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| Jeffrey Q. Palombo, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman’s Land and Self Protection Systems Division. Photo: Northrop Grumman |
[Avionics Today 10-30-2014] Northrop Grumman highlighted advances in C4ISR and showcased the future of integrated avionics equipment during an Oct. 28 briefing at the National Press Club. Jeffrey Q. Palombo, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman’s Land and Self Protection Systems Division, discussed how open architecture designs in integrated avionics equipment can offer a path to more configurable and capable aircraft.
“What will change over the next 40 years?” Palombo asked. “The world has gone digital and, because of that, the services need to be able to make changes; they need more autonomy. An aircraft may be updated once or twice over its lifespan, but the avionics may need to be upgraded 10 times in that same time frame.”
To keep pace with evolving threats, military aircraft need sensors, surveillance equipment and situational awareness capabilities that can continue to morph, regardless of the platform. This is the key to the future of integrated avionics equipment and can lead to significant savings in cost, logistics and training, according to Palombo. Open architecture is an important component of implementing those rapid enhancements.
Northrop Grumman pointed its digitized cockpit for the UH-60V as a cockpit, for which the next-generation avionics system is aligned with the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) standard and supports integration of off-the-shelf software and hardware. This enables rapid insertion of capabilities while reducing cost and risk for system integration and upgrades.