Curtiss-Wright sees Digital Beachhead in Army vehicles

SAN FRANCISCO--Taking open systems and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) concepts to a new level, Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions Thursday (Sept. 20) announced a new, compact system designed to simplify technology architectures and reduce clutter in military ground vehicles.

The Digital Beachhead system ties directly to the U.S. Army's VICTORY (Vehicle Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability) initiative to simplify systems and eliminate interoperability between devices in vehicles.

"Today, vehicles may have five systems each with GPS--data, time position orientation and speed--each with own antenna," said David Jedynak, manager of advanced solutions for CWCDS (Ashburn, Va.). "That's a lot of logistics and maintenance nightmares."

The Digital Beachhead system combines a 16-port gigabit ethernet network switch--backward compatible to 10/100 Mbit/s--with a high performance, power-efficient vehicle management computer, according to CWCDS.  It leverages ARM processors for the automotive space and commercial networking silicon for networking and telecoms market as part of the COTS philosophy, said Aaron Frank, product marketing manager for networking switching and routing products.

Four core pillars support the system, Frank said. 

• 16-port Ethernet Network Switch

• Supports 16 ports of tri-speed 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet connectivity
• Offers IEEE-1588 / PTP Precision Time Protocol for network synchronized time
• is compliant with VICTORY / GVA dual-port 38999 rugged Ethernet connectors

•  VICTORY-compliant network services
• Supports VICTORY Data Bus Shared Services, Access Controls, and Management Services
• Supports VICTORY Automotive System Bus interfaces
• Built-in Inertial Measurement Unit and optional internal GPS receiver

• Vehicle Management Computer
• Accesses common vehicle interfaces (CANbus, analog and digital I/O, camera, audio, etc.)
• Interfaces with HUMS logistic services, such as CBM+/CLOE and DDS
• Local user interface via VGA/DVI and USB keyboard/mouse
• ARM Dual-Core Automotive Processor

• Ruggedization 
• Extremely small footprint: 10” x 7” x 3” size, combined with <4lb weight
• 30 watt max. power consumption, with <20 watt typical
• MIL-STD-1275 compliant 28VDC power with optional Nuclear Event Detector (NED)
• MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-461 environmental qualifications

The system, costing under $5,000 in volume, is expected to ship near the end of the fourth quarter for U.S. Army vehicles and will be introduced for the U.K.’s Generic Vehicle Architecture (GVA) and other similar initiatives world-wide later, Frank said.

"At this price point the Digital Beachhead is a cost-effective solution that will bring digital backbones into every vehicle in the fleet," he added.

For more information, please visit CWCDS' Digital Beachhead page.