam-

ics and climate processes. The aim of the ADM-Aeolus

mission is to further knowledge of the Earth’s atmosphere and weather systems. By record-ing and monitoring the weather in different parts of the world, ADM-Aeolus will allow scien-tists to build complex models of our environment, which can then be used to help predict how that environment will behave in the future. These predictions will be useful in the short-term, since they can be applied to Numeri-

cal Weather Prediction in order to make forecasts more accurate.

The ADM-Aeolus mission will thus improve our knowledge of all sorts of weather phenomena, from global warming to the ef-fects of pollution. ADM-Aeolus will fl y in a rather low Sun-syn-chronous orbit of 400 kilometers and will always be in the dusk or dawn position. The wind will be measured at 90 degrees to the satellite ground track on the night

side of the Earth. Speaking at an in-

ternational sympo-sium in June, Gaele Winters, ESA’s di-rector of operations and infrastructure said “Cost reduc-tion and increased effi ciency in ground segment develop-ments and mission operation remain key factors for fu-ture mission sup-port.”

Winters cited ESA’s decision to develop com-mon and reusable components of the ground segment

which can be used to support a large variety of space missions; SCOS-2000, the generic space-craft monitoring and control in-frastructure is a highly successful example of ESA’s common infra-structure approach.

On the same day, LogicaCMG also announced the successful de-ployment of a new generation of ground control software, which will make future operations of Europe’s largest scientifi c satel-lite, XMM-Newton, more cost ef-fective.

“Reducing costs and increas-ing effi ciency are important not only for ESA but also for agencies worldwide,” adds ESA’s Paolo Maldari, the symposium Chair-man.

The XMM-Newton mission is currently approved until 2010 and the spacecraft has fuel to fl y for at least another decade, so an upgrade to the ground control system was regarded as essential to minimize long-term mainte-nance costs.

“In my opinion this has been an excellent, highly successful achievement made possible by working together as one team and delivering high quality from this hard work,” says ESA’s XMM-Newton mission manager, Fred Jansen. “In successfully upgrading not only the mission control system which controls the satellite, but also the scientifi c payload monitoring and product generation facility which controls the science outputs such as X-ray images, we have demonstrated that ESA’s SCOS-2000 system, designed as a mission control system, is also highly effi cient as a mission payload monitor-ing facility. The new system will provide XMM-Newton with a healthy baseline for what I expect to be a very long future.”

Launched at the end of 1999, XMM-Newton is designed and built to return data for at least a decade. It is the biggest science satellite ever built in Europe, LogicaCMG offi cials say. Its tele-scope mirrors are the most sensi-tive ever developed in the world, and with its sensitive detectors, it sees much more than any previ-ous X-ray satellite.

For more information, see www.logicacmg.com/uk.

Europe’s largest scientifi c satellite, XMM-Newton, will use LogicaCMG’s new generation of ground control software. Photo courtesy of the European Space Agency.

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®NEWSJohn McHale


Lithuanian Border Guard orders Eurocopter EC 135 and EC 145

MARIGNANE, Lithua-nia -- The Lithuanian Border Guard has

placed an order for two Euro-copter EC 135 and one EC 145 light-twin engine helicopters to complement its fl eet of two sin-gle-engine EC 120s which have been in service since 2003.

The contract enables Lithuania

to join the large number of law enforcement and homeland se-curity agencies in Europe already operating these helicopter types, and becomes fully compliant with European Commission and Schengen Agreement standards, Eurocpoter offi cials say. The three new helicopters will be delivered by the end of this year.

Lithuania has a border of about 650 kilometers with Belarus and a border of nearly 300 kilometers with Russia. The Eurocopter heli-copters are suitable for border

patrol operations as well as police service and will be used accord-ing to the demands of the struc-tural subdivisions under the Min-istry of the Interior. The EC 135s will be deployed at the country’s eastern frontier with Belarus and used for overland patrol. The EC 145 will be deployed at the Baltic Sea and used for the Coast Guard as well as for the guard of the frontier of the Kaliningrad dis-trict (Russia). It will be operated according to the Kaliningrad Dis-trict Transit Program.

The EC 135 and the EC 145 are the reference helicopters for law enforcement and homeland se-curity agencies in Europe. Cus-tomers already include the Ger-man Federal Police, the French Securité Civile and Gendarmerie, the Spanish Guardia Civil, Irish Garda and Irish Air Corps, Lon-don Metropolitan Police Authori-ty, and other U.K. police forces, as well as police helicopter squad-rons in Sweden, Norway, Germa-ny, the Czech Republic, Romania, and the United States.

Eurocopter has adapted its line of light twin-engine heli-copters very specifi cally to meet the demands of law enforcement and homeland security agencies. While the EC 135 has established itself as the standard police heli-copter all over Europe, the larger EC 145 is complementary with its ability to deliver a number of of-fi cers or heavy equipment to the scene of an incident, company of-fi cials say. Eurocopter leaders say this ability is relevant in the fi ght against terrorism.

Eurocopter’s new generation of aircraft has spacious and un-obstructed cabins, which are eas-

ily accessible through large side sliding doors and rear clamshell doors and can be easily reconfi g-ured. A variety of mission equip-ment packages is certifi ed and available, such as for surveillance, search, and rescue, emergency medical services, quick reaction missions, fi refi ghting, training or passenger transportation.

The helicopters have night-vi-sion goggle compatible, digital cockpits, and can be fi tted with FLIR (forward looking infrared), search light, rescue hoist and car-go hook, as the customer speci-fi es. Both the EC 135 and the EC 145 have the lowest noise emis-sion is their respective classes, Eurocopter offi cials say. Low noise is sought after by operators who regularly fl y over urban and built-up areas, or undertake sur-veillance and night missions and wish to remain undetected.

Eurocopter is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EADS. The EADS Group includes the aircraft manu-facturer Airbus, the world’s larg-est helicopter supplier Eurocop-ter and the joint venture MBDA, the international leader in mis-sile systems. EADS is the major partner in the Eurofi ghter con-sortium, is the prime contractor for the Ariane launcher, develops the A400M military transport air-craft and is the largest industrial partner for the European satellite navigation system Galileo.

For more on Eurocopter please visit www.eurocopter.com.

The Eurocopter EC 135 is pictured above.

For more on European air-craft platforms and avionics please see the Special Report on Avionics on .

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PAGE 08 / MARCH 2006FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 / PAGE 13WWW.MILAEROEUROPE.COM

Belgium names General Dynamics for armored vehiclesBelgian soldiers will soon be fi ghting in PIRAHNA IIIC 8x8 light armored vehicle.

The Belgian government chose General Dynamics for a $604 mil-lion contract to build 242 of the vehicles for its Armored Infan-try Vehicle (AIV) program. AIV will serve as the cornerstone of the transformation of the Bel-gian Army into a lighter, more deployable, lethal, survivable,

and sustainable force. Plans call for seven variants of the vehicle: infantry carrier, armored per-sonnel carrier with medium ca-liber gun, direct fi re, command post, engineering, ambulance, and recovery. All are built by MOWAG GmbH, a part of Gen-eral Dynamics European Land Combat Systems. Delivery of the fi rst 138 vehicles will occur from 2007 to 2012; additional vehicles

could be delivered from 2012 to 2015 if all options are exercised. For more information, see www.mowag.ch.

Key requirements for the AIV program included on- and off-road mobility, crew comfort and safety, vehicle versatility, a high level of protection for the vehicle crews against mines and ballistic weapons, and integration of vari-ous weapon stations, electronic

warning and communication systems. The PIRAHNA offers high commonality and compat-ibility within the AIV fl eet and with other vehicles of the Bel-gian Army and NATO countries. More than 3000 PIRANHA III-based vehicles are in service with or in production for NATO and European countries Denmark, Spain, U.S., Canada, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Lufthansa picks Northrop Grumman for aircraft navigationLeaders of the German state airline Lufthansa have picked Northrop Grumman’s Naviga-tion Systems Division in Wood-land Hills, Calif., to provide its new LTN-101E inertial reference units for 10 Airbus A380 aircraft.

Air data inertial reference units provide aircrews with essential aircraft operational data such as aircraft position, velocities, atti-tude, altitude, air speed and many other parameters. Lufthansa will operate the fi rst four aircraft in the summer fl ight plan period 2008. The Northrop Grumman LTN-101E inertial reference unit replaces ring-laser gyro technol-ogy with fi ber-optic gyros and

micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) silicon accelerometers that are more reliable and easier to maintain. It is interchangeable and intermixable with the earlier LTN-101 system utilized on Air-bus aircraft, including the, A320, A330, A340, and A380. Fiber-optic gyros and MEMS accelerometer enhancements provide the LTN-101E with a three-fold increase in system reliability, a signifi cant savings in weight and power and a reduction in the overall cost of ownership over ring-laser gyro units used in most other inertial reference units. Enhancements over its predecessor, the LTN-101, include a more than 50 percent

reduction in electronic modules, faster processors, and a new in-terface bus that speeds transfer of data within the aircraft.

Using Northrop Grumman’s AIME algorithm, the system inte-grates inertial and GPS measure-ments to provide accurate aircraft position. Northrop Grumman’s Navigation Systems Division -- part of the company’s Electronic Systems sector -- supplies situ-ational-awareness products for in-ternational and domestic defence and commercial markets and of-fers integrated avionics, naviga-tion, and positioning systems and sensors. For more information, see www.northropgrumman.com.

Slovakiapicks BAE Systems for military radioBAE Systems has been selected by the Slovak Ministry of De-fence to deliver a fully U.S., E.U., and NATO-interoperable mo-bile military communications system (MOKYS) to the Slovak armed forces.

Prime contractor BAE Systems will work with team members Ericsson of Sweden, Rhode & Schwarz of Germany, and North-rop Grumman of the U.S. In de-livering MOKYS, this team will be further enhanced by leading Slovak companies including Corinex, VOP Presov, Delta B, Vyvoj Martin, and Lynx. The BAE Systems solution is based on In-ternet Protocol (IP) architecture with integrated security and au-tomated command and control. This advanced system architec-ture reduces cost and complexity and provides software defi ned waveform capability for future growth. BAE Systems, a leader in the delivery of industrial part-nership benefi ts in support of defense equipment sales, is cur-rently delivering a national iden-tifi cation friend or foe (IFF) solu-tion to the Slovak Army and Air Force, in partnership with LOT of Trenchin and other Slovak companies. For more informa-tion, see www.baesystems.com.

Meggitt makes electronics for Eurofi ghter upgradeThe Eurofi ghter Typhoon jet will gain advanced avionics in its second tranche upgrade thanks to components from Meggitt PLC, of Dorset, England.

Three divisions of Meggitt won the orders, worth a com-bined 63.2 million pounds ster-ling. Meggitt Avionics has won a 34 million-pound deal to supply more than 1,000 air data trans-ducers between now and 2012. It is the largest single order won by

the division and follows its com-pletion of more than 600 trans-ducers for the fi rst tranche of the project.

Dunlop Aerospace Braking Systems has received a 25 mil-lion-pound order for Eurofi ght-er’s wheels, brakes, and braking systems. And Vibro-Meter UK, which designs and makes vi-bration monitoring systems for propulsion units for commer-cial aircraft, helicopters, military

aerospace and industrial instal-lations, received a 4.2 million-pound order for engine tempera-ture sensors and other products. The fi rst of the 620 Eurofi ghter Typhoons planned for the four partner nations was delivered in 2003 and more than 60 aircraft out of 148 in the fi rst tranche of production have been delivered. Tranche two covers 236 aircraft. For more information, see www.meggitt.com.

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SPECIAL REPORTJohn McHale



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Avionics technology embraces digital standards

Upgraded avionics for aircraft platforms – military and civil-ian – are not just about glass

cockpits with multiple displays replac-ing traditional instrument panels, but about developing standard technology in an open architecture to adopt the lat-est high-performance computing tech-nology.

Embracing such technology also re-quires avionics designers to plan for in-evitable obsolescence issues.

“With demands to reduce develop-ment and procurement costs in both military and civil avionic systems, the concept of supplying standard, open- architecture computer systems is be-coming a reality,” says Rick Schuh, vice president of sales at Condor Engineering Europe, in Monmouthshire, U.K. “Initially, only non-critical ap-plications such as passenger entertainment and cargo/payload management systems were addressed, but the push for higher integrity systems is now happening.

Environmental requirements are of course harsher, so commercial grade cards must be ruggedized to enable them to sustain reliable operation. Survivability over wider temperature and pressure ranges and more ro-bust vibration and shock environments are required. “

The accelerated migration of digital technology into military and civil avionics has become quite widespread and as part of this evolution many stand-alone systems in single enclosures have been transformed into inter-connected subsystems, Condor offi cials say. Though such systems may still be partitioned, both physically and functionally, tying them all together electrically, via databuses, has enhanced effectiveness and has also made it easier to utilize available sensing and process-

ing resources, thereby reducing overall life-cycle costs. “That is why the very backbone of modern avionics

systems has become the digital communications net-work, or simply the databus,” Schuh says. “Over the past three decades, a number of standard designs have proven themselves and therefore have become widely adopted — such as MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429 and AR-INC 664.”

Airbus and ARINC 429 For its new A380 super-jumbo passenger jet, Airbus

Industrie in Toulouse, France, created a replacement for the ARINC 429 communications bus that Thierry Har-quin, senior manager for avionics and electromechani-cal systems, says the European airframer hopes will become the new industry standard.

“The AFDX (aircraft full duplex switch) is based on the Ethernet bus,” he says. “On some aircraft, you need to make certain the message will take a specifi c time to go from source to destination. For this determinism, we add a layer of protocols on top of the classic Ethernet bus-seven layers on each bus, the physical layer at the bottom, the application layers at the top. On the top lay-ers, the most intelligent, we have put some actionable protocols to enhance the Ethernet.

“Airbus has been working with the entire commu-

PAGE 14 / FEBRUARY 2006 WWW.MILAEROEUROPE.COM

“That is why the very backbone of modern avionics systems has become the digital com-munications network, or simply the databus,”

The new Airbus A380 jetliner is one example of avionics developed with commercial and military technologies.

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Themis’ Slice technology is a breakthrough in lifecycle management for mission-critical computing.

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nity to create this as a standard in the avionics world, so it also can be used by Boeing for the 787. But the A380 will be the fi rst to have this communications bus, which has a much higher bandwidth than the ARINC 429, the current (commercial) avionics standard. With it, we were limited in to 100 kilobits per second, which lim-ited communications, especially in terms of displays. To install an interactive cockpit, we needed higher band-width; the AFDX can potentially go to 100 megabits per second.”

While specifi cally developed for commercial airlin-ers, Harquin says the AFDX may fi nd military applica-tions as a substitute for the 1553.

The Airbus A400M military transport aircraft, mean-while, is an example of systems developed for the mili-tary-glass cockpits, head-up displays, and electronic vision systems for bad weather moving into the com-mercial world. While HUD and EVS will not be avail-able for the start of service for the A380, he says it will be proposed for it and all future Airbus programs, in-cluding the A350.

Generic modules Harquin says a signifi cant avionics advance on the

A380 is a modular concept, using generic modules and boards for specifi c function sets.

“Previously, when you developed an avionics com-ponent, you had a supplier provide a specifi c board, with each supplier doing that for each function needed, such as the fl ight management system (FMS), with the supplier providing the computer and boards and per-haps software. Then each time you have another func-tion, you need another box developed by another sup-plier,” he explains.

“With the A380, we asked two hardware suppli-ers to develop generic hardware modules, such as the processing and input/output modules; these generic boards can host multiple functions, such as displays, warnings, communications and other functions. FMS is a separate system. We also asked for the development of software that can be hosted on these generic line-re-placeable units.”

These developments facilitated the Airbus move




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SPECIAL REPORT

The Integrity real-time operating system (RTOS) and AdaMULTI Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from Green Hills Soft-ware in Winchester, U.K., are being used in the development and implementation of mission-critical systems deployed in the latest Eurofi ghter Typhoon aircraft.

The Integrity RTOS is being used as a critical component in a number of the aircraft’s “line-replaceable” items, Green Hills Soft-ware offi cials say.

Eurofi ghter Typhoon is swing-role combat aircraft, developed by Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The Eurofi ghter Typhoon will fulfi ll European Air Force requirements well into the mid-21st Century. The aircraft is in full production and has been in service with all partner air forces since 2004. 638 aircraft are under contract for the four Nations and Austria, the fi rst export customer.

“The Integrity RTOS is an essential element in delivering the levels of system availability and reliability that are required by a number of computers being developed for Eurofi ghter Typhoon,” says David Smith, software manager, of Eurofi ghter GmbH, the consortium managing Eurofi ghter’s development and production.

The Integrity RTOS should contribute to the success of the second stage of the Eurofi ghter program,” says Jon Williams, European di-rector of safety critical business for Green Hills Software. “This evo-lution, which includes a move to PowerPC devices, greatly benefi ts from the use of the Integrity RTOS, which maximizes security and reliability and leverages the hardware memory protection facilities of the PowerPC processor. In addition, the AdaMULTI IDE provides an intuitive tool for testing during both software design and pro-duction.”

Integrity is a scalable, ROMable, and memory-protected RTOS. Leveraging the hardware memory protection facilities of the Pow-erPC processor’s Memory Management Unit (MMU), the RTOS maximizes security and reliability by building a fi rewall between the kernel and user tasks, Green Hills offi cials say. This prevents

errant or malicious tasks from corrupting user data, the kernel, in-terprocess communications, device drivers, and other user tasks. In addition, the RTOS guarantees the availability of system resources like the CPU and memory to application processes, making it more secure and deterministic than conventional embedded operating systems, company offi cials say.

Green Hills Software is also providing EADS Deutschland GmbH with INTEGRITY-178B, Green Hills Software’s ARINC 653-1 op-erating system, and MULTI development tools for EADS’ Mission Management Computer.

The Modular Mission Avionics Computer M2AC, now under de-velopment by EADS Defense Electronics, is a confi gurable, modular avionics computer intended for a variety of military airborne plat-forms including the new Airbus A400M military airlifter. EADS De-fense Electronics, supplier of radar, avionics and electronic warfare systems, is an integrated part of the EADS Defense and Security Sys-tems Divi-sion (DS). E A D S ’ M2AC will be used on the Airbus A400M for a number of applications i n c l u d i n g the Mission M a n a g e -ment Com-puter.

For more information on Green Hills Software visit www.ghs.com. For more on the Eurofi ghter go online at www.eurofi ghter.com.

Integrity fl ies on Eurofi ghter Typhoon

The Eurofoghter Typhoon aircraft uses Green Hills Integrity real-time operating system

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from cathode-ray tubes to liquid-crystal-display tech-nology, while meeting a strict requirement for lifecycle cost savings and pilot workload benefi ts for their airline customers, Harquin maintains.

“The ability to develop new avionics on generic plat-forms and to develop a new high-speed bus are our pri-

mary enabling technologies,” he says. “Future develop-ment requirements include higher bandwidth, between aircraft and ground, to exchange increasing levels of data. We imagine all sorts of solutions to be able to do that.

“There also is a general trend toward integration. But we still have a high consideration to avoid creating new common points of failure mode, so we have two power supplies for this new cabin,” he adds. “If we lose one power supply, we don’t lose four functions. That also would be a benefi t for the airlines in terms of reduc-ing spares. For example, for the A380, we developed a surveillance cabinet that replaced four boxes with one-weather radar, transponder, TCAS, and ground prox-imity warning system.”

Unmanned platformsBattlefi eld commanders are relying more and more

on unmanned aerial vehicles to not only perform recon-naissance but to deliver lethality as well.

Funding for these aircraft is expected grow exponen-tially over the next decade, to give these autonomous aircraft the state-of-the-art technology that includes digital avionics.

One of the most prominent is the United Kingdom’s WatchKeeper program, recently awarded to Thales.

WatchKeeper will provide U.K. Armed Forces with an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and re-connaissance (ISTAR) capability based on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system and will be a key element of the U.K. military’s Network Enabled Capability. This capability is expected to become operational in 2010.

The WatchKeeper programme is based on Elbit Sys-tems’ Hermes 450 UAV designs, and the program re-cently received “best practices” recognition from the UK National Audit Offi ce (NAO). Using a range of tactical UAVs, WatchKeeper will be a key component of network-centric warfare and will provide the British armed forces with decisive ISTAR capabilities.

Watchkeeper will use NATO standard data links and international standards for image data transfer will contribute to system interoperability and work with

“Funding for these aircraft is expected grow exponentially over the next decade”

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SPECIAL REPORT

Equipment manufacturers and systems integrators are faced with a multiplicity of challenges regarding digital avionics such as the testing, verifying and the simulating of these systems.

An industry has evolved to meet these challenges. It involves supplying interface cards that enable the various avionics databus-es to communicate with computer systems via standard backplane architectures such as PCI, Compact PCI, and VME.

These interface board products are becoming widely used in ap-plications such as:• avionics production test systems;

• systems integration and development set-ups;

• stand-alone, databus de-bugging and monitoring tools;

• fl ight test and instrumentation systems; and

• fl ight simulators.

These test and simulation applications not only require host computers to be able to communicate with the avionics databus; they must offer additional functionality such as data recording, er-ror injection and detection — as well as archive data analysis and playback, says Rick Schuh, vice president of sales at Condor Engi-neering Europe, in Monmouthshire, U.K. In addition, the various application sectors listed above demand a variety of functional re-quirements for the specifi c interface cards.

For example, in an avionics production environment at a com-pany that manufactures fl ight management computers (FMCs), a likely requirement will require verifying the overall functional operation of the unit under test (UUT). In this scenario the interface card must generate realistic data to stimulate the UUT and moni-tor its response as well as be able to simulate failure conditions –

making hence error injection and detection a frequent requirement.Airborne fl ight test instrumentation systems monitor and record

avionics data for verifi cation of aircraft designs. Betatech, a small avionics engineering company based near Tou-

louse, France, is a case in point, Condor offi cials say. Betatech en-gineers developed a cost-effective, on-board computer system for fl ight test instrumentation, called the Serial Kit Computer (CKS). This is a 3U CompactPCI system for performing fl ight test on pro-duction aircraft prior to delivery. It is the core of a light–weight fl ight test installation and therefore a reduced version of the entire fl ight test installation used to test the airplane. The CKS provides interfaces with all the other systems of the fl ight test installation and the avionic computers, including:

• 16 discrete inputs;

• 24 discrete outputs;

• 4 serial links (RS-232,RS-422,RS-485, software confi gurable);

• 4 independent Ethernet lines;

• 7 ARINC 429 outputs;

• 1 ARINC 573 input; and

• 1 PCM IRIG 106 input.

All the ARINC interfaces are based upon the Condor Engineering CEI-820 PMC with rear I/O.

The computer architecture is based on two Compact PCI back-planes with each backplane employing a 1.8- gigahertz CPU and a maximum of boards with rear I/O to reduce cabling. The eight-slot backplane supports all the acquisition boards and processes the data required for the tests, Condor offi cials say.

U.S. and U.K. network centric capability.Cubic Defense Applications in Greenford, U.K., is

supplying its ad-vanced data link technology for the WatchKeeper pro-gram. The contract was awarded by UAV Tactical Sys-tems, a subcontrac-tor to the Thales UK WatchKeeper Prime Contract Management Of-fi ce.

Cubic’s spec-trally effi cient Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) and High Integ-

rity Data Link (HIDL) will be employed for this pro-gram. The TCDL will enable WatchKeeper to transfer time-critical information from multiple UAVs operating in the same geographical area without mutual interfer-ence. The HIDL, developed for command and control of

UAVs, will provide WatchKeeper with a versatile, pro-grammable back-up link, Cubic offi cials say.

This contract shows how this data link technology en-ables better command and control for UAV operations, says Rick Lober, senior vice president of Cubic’s Com-munication and Electronics business unit.

The WatchKeeper WK180 and WK450 would be based on the Elbit Hermes 450 tactical UAVs, although the U.K. Ministry of Defence has indicated that it is not proceed-ing with the WK180 and will concentrate on the larger WK450 platform. WatchKeeper will be an important ca-pability as part of a complementary suite of ISTAR sys-tems, such as ASTOR and other manned reconnaissance systems as a core element of the Ministry of Defence’s Network-Enabled Capability strategy. The aim is to bring WatchKeeper into service from 2010.

Thales UK and its team were selected in July 2004 as preferred bidders for this fi nal phase of the WatchKeeper program. In addition to Cubic industrial WatchKeeper team also includes LogicaCMG in Leatherhead, U.K. for digital battlespace integration.

A joint venture company, UAV Tactical Systems Ltd (U-TacS), based in Leicester, U.K. has been set up by Thales UK and Elbit to produce the WatchKeeper system in the U.K.

Interface cards enable avionics databuses to communicate across backplanes

Cockpits in advanced commercial jetliners such as the Airbus A380, shown above, rely heavily on fast data networking, fl at-panel displays, and fl ight computers developed with dual-use military and civil applications in mind.

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Military computing trendsto look out for in 2006

2006 promises to be an interesting year for the European military and defence market, not least because it is expected to be a year in which some

signifi cant computing technology developments will occur. The challenge for designers, developers, and users of military computing technology is, as it has al-ways been, to select not just the products offering the best price/performance available today – but to assess the underlying trends that will mark a technology as having a long-term future or not. Although the Euro-pean military computing market is more dependent on custom and modifi ed commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions than its counterpart in North Amer-ica, the challenge is no less: the underlying technolo-gies are the same. This article attempts to predict what 2006 will bring in terms of technology roadmaps.

Pumping up performanceAn ongoing challenge for board designers is how to

respond to customer demand for increasing functional-ity and performance within the constraints of the 6U or 3U form factor. Here, silicon integration is the key – combining multiple separate devices into a single de-vice delivers not only superior performance but also frees up board real estate to allow new functionality to be added. An example of this is Freescale’s next genera-

tion MPC 8641 processor, expected to appear in military products later this year, which features a dual integrat-ed memory controller, four Gigabit Ethernet controllers on-chip and as many as two 8x PCI Express interfaces. The MPC8641 is also representative of another phenom-enon that will assume increasing importance in the mili-

tary market: the MPC8641D (see Figure 1) is a dual core processor, integrating two e600 cores. Dual core proces-sors from Intel and AMD are already established at the high end of the desktop PC market. The major hardware manufacturers have committed to the MPC8641 for fu-ture products and, for customers, this new generation of processors will deliver boards that perform better, and that feature additional functionality.

The PowerPC has long been the processor architec-ture of choice for military and defence applications, not least because it has provided the basis for processor boards that have offered increased perform-ance year on year while retaining compatibility with its predecessors – al-lowing customers a seam-less and largely pain-free upgrade path. However, it is unquestionably true that the military market is beginning to look with in-terest at the ever-increas-ing processing power be-coming available in the PC market, and 2006 may well be a year in which the trickle of ‘desktop technology’ be-comes a fl ood. There are already more Intel-based proc-essor boards available for European military customers than there were a year ago, and recent developments have seen state of the art graphics processors based, not

“An ongoing challenge for board designers is how to respond to customer demand for in-creasing functionality and performance within the constraints of the 6U or 3U form factor.”

Figure 1: The MPC8641D integrates two e600 cores.


TECHNOLOGY FOCUSDavid Compston, director of marketing, Radstone Embedded Computing



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David Compston

director of marketing, Radstone Embedded Computing

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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

Boeing selected Radstone Embedded Computing’s standalone GS16 Rugged Gigabit Ethernet Switch to take part in a successful F-15E1 test mission to demonstrate the capabilities of the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA’s) TTNT (Tactical Targeting Network Technology) program. The mission – known as the TTNT Phase 3 Demonstration, and which saw the GS16 deployed with fi ve of its sixteen available connec-tions hooked via a local area network to devices on the aircraft – was completed in September 2005.

The purpose of DARPA’s TTNT program is to re-search new technologies that can improve the precision and speed with which tactical targets can be located in a distributed sensor environment – for example, mul-tiple aircraft and multiple ground stations cooperating to locate and act on the same targets, Radstone offi cials say. The September 2005 mission was executed in a real ‘tactical thread’ with real fi ghter aircraft under real con-ditions – but with simulated targets.

According to DARPA, the TTNT network success-fully demonstrated the ability to:• transmit data at speeds of two megabits per second over distances greater than 100 nautical miles;

• maintain a network with a 10 megabit per second capacity;

• transmit data further than 100 nautical miles in less than two milliseconds in a low latency mode;

• coexist with the military’s existing Link 16 network;

• register new platforms within fi ve seconds of entry into the network;

• transmit data in excess of 300 nautical miles; and

• route data across multiple nodes beyond line of sight, including sending tactical Internet protocol ap-plications from aircraft to the surrogate CAOC at Chi-na Lake and to Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., and the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.

The next mission in the program, known as the JEFX (Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment), will take place in April 2006, and is designed to explore the benefi ts and opportunities of further increasing the network-ing capabilities deployed on fi ghter aircraft.

Radstone takes part in successful TTNT demonstration

For more information on the GS16 Rugged Gigabit Ethernet Switch please visit www.radstone.com.

Discover PowerNode5, the first rugged6U VME version of the IBM JS20™dual PowerPC 970™ blade server.PowerNode5 provides outstandingperformance with full binary JS20compatibility, now adapted to today’sembedded systems requirements.It’s the right solution when you needto combine leading-edge processortechnology and legacy equipment all in ahighly robust package.Choose between standard convectioncooled and rugged conduction cooledversions for harsh environmentapplications. Whatever solution youchoose, you’ll get dual IBM 970FX™processors clocked at 1.6Ghz and upto 2GB DDR SDRAM ECC memory withan outstanding 6.4 GB/s memory peakbandwidth. Applications can be developedon a low cost, standard IBM blade

server and easily deployedon the PowerNode5 system.What’s more, thanks to thesmooth migration path fromPowerPC Altivec™-basedplatforms as well as asoftware insulation layercommon with previousversions your legacysoftware investments arepreserved. Choose betweenboard component versions(the PowerNode5) or thepre-integrated PowerMP5.Transport and management softwareare standards-based and both productsrun Red Hat Linux or Wind RiverVxWorks. No wonder more blue-chipcompanies are turning to ruggedizedsolutions from Thales Computers tomeet their critical computing needs.

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PowerNode5: the rugged blade server that keeps you on the cutting edge.

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“VME was fi rst conceived in Europe (few now recall that VME stands for Versa Module Eurocard) and celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.”

Figure 2: PCI Express (PCIe) performance will substantially outstrip that of AGP.



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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS


on the traditional military/defence graphics technology but on PC gaming technology such as the nVidia Ge-Force 7800GT graphics card.

Switched fabricsAnother area where Intel may well make inroads into

the defence market is in the area of switched fabrics. These interconnected networks of switching devices, designed for fast, concurrent, reliable and transparent data transfer, are already an integral feature of the mili-tary computing landscape. The question, however, for

board manufacturers and users alike is “Which will be the winner?” Infi niBand, RapidIO, StarFabric, and even switched Gigabit Ethernet have all been mooted as con-tenders, and all have their merits. Thus far, StarFabric

can probably claim the most support, even though it does not have all the fl exibility or functionality of some of the other contenders: its upside is wide availability and thus compatibility and interoperability.

But once Intel enters a market, all bets are off. The CompactPCI architecture is already an established trend and has made some inroads into territories that were traditionally considered as belonging to VMEbus – and in the switched fabric arena, Intel’s offering is PCI Ex-press – the latest implementation of its desktop PC PCI architecture which has, for example, already supplanted the AGP graphics architecture, such is its performance (see Figure 2). Not far down the track is PCI Express

Advanced Switching Interconnect (ASI), and the threat it poses to other contenders is not just the leverage that comes with the Intel name and the price/performance advantages associated with the mass market for PCs. Where the alternative technologies have, increasingly, begun to seek niches within the switched fabric space, PCI Express and ASI target them all. ASI already has momentum in Europe in the telecoms fi eld: both Sie-mens and Nokia Networks for example, are members of the ASI SIG (Special Interest Group).

The coming year will include much more discus-sion about the advantages of ASI, which is designed to provide optimum performance for processor-to-processor and processor-to-I/O device connections in board-to-board, backplane and fabric designs. The PCI Express core specifi cation provides a unifying standard for consolidating a number of I/O solutions within a platform, and the Advanced Switching layer enhances the core specifi cation by leveraging the momentum of the desktop PCI standard and adding all of the protocol necessary for performance in the embedded computing world.

For military switched fabric users, commercial con-siderations – such as widespread market support, likely longevity, and attractive pricing – weigh at least as heav-ily as pure performance, and these factors are likely to see Intel prevail: InStat/MDR, for example, predict that of over 300 million chip-to-chip interfaces sold in 2008, close to 250 million will be PCI Express.

Future VITA standardsWidespread market support, longevity and attractive

pricing have been key factors in the continuing success of the VMEbus architecture. VME was fi rst conceived in Europe (few now recall that VME stands for Versa Module Eurocard) and celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. Its strength has been its ability to evolve and adapt in response to changing customer needs and changing technologies – and it has done so again with the VITA 46 (now known as VPX) and VITA 48 stand-ards. Designed primarily to give VMEbus users access to the high-speed switched fabrics that are increasingly underpinning the development of advanced, multiproc-essing signal processing platforms, VPX has at its centre a new, high speed connector capable of transfer rates of as fast as 6.25 gigabits per second.

Not only does VPX give users access to switched fab-rics: it also allows high speed I/O – such as is required for digital video, or for fi ber optic connectivity – to be confi gured from the rear panel, eliminating the main-tenance and form factor issues that arose as a result of the requirement to confi gure them from the front. VPX can accommodate multiple 10-gigabit-per-second links, with the potential for as fast as 8 terabits per second within the enclosure.

Beyond this, VPX features a grounding system that protects against electro-static discharge (ESD), enabling VPX modules to be used in military two-level mainte-

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“Historically, however, 3U VMEbus has struggled to gain acceptance.”

Figure 3: a hybrid chassis, capable of supporting VMEbus and VPX boards simultane-ously, is fundamental to the thinking behind VPX.



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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS


“The art is to intercept those trends in today’s designs for tomorrow’s systems.”

nance systems: modules can be withdrawn without the need for electrostatic precautions to be taken by the op-erator, and as long as the board itself has been appropri-ately designed.

Just as VITA 46 is becoming known as VPX, so VITA 48 is becoming known as ‘VPX REDI’ – for Ruggedized Enhanced Design Implementation. As the new name im-plies, VPX REDI addresses itself to the challenges pre-sented by ruggedization and, specifi cally, to the need to

dissipate the increasing amounts of heat that are a func-tion of faster processors and greater functional density – and the serial switched fabrics which are the ‘raison d’être’ for VPX. VPX REDI concerns itself with cooling and, notably, with liquid fl ow-through (LFT) cooling – an approach which is widely recognized as having the best potential for removing heat from boxes whose

power dissipation is measured in kilowatts. It also cre-ates a standard for quick-disconnects (QDs) at the board or module level which will allow a degree of interoper-ability between different manufacturers’ liquid-cooled

solutions than has previously been possible. Of particular interest to VMEbus users is the concept,

integral to the VPX standard, of a hybrid chassis (see fi gure 3) which will accommodate both VMEbus and VPX boards in a single enclosure. The thinking behind this is to provide a way for VMEbus users to migrate and upgrade legacy systems as simply and inexpen-sively as possible. VPX and VPX REDI support the 3U and 6U 0.8-inch pitch form factors that are at the heart of the VMEbus world, and will thus accommodate all VMEbus modules: a hybrid chassis would include variable numbers of VME64 and VPX slots, allowing a legacy system to co-exist with, and be integrated with, a newly-developed system, achieving full interoperabil-ity over the VME bus.

For example, a legacy system comprising a processor board, memory and an I/O module could be accommo-dated in three VMEbus slots of a hybrid chassis, with advanced functionality VPX boards occupying other slots within the same chassis: importantly, the legacy system is integrated via the VME architecture which al-lows communication between all the slots.

As with the MPC8641 processor architecture, major defense computing manufacturers are committing to support of the VPX and VPX REDI standards and have announced plans to ship their fi rst products during 2006.

3U and PMCMany industry commentators believe that VPX will

really come into its own in conjunction with the 3U form factor. The focus in the United States on ‘network-centric’ warfare, and programmes such as FCS (Future Combat Systems) - and similarly in the United Kingdom with the FRES (Future Rapid Effect System) require-ment - is, in turn, directing attention towards platforms that are smaller and lighter in weight and capable, for example, of deployment in unmanned vehicles such as the U.K. Watchkeeper programme.

With the increasing functional density of today’s sili-con, as noted previously, it is now becoming possible to deliver levels of performance on a 3U card that was previously only considered possible on the larger real estate of a 6U card. Historically, however, 3U VMEbus has struggled to gain acceptance. The relative diffi culty of dissipating heat from a smaller form factor, and the fact that the full 64-bit implementation of VMEbus is available only in the 6U format have been less important drawbacks to 3U than its inability to provide anything but negligible rear I/O, thus greatly reducing its fl ex-ibility. One of the key benefi ts of VPX is that it features better provisioning for rear I/O – making 3U a more vi-able format. Customers can expect to see a number of innovations, based on the 3U/VPX combination, during 2006.

There is also likely to be continuing emphasis on I/O – in fact, it promises to become the key differentiator in a processor board market that has become increas-

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The ICS-8550 ADC XMC module with its onboard Virtex-4 FPGA is representative of new generations of boards designed to bring processing closer to the sensor



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TECHNOLOGY FOCUS


ingly commoditised over time. In fact, there is a school of thought that says, in effect, that the PMC is now the computer with the processor board being merely a con-venient anchor for mezzanines that defi ne the ‘real’ solution. A challenge faced by board manufacturers is how to increase the real estate available for mezzanines while complying with the relevant standards. It’s a chal-

lenge being met by ‘fl exible I/O cards’ which comple-ment the PMCs and which can be confi gured and built to specifi c customer I/O requirements at a fraction of the cost of developing a new board. Critical to the systems designers on the multi–national Eurofi ghter Typhoon programme will be to utilise these upcoming technical advances and couple them with real cost savings in an-ticipation of export orders.

Future performanceNetwork-centric warfare, by defi nition, is about the

capture, processing and distribution of information. Acquisition of data through sensors, for example, chal-lenges computing platforms because of the number of sensors, the bandwidth of the data, its complexity and the requirement to extract meaningful information from it in real time. FPGA and DSP technology will continue to be in the forefront, with processing of data moving ever closer to the sensor in order to cope with high vol-umes of input. Multi-processing platforms will increas-ingly become the norm, their development speeded by sophisticated software tools that allow the devel-opment and testing cycle to be substantially reduced. Unmanned vehicles will leverage highly capable video tracking and processing platforms, becoming less de-pendent on ground-based operators and becoming ca-pable of higher degrees of self-determination.

The key trends, then, to look out for in 2006 are in-tegrated bridge, multicore processors; more adop-tion of Intel processors and desktop PC technology; progressive acceptance of PCI Express and PCI Express ASI; VPX, VPX REDI and hybrid chassis; 3U VPX form factor solutions; processor boards with richer I/O func-tionality; and increasingly complex, highly sca able multiprocessor platforms for signal processing. The de-velopment of standards covering an even broader range of applications and environments – as with VPX REDI – is especially important to international collaborations such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, and developments in technology will unquestionably bring signifi cant benefi ts to military computing users in E rope. The art is to intercept those trends in today’s de-signs for tomorrow’s systems.

Radstone also offers the VPX connector for VITA 46 applications.

PennWell’s VITA Web Casts

For more on VITA standards please be sure to check out our archived VITA Web Casts: VITA 41, originally broadcast: January 31, 2006 plus VITA 46: Strategies, risks and opportunities, originally broadcast: September 27, 2005. They can be accessed at http://mae.pennnet.com/web-cast/list_webcasts.cfm.

Registration is FREE!

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Military & Aerospace ElectronicsFranchise 2006

• National &InternationalMagazines

• Websites

• E-Newsletter

• Buyers Guide

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The V4DSP FPGA/PowerPC processor from Radstone in Towcester, U.K., responds to customer demand for increas-ingly powerful front end signal processing solutions and refl ects the trend towards reconfi gura-ble computing in applications such as signal processing, radar, and software defi ned radio.

Designed for the harsh envi-ronments typical of military and defense applications and featur-ing two of the latest Virtex 4 FX 60/100 FPGA nodes from Xilinx, together with a top-end (operat-ing at speeds up to 1.4 gigahertz)

MPC7448 PowerPC featuring the AltiVec general purpose process-ing node, the V4DSP also pro-vides support for Radstone’s AXIS Advanced Multiprocessor Integrated Software environ-ment, enabling the development of highly scalable multiprocessor systems. The V4DSP features two StarFabric ports at the P0 connec-tor to enable multiboard connec-tivity, and a choice of mezzanine support: either a 64-bit/66 mega-hertz PMC site can be confi gured, or an XMC site equipped with eight MultiGigabit Transceivers to the two Virtex 4 nodes, each

operating at up to 3.125 gigahertz to yield excep-tional mezzanine band-width. Combining fi eld programmable gate ar-ray and general-purpose processing capability on a single-board can, de-pending on the applica-tion, reduce the number of slots required.

Digital signal processing boards

DSP/FPGA board

Barco offers thin displayBarco in Kortrijk, Belgium has released the TL-248, the fi rst display in a brand-new family of thin and lightweight visuali-zation solutions for the defence and security community.

Combining thinness with low weight, the TL-248 provides a semi-rugged display solution for all applications where space and weight are critical, Barco offi cials say. The TL-248 features a fi rst-class 19-inch active matrix liquid crystal display. The TL-248 ena-bles integrators a new degree of freedom to optimise their designs and reduce costs with its versa-tility, company offi cials say. The

display comes as an enclosed, semi-rugged unit. A broad choice of mounting options allows for a host of confi gurations, be it open, top-down or side-by-side. For more information on Barco visit www.barco.com.

Wind River Systems, in Swinden, United Kingdom has announced the release of VxWorks 653 v2.1, its enhanced ARINC 653 IMA plat-form for safety-critical systems.

Delivering new enhanced safe-ty and architecture features, Wind River’s ARINC 653 device soft-ware platform now enables aero-space and defence device manu-facturers to develop and maintain safety-critical, standards-based, integrated modular applications faster and more reliably, compa-ny offi cials say. “Customers need proven solutions that provide for ease of certifi cation and the secu-rity to ensure their devices are al-ways interoperable, reliable and reusable,” says John Fanelli, vice president of product management and planning at Wind River. Wind River now provides the following

features and functionality: a com-plete, eclipse-based development environment for ARINC 653; up-dated DO-178B Level A certifi ca-tion artifacts; DO-178B qualifi ed tools; and a XML confi guration tool for device certifi cation for IMA. “This DO-178B qualifi ed development tool supports the deployment and maintenance of complex ARINC 653 systems. It improves confi dence in the inte-grated system, thereby reducing time-to-fl ight,” says George Ro-manski, chief executive offi cer of Verocel. “By controlling and isolating changes to confi gura-tion records, system verifi cation and re-verifi cation costs are sub-stantially reduced.” Wind River VxWorks 653 v2.1 is available to customers today. To learn more please visit www.windriver.com.

Wind River releases device software platform for AR-INC 653 Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) applications

Temex introduces the fl at-pack OCXO for space applicationsTemex in Sophia-Antipolis, France has launched a small-size oven-controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) in a 1x1-inch. fl atpack for space applications.

This new low-consumption OCXO is designed specifi cally for synchronization applications such as outer space up/down link communications where a wide operating temperature range and low energy consumption are criti-cal. It was designed to meet the ESA-SCC3501 specifi cation and complies with MIL-PRF-55310.

The frequency stability of this new OCXO has a positive impact on satellite transceiver perform-ances and makes it a smaller, cost-effective solution, Temex offi cials say. The transmission range is secured by the higher stability of the frequency and the low energy consumption is a mandatory re-quirement for space-borne equip-ment. A breadboard model or an engineering model of the OCXO is available for system validation. For more information see www.temex.com.

OptoelectronicsDiscovery Semiconductors Inc. in Ewing, N.J., is offering high optical power handling InGaAs photodiodes and balanced pho-todiodes for 2 to 18 GHz elec-tronic warfare (EW) applica-tions.

Features include operating tem-perature from -20 to 70 degrees Celsius, spectral wavelength cov-erage from 800 to 1650 nanome-ters, fl at RF response from 2 to 18 GHz with a 3 dB bandwidth of 22 GHz, low distortion, small form factor, and lightweight hermetic packaging. Applications for these devices include fi ber optic towed

decoys, high dynamic range RF links, rapid Doppler-shift laser radar measurements, satellites, and coherent lightwave systems. For more information contact Discover Semiconductors online at www.chipsat.com.

High optical power handling InGaAs photodiodes and balanced photodiodes

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PAGE 08 / MARCH 2006FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 / PAGE 29WWW.MILAEROEUROPE.COM

Kepco Inc. in Flushing, N.Y., is offering a laboratory-grade power supply in which the volt-age/current limits are automati-cally recalculated, forming a con-stant-power hyperbolic-shaped boundary between the voltage and current modes.

This curve, which replaces the single max-power operating point of conventional power sup-plies, provides the user with a greatly expanded choice of maxi-mum power volt-ampere com-binations. The constant-power

limit of the KLP is 1200 watts. The KLP saves money and space by reducing the number of power supplies required. The KLP fea-tures switch mode topology for cool, effi cient operation, built-in GPIB, RS232 and isolated analog programming, 1U panel height at 1200 watts, front to back air fl ow allows full power operation with-out spacers between supplies, three models -- KLP 75-33-1200, KLP 150-16-1200 and KLP 300-8-1200 -- and wide-range a-c input, 88-265V a-c with PFC. For more

i n f o r m a t i o n contact Kepco online at www.k e p c o p o w e r.c o m / k l p .htm?mae.

Power electronics

Laboratory-grade hyperbolic power supply

M-Systems Ltd. in Paris, France, is offering the FFD 3.5-inch Ul-tra320 SCSI fl ash disk for mili-tary and aerospace integrators with high-capacity storage re-quirements.

The Ultra320 has capacities from 1 to 352 gigabytes and SCSI interface speeds of 320 megabytes per second, all within in a 3.5-inch case. It is for mission-critical sys-tems required by military, aero-space, telecommunication, video server, broadcasting and factory automa-tion applications. The Ultra320 SCSI meets MIL-STD-810F standards for shocks, vibrations and altitude, and provides more than

5 million write/erase cycles. The drive operates at -40 to 85 degrees Celsius and complies with NSA, DOD, IRIG 106, U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army procedures for data purge. The Ultra320 SCSI is available in capacities as large as 128 gigabytes. For more informa-tion contact the company online at www.m-sys.com.

Data storage

High-capacity Flash memory for mili-tary and aerospace applications

Omnetics Connector Corp. in Minneapolis, Minn., is offering nano-sized metal connectors have been proven to reduce size and weight in uses from military aircraft, Patriot unmanned aerial vehicles, space robotics and gyro systems throughout Europe and the United States.

The connectors meet MIL-DTL-32139 specifi cations, and are available in standard sizes and designs. Connector formats range from wire to wire interconnects to SMT and thru-hole board mount-ing confi gurations. Sizes include 9, 15-, 21-, 25-, 37-, 51-, and 65-pin counts at 25 mil pitch. The new nano line mimics the older, larger Micro-D connectors but at signifi -cantly reduced size and weights.

Miniaturized circuits and port-able electronic applications have exploded the demand as well as the completion of a new military standardized design and list of test specifi cations. For more in-formation contact Omnetics on-line at www.omnetics.com.

Connectors

Miniaturized interconnection systems for European mil/aero equipment

TT electronics OPTEK Technol-ogy in Carrollton, Texas, devel-oped a series of optically cou-pled isolators that are surface mountable on ceramic or printed circuit board.

The HCC240 and HCC242 isolators are for designs where board space and device weight are critical. The high reliability surface mount optocouplers have electrical performance similar to JEDEC-registered 4N22A and 4N24A isolators. The optically coupled isolator consists of a GaAlAs LED and a silicon pho-totransistor mounted in a hermet-ically sealed leadless chip carrier. They are compatible with solder-ing temperatures as hot as 260 de-grees Celsius. The HCC240 and HCC242 provide input-to-output

isolation voltage of ±1.0kVDC. The input diode is rated for 40 milliamp DC forward current, forward voltage ranging from 0.7 to 1.7 volts, and 100 milliamps of reverse current. Power dissipatio n is rated at 60 milliwatts. For more information contact OPTEK online at www.optekinc.com.

Optoelectronics

Surface-mount optocouplers for space, defense, and medical

applications

Aerofl ex Colorado Springs in Colorado Springs, Colo., is offering the UT200SpW02 SpaceWire Protocol Handler and UT200SpWPHY01 SpaceWire Physical Layer Transceiver.

The UT200SpW02 Protocol Handler is designed to manage the character level SpaceWire protocol. Data rates range from 2 to 200 megabits per second with

a 9-bit transmit and receive FIFO user interface, 2.5 volt core sup-ply voltage and 3.3 volt I/O sup-ply voltage. The UT200SpW02 is designed to withstand 300 kilorads of radiation, and is SEL immune to greater than 120MeV-cm2/mg. The Protocol Handler will be packaged in a 208-pin cer-quad fl atpack.

The LVDS physical layer

for the Protocol Handler is the UT200SpWPHY01 Physi-cal Layer Transceiver designed to handle timing issues associ-ated with the SpaceWire Data/Strobe Encoding scheme. The UT200SpWPHY01 supports data rates as fast as 200 megabits per second. For more information contact Aerofl ex online at www.aerofl ex.com/radhard.

Databuses and networking

SpaceWire protocol handler and physical layer transceiver

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/ MARCH 2006PAGE 30 / FEBRUARY/MARCH 2006 WWW.MILAEROEUROPE.COM

Green Hills Software. in Win-chester, U.K., is offering its Par-titioning, Journaling File System (PJFS). PJFS is a crash-safe fi le system for embedded safety, se-curity, and reliability-critical ap-plications such as avionics, auto-motive, telematics, infotainment and medical devices.

PJFS has a small footprint, is for embedded applications, yet scales to desktop and server sys-tem requirements. PJFS is sup-ported with Green Hills Soft-

ware royalty-free INTEGRITY operating system and velOSity microkernel. PJFS complies with the Multiple Independent Levels of Security (MILS) security ar-chitecture, making it suitable for evaluation at the highest levels of assurance. PJFS provides journal-ing (data and metadata) for crash safety and fast reboot/recovery. This makes it ideal for systems such as consumer devices where data integrity and fast startup are critical requirements. PJFS also has a POSIX-compliant ap-plication programming interface, optional ARINC 653 fi le system interface for safety-critical avion-ics systems, and fl exible back-end design enables use with unlim-ited media types. PJFS along with FFS, DOS/FAT/FAT32, ISO9660 (CDFS), UDF, and NFS fi lls out a comprehensive suite of fi le sys-tem choices for INTEGRITY and velOSity systems. For more infor-mation contact Green Hills online at www.ghs.com.

Software

High-assurance crash-safe fi le system

Link Simulation & Training in Arlington, Texas, is offering the U.S. Army Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer (AVCATT) helicopter training system.

AVCATT provides simulation fi delity that supports immersion into realistic training exercises for the individual aviator and groups of aviators at the unit level. AVCATT suites consist of two mobile 53-foot trailers that house six reconfi gurable simu-lators, a battle master control room and an after-action review theater. The AVCATT simula-tors can be reconfi gured to rep-resent any combination of AH-64D, AH-64A, OH-58D, UH-60

and CH-47D platforms. During a simulated AVCATT exercise, commanders can mix and match rotary wing platforms to best support the training objective. Friendly and opposing intelligent semi-automated forces, commu-nications degradation, adverse weather effects and visual, infra-red and radio frequency clutter all contribute to AVCATT’s abil-ity to support realistic training. AVCATT’s battle master control station, home to the battle master, training unit observer controller, semi-automated force controller and role players, provides the capability to monitor and record each unit’s mission performance.

Four role player stations in the bat-tle master control room enable indi-viduals to serve as artillery, joint air support, ground, engineer or lo-gistics force com-manders. For more information con-tact Link Simula-tion and Training online at www.link.com

Graphics and simulation

U.S. Army Aviation Combined Arms Tactical Trainer

North Hills Signal Processing in Syosset, N.Y., is offering a series of miniature databus couplers for programs that are weight sensitive and have limited space and volume for installation.

The couplers meet MIL-STD-1553 electrical requirements and are manufactured with MIL-R-39007 1-watt minimum resistors. The parts are available with in-ternal termination resistors to re-duce installation complexity and parts count. These couplers come

with one-foot lengths of MIL-C-17/176-00002 cable without con-nectors for in-line splicing. Other lengths and connectors are avail-able. For more information con-tact North Hills Signal Processing online at www.northhills-sp.com.

Connectors

Miniature databus couplers for weight-sensitive applications

Honeywell Defense and Space in Plymouth, Minn., is announcing the capability to source obso-lete 5- and 3.3-volt complemen-tary metal oxide silicon (CMOS) technology.

As military programs continue, many suppliers are requiring con-tinued need for microelectronic components that are obsolete. Honeywell can provide 0.8- and 0.35-micron silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technology that has

be in fabrication for years and will continue for several more. This technology can help extend the life of existing systems and subsystems by extend the lives of obsolete microelectronic com-ponents for the length of the mil-aero system, Honeywell offi cials say. For more information on Honeywell’s capabilities to solve obsolete component issues, con-tact the company online at www.myspaceparts.com.

Integrated circuits



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NEW PRODUCTS

Power electronicsGAIA Converter in Bordeaux, France, is offering a range of DC-DC converters with 75-watt and 150-watt power with a wide input range of 9 to 45 volts DC, 16 to 80 volts DC, and 120 to 480 volts DC for military and avion-ics electronics applications in-volving variable input bus re-quirements of MIL-STD-704, or MIL-STD- 1275 standards.

The company’s series includes more than 30 different models with output voltages from 3.3

volts up to 28 volts with large trim excursion. The modules are housed in standard industry size quarter brick for the 75-watt models and half brick for the 150-watt models. These devices are qualifi ed to MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-202 environmental specifi cations to sustain stringent conditions. For more information contact the company online at www.gaia-converter.com.

High power density DC-DCconverters

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NEW PRODUCTS

AR Worldwide Modular RF in Bothell, Wash., is offering light-weight, waterproof manpack booster amplifi ers for tactical communications that cover the 30 to 512 MHz frequency band, including satellite communica-tions.

Available in two models, the KMW1030M12 and KMW1030M6, these units boost 1 to 5 watts of transceiver radio power to a minimum of 12 or 20 watts output power respectively. They can be supplied to operate from 12 volts DC and 24 volts DC and are MIL STD 461E compliant. Both models are fi nned for maximum heat dissi-pation to run cool when strapped to the body. Each amplifi er in-

cludes RF sensing, T/R switch-ing, Automatic Level Control (ALC), six harmonic fi lter bands and protection against antenna mismatch and over temperature. For more information contact AR Worldwide online at www.arww-modularrf.com.

RF and microwave

lightweight, waterproof manpack booster amplifi ers

AvionicsDataMetrics Corp. in Orlando, Fla., is offering the Model 4680 half-page airline cockpit printer as a drop in replacement for the Miltope TP-4085/4185 model air-line cockpit printers that are no longer available or supported.

The 4680 half-page airline cock-

pit printer is a lightweight printer featuring non-impact direct ther-mal technology, high resolution output, multiple format print-outs, an ARINC 597 interface, and reliability of 35,000 hours mean time between failures. The printer is FAA/PMA certifi ed on

the B-727, B-737, B-747, B-767, MD-80, MD-11, DC-10, and DC-9 pas-senger jets. This product fl ies on commercial air-craft for American Air-lines, Royal Jordanian Airlines, Thai Airlines, KLM, Thai Airlines and others, company offi -cials say. In addition to commercial aircraft the Model 4680 also fl ies on military C-130 aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force. For more in-formation contact Data-Metrics online at www.datametrics.com.

Half-page airline cockpit printer

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US-UPDATE


Embedded military market in U.S. shows strong growthCompanies in the embedded electronic market in the U.S. say business is outstanding and looks even more promising down the road despite the fore-casted downturn in the overall U.S. Department of Defence (DOD) budget.

“Look at the budget that just came out -- nearly $440 billion, which doesn’t even include the supplementals that will support the war effort,” says Frank Willis, vice president of business devel-opment and sales at SBS Tech-nologies in Albuquerque, N.M. The business that SBS is looking at – applications such as situ-ational awareness and general purpose computing -- are getting

funding that is between 2 and 2.4 billion, Willis says. That is a lot of dollars for our market but still a very small percentage when you look at the whole DOD budget, Willis says. “Command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, recon-naissance (C4ISR) funding, spe-cifi cally the communications and sensor systems areas, appears poised for some budget growth over that period despite the antic-ipated overall trend of decreased funding,” say BAE Systems North America leaders. “That’s because of the emphasis on transforma-tion to the network-centric enter-prise and the need for a common operational picture. However, in

tracking DOD and congressional discussions on the future years defense programme (FYDP), it appears defense electronics mar-ket funding will tend to track with what happens in the larger defense budget, which is current-ly showing a slightly decreasing trend. Some things that determine the relative health and trends of the embedded COTS (commer-cial-off-the-shelf) market include the specifi c electronics content of DOD budgets, product sales histories and NRE opportunities, requests for proposals, informa-tion, quotations, web site traffi c, literature, and collateral requests, new market entrants (competi-tion) and acquisitions of smaller

players, says Doug Patterson, vice president of sales and mar-keting for AiTech in Chatsworth, Calif. Another determining fac-tor says Patterson is the number of magazines covering a given market, competitive ads, book content/size, etc. “In general, if you look at the current trends and compare those to previous years, the COTS board and subsystems market for defence and aerospace for last calendar year was brisk and ripe for those already well positioned and branded with market-focused goods, products and services,” Patterson explains. “2006 looks to be as good if not better for some aspects of the de-fence and aerospace market.”

DARPA device to sense through wallsA new Defense Advanced Re-search Projects Agency (DAR-PA) will enable combat troops conducting urban operations to sense through 12 inches of con-crete to determine if someone is inside a building.

The new “Radar Scope” will give warfi ghters searching a building the ability to tell within seconds if someone is in the next room, says Edward Baranoski. By simply holding the portable, handheld device up to a wall,

users will be able to detect move-ments as small as breathing, he says. The Radar Scope, devel-oped by DARPA, is expected to be fi elded to troops in Iraq as soon as this spring, DARPA of-fi cials say. The device is likely to be fi elded to the squad level, for use by troops going door to door in search of terrorists. The Radar Scope will give warfi ghters the capability to sense through a foot of concrete and 50 feet beyond that into a room, Baranoski says.

Weighing just a pound and a half, the Radar Scope will be about the size of a telephone handset and cost just about $1,000, making it light enough for a soldier to carry and inexpensive enough to be fi elded widely.

The Radar Scope will be water-proof and rugged, and will run on AA batteries, he says. DARPA is also laying groundwork for big-ger plans that build on this tech-nology. Proposals are expected this week for the new “Visi Build-

ing” technology that’s more than a motion detector. It will actually “see” through multiple walls, penetrating entire buildings to show fl oor plans, locations of occupants and placement of ma-terials such as weapons caches, DARPA offi cials say.

The device is expected to take several years to develop. Ulti-mately, service members will be able to use it simply by driving or fl ying by the structure under surveillance.

General Dynamics awarded $289 million for IED Electronic Counter Measure systemsGeneral Dynamics Armament and Technical Products in char-lotte, N.C., has been awarded a $289 million contract from the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va., to develop, design, integrate, pro-duce, and install Remote Con-trolled Improvised Explosive De-

vice (RCIED) Electronic Counter Measure systems.

The indefi nite-delivery/in-defi nite-quantity contract also funds logistic, technical, and fi eld service support for the high-pow-ered RCIED jamming systems in support of the Global War on Terrorism. General Dynamics Ar-

mament and Technical Products is a business unit of General Dy-namics. Work will be performed in Burlington, Vt. (23 percent); Hanahan, S.C. (22 percent); and Sterling Heights, Mich. (7 per-cent). Canada-based subcontrac-tor Med-Eng Systems will be re-sponsible for 48 percent of work,

with a signifi cant portion being performed in Wisconsin. Work is expected to be completed by July 2006.

For more information about General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products can be found on the World Wide Web at www.gdatp.com.

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US-UPDATE

Boeing demonstrates network-centric technology for fi elded aircraftIn recent live fl ight tests, ad-vanced information manage-ment technologies developed by researchers from Boeing and the U.S. Air Force Research Labora-tory (AFRL) demonstrated they could dramatically improve the way airborne platforms acquire, sort and exchange real-time mis-sion data with each other and with command and control cent-ers on the ground, Boeing offi -cials say.

The enabling technologies in-clude algorithms called intelligent

software agents that can autono-mously infer and execute actions to access, evaluate, and integrate desired data. In this case, they enable aircraft to fully exchange information in real time with the Global Information Grid (GIG) -- an expansive network-centric in-formation system used by the U.S. Department of Defense as well as national security and intelligence communities for fast, effi cient communications. The intelligent software agents enable aircrews of platforms like the F-15 to use the

GIG to publish, subscribe and pull information and imagery tactically relevant to their missions, includ-ing the location of friendly forces and unmanned platforms, as well as the status of potential targets. “These GIG-enabling technologies demonstrate they can provide both the aircrew and the commanders with an unparalleled view of the common operating picture as well as improved real-time situational awareness, contributing to an in-creased operational tempo,” says Patrick Stokes, Boeing Phantom

Works manager of Network-Cen-tric Operations Contract R&D Programmes. “This dramatically improves their ability to complete missions in a dynamic, time-criti-cal environment.” The effort is funded by the AFRL Information Directorate, based in Rome, N.Y., under the Joint Battlespace In-fosphere (JBI) programme. One of the objectives of the JBI pro-gramme is to develop and dem-onstrate Global Information Grid information management services in an operational context.

For more news from the U.S. defence and aerospace sector please visit www.milaero.com the home page of our sister U.S. magazine, Military & Aerospace Electronics.

Aitech Systems, Ltd ............OBC

Condor Engineering................. 5

Crane (Interpoint) .................. 17

Data Bus Products................. 32

Data Device Corp. ................IFC

Digital Media .......................... 25

GE Fanuc ................................ 3

GreenHill................................ 19

MAE Franchise ...................... 27

Martek Power .........................11

MPL-Switzerland ................. IBC

Omnitec ................................... 7

Radstone/ICS .......................... 9

Thales .................................... 21

Themis ................................... 15

2007 Military Conference....... 23

ADVERTISERS INDEX

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Aitech Systems, Ltd.4 Maskit StreetHerzlia, Israel 46120email: [email protected]: +972 (9) 9600600Fax: +972 (9) 9544315www.rugged.com

We can't change the physics... but we can ensure your COTS sub-systems are designed, built, and tested to perform reliably at the temperature extremes of your specification – without custom development, "work-arounds", or compromises.

We take the extra steps... including pre-screened parts qualification, HALT, and 100% HASS/ESS testing to ensure that every standard Aitech product meets all your temperature and rugged performance specifications...standard.

We've been there... Aitech subsystems have been proven in the world's most demanding mission-critical mil/aero applications – from complex ground, air and sea platforms to rad-tolerant solutions for the Space Shuttle, International Space Station and now earth orbiting satellites!

We've done that... Meeting full temperature-range specifications withstandard products is just part of our 20+ year heritage and commitment to COTS advancements – from the first conduction-cooled Mil-Spec VME board in 1984, to today's highest functionality MIPS/Watt boards, multi-Gigabyte mass Flash mass memory cards, and high-speed mezzanines.

We have the proof...Visit our web site or call for more information and our catalog of proven solutions.

Aitech continues to provide industry standard open systems architectures such as VMEbus and CompactPCI products, designed and tested to -55°C to +85°C asstandard, because you can’t bypass the rules of engagement either.

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(military and aerospace electronics europe.feb-mar 2006)(2006)

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