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John McHale
7
MOSA Summit recap
Mil Tech Trends
Unmanned systems & open standards
Industry Spotlight Why MOSA matters
20 40
Mil Tech Insider
8
Supply chain & program schedules www.MilitaryEmbedded.com
March 2022 | Volume 18 | Number 2
UNMANNED ISR PAYLOADS LEVERAGE MOSA DESIGNS P 16
P 12 Countering rogue UASs with modular AIand ML-enabled systems By Dawn M.K. Zoldi
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 12
March 2022 Volume 18 | Number 2
COLUMNS Editor’s Perspective 7 MOSA Summit recap By John McHale
Mil Tech Insider 8 Meeting program schedules in a time of supply-chain uncertainty
FEATURES
By Charles Falardeau
SPECIAL REPORT: Counter-UAS technology 12 Countering rogue UASs with modular AI- and ML-enabled systems By Dawn Zoldi, P3 Tech Consulting
THE LATEST Defense Tech Wire 10 By Emma Helfrich
MIL TECH TRENDS: SOSA designs for unmanned
Editor’s Choice Products 44 By Mil Embedded Staff Connecting with Mil Embedded 46 By Mil Embedded Staff
16 Unmanned ISR payloads leverage MOSA designs By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor 20 Modernizing unmanned military systems using an open standard systems
approach
By Mark Littlefield, Elma Electronic 24 Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA), unmanned vehicles, and trusted
computing
By Steve Edwards, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT: MOSA solutions for unmanned 28 Introducing VITA 90, the latest rugged small-form-factor module standard By Bill Ripley, Samtec; Andy Walker, Collins Aerospace; and Mehmet Adalier, Antara Teknik 24
WEB RESOURCES
32 Modular strategies for power conversion in UASs address SWaP concerns and
increased electrification
By Julian Thomas, TT Electronics
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38 MOSA principles enhance modern military computing systems By Pratish Shah, Aitech
WHITE PAPERS – Read: https://militaryembedded.com/whitepapers
40 Why MOSA matters: How MOSA is shaping the future of unmanned systems By Rodger Hosking, Mercury
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ON THE COVER: An unmanned aerial vehicle delivers a payload to the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN 730) around the Hawaiian Islands. Underway replenishment sustains the fleet anywhere/anytime. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Devin M. Langer/Released. https://www.linkedin.com/groups/1864255/
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Analog Devices, Inc. – One transceiver, endless radio applications AUVSI.org – AUVSI Xponential. Built by innovation. Behlman Electronics, Inc. – 3 Phase. 3U. 1 Choice. Dawn VME Products – Dawn single-slot OpenVPX development backplanes Elma Electronic – Enabling the warfighter with OpenVPX embedded world 2022 – Exhibition & Conference … it's a smarter world embedded world 2022 – New date 21-23.6.2022 GMS – The world's first ultra-mobile/ scalable single board 3U VPX system Herrick Technology Labs – High performance SOSA aligned solutions LCR Embedded Systems, Inc. – Mission systems ready for critical applications Mercury – The next big thing in RFSoC is here Phoenix International – Phalanx II: The ultimate NAS Sea-Air-Space 2022 – Conference & Exposition: April 4-6, 2022 Verotec – Modular development systems built from standard elements Wolf Advanced Technology – Look for us at … Nvidia GTC22 Virtual Conference March 21-24, 2022 Wolf Advanced Technology – VPX3U-A4500E-VO Wolf Advanced Technology – VPX3U-RTX5000E-SWITCH Wolf Advanced Technology – VPX3U-RTX5000E COAX-CV Wolf Advanced Technology – VPX3U-RTX5000E-VO Wolf Advanced Technology – VPX3U-XAVIER CX6-SBC/HPC
45 5 21 27 34 43 3 15 9 48 23 47 23 33 33 35 35 37 37
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GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR John McHale john.mchale@opensysmedia.com ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR Lisa Daigle lisa.daigle@opensysmedia.com SENIOR EDITOR Sally Cole sally.cole@opensysmedia.com TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Emma Helfrich emma.helfrich@opensysmedia.com CREATIVE DIRECTOR Stephanie Sweet stephanie.sweet@opensysmedia.com SENIOR WEB DEVELOPER Aaron Ganschow aaron.ganschow@opensysmedia.com WEB DEVELOPER Paul Nelson paul.nelson@opensysmedia.com EMAIL MARKETING SPECIALIST Drew Kaufman drew.kaufman@opensysmedia.com WEBCAST MANAGER Ryan Graff ryan.graff@opensysmedia.com VITA EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Jerry Gipper jerry.gipper@opensysmedia.com
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Sea – Air – Space April 4-6, 2022 National Harbor, MD https://seaairspace.org/ AUVSI Xponential April 25-28, 2022 Orlando, FL https://www.xponential.org/xponential2022/ public/enter.aspx Eurosatory June 13-17 Paris, France https://www.eurosatory.com/?lang=en embedded world June 21-23, 2022 Nuremburg, Germany https://www.embedded-world.de/en
6 March 2022
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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE
MOSA Virtual Summit recap By John McHale, Editorial Director
John.McHale@opensysmedia.com
Experts from the U.S. Army and defense industry discussed Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) strategies for defense electronic applications in air, land, sea, and spectrum domains at our first annual MOSA Virtual Summit.
Stryker vehicle. Bertoli says that the Army’s “demonstrated successful standards implementation in a multicard chassis integrated on a Stryker CMFF will integrate PNT [position, navigation, and timing], comms, and EW [electronic warfare] within a common CMOSS architecture on tactical vehicles.” This form factor will provide “extensive flexibility to configure platforms based on mission requirements [as well as enable] rapid insertion of new technology to meet emerging threats,” he adds.
Kicking off the conference was Giorgio Bertoli, Assistant Director for the Spectrum Dominance and Intelligence portfolio within the U.S. Army’s C5ISR Center, in his keynote address “C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) ‘The Army’s SOSA Instantiation.’”
Bertoli went on to discuss small-form-factor challenges within a MOSA context. For more details, read Technology Editor Emma Helfrich’s feature, titled “Unmanned ISR payloads leverage MOSA designs,” on page 16.
MOSA is critical as “We cannot continue to integrate independent, self-contained solutions within our platform any longer,” Bertoli asserted in his keynote. “C5ISR moves too fast to possibly think you can follow a standard acquisition process where you buy a turnkey black-box system that will sustain you for the next 10-20 years – it just can’t happen.”
The first session – “MOSA for Military Aviation Platforms” – covered aviation MOSA strategies, specifically the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard, and featured speakers Chip Downing, Senior Market Development Director, Aerospace & Defense, RTI; and Christopher Crook, Senior Software Analyst at Intrepid, supporting Program Executive Office (PEO) Aviation (AVN).
He said that this closed approach: › Limits upgradability › Increases sustainment tails › Reduces resiliency › Increases training burden › Limits configurability › Limits platform-agnostic solutions › Limits competition › Delays fielding of upgrades Bertoli focused his presentation on C4ISR/ Electronic Warfare Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS), which he calls an instantiation of the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard. “The two are completely intertwined. CMOSS is sort of the Army’s version of SOSA, and we tailor it to Army applications,” Bertoli notes. Both specs are fully compatible, he adds. Bertoli also detailed the CMOSS Mounted Form Factor (CMFF), which will enable Army commanders to mobilize CMOSS in mobile platforms, including the Army www.militaryembedded.com
To see his entire presentation and the other sessions from the MOSA Virtual Summit, visit https://www.bigmarker.com/series/mosa-virtual-summit/series_summit?utm_bmcr_ source=Editorial.
Session 2, moderated by Dean Holman, president and executive director of VITA, dug into SOSA and how MOSA strategies impact EW applications. This session featured presentations from Bob Kirk, Chief Sales Officer, Annapolis Micro Systems; Rodger Hosking, director of sales, Mercury, Upper Saddle River, N.J.; and Andy Jaros, VP IP Sales and Marketing, Flex-Logix. Session 3 covered cross-domain solutions: “Applying a MOSA Strategy Across Multiple Domains” featured Mark Littlefield, Sr. Manager, Embedded Computing Solutions, Elma Electronic; Aneesh Kothari, VP of marketing for Systel; Craig Powell, director of business development – Army for Systel; Robert Power, field application engineer – West for Milpower Source; and Jason DeChiaro, System Architect/Product Manager, Curtiss-Wright. In his keynote, Bertoli mentioned that “MOSA is near and dear to my heart, [I’m] very passionate about it.” I saw that same passion in the other speakers and also in the audience members’ questions. Hosking, a Session 2 speaker, emphasizes MOSA’s importance on page 40 of this magazine, in his article titled “Why MOSA matters.” Our other authors in this issue are passionate about all things unmanned systems, including Dawn M.K. Zoldi (Colonel, USAF, Retired), CEO of P3 Tech Consulting, who pens a Special Report this month for us on counter-UAS technology, titled “Countering rogue UASs with modular AI- and ML-enabled systems,” found on page 12. Zolid will also be hosting the keynote session for our Unmanned Systems Virtual Summit – to be held on April 12 – where she’ll hold a fireside chat with Capt. Shelby Ochs, USMC, co-program manager of Blue sUAS 2.0 for the Defense Innovation Unit. Registration for the Unmanned Systems Virtual Summit is set to open soon, so stay tuned to our socialmedia channels and watch www.militaryembedded.com for the announcement.
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS March 2022
7
MIL TECH INSIDER
Meeting program schedules in a time of supply-chain uncertainty By Charles Falardeau An industry perspective from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions These days, program managers are trying to figure out how best to mitigate the potentially harmful effects of supply-chain disruption, while protecting their customer’s program schedule and supporting the warfighter. How do commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) suppliers solve longevity and obsolescence problems – not just now, in this time of supply-chain uncertainty, but in general? Sometimes the solution is to find a substitute part, while other situations may require a board redesign. Another option is to buy enough stock in advance, making it possible to confidently satisfy orders over the years to come. While the range of preparation and response will vary from vendor to vendor, we recognize that some life cycle management experts were able to be proactive in securing parts needed to build complete products, such as standard COTS boards, to meet orders already in their pipeline and plan for future orders. Life cycle management programs, while not a new concept, must actually adapt to new circumstances. In “normal” times, COTS life cycle management efforts – designed to keep products alive for the 10 to 15 years typical of military programs – are driven by the inexorable march of Moore’s Law, where obsolescence is the price of performance and density doubling every 18 months for integrated circuits. Moreover, the various components that support these integrated circuits also advance and become obsolete. While the solutions for blunting the supply-chain challenge involve many of the same tactics needed to address Moore’s Law issues, now is the time for COTS vendors to double down – if they haven’t already – on their life cycle management processes. Some customers will turn to the parts-broker market for relief, depending on secondary sources unauthorized by the component OEM. COTS vendors should use components from these suppliers only when authorized sources are no longer available, and then only with the approval of the customer. All parts from these suppliers should be tested at authorized third-party test facilities to ensure that they are authentic components that meet the original design specifications and have not been subject to prior use or tampering. Counterfeit parts are, of course, a major concern for the DoD. Experienced COTS vendors have long implemented and controlled processes designed to prevent counterfeit parts in the
8 March 2022
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
supply chain at any point in the product life cycle. The most important starting point in a secure supply chain is to buy components only directly from franchise sources, from the component OEM, or through authorized distribution channels.
Customers who reach out early to the COTS vendors who have taken innovative steps to lessen the pain of unpredictability will be better able to protect their customer’s program schedule. Today, though, all program managers are in the same boat, trying to solve their supply-chain headaches while staying on schedule. That’s why it’s critical for customers to review their materiel delivery expectations and adjust them to reflect today’s reality. If their schedules assume a typical delivery schedule, such as “the usual” 16 weeks, they will likely be unable to meet their goals. For those customers that didn’t have the foresight to account for delays, it’s important to work with COTS vendors who took steps early to reduce supply-chain obstacles to help them stay on program schedule. For that reason, it’s even more important for customers to embrace a first-come/first-served attitude, since getting “in line” early can help avoid delivery disappointment. Customers who reach out early to the COTS vendors who have taken innovative steps to lessen the pain of unpredictability will be better able to protect their customer’s program schedule. If the vendor has long experience in procurement process, counterfeit protection, and life cycle management, the end program will be better able to weather today’s stormy weather and get to port safely. We are all working through unpredictable times, experiencing a global crisis – one that requires a measured and shared level of urgency at every level of the supply chain. From government and system integrators to COTS vendors and component suppliers, everyone needs to recognize the criticality of the situation, and together act upon it. Good planning and innovative thinking can help insulate important military programs from today’s market conditions. Charles Falardeau is VP Operational Growth, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions. Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions https://www.curtisswrightds.com
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By Emma Helfrich, Technology Editor FLASH SONICS sonar processing system to fly aboard German NH90 fleet The German Ministry of Defense has selected Thales to equip the country’s NH90 multirole frigate helicopter fleet with FLASH SONICS dipping sonar and sonobuoy processing systems. Thales officials say that this low-frequency wideband sonar enables long-range detection and low false alarm rates in open ocean as well as littoral waters. When used with an active and passive sonobuoy processing system, FLASH is intended to provide antisubmarine warfare capability. Officials state that short dive cycle time combined with the Thales BlueTracker (SONICS) buoy-processing capability will Figure 1 | Pictured: the German navy’s NH90 multirole frigate helicopter. provide significant area coverage. The new configuration of the NH90 multirole frigate helicopter variant will be the first helicopter to have the capability to process Thales new sonobuoy SonoFlash in addition to the FLASH world reference dipping sonar. The Thales system is ordered or already in service in 18 navies including in the U.S., the U.K. and France.
Peraton to design autonomous multidomain network solution with DARPA Peraton Labs has won a contract under the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) program to design, develop, integrate, test, and evaluate a multidomain network orchestration solution. The solution will be designed to enable autonomous discovery and configuration of interconnected military networks and support on-demand connectivity in contested tactical environments. DARPA officials say that the goal of MINC is to ensure that critical data finds a path to the right user at the right time in dynamic and heterogeneous communications environments. Peraton Labs’ solution will aim to replace static configuration of individual tactical networks with automated and secure control across diverse networks of networks. It will orchestrate control across communications, compute, and storage resources by combining novel technologies, including a control overlay and a distributed orchestration framework of connectivity.
5G communications network in development with Lockheed Martin The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded Lockheed Martin a $19.3 million Prototype Project Agreement (PPA) to create a 5G communications network infrastructure test bed for expeditionary operations experimentation for the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD R&E) and the U.S. Marine Corps. According to the company, the testbed – known as Open Systems Interoperable and Reconfigurable Infrastructure Solution (OSIRIS) – is an initiative of Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL programs positioned to help its customers field, scale, and integrate 5G technology rapidly across all operations on land, water, in air, space, and cyber. Officials claim that the OSIRIS program is aimed at addressing the need for test facilities that enable rapid experimentation and dual-use application prototyping. The testbed will identify areas for further compatFigure 2 | Artist’s rendering of the 5G network technology. Image courtesy of ibility between 5G network and DoD platforms that will Lockheed Martin. enhance customer capabilities.
10 March 2022
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
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AI-powered drone swarming demoed at UMEX 2022 EDGE, a technology group for defense in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has released swarming drones, its latest application for unmanned aerial systems (UAS), on the first day of the Unmanned Systems Exhibition and Conference (UMEX 2022). At UMEX, EDGE showcased its swarming drones, which are based on the Hunter 2 series of UASs developed by HALCON.
Figure 3 | An artist’s rendering of the ground-launched HALCON Hunter 2 swarming drones. Image courtesy of Edge Group.
Counter-EW weapon for antidrone defense garners AFRL contract Leidos has won a contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to produce a next-generation counter-electronic weapon (EW) system to defend against adversarial unmanned aerial system (UAS) activity. Leidos – building on the work done previously on the Tactical High-Power Operational Responder (THOR) technology demonstrator – is tasked with building an advanced high-power microwave (HPM) weapon system to bring the technology to bear against the growing threat from hostile UASs. Adrian Lucero, THOR program manager at AFRL’s Directed Energy Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base (New Mexico), notes that the new prototype will be called “Mjölnir,” the mythical name for the Norse god Thor’s hammer. According to information from the AFRL, the $26 million Mjolnir prototype will use the same technology as THOR with the addition of updates in capability, reliability, and manufacturing readiness.
Designed to ensure a decisive edge in combat, the ground-launched drones fly in formation to perform a coordinated mission that can overwhelm an adversary. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the tactical drones are designed to share information with one another to track and maintain their relative positions and to effectively engage targets. The UAS swarm was engineered from the design phase to be light, agile, and responsive.
Friend-or-foe radar systems to equip South Korean forces HENSOLDT announced it will use new “identification friend or foe” (IFF) technologies in its upcoming IFF modernization program of the South Korean armed forces. HENSOLDT reports that the IFF contract – awarded through South Korean defense company LIG Nex1 – is set to deliver 20 monopulse secondary surveillance radar (MSSR) secondary radars, including test equipment and related services. The IFF systems, according to the contract announcement, will be integrated into a number of coastal surveillance and air surveillance radars to improve their ability to distinguish hostile from friendly forces. IFF systems, also called secondary surveillance radars (SSR), are designed to identify aircraft by automatically sending interrogation signals that are then answered by transponders onboard friendly aircraft.
Software-defined radios to enable multi-domain ops for USMC The U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) has awarded L3Harris Technologies a 10-year, $750 million single-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for multichannel handheld and vehicular radio systems. The L3Harris Falcon IV family of manpack and handheld radios selected by the USMC have been adopted by the U.S. Army, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Air Force, and a growing number of key allies as they seek to integrate secure and interoperable communications capabilities. The AN/PRC-163 is designed to provide a range of secure communications waveforms while integrating voice and data communications, network routing, and gateway functions. The software-defined architecture enables Marines in the field to add new waveforms and enhanced capabilities to address evolving requirements. L3 Harris officials say that the radios will arm users with enhanced resilience against peer adversary threats, which is key to the USMC’s vision for Force Design 2030 and enabling the planned Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2). www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 4 | L3Harris photo depicting a soldier equipped with multichannel handheld radio system.
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS March 2022
11
SPECIAL REPORT
Countering rogue UASs with modular AI- and ML-enabled systems By Dawn Zoldi
Unmanned aerial systems – UASs or drones – have been used for combat purposes since the early 1800s. Use of drones – and more conventional means of aviation – until recent times had been reserved for nation-states that spent billions of dollars building up their air forces. Today, however, due to low cost, wide availability, and versatility, both state and nonstate actors have increasingly turned to the UAS or drone to create catastrophic impacts across the globe. Combat-related drone use ranges from intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to military strikes and targeted assassinations.
Designers of systems aimed at countering unmanned aerial systems (UASs) or drones can now take advantage of open architecture designs and modular artificial intelligence/ machine learning (AI/ML) to detect, identify, track, and mitigate potentially dangerous aircraft.
12 March 2022
Counter-UAS technology
In January 2022, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels used bomb-laden drones to conduct a fatal attack on an oil facility and a major airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This situation prompted UAE officials to ban the use of recreational drones in the country. About a year prior, the Houthis claimed credit for a similar attack against Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport; this strike was one of twelve prior drone attacks by rebels in the country. These incidents are part of a larger trend of increased insurgent drone use, particularly across Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. In 2019, during a parade
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near Aden, Yemen, a weaponized UAS killed six Saudi-backed Yemeni officers when it exploded on top of them. That same year, the Taliban carried out drone attacks that killed security officers in northern Afghanistan. In Iraq, the Islamic State group has flown hundreds of drone missions, some of which dropped hand grenades on troops from above.
ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] and attack UASs are not limited to nation-states and rebels. Other nonstate actors – including criminal and terrorist networks – are using them to advance their own goals. Those same unmanned platforms can provide an asymmetric advantage to those who would do us harm right here in the homeland.”
According to Robert Menti, Business Development, Northrop Grumman Armament Systems (Minneapolis, Minnesota) the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Azerbaijan and the Armenians presents a classic case study for what armed conflict will probably look like going forward. This decade-plus-long border conflict between the two countries culminated in the capitulation of the embattled city to the Azerbaijanis.
Hitting home In the U.S., cartels from South America and Mexico have been using unmanned capabilities to move contraband back and forth between borders. “It’s much easier to use a semi-submersible littoral vessel or drone to move illegal narcotics past our defenders, than to rely on an individual person or a truck as the mule,” Menti notes.
“Lots of disruptors happened in that event,” Menti explains. “We saw a lot of dual-use and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) drone technology.”
According to Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) statistics, drones have been more routinely posing a threat to aviation, surface, and other modes of transportation. From January 2018 through August 2021, individuals reported 2,476 drone sightings to the TSA across all modes of transportation. Just during 2021, from January 1 through December 19, a total of 1,848 UAS events were reported to TSA’s Transportation Security Operations Center (TSOC); of these incidents, 1,473 occurred near an airport, including 675 near Core-30 airports.
During the intensely fought 44-day war, Azerbaijan employed a large amount of Turkish advanced technology such as remote sensors networked to strike assets, including weaponized drones, that overwhelmed opposition forces. Because the Armenians lacked an effective way to counter this tech, Azerbaijan quickly attained its objective of taking over the disputed area. “Expect to see more of this in the future,” Menti says. “We know unmanned capabilities are exponentially growing at machine speed in all domains.” ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] and attack UASs are not limited to nation-states and rebels. Other nonstate actors – including criminal and terrorist networks – are using them to advance their own goals. “These drone threats on the ground, in the air, and on the water are omnipresent,” says Northrop Grumman’s Kent Savre (Maj. Gen. Ret.), director for the company’s precision weapons operating unit. “We have seen this in the Middle East and in places like eastern Europe. www.militaryembedded.com
The cartels are not alone in using drones domestically for ill purposes: In June 2020, a UAS rigged with copper wires was discovered on a rooftop near an electric substation in Pennsylvania, presumably having been deployed by someone local to negatively impact the power grid there. This incident, the first of its kind reported widely in the press, was not made public until November 2021.
Core-30 airports are those airfields listed as significant to the national air transportation system, based on air-traffic operations and passenger boardings. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently monitors these 30 locations to gauge the progress of its plan to increase aviation system safety and efficiency. The incidents involving UASs during 2021 accounted for an 119% increase in aviation and surface events over the previous year. Moreover, 45 of these events caused an aircraft to take evasive action, while three involved commercial aircraft. Detect, track, identify, and mitigate Northrop Grumman’s Armament Systems team initially developed the Mobile Acquisition Cueing and Effector (M-ACE) to respond to the growing drone threat on the battlefield. The same team that developed and fielded the Bushmaster chain guns and medium-caliber cannons and ammunition for U.S. military and allied land, air and seabased weapons platforms focused on providing troops a combat-ready capability to detect, identify, and track drones before these high-end effectors could even be used. “In our design, we purposely targeted COTS to have a capable system for multidomain force protection that seamlessly integrates into other networks and sensors to provide fidelity end-to-end information to effectively mitigate enemy drones,” Savre notes. The M-ACE enables long-range threat detection through a 3D radar that indicates an object’s direction, elevation, and range. Using multimission radar tech from SRC (Syracuse, New York), M-ACE can simultaneously detect targets on the ground, in the air, and from the ground looking at the water in the littoral area. Depending on the environmental conditions, it can acquire 360-degree visuals of small drones even beyond the 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) range. (Figure 1.)
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SPECIAL REPORT
Counter-UAS technology
The system also uses PVP Advanced EO Systems’ (Tustin, California) infrared camera, with built-in laser designator and pointer, to then autonomously track multiple radaridentified targets at once. Operators can also look through the camera for validation. “We added in our AI/ML [artificial intelligence/machine learning] capability, called Dragonfly, to help determine if the object is a drone, bird, or Batman and to predict its next move,” Menti explains. The team named the AI/ML capability after the dragonfly insect which is known to be one of the most efficient aerial hunters in nature. The Dragonfly automation also helps prioritize the highest threat and how it should be addressed, while also keeping track of friendly UASs in the area. The system looks at the physical characteristics of the aerial system and its operating frequencies and then takes this information and compares it against a database of information to quickly assess the target so that service members can rapidly make decisions on the battlefield. “One of the key aspects that we provide with M-ACE is to reduce the timeline of the kill chain while still keeping a human in the loop,” Savre explains. “Likewise, the ability to have targets vetted by the system and having the cue put the system directly on target helps reduce the operator’s cognitive load in a multidomain battlefield, where they are having to constantly be on the lookout for air, ground, and sea-based threats.” In combat, the cueing capability puts the networked gun systems right on the target in 3D to make it easier for the operator to quickly see and track the target, identify it as a foe, and quickly engage. Engagement can range from deploying a particular effect to using the system’s predictive capability to indicate where the asset may land and sending personnel to confront the drone operator. Given the system’s plug-and-playability, defense and security agencies have a wide range of appropriate response options from passive detection and traditional radio-frequency (RF) jamming through kinetic options such as cannons, high powered rifles, missiles, and lasers. M-ACE can be used in any area of operation as a dedicated system for tactical application for counter-UAS (CUAS) platoons or company hunter-killer teams; it can also be networked to other assets to leverage their effectors in a non-dedicated role. When outfitted with jammers or other electronic warfare (EW) equipment, it can defeat enemy drones as a standalone asset. It can also send a cue to a separate gun truck or other effector on the network, or both; such a flexible approach enables bringing multiple unit effectors to the fight. Dual-use application M-ACE also has domestic applications for border security, critical infrastructure protection, or general asset security, as well as for federal law enforcement for agencies with proper counterdrone authority. Currently, only a handful of federal agencies have the authority to mitigate careless, clueless, or criminal drones in the homeland. When the regulatory landscape allows, the company is ready to take the M-ACE to the commercial market. “We designed M-ACE to be versatile and open architecture so customers can add on different sensors and effectors and integrate them with our open operating system,” Menti says. According to Menti, the M-ACE can go on a truck, tower, or armored vehicle, or it can sit on a lawn. In its truck configuration, it can serve as a customized, multirole vehicle. Northrop Grumman has demonstrated the flexibility of the system by integrating M-ACE systems on F250 Ford pickup trucks and smaller vehicles, such as Toyota’s LC79.
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Figure 1 | A truck outfitted with the M-ACE platform, which can detect ground-, air-, and water-based targets.
According to Savre, “Every user’s situation is different. Our expert team-of-teams provides customized tools to address them.” The system can be customized for desired optics, detection, and tracking equipment and communications capabilities. Users can also tailor relevant effectors, such as gun and weapon station type, fire control, and more. Northrop Grumman has yet to field systems for nonmilitary clients, but has received interest from domestic agencies such as Customs and Border Protection, as well as from international customers in the Middle East and North Africa. “We are working with our federal lawenforcement partners primarily right now, given legal limitations on countering drones in the U.S. Most customers want one system to handle multiple types of security requirements for close-in security. We provide that, Menti says” MES Dawn M.K. Zoldi (Colonel, USAF, Retired) is the CEO of P3 Tech Consulting LLC. https://www.p3techconsulting.com/ www.militaryembedded.com
MIL TECH TRENDS
SOSA designs for unmanned
caption
Title By John McHale, Editorial Director
Unmanned ISR payloads leverage MOSA designs
An unmanned aerial vehicle delivers a payload to the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Henry M. Jackson near the Hawaiian Islands. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Devin M. Langer.
abstract
By Emma Helfrich See more, detect more, and decode more – these are the primary requirements being asked of unmanned systems in the military, and proprietary hardware and software can make achieving those goals a challenge. This is why Army, Navy, and Air Force leaders mandated aThe Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) for all new programs and upgrades. MOSA examples include the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard and the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard. These initiatives among others, aim to offer commonality of hardware to enable easier and more affordable technology insertion in unmanned systems.
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The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to acquire more information from the field than ever before, thus requiring sensors to be increasingly capable even as the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) grows more crowded. The sensor payloads of unmanned platforms – unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) – carry much of that data-gathering pressure and expectation. With the varying size, operating environment, and overall mission architecture of these unmanned systems, timely and cost-efficient technology refresh can prove to be difficult. This need also affects the control station operating the unmanned systems, as standardizing on communication ports has the potential to increase bandwidth and create opportunities for stronger information processing. Between the potential for extended life cycles, lower acquisition costs, and better enabling of multidomain operations, adopting open architecture standards on unmanned platforms is gaining global attention, as well. With Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) at the forefront of DoD efforts, NATO allies are taking note of the positive effects open standards could have on joint-domain operations.
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Category 5 to Category 1. [Category 5 is the largest and Category 1 is the smallest.] You cannot fit OpenVPX on anything below Category 3,” says Giorgio Bertoli, Assistant Director for the Spectrum Dominance and Intelligence portfolio within the U.S. Army’s C5ISR Center, during his keynote address at the MOSA Virtual Summit titled “C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) ‘The Army’s SOSA Instantiation.’” “However, there are other options,” he continues. “One is the new VNX option, much smaller but highly capable and incredibly light and can easily fit on even a Category 1 UAS. We also have a tiny chassis that can fit these little cards and still support modular open system approaches.” Bertoli notes that he sees VNX as the “closest viable platform for a SOSA SFF.” To view his entire presentation, visit https://www.bigmarker.com/series/ mosa-virtual-summit/series_summit. One of the major arguments in favor of SOSA and other open standards is the simplicity in hardware design, which avoids multiple ways of doing one thing. However, with reduction in the size of electronic components on unmanned platforms, comes additional complexity. At this point in the evolution of open standards as they relate to the specific needs of an unmanned platform, industry officials are confident that any prospective drawbacks of one standard could be addressed and resolved by another. With size a prominent characteristic of UAVs, establishing a standard for small-form-factor (SFF) sensor payloads is in the works for standards organizations. Standardizing SFF There do exist standards currently in use that are dedicated to creating hardware for smaller platforms. The VITA Standards Organization (VSO) offers 3U OpenVPX and 6U OpenVPX, but for unmanned systems that may eventually call for thimble-sized electronics, the standardization timeline will be dependent on adoption by SOSA. “A lot of SOSA is built on VITA standards and OpenVPX. OpenVPX is currently 3U and 6U plug-in cards, but there are new smaller form factor VPX standards that are emerging,” says Rodger Hosking, director of sales, Mercury, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. “As those emerge, what will happen is once they become a standard in VITA, SOSA will then adopt the best of those standards and incorporate them under the SOSA specification. SOSA doesn’t like to invent its own standards; what it likes to do is choose from the best standards that are out there, pick the best parts, and then say these are the parts that will be in the SOSA standard. Smaller designs will come about in SOSA when they come about in VITA.” Developing open standards for small unmanned aircraft platforms is critical goal of the U.S. Army. The Army is “very big on UASs [unmanned aircraft systems] from www.militaryembedded.com
“There’s the ongoing assessment of how much use is it to have the exact same hardware,” says Jacob Sealander, chief architect for C5ISR [command, control, computers, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] systems at Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions (Davidson, North Carolina). “And in some cases, we’re finding a lot of use to say that it’s going to be the same exact hardware on all of the platforms, but for some of the smaller stuff, it doesn’t make sense, which is why CurtissWright has put itself in a good position to have not just the standard form-factor products that we have, but also the smaller form-factor stuff.” Put simply, the primary objective of SOSA is not to reduce size, weight, and power (SWaP). If SOSA is to eventually adopt a smaller form factor or a VITA standard, then SOSA can start playing in the SWaP-optimized SFF arena. Until
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SOSA designs for unmanned
then, interoperability, life cycle, and faster time to market are among the main benefits driving the adoption of open standards. “SWaP reduction is not one of the primary principles of SOSA,” says Mark Littlefield, senior manager of embedded computing solutions at Elma Electronic (Fremont, California). “However, we are seeing some technical areas where SWaP is being affected beneficially through standardization in SOSA and VITA. Power is one example. VITA 62 was significantly enhanced because of discussions and standardization efforts within SOSA, most notably the 12-volt-centric rules defined in the SOSA Technical Standard. That alone means that power supplies don’t need to be over-provisioned to account for potentially different voltage needs as a system evolves over time.” (Figure 1.) Standardization and SWaP optimization on unmanned systems goes beyond the onboard electronics and extends to the control station that operates it, further complicating the role that SOSA, MOSA, FACE, and others could play in the design of these systems. Standardizing the control station “Control stations are important because in some cases the sensors in the unmanned vehicles are proprietary or custom and so are the control stations that control them,” Hosking says. “By moving to common open standards in the vehicles themselves, there’s one step forward in that they would choose a common interface – like a protocol for sending information, control information, data, and payload information – so that the transmission from the unmanned vehicle to the control station is standardized.” In essence, if different unmanned vehicles are in the same area and use the same open standards, they could then be handled by the same control station. This level of optimized information-gathering and sharing could revolutionize the way that the military processes the momentous amounts of sensor data brought in by unmanned systems. But SOSA doesn’t quite cover all the bases yet. “I think MOSA is a better topic when considering a common control station if you look at the diversity of unmanned platforms,” says Dominic Perez, chief technology officer for Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions (Davidson, N.C.). “A SOSA small-formfactor system is still of a certain size, and unmanned systems can be far smaller than that. When we look at open standards for having commonality, it comes back to the communications and software portion of the stack. SOSA doesn’t do a whole lot to define how software operates. There’s a little bit there, but not a whole lot.” (Figure 2.) Some common-ground control stations may even be designed as tablets, a simple technology that may find its way into SOSA. But for now, standardizing on communications protocols and waveforms will more likely enable a single control station to speak to many different unmanned platforms. “I also see the ground station as being a troop-transport vehicle, as being a temporary outpost, or even being a more permanent outpost,” Perez says. “These same sensors that are going to deploy forward of a foot soldier are going to be like the ones that are forward of a soldier in an MRZR [tactical vehicle], and it’s the same cluster of unmanned systems that are going to be out from your forward operating base. That’s where you look for commonality in the ground system, and SOSA may play a great part in that ground station when its vehicle-based, but it’s probably not appropriate when its soldier-carried or when it’s a larger forward operating base. There’s no need, in my mind, for SOSA style equipment in a fixed location.” The focus then turns toward reaching the maximum amount of processing that can be achieved at the edge, on the platform, directly at the sensor level. Officials claim that
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Figure 1 | Elma Electronic’s 3U 12-slot backplane is aligned to SOSA as well as the latest iteration of CMOSS [C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards] requirements, developed specifically for the U.S. Army. Among the supported profiles are two switch slots (center), a timing (PNT) slot, and two slots for VITA 62 compliant power supply modules (far right).
Figure 2 | Curtiss-Wright’s PacStar SAVE enclosure takes a hybrid approach allowing MOSA and SOSA based systems to coexist.
this will require access to connectivity, plenty of bandwidth, and optical interfaces aligned to open standards. Standardizing edge processing “When you look at the battlefield, I have heard a number of high-ranking officials talk about what they need more of is almost always more ISR,” says Jacob Sealander, chief architect for C5ISR systems at Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions (Davidson, North Carolina). “They need to better understand what’s going on ahead of them. What comes with that – especially as sensors improve, as there’s more connection points in the network, more people who want data to be shared – the big thing is the network itself. Can the network keep up with the vehicles that are a part of it? And what we would call edge computing.” This, in turn, has spurred a corresponding desire to drive commonality at a functional level. This drive extends to the kind of software being hosted, the kinds of algorithms being used, and ensuring that open standards are being maintained in terms of communications systems. www.militaryembedded.com
Figure 3 | Mercury Systems’ SCFE 6931 Dual Versal AI Core FPGA processing board is SOSA aligned and features the Xilinx ACAP Versal device that performs AI, ML, and FPGA functions.
“The modularity can be important for the hardware, but the open standards in terms of communication is critical,” Perez says. “Since we have this proliferation of sensors, it is important that we think about the data that is coming out of sensors. In an uncontrolled environment, the data that is coming in is completely unstructured. I think that’s where onboard processing can help to either fully structure or at least semi-structure that data before it is passed off the unmanned vehicle.” It’s a fact that flexibility is key to performing the preprocessing as close to the antenna, or the sensor, as possible, which enables the unmanned sensor payload to then send the most essential data to the control station as structured, actionable information. This process can be further streamlined using artificial intelligence (AI). “SOSA is now embracing the OpenVPX 3U form factors, and those products are getting smarter and more capable because of new technology,” Hosking says. “There is new FPGA [field-programmable gate array] technology, new AI technology, and machine-learning FPGAs recently introduced by Xilinx called ACAPs [adaptive compute acceleration platforms], which will be useful at allowing developers to throw different types of compute engines at the same signals to try and pick the best engine to do the best job at extracting information out of a particular signal.” (Figure 3.) Considering the benefits that open standards bring to unmanned systems and sensor processing, the effect that standardization is projected to have on enabling joint-domain operations isn’t lost on electronics manufacturers. www.militaryembedded.com
Standardizing the joint domain “Making these systems easier to integrate through COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] commonality and software reuse and replacement, the SOSA Technical Standard, and other open architecture standards will free up money and resources to create new capabilities,” Littlefield says. “The common architecture will also make it easier to integrate multiple capabilities into a single sensor platform, like radar, communications, EW [electronic warfare], or SIGINT [signals intelligence].” Littlefield says that this fusion of capabilities and information sources is expected to have a significant impact on the intelligence and situational awareness available to the warfighter, which will be a defining aspect of joint-domain initiatives. Curtiss-Wright’s Sealander agrees: “When all the different branches of government really embrace SOSA at the max level, you can start to see the possibility of an SDR [software-defined radio] that’s used in a ground combat vehicle be used in a helicopter and be used in a fast jet when the capability, the performance, the way things are maintained are all the same. “How we get to places like that, specifically from an unmanned platform, is if the different branches of government embrace this standardized approach at the core of it,” Sealander continues. “Then you can easily see where these different unmanned solutions can have the same way of talking out to the network, and now you have this incredibly powerful battlefield to exchange data.” MES
THE
The McHale Report, by mil-embedded.com Editorial Director John McHale, covers technology and procurement trends in the defense electronics community.
ARCHIVED MCHALE REPORTS AVAILABLE AT: https://militaryembedded.com/newsletters/the-mchale-report/2022-02-28 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS March 2022
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MIL TECH TRENDS
SOSA designs for unmanned
The MOSA approach helps define reference architectures to deliver useable and working building blocks in the development of embedded systems.
Modernizing unmanned military systems using an open standard systems approach By Mark Littlefield The objectives of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) – to improve system capabilities, compatibility, and cost – are predicated on a tight collaboration between government and industry. Although each service branch of the military has a model or view of what it needs in its standards to produce the systems it requires, a common goal of interoperability has reshaped the military-electronics landscape over these past few years.
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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
www.militaryembedded.com
The key benefits of a unified effort towards interoperability are clear. With everyone working with the same standard, technologies won’t become outdated or isolated as often, so technology obsolescence lessens. Developers no longer need to reinvent the wheel, so companies can shorten time to market, using standardized, proven technologies. The sharing of ideas among developers, vendors, and end users builds a stronger ecosystem that leads to new ways of thinking. Finally, development costs are kept in check, since system manufacturers can use interoperable components that already integrate and communicate with one another. Open standards solve industry challenges There are two long-standing problems suffered by the development of highperformance electronic systems in the military and aerospace sectors. The first, integration, is affected by incompatible components from different suppliers as well as by highly engineered custom backplanes designed specifically for a certain system. The second problem: A limited choice of boards due to vendor lock, making replacement or future upgrades from other suppliers near impossible. Standards-based platform- and vendoragnostic components address both of these problems by: › Reducing development cycle time and costs, while accelerating rapid technology insertion › Encouraging interoperability and commonality/reuse across multiple platforms › Creating a broader vendor ecosystem for sourcing components and open competition › Lowering systems integration costs and risk › Supporting improved capability evolution Interoperability is an important concept when looking to alleviate these points of industry stagnation. As outlined in the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) www.militaryembedded.com
initiative, a multivendor interoperability environment should be the basis of all requirements, programming, and development activities for future weapons systems modifications and new-start development programs to the maximum extent possible. The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard is the governing standard that makes use of other open standards, which fall under the SOSA umbrella, and all adhere to the MOSA approach. One of these, OpenVPX, or VITA 65, is essentially the hardware standard for DoD modules aligned to SOSA. As SOSA gained traction, a subset of the OpenVPX community working on the VITA 65 specification worked concurrently on this open architecture designed to help improve the efficiency and speed of technology refreshes, while lowering long-term life cycle costs for warfighter systems such as radar, electronic warfare (EW), and signals intelligence (SIGINT) equipment. Hence, VITA 65, or OpenVPX, became the foundation of the SOSA initiative.
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SOSA designs for unmanned
Ensuring high-speed connectivity One significant development that assisted the adoption of OpenVPX to the SOSA standards was the addition of apertures, which are the openings in VPX backplane slots that enable the use of blind-mate RF and optical connectors. This addition enables embedded, OpenVPX-based systems to integrate higher-speed interfaces that match the growing processing needs of highly complex, data-sensitive applications. The need for this increased performance has influenced several connectivity design factors: › New VPX connector (TE’s RT3) developed to support speeds of 25+ Gb/sec › Module profiles added to SOSA and OpenVPX to describe the required protocols › VITA 67.3 I/O connectors updated to support RF contacts and fiber-optic MT ferrules › Shifts made in slot profiles for payload & I/O-intensive single-board computers (SBCs) as well as for switches and timing slots Connector modules incorporating optical ferrules, or a combination of optical ferrules and RF contacts, are defined in the VITA 66.5 standard but use the apertures defined in VITA 67.3. These two standards work in tandem to define how to document new RF and optical module configurations. These backplane-connector modules can be installed and replaced by the system integrator or the end user. More importantly, VITA 67.3 backplane apertures can support modules with different arrangements of RF and optical contacts for each aperture size. (Figure 1.)
Near-term DoD goals are driving initiatives to develop, field, and deploy systems defined with a specific purpose to prove out and test how sensors can operate in more than one mode and how they can potentially be rapidly reconfigured – for both manned and unmanned applications. The MOSA approach – of which SOSA is a key component – contributes hugely to the near-term planning by defining reference architectures to deliver usable and working building blocks. The apertures enable access to module RF and optical signals through the backplane, which require a matching connector module to populate the apertures. Plug-in cards can be populated with an assembled connector module with multiple contacts or can be configured to directly launch from individual contacts mounted on the base card and mezzanine(s). SOSA innovation in military applications Because of the emphasis on interoperability across manufacturers and product technologies, ensuring connectivity within a system aligned to SOSA is critical. Ensuring reliable throughput for high network speeds creates a path for SOSA’s continued strengthening across all departments of the DoD. Not only is a MOSA-centric approach filtering down from the acquisition community and via the prime contractors, but the early 2019 Tri-Service Memo (which directed the U.S. military services to adhere to a MOSA approach) and other directives, along with adoption by key program offices, has created significant momentum for the use
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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
Figure 1 | Apertures support modules with different arrangements of RF and optical contacts for each aperture size.
of the standards. In particular, the quality attributes and high-level goals within the SOSA standard – attributes such as pluggability, interchangeability, interoperability, etc. – are being considered in all proposed content. Community-driven initiatives like SOSA are enabling applications to incorporate more advanced technologies, and be built for future, cost-effective scaling to ensure rapid, future proof upgrades to critical military systems. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in mobile, remote, and unmanned systems, for example, paints a clear picture. AI applications utilize SBCs, GPGPUs [general-purpose GPUs], and FPGA [fieldprogrammable gate array] accelerators within an embedded system; in systems aligned to SOSA, those boards are called plug-in cards (PICs). It’s the actual application – ISR, EW, etc. – that drives the algorithms and data sets specific to the use case, which in turn drives the system topology. Effective AI system development Some system implementations may require more than one accelerator, or GPGPU. Because GPGPUs or accelerators require use of the expansion plane, a system designed to align with SOSA must consider the connections needed to facilitate data transfers. (Figure 2.) When building an embedded system that will require AI-level data processing, as well as alignment with the SOSA Technical Standard, accounting for certain design principles ensure all of the system requirements are met: First, www.militaryembedded.com
The final question during the design stage: What support is needed for initial development versus deployment?
Figure 2 | Open standards are helping bring compact, advanced AI computing to unmanned applications. Elma’s JetSys 5320 is a small, high-performance edge computing platform based on the NVIDIA Jetson module.
what SOSA PIC profiles are required? I/O or compute-intensive payload (SBC, GPGPU), or peripheral I/O? Additionally, which topology is driving the interconnect: speed and type? Additional questions: How much power is required? Do modules using ±5 V and 3.3 V need to be supported? Also, which cooling scheme is used: conduction or air flow-through?
Long-term planning of future critical missions Especially in the realm of unmanned and remotely operated autonomous applications, the ability to cultivate actionable intelligence from multiple data input points is crucial to the success of a military mission. Near-term DoD goals are driving initiatives to develop, field, and deploy systems defined with a specific purpose to prove out and test how sensors can operate in more than one mode and how they can potentially be rapidly reconfigured – for both manned and unmanned applications. The MOSA approach – of which SOSA is a key component – contributes hugely to the near-term planning by defining reference architectures to deliver usable and working building blocks. MES Mark Littlefield is senior manager of embedded computing products and services for Elma Electronic. He is an active contributor to multiple VITA and SOSA technical working groups, leads the SOSA small-form-factor (SFF) subcommittee, and was co-chair of the VITA 65 OpenVPX working group. He has more than 25 years of experience in embedded computing, where he has held a range of technical and professional roles supporting defense, medical, and commercial applications. Mark holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in control systems engineering from the University of West Florida, where he wrote his thesis on a neural net approach to image processing.
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MIL TECH TRENDS
SOSA designs for unmanned
caption
Title By John McHale, Editorial Director abstract
Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA), unmanned vehicles, and trusted computing By Steve Edwards
The Today, with the increasing use of unmanned platforms to host intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance [ISR] sensor applications, system integrators need to ensure that the sensor systems and the critical data they collect and store are protected from falling into the wrong hands. By their very nature, unmanned platforms – whether airborne, on land, or at sea – pose more complex problems for security. All systems, regardless if deployed on manned or unmanned platforms, are now required to adhere to the Department of Defense (DoD) mandate for a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA). The good news for unmanned ISR system designers is that The Open Group’s SOSA [Sensor Open System Architecture] Consortium recently released Technical Standard for SOSA Reference Architecture, Edition 1.0, which defines many aspects of trusted computing for sensor systems. The SOSA standard combines MOSA principles with security to enable the rapid and affordable deployment of secure sensor systems on unmanned platforms.
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MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
www.militaryembedded.com
SOSA Sensor System
SOSA Sensor Management 1.1: System Manager
Transmission/Reception 2.4: Emitter/ Collector
6.1: Security Services
2.3: ConditionerReceiverExciter
6.2: Encryptor/ Decryptor
1.2: Task Manager
Process Signals/Targets
Analyze/Exploit
3.1: Signal/Object Detector and Extractor
3.2: Signal/Object Characterizer
4.1: External Data Ingestor
4.2: Encoded Data Extractor
3.3: Image Pre-processor
3.4: Tracker
4.3: Situation Assessor
4.4: Impact Assessor and Responder
6.3: Guard/ Cross-Domain Service
6.4: Network Subsystem
6.5: Calibration Service
6.6: Nav Data Service
6.7: Time & Frequency Service
Convey 4.6: Storage/ Retrieval Manager
6.8:
Compressor/ Decompressor
5.1: Reporting Services
6.9: Host Platform Interface
6.10: Power
Support System Operation
Figure 1 | SOSA Service View 1 documents the SOSA modules and their top-level relationships.
SOSA Technical Standard. Leveraging existing capabilities, where possible, reduces cost and time to deployment. Security within the SOSA Technical Standard is designed to be flexible: Every system is different and has different security requirements. The security capabilities in the SOSA Technical Standard can be thought of as a library of functions, to be used as needed to address security. This mindset enables each system to tailor security to address their requirements– as security – like the rest of the SOSA Technical Standard, is adaptable. As new threats emerge and certain mitigations become less secure over time, adjustments will have to be made, a reality that will be reflected in future versions of the standard. SOSA Service View 1 (Figure 1) documents the SOSA modules and their top-level relationships to one another. Security components defined in SOSA Technical Standard 1.0 include 6.1 Security Services and 6.2 Security Encryptor/Decryptor. There is also a placeholder for 6.3 Guard/Cross-Domain Service, which will be addressed in a future version of the standard. SOSA security services SOSA Security Services contain a set of functions that provide a standardized way of ensuring the integrity of the system. It is a toolbox to be used to address the security requirements within a system. Within the Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard, all security requirements are open, independent of any particular vendor or implementation. The requirements are relatively high-level and meant to facilitate the understanding of what is needed, not meant as a “how-to” regarding implementation. They operate within the framework of the SOSA software and hardware components within the technical standards, so that they mesh with the other aspects of those standards. Efforts were focused on leveraging as much of the existing capability and existing standards as possible. For example, existing standardized security capabilities such as SYSLOG and TLS are used where applicable, rather than developing something unique for the www.militaryembedded.com
For example, the SOSA Technical Standard includes functions that monitor and assess the integrity of the system throughout the operation of that system. At startup, the integrity of hardware and software is established, and continually monitored during operation so that changes are flagged and handled accordingly. When a system starts up, security evaluates the integrity of that system and determines it to be protected, degraded, or compromised. The integrity of the system is okay in a protection state. If there is an issue with integrity of some components, then the system is considered degraded or compromised depending on how severe the issues are. In this case, it is up to the system to determine what to do. It may continue to run in a less secure state, prohibit certain modules from running, or even shut down. There may be security requirements outside of the standard that are not covered in the SOSA Technical Standard, and that is fine. In that case, the requirements are not implemented within the framework of the SOSA Technical Standard, but if SOSA does cover the mandated security components that are required, and the program will make use of them, then they must be implemented in accordance with the requirements specified in the technical standard. So, if your system is going to use TLS or SYSLOG, for example, they are covered by other standards, but if startup is going to be performed securely, the SOSA Technical Standard defines what is required for implementing it.
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MIL TECH TRENDS Security services in the SOSA Technical Standard 1.0 Secure startup: Monitor/assess the integrity of the system during initialization and continuing through operation. Audit: Audit logging/processing of system events. Authentication: Verifies that a module (generally – but not always – in SOSA, “module” refers to a software module) instance is intended to be used on the system. Authorization: Grants access to privileged functions within the sensor. Data at rest and data in transit (Data in motion): Ensures confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data stored within nonvolatile memory or transiting on a SOSA system. Encryptor/decryptor: Provides cryptographic functions both for DAR for confidentiality, integrity, availability of system. Intermodule interaction: For data in transit, provides confidentiality, integrity, and availability to data traversing between modules (leverages TLS/DTLS). At this time, only data traveling between modules within a specific system are covered by the SOSA Technical Standard. Key management: Provides a mechanism for loading, storing, retrieving, and managing SOSA controlled keys within a system. SOSA key management doesn’t define how to control every one of the many keys in a system, many of which might be used outside of the SOSA key management. For example, it doesn’t define those keys used to start up an individual plug-in card, or keys used for TLS, which makes use of session keys. Those types of keys are created as needed and destroyed when the session ends. They are controlled within the TLS domain, for example, not by the SOSA key management. Software package verification: Assists the runtime environment with verification of software packages to authenticate their use. Zeroization: Provides a mechanism to remove/erase critical security parameters (CSPs) such as keys, passwords, and certificates. System security life cycle Holistic security is multidisciplinary and is needed throughout the system life cycle, which starts with design and runs through build, test, operate, and maintain before ending at retire. (This process might refer to the entire system life cycle.) Within the SOSA Technical Standard, for security the focus is on runtime, the operational and maintenance components of the system life cycle, which begins at startup and proceeds from runtime to shutdown and ends at the maintain phase. Runtime security Ensuring runtime security involves continual monitoring of security states. The startup states continue to work and monitor the system to understand any changes in status that might affect integrity. There is a standardized set of services that can be used to provide data integrity (for data at rest, data in transit, and key management), detection of anomalous behavior for things like SYSLOG, and – in the case that anomalous behavior is detected – being able to respond to it by zeroizing critical security parameters. The SOSA Technical Standard does not currently contain any content that defines secure shutdown, but discussions are underway and it’s expected that the subject will be covered in future versions of the standard.
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SOSA designs for unmanned Interoperability Interoperability enables disparate systems to exchange data and information and work together. It’s achieved at the interface between modules by having well-defined interactions and behaviors between modules. Within the SOSA Technical Standard there are different hardware modules – for example plug-in cards (PICs) and software modules – that may be created by different vendors. It’s important to make sure that these various elements can work together correctly. In many cases, they will have security aspects and will need to be authenticated (and perhaps authorized to use privileged functions) and they will also need to be able to send data back and forth between the modules. There is an entire group within the SOSA Consortium, called Inter-Module Interaction, that works on defining those APIs [application programming interfaces] and what the parameters that get passed back and forth are, to ensure that at the interaction level (the API level), there is common set of functions and data that gets passed back and forth so that the modules can communicate. That also applies, off-sensor, to other systems on a platform going forward. Within the SOSA Technical Standard, the Security Services group works with the Inter-Module Interaction and Data Modeling groups to make sure that the parameters needed to ensure security are defined so that modules making use of security services can do so in a standardized way, and can interoperate with those security services and with each other. Security and plug-in cards Generally speaking, the internals of the various PICs and how they deal with security is the purview of the vendor, which means that the security requirements of the SOSA Technical Standard apply at the interface of the PIC. For example, SOSA does not directly impose internal requirements on how a particular PIC will boot securely. However, security requirements do apply to modules that will run on the PIC, and certain functions, www.militaryembedded.com
such as secure startup, will want to know the integrity of the PIC. Functions will want to know how to verify that the PIC is who it says it is and will want to know what information the PIC will provide to inform that it has started up in a known secure state. That means there will need to be information passed back and forth. Modules running on the PIC can use security services for the various security-related functions, and then communicate between where those security services are located (on a PIC in the system, most likely). The ability to communicate must be provided, typically via Ethernet, so that security services can gain the information needed to run and perform its functions. To make the implementation of security on a PIC easier, the system designer can use a trusted platform module (TPM, an international standard for a secure cryptoprocessor), FPGA [field-programmable gate array], and root of trust. TPMs are used for encryption, storing certificates, and hardware attestation support, all of which are useful from a security context in the SOSA Technical Standard. For Intel-based PICs, having a TPM onboard is now standard practice. TPMs can be implemented as dedicated pieces of hardware. If an FPGA is available on the PIC, there are software TPMs that can be used. Hardware cryptography can also be used within the FPGA to handle some of the TPM functions. Root of trust, which is a generally trusted entity on the PIC, can be implemented in hardware, which is more secure, or in some cases can be implemented in software. Root of trust is discussed within the current SOSA Technical Standard but is not yet defined. SOSA Security Services does not address every cryptographic key, password, or certificate in the system. Also, the internal bring-up and integrity of a PIC is not covered by security services today. At the system-to-system level, SOSA Security Services does not currently address security between SOSA systems on a platform, or between a SOSA and a non-SOSA system. SOSA does contain the concept of a “host www.militaryembedded.com
platform interface,” which is likely to be used in the future for defining secure intersystem communications. MES Steve Edwards is Director of Secure Embedded Solutions for Curtiss-Wright. He has been with Curtiss-Wright for more than 22 years in a number of roles. Steve co-designed Curtiss-Wright’s first rugged multiprocessor and FPGA products and was involved in the evangelization of the industry’s first VPX products. He was Chair of OpenVPX (VITA 65) from 2013 to 15 and is currently a contributor to the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Security Subcommittee. He has been leading Curtiss-Wright’s AT and cybersecurity efforts since 2010. Readers may reach him at Steve.Edwards@curtisswright.com. Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions • https://www.curtisswrightds.com/
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
Introducing VITA 90, the latest rugged smallform-factor module standard By Bill Ripley, Andy Walker, and Mehmet Adalier VITA 90 is a new small-form-factor (SFF) standard that is a direct descendant of VITA 74, an inherently rugged module standard with a compelling space, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) proposition, and aimed at use in many military and aerospace applications. This standard has been causing quite a ruckus within the MIL-rugged embedded systems community lately, as VITA 90 has been selected by a government-led consortium of manufacturers and integrators for inclusion in the new Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard.
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MOSA solutions for unmanned
The VITA 74 rugged module standard was referenced within the SOSA Technical Standard Version 1.0 – released in the fall of 2021 – and will be updated to VITA 90 in the upcoming SOSA 2.0 revision, due in late 2022. A typical VITA 74 and VITA 90 module in its simplest form is shown in Figure 1 and is approximately the size of a deck of ordinary playing cards. Both standards have an electronic architecture similar to VITA 65 OpenVPX. For the last two years, there has been a lot of work done behind the scenes to transform VITA 74 into VITA 90 to meet the technical attributes of SOSA. Design considerations for VITA 74.0, VNX Going back in time, the technology behind this small-form-factor (SFF) standard was initially developed by engineers at Themis Computer. Building on the successful performance of the VITA 57.1 FMC standard, engineers at Themis chose to use the Samtec high-speed, high-density SEARAY connector as its primary module-to-backplane interface, as well as the interface between the backplane and the front panel I/O transition board (IOTB). The right-angle female SEARAY connector was selected to be used on the module, with the corresponding straight male SEARAY connector selected for the backplane. This original NanoATR design defined two module sizes: a 19 mm module using the 400-pin SEARAY, and a 12.5 mm module using the 200-pin SEARAY. The NanoATR concept was brought to the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) to be considered for a standard describing SFF computer and payload modules to be used in embedded systems targeted towards medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other rugged aerospace applications. The proposal gained both traction and sponsors and became VITA 74, one of three potential SFF standards being considered at the time: VITA 73, VITA 74, and VITA 75. Of the three standards, only VITA 74 had the backing of corporate sponsors for submission to the ANSI standards organization for ratification.
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Figure 1 | VITA 74.0/VITA 90.0 19 mm baseline configuration module. Image courtesy Trident Infosol.
Figure 3 | VNX+ example system in Coyote and AIM-9X pod. Figure 2 | A VITA 90 VNX+ module base card with 240-pin connector and full connector module. Samtec photo.
After that process was complete, VITA 74 was published as the joint ANSI/ VITA 74.0-2017 standard. The standard was given the moniker VNX, a name befitting the unofficial “nano” derivative of VPX. From its inception, VNX was never intended to replace VPX, but was instead meant to bring the essential tenets of the VPX architecture into rugged airborne, space, and ground platforms that were physically too small to accommodate a VPX system. The ANSI/VITA 74.0-2017 base standard was released with a list of future dot-standards that will optimize complex VNX system I/O solutions for future applications. Two of these dot-standards would add the concept of backplane “Connector Modules” required to facilitate high-speed/high-bandwidth optical and coaxial RF/Video data transmission for both inter-slot and intra-system digital signaling. Another dot-standard would define options to include wedgelocks, address electromechanical considerations for single-module deployments, and define techniques for high-efficiency/highpower VNX module and system cooling. Similarly, another dot-standard defined VNX-specific power supply modules. VITA 74.4, also known as SpaceVNX, documents specific electronic and mechanical considerations required to implement rad-hard and rad-tolerant VNX solutions in small spacecraft applications. In the process of developing these dot-standards, the VITA 74 Technical Committee reviewed the government and industry’s www.militaryembedded.com
evolving module performance requirements and use cases; the committee decided to go all in and fully optimize the original VITA 74.0 VNX compute and I/O module’s pin assignments for maximum signal integrity, as well as implementing the OpenVPX-style utility plane, control plane, data plane, expansion plane, and I/O overlays. Expanding VNX for high-speed fabrics and coaxial/optical signaling The evolution of VNX from a simple module standard to a family of standards that will describe the technology required to assemble complex SFF systems has been driven by military and aerospace adopters of the ubiquitous VITA 65 OpenVPX family of standards within the VSO, SOSA, and the Hardware Open Systems Technologies (HOST) communities. As a result of evolutionary changes to the SEARAY connector pin assignments, the signal integrity of all high-speed channels has noticeably improved, and the revamped planes can now exceed the signaling requirements necessary to support PCI Express 4.0 and other modern fabrics. As companions to the SEARAY connector, new VNX connector modules have been specifically designed and manufactured to support various combinations of highspeed signaling: fiber-optic connectivity using MT ferrules, coaxial connectivity for RF and video signals, and isolated copper contacts for applications such as providing high voltages to an RF amplifier’s power supply rails. These changes were deemed to be such a revolutionary improvement over the capabilities of the ANSI/VITA-74.0 VNX base-standard, that both VITA and SOSA leaders decided that the new capabilities should be codified in a new family of standards – ANSI/VITA 90 – which is called VNX-Plus (VNX+). (Figure 2.) VNX+ not only includes Samtec’s 400-pin SEARAY connector as defined in the VITA 90.0 base standard, but also includes new additions necessary to support use cases such as signal processors, radio transceivers, graphics processors, network and fabric switches, and other I/O modules requiring coaxial or optical MT signaling. These applications will use the 240-pin SEARAY high-speed data connector with a full-connector module, or the 320-pin SEARAY connector with a half-connector module as defined in the VITA 90.2 dot-standard. VITA 90.3 introduces the VNX+ energy conversion module (power supply) using a 320-pin SEARAY connector centered in a VNX+ slot, and an energy storage module (hold-up capacitor and/or battery) using a 240-pin SEARAY connector, similarly centered in a VNX+ slot. With careful engineering of the mechanical and thermal considerations, VNX+ modules can fit in many tight spaces using conventional backplanes or microbackplanes for single-module deployments. For specific applications, additional space may be recovered by employing an equivalent cabled backplane. Pod-mounted sensor processor deployments Considering the tight space inside a 5-inch tube (like an AIM-9 Sidewinder-sized pod), previous systems used expensive custom hardware that was hard to upgrade as threats and requirements changed. Current thinking in the SOSA and other similar
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
MOSA solutions for unmanned
communities requires the ability to upgrade or modernize hardware to keep up with the ever-evolving threats, and that requirement drives them to specify and procure standard modules with known hardware and software interfaces. modular open systems approach ()VNX+ is designed to meet those requirements.
spacecraft flying in formation to create unprecedented telescope and interferometers for imaging fainter, smaller, and more distant objects.
Military integrators have discovered that the VNX+ size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) attributes make the standard a natural fit for not only SFF traditionally packaged ATR-style avionics boxes, but also for pod-mounted sensor and weapon systems requiring high-performance sensor interfaces in close proximity to FPGA [fieldprogrammable gate array] and MPSoC signal processors, computers, radios, and platform I/O available as COTS [commercial off-the-shelf]/mCOTS [military COTS] MOSA modules with standardized electromechanical backplane interfaces. VNX+ is the only backplane-centric COTS MOSA standard which can be deployed as vertically oriented conduction-cooled modules on a traditional horizontal backplane, mounted longitudinally (i.e., along the long axis), within the usable area of a 5-inch diameter tube as used for an AIM-9X Sidewinder-sized sensor pod, or within a 6-inch diameter tube as used for the Coyote, as well as other similarly small payload pods or UAV fuselages. (Figure 3.)
VNX+ thermal performance targets Demands to fit in ever-tighter spaces, coupled with faster and wider data paths between sensors, signal processors, and compute modules, has made it necessary for VNX+ to support higher-power components and even denser module packaging. The power rails and grounds are enhanced in the new standard. New options include a legacy balanced 3.3 V, 5 V, and 12 V power system or a new unbalanced “12 V heavy” power system. The VNX+ energy conversion module (ECM) dot-standard is proposed to allow up to three load-sharing power modules to be used in a system, with a companion energy storage module providing input power dropout and transient protection. The integrated system must employ appropriate cooling technologies for its specified environment.
Another SFF standard included in the OpenVPX family and SOSA 1.0 is called “Short VPX” (sVPX). sVPX is purposely designed to be the same width as a conduction-cooled 3U VPX module, with the same connector and connector module, except that the PCB area is reduced to 100 mm by 100 mm, instead of the full 3U size of 160 mm by 100 mm, but with a significantly wider slot pitch. Figure 4 shows a 6-inch Coyote-sized housing with a VNX module and an overlaid sVPX module, shown without the VPX backplane and I/O connectors. As the sVPX module is too large to fit in the available space, it can be shown that sVPX, oriented vertically as shown, is best suited for 7.0-inch tube or nonstandard applications. Similarly, the full-size 3U VPX modules are best suited for 10-inch or larger tubes when oriented the same vertical manner. However, 3U VPX modules are often efficiently mounted horizontally in systems of this size, with enough vertical space to enable stacking of the requisite number of modules. Space use case considerations VNX is also being designed into space applications. SpaceVNX (VITA 74.4) and SpaceVNX+ (VITA 90.5) were designed from VNX’s inception to target small sats, including 1U to 12U CubeSats, and also for space rovers for critical applications that require high levels of computing and data-transfer performance. The SpaceVNX+ inband protocols such as SpaceFibre, SpaceWire, and Serial RapidIO and in-development high-performance compute modules will enable future missions such as multiple
Figure 4 | Examples of VNX+ & sVPX modules in 5-inch and 6-inch diameter pods are shown.
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To understand the thermal limits of individual modules constructed using differing cooling strategies, studies are being conducted to define the upper power dissipation boundaries of practical VNX+ signal processing modules. Considering the mechanical envelope studies discussed earlier, coupled with a little algebraic extrapolation, it appears that a system requiring a reasonable number of high-power SFF modules, each dissipating 60 to 80 W or more, which must be constrained in a very small package (such as a 5-inch diameter sensor pod), may now be built using a standards-based architecture employing practical advanced cooling technologies, such as oscillating heat pipes (OHP), to carry the heat away from the module to the dissipating thermal interface. Use of OHP technology should enable multiple modules to each spread their thermal load evenly across their primary thermal interfaces, with a large number of VNX+ modules oriented vertically along the long axis of a small diameter sensor pod, with the internal chassis cooled by conduction, ram air, fan forced air, or a liquid cooled heat exchanger. www.militaryembedded.com
VITA 90 VNX+ Module Shell Material Thermal Study Power High 95W
Med 55W
Low 35W
Component FPGA Optical CODEC NVM FPGA Optical CODEC NVM FPGA Optical CODEC NVM
Limits (High C) FPGA Optical Codec NVM
Watts 80 7 5.2 40 8 5.2 20 10 5.2
Rise °C 145 132 125 86 88 78 63 66 55
AMB Die Industrial 105 125 105 115 105 115
High-power use cases are being verified through continued modeling and laboratory testing. Test results and use case examples showing the expanded limits of the VNX+ power dissipation envelope will be published. (Table 1.) Many modules with functionality required for compute, signal processing, communications, and I/O are available or in work. Examples of VNX and VNX+ modules which exist today are currently evolving from existing VNX designs, or are new designs in process, include: › Power conversion and energy storage modules for low-, medium-, and high-power systems › IA compute modules with up to 11th-generation dual-core Intel Core i7 processors (formerly Tiger Lake), and current generation quad-core Intel Atom processors › NVIDIA GPGPU modules using the Jetson AGX Xavier GPU processor › FPGA modules using various SoCs and MPSoCs with Arm cores, using high-speed copper and optical backplane interfaces › RF transceiver modules using RFSoCs as well as MPSoCs and companion transceiver › Rad-hard controller modules for space applications › I/O modules for MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429, and MIL-1394B/AS5643 data buses › I/O modules with RS-232/422/485, CAN, and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces www.militaryembedded.com
Aluminum Ambient °C +55 C +71 C 200 216 187 203 180 196 141 157 143 159 133 149 118 134 121 137 110 126
Rise °C 68 71 60 49 52 40 40 43 30
Copper Ambient °C +55 C +71 C 123 139 126 142 115 131 104 120 107 123 95 111 95 111 98 114 85 101
Oscillating Heat Pipe Ambient °C Rise °C +55 C +71 C 49 104 120 39 94 110 39 94 110 38 93 109 39 94 110 28 83 99 32 87 103 35 90 106 22 77 93
Over Temp
›
Table 1 | Modeled data bracketing the thermal performance of VNX modules with material variances. Note: all values are °C rise above heat sink temperature.
› Gigabit Ethernet switches with L2/L3 and 10 GbE uplink ports › Storage modules using mSATA SSDs › MEMS inertial measurement units with GPS As the military and aerospace communities move to smaller and more intelligent platforms, the requirement to build smaller systems becomes ever more important. To get more “bang for the buck,” there is an enlarging paradigm shift away from custom electronics towards COTS and mCOTS solutions. To minimize the effort required to upgrade systems through the use of common hardware, communications, and control interfaces, it is necessary to build hardware which can be conformant with MOSA standards from ANSI/VITA, SOSA, HOST, and other consortia. VNX+ is being designed and implemented with all of these requirements in mind. MES Bill Ripley is the co-chairman of the VITA 90 VNX+ Technical Working Group and is also an engineer and businessdevelopment consultant specializing in development and sales of high-performance standards-based, small form factor, embedded computers deployed in military and aerospace rugged electronic system applications. Readers may get in touch at Bill.Ripley@Samtec.com or Bill.Ripley@Trident-SFF.com. Andy Walker is associate director, Mission Systems Advanced Technology Center, at Collins Aerospace. His previous work ranges from devices for advanced radar systems to GaN and SiC devices for electric vehicles. His current pursuits include multifunction RF systems to provide stand-in capabilities in attritable platforms by leveraging open standards across disparately resourced platforms. Contact him at anders.walker@collins.com. Mehmet Adalier is CEO and founder of Antara Teknik LLC. He leads the innovation and development of interoperable, efficient, and secure communications and assured cross-domain solutions on Earth and in space. He is currently driving delay/ disruption tolerant solutions for cislunar and deep-space communications utilizing SpaceVNX+. Contact the author at madalier@antarateknik.com. Samtec • https://www.samtec.com/ Collins Aerospace • https://www.collinsaerospace.com/ Antara Teknik • https://www.antarateknik.com/
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
MOSA solutions for unmanned
Three unmanned aerial systems fly at Edwards Air Force Base, California. U.S. Department of Defense photo.
Modular strategies for power conversion in UASs address SWaP concerns and increased electrification By Julian Thomas Electrical power onboard aircraft is traditionally generated from some type of engine and AC generator set. AC power is distributed and then converted to DC at or near the point of load, as every electronic system requires DC power. Increasingly, DC power distribution strategies are taking the lead in power-system design, especially for applications – like unmanned aerial systems (UASs) – where size, weight, and power (SWaP) concerns are paramount. Modular DC-DC options enable smart voltage trade-offs, flexible distribution architectures, and the ability to scale for reuse in various applications across aircraft used in military and civil arenas. Urban air mobility is poised to transform aviation: This reshaping of the industry is moving much more quickly with the support of the U.S. armed forces. Once considered science fiction, carrying people via small electric flying vehicles is a near-future reality. The transportation of people, medicine, and supplies in urban applications proves the concept and value of electrified aircraft. This promise
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extends to transporting troops, resupplying support and equipment, search and rescue, securing base operations, moving cargo, and more – meaning that unmanned aerial systems (UASs) can potentially reduce or replace manned helicopter missions into dangerous scenarios worldwide. DC power technologies are at the heart of many urban air mobility systems in development. These airframes, powered by batteries storing DC power, eliminate the demand for AC-DC power conversion at point of load. It’s an important shift in power-system design, enabling consideration of efficient, higher-voltage DC distribution systems that are simultaneously compatible with energy storage (batteries) and load requirements.
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Meeting SWaP-C and DC power distribution needs While traditional aircraft incorporate gas turbines driving auxiliary power units that are naturally AC, the required AC-DC conversion and distribution strategies may inherently increase the number of power electronics onboard. This design approach is in direct opposition to military design ideals of size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) – a problem made more complex by the ever-increasing amount of electrical power required onboard aircraft. Power needs are anticipated to extend the SWAP-C challenge, continually growing in step with more sophisticated cockpit avionics and more electrically actuated systems. When power is distributed as DC, voltage conversion and power conditioning is still necessary, varying based on how and where the power is to be used onboard the aircraft. Should the design deliver power, stepping it up or down at the device? Or is it smarter and more efficient to convert power levels www.militaryembedded.com
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MOSA solutions for unmanned
before distribution to individual devices or applications? Both design strategies have value, and ideal design choices must reflect the systems involved, aircraft type and purpose, reliability, robustness, scalability, life cycle, and more. Building-block strategies demonstrate great potential in this type of power system design – capitalizing on proven designs and minimizing development timelines. It’s a competitive approach that protect SWaP-C ideals and keeps manufacturers focused on the next generation of aircraft design. DC power distribution strategies The power needs within a specific area of an aircraft, for example the 28 volts commonly used in cockpit avionics, could be handled with only power conditioning from a local battery source. Conversely, the necessary 28 VDC can be converted centrally and distributed as systems require. This design is best suited to smaller, less complex architectures, as cabling weight can increase when power is widely distributed to a spectrum of onboard devices. Modern, flexible distribution architecture can also provide a layer of redundancy and graceful performance degradation to improve safety and, in the context of military platforms, increase survivability. A more strategic design might feature increased voltage as a trade-off to reduce cabling. By designing a primary distribution at 540 volts, supported by a localized secondary distribution at 28 volts, step-down is not needed at every individual load; the localized 28 volt network is instead designed to support multiple devices with a single conversion. Such a design is also beneficial for electronics performing in more isolated areas of the aircraft, such as a heating system or controls on the wing. Concerns over cabling weight increase with cabling distances, addressed with power distributed in a single higher-voltage option and then stepped to its required voltage
locally adjacent to the device. This design strategy becomes more complex with systems that demand secondary loads demanding multiple voltages, such as 28/5/3 volts. Modular options extend flexibility In response to these evolving power needs, along with the demand for faster time to market, power solutions are more readily available as modular, building-block components that consider both performance and scalability. Two distinct levels of modularity apply, the first of which features the device itself. Defining design models parametrically eliminates the time and resources required for ground-up development, including a complete model and analysis of each design. These can be easily tailored and integrated into custom designs across the full spectrum of secondary power needs, whether the application requires a 100 watt low-power control unit or entails a heavier end load such as 6,000 watts.
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Custom design resources can be further minimized when a single device is developed to meet a superset of requirements. In this case, system developers must pay close attention to overall device efficiency; a family of building blocks can help alleviate efficiency concerns, enabling interchangeability across various points in the design range. Each will deliver its own defined performance window, driving the need for scaling up or down to achieve maximum efficiency. Performance thrives, time to market is fast, and proven engineering is repurposed wisely. The end unit itself defines the second level of modularity. Consider that a 2 kW converter can be designed for more than a single use, for example, applied to the power distribution strategy of a 4 kW or 6 kW application. This taps into proven technology in a modular design, meeting custom power levels and aligning with all-electric aircraft power redundancy requirements. Using this approach, system design could feature five individual, but coordinated, 2 kW converters to nominally deliver 10 kW. Flexibility and redundancy are engineered into the design, along with automatic power routing, so that the loss of a single converter doesn’t affect overall system integrity. If an unlikely failure occurs, the remaining components compensate to keep the aircraft safe and operational – much like the multiple engines onboard traditional aircraft. Such designs are also generally lighter than traditional “A lane/B lane” duplication. Historically, power-control systems tend to perform in isolation, yet today’s engineering advancements highlight this as an important shift and ideal design path for electric aircraft power. Increased electrification and agility in defense scenarios Advancements from the massive global investment in energy storage technology – fuel cells and batteries – are transforming aviation. Military operations are hazardous by nature; however, air operations may be considered safer than land-transport options exposed to improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or other ground attacks. Even more importantly, www.militaryembedded.com
VPX3U-RTX5000E -SWITCH
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unable module power optional min power GPU
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GPUDirect - sensor to GPU SOS aligned 14.4.15 slot profile 30 CUD cores 384 ensor cores 16GB GDDR6 educe slot count, simplify system architectures, and optimize the OpenCO S system. he tunable PEC GPU adds the compute processing needed for the tactical edge while addressing the fabric switching re uirements of larger systems.
Drive SDI and S-1 0 outputs without IO panel circuitry on coaxial NSI/VI 6 .3 cabling 30 CUD cores 384 ensor cores 16GB GDDR6
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
MOSA solutions for unmanned
technology relationships add value to both sides of the equation. The defense industry benefits from commercial innovation, in step with its long-held goal of procuring commercial technology with military value. At the same time, its own extensive resources such as flight-safety testing and certification can help reduce risk and accelerate technology adoption, building up a global market for affordable urban air mobility technology. Flexible distribution schemes and modular power electronics can be used to design highly robust solutions with excellent survivability. MES
Julian Thomas is Engineering Director, Power Solutions U.K., at TT Electronics. Readers can connect with Julian at julian.thomas@ttelectronics.com. TT Electronics https://www.ttelectronics.com/
DESIGNING DC POWER GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION AT ALTITUDE Next-generation platforms such as the (under development) U.K. Tempest fighter jet will inevitably need far more electric power to be available, due to a greater number of systems needing power as well as upgraded, higher power systems. With technical advancements beyond fifthgeneration airframes such as the U.S. F-35 and Russian Su-57, Tempest is expected to feature artificial intelligence, laser weapons, and a virtual cockpit with helmet-enabled controls. The project team includes a motor sports firm with expertise in batteries for automotive and racing vehicles. Not unusual, given the automotive industry’s deeper progression in vehicle electrification inspired by legislative and commercial pressures. New and more innovative automotive propulsion systems need to store vast amounts of energy, logically creating a DC source for secondary loads.
Automotive engineers are somewhat familiar with the challenge – electrical power has traditionally been enabled by a battery – although today’s demand is focused on higher-voltage solutions for end loads and distribution. High-end automotive platforms, such as the luxury all-electric Porsche Taycan, have emerged with 800 volt (dc) systems as a standard, enabling excellent performance, fast vehicle charging, and reduced cabling size and weight.
One crucial factor is designing for performance at altitude. Altitude has unique environmental impact on power system design – factors such as breakdown and arcing behave differently under its effects. In civil aviation, +270 volts can be achieved effectively on an aircraft in flight; this is a power level that has emerged as that industry’s current DC power distribution system standard with next-generation platforms likely extending this to +/-270 (i.e., 540) volts.
That said, power system design for aviation applications is a wholly different and more complex challenge. Reliability of flightqualified systems must align with the critical nature of air travel and transportation, even as systems simultaneously strive to meet size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) limitations. In many cases, power-conversion systems for specific voltages have never been needed, and so they do not yet exist.
Electric vehicles for urban air mobility – the urban air taxis poised to prove so valuable to mission requirements across the armed forces – are not designed to perform at altitudes comparable to civil or more traditional military aircraft. Lower altitudes, coupled with their increased greater electrical requirements may see these airframes generally operate at higher voltages, potentially mirroring the 800 volt standard emerging in highend automotive and civil UAS platforms.
Sidebar Figure 1 | Holistic thinking should drive aviation power system design, capitalizing on the greater recognition of DC-DC power conversion and distribution as an enabling technology for platforms such as unmanned aerial systems (UASs).
36 March 2022
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VPX3U-RTX5000E -VO
VPX3U-XAVIER CX6-SBC/HPC
VPX6U-RTX5000E DUAL-VO
NVIDIA Turing™
Xavier AGXi, 10/40/100GbE 4 port 16x PCIe Gen-4
NVIDIA® NVLink® 32 Lane PCI Express
HPEC GPU Payload SOSA™ Aligned
NVIDIA with ARMSBC or Payload Profile
NVIDIA RTX™ 5000 10.9 TFLOPs peak 448 GB/s peak
8-core Xavier SoC with ARM64 + 512 CUDA cores : 32 TOPs 32GB LPDDR4 : 137 GB/s
Enhanced PCIe support x8, x4+x4, x4
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SOSA™ aligned 14.6.11/13 slot profile
Module power configurable from 50W 3072 CUDA® 6.1 cores 384 tensor cores 16GB GDDR6
Accelerate EW, ISR, autonomy, synthetic vision, sensor fusion, encoding and reduce cognitive overload at the tactical edge. Tune power and PCI Express topologies to reduce slot count and increase overall system efficiency.
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100GbE and x16 PCI Express Gen-4 to the backplane SOSA™ aligned 14.6.11/13, 14.2.16 slot profiles Optional SBC I/O + WOLF FGX for SDI / CVBS Standalone HPEC processing without requiring an SBC allows, a smaller system, and sensors connect direct to the GPU processor with GPUDirect. Securely connect and drive the highest data rate VPX backplane fabrics to control or share data between other Xavier modules, Payloads or sensors and optimize software execution with the Linux Jetpack BSP ecosystem.
HPEC DUAL GPU Payload + Graphics 2x NVIDIA RTX™ 5000 21.8 TFLOPs peak 896 GB/s peak NVLink® 2.0 50 GB/s GPU to GPU SOSA™ aligned DisplayPort 10.6.3/4 slot profile Module power configurable 80 - 300W 6144 CUDA® cores 768 Tensor cores 32GB GDDR6 Dual GPU configuration with NVLink provides a new way to process large sensor and data arrays. At 50 GB/s, independent GPUs operate as one. This reduces bandwidth congestion and improves efficiency and SWaP across the backplane with the highest HPEC available in 6U VPX today. Smaller SWaP-C, single GPU versions available.
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INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
MOSA principles enhance modern military computing systems By Pratish Shah
With the adoption of a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), the standardization of electronics has pushed rapidly into new markets and platforms. Starting in traditional defense applications, MOSA systems have moved into more advanced systems and applications.
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Military applications across the board are embracing open standards-based computing solutions for cost reduction, faster time to market, and increased technology innovations. Aitech graphic.
With support across the U.S. military branches and from more than 100 industry manufacturers, The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard enables a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) as specified by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for new systems development and modification of existing systems. By embracing open standards, the military electronics industry is delivering systems that are ready to run in any unmanned, mobile, or remote application. The five main principles of MOSA enable common foundational technologies to be applied across platforms and make military systems more effective, secure, and efficient, while speeding up time to market and reducing overall costs.
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With uses throughout many military applications, the use of COTS parts is proven and reliable with decades of demonstrated solutions. Specifying and installing tested and qualified systems reduces risk and keeps costs affordable. Giving the systems designer the ability to architect a system through a combination of COTS products enables the creation of a semicustom solution with the cost and time-saving benefits of a COTS offering. Figure 1 | Products aligned to the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) standard can speed up technology innovations and ease system upgrades. Pictured is the SOSA aligned Aitech U-C5300 graphics board.
Principle #1: Establish an enabling environment Developing products and systems that support a common architecture and migration path means today’s unmanned systems for ground and air applications can pack more computing performance and tighter system integration into size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP)optimized, rugged platforms. Interoperability among manufacturers streamlines development initiatives and enables the implementation of technology innovations such as the latest general-purpose GPU (GPGPU)-based artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputing, advanced cybersecurity, and leading-edge interoperability across widely used industry platforms. This drive to interoperability can be seen in boards and components aligned to the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard, such as Aitech’s U-C8500 3U single-board computer (SBC) (Figure 1) with advanced cybersecurity protection and the highperformance Intel Tiger Lake UP3 SoC, the 3U VPX multi-head U-C5300 graphics board featuring NVIDIA GPUs based on the Turing architecture as well as the U-C9140, the industry’s first and only PowerPC-based 3U VPX SBC aligned to SOSA. Principle #2: Employ a modular design COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] designs are great examples of modularity using a unified, compatible development structure. Faster development means components and systems are ready in months, not years. www.militaryembedded.com
Principle #3: Designate key interfaces A product designed to work in a SOSA aligned system includes mechanical, electrical, management, and security capabilities, all of which meet SOSA requirements. It also means that the board is compatible with one or more Slot Profiles and Module Profiles defined by SOSA and aligns with standard VPX products (see below) since SOSA uses a subset of OpenVPX. For card-level products, this means that plug-in modules are aligned with SOSA modules profiles with associated pinout compatibility. Principle #4: Use open standards Building systems to a common platform is not a concept new to military and defense. Instead, SOSA relies heavily on VPX, an already established and proven standard used throughout military systems. VPX is built upon the original VME standard, which had a large military and defense community following. When system requirements mandated upgrades to the standard’s offerings, VPX was developed to migrate from legacy systems to more modern architecture. It has been recognized as an approved standard for more than a decade. VPX has also undergone several updates that make it a solid and relevant platform for many rugged applications today. Principle #5: Certify conformance This is where we find ourselves today, with the SOSA Technical Standard 1.0 recently released and the embedded community continuing to develop collaborative environments through information sharing, active participation in working groups, and interoperability demonstrations. These demonstrations embody the spirit of open standards and show successful plug-and-play methodology. Innovations through MOSA initiatives Our industry is creating forward-looking military systems by carefully selecting the technologies and features to implement across using open standards-based technologies. Designers can integrate advanced technologies and solutions without giving up on standards compliance and interoperability. The need for innovative features and increased computing capability is at the forefront of this technology revolution. Building to a common standard allows a company to focus on enhancing the functionality of its products and less on integration issues. Sharing technological innovations among our embedded ecosystem is a critical component for military systems. The more we can collaborate, the better our defense systems will be. MES Pratish Shah is general manager, Aitech USA. He brings more than 30 years of engineering, business development, marketing, and management experience across enterprise, consumer electronics, and defense industries to his role at Aitech USA. In addition to leading the U.S. business unit, Pratish helps develop the company’s global growth initiatives and manages its technology offerings. Before joining Aitech, he led global military defense companies, leading M&As and building successful businesses. He holds an MBA from Pepperdine University and a BS in computer science with a minor in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Aitech • https://aitechsystems.com
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Why MOSA matters: How MOSA is shaping the future of unmanned systems By Rodger Hosking Modern aerospace and defense platforms, especially in the growing field of unmanned vehicles, need more processing capability for compute-intense applications including AI, sensor processing, and fusion in avionics, that can be easily refreshed with new technology to meet new threats while keeping costs down and speeding time to market. Simplifying integration using an open architecture approach facilitates better affordability, scalability, interoperability, and sustainability across the entire military embedded ecosystem.
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An MQ-9 Reaper sits on the flight line as the sun sets at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, during late 2019. The Reaper provides dominant, persistent attack and reconnaissance 24/7/365. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class William Rio Rosado.)
The pace of today’s technology development means the traditional approach of custom-designed components, modules, and subsystems is too slow. By adopting a modular open systems approach (MOSA), the industry as a whole can provide standard technologies and a modular approach to system design – with the ability to be used in unmanned systems – that will deliver rapid innovation, increased vendor choice, and greater interoperability. This is accomplished by leveraging standard form factors, interfaces, and protocols to enable system engineers and designers to utilize standard building blocks to simplify integration, test, qualification, and cost. MOSA is a technical and business strategy for designing an affordable and adaptable system based on modularity, interoperability and scalability formally adopted in January 2019 by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for “all requirements, programming and development activities for future system modifications and new start development programs to the maximum extent possible.”1 With this collaborative initiative in place among three primary U.S. military services (Army, Navy, and Air Force), industry partners were able to follow suit. Companies’ modular open-system architecture technologies are now able to align with the most adopted aerospace and defense industry standards, including FACE [Future Airborne Capability Environment], SOSA [Sensor Open Systems Architecture], HOST [Hardware Open Systems Technologies], CMOSS
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Figure 1 | Compute-intensive applications, including such unmanned aerial systems as this MQ-9, use an open architecture approach to simplify integration for easy upgrades, lower costs, and faster time to market.
and build systems with reusable modules that span the entire data-processing chain from signal acquisition to information dissemination. (Figure 1.) Create a common architecture A common need for interoperability was recognized, so development on standards that embraced open systems architecture (OSA) principles began to meet the future procurement needs of deployed systems for the respective military service units. In early 2017, the DoD issued a solicitation for Sensor Open System Architecture architectural research, which resulted in the SOSA Consortium, managed by The Open Group.
The follow-on benefits of alignment [with SOSA] include platform affordability, rapid fielding, reconfigurability, easier insertion of new technology, extended life cycles, and repurposing of hardware/firmware/ software. [C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards], VICTORY [Vehicle Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability], and MORA [Modular Open RF Architecture] for a range of software, digital, RF, and mixedsignal processing products and subsystems. Such alignment means defense organizations can reduce program risk www.militaryembedded.com
Major objectives of SOSA specifically include development and adoption of open systems architecture standards for C4ISR [command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] to provide a common, multipurpose backbone for radar, EO/IR [electro-optical/infrared], SIGINT [signals intelligence], EW [electronic warfare] and countermeasure systems. The follow-on benefits of alignment include platform affordability, rapid fielding, reconfigurability, easier insertion of new technology, extended life cycles, and repurposing of hardware/firmware/software. The major work product of the SOSA Technical Working Group is the SOSA Technical Standard 1.0 – which was released in September 2021 – that documents the SOSA architecture. This is a modular system structure, with tight integration within modules for encapsulating functionality and behaviors, and yet well-defined interfaces. These modules must be based on open, published standards, with consensus-based influence stakeholders directing the evolution, and a strict conformance validation process. The foundations of SOSA can be traced to OpenVPX and the defined slot profiles of this widely implemented open standard. Effects on unmanned military aircraft Military aircraft avionics are traditionally a collection of subsystems, each dedicated to a particular fixed function. Each of these occupies an enclosure with well-defined dimensions, mounting points, and electrical interfaces for sensors, antennas, power supplies, and control ports. Changing the function within any subsystem is often quite limited, so that an upgrade to improve performance or capabilities usually means replacing the entire subsystem with a new one. Design of the internal electronic hardware and software is invariably proprietary to the vendor.
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MOSA solutions for unmanned
This causes several disadvantages: For one, new technology takes a long time to find its way into the aircraft, thus hampering its effectiveness against enemy assets. The cost of upgrades is extremely high because the whole unit must be replaced. Often each subsystem is sourced from a single supplier with limited opportunities for meaningful competition. In contrast, SOSA enables the growth of a wider ecosystem, shifting the traditional methodology to a more collaborative environment in some significant ways: 1. The internal electronics, software and packaging must be based on open standard architectures, notably OpenVPX. Upgrading a SOSA system can mean keeping the existing subsystem, but replacing one SOSA-compliant plug-in card with another to add new device technology, higher performance levels, faster computing power, and higher signal and data bandwidths. (Figure 2.) 2. SOSA limits the number of different plug-in card types to a very small subset of OpenVPX profiles, enhancing interchangeability across vendors and function. 3. Smaller companies can participate in the SOSA vendor community to offer competitive solutions shortly after new technology components become available. Meet future system needs with open systems As radar technology continuously advances in a leapfrog fashion to overcome the latest countermeasures, advanced signal-processing techniques must keep pace to protect military aircraft. A critical factor in the effort is reducing the time required to make these upgrades and being able to replace a SOSA board with one that adds the new required capabilities is a major benefit in this effort. This means new technology is deployed years earlier than with the traditional scheme requiring replacement of the entire subsystem. When developing open standards-based systems for unmanned vehicle electronics, designers must evaluate some specific application needs that are different than manned platforms. For example, the equipment must be easily controllable from the mission computer. Accomplishing this will entail a high-level application programming interface (API) using intuitive command functions and parameters that simplify operation of the equipment and interrogation of status and system health. For unmanned vehicles with onboard recorders, large storage capacities are needed, so devices like Mercury’s military-grade solid-state drives help minimize downtime between missions. (Figure 3.) Many unmanned vehicles are deployed to gather information about certain regions of interest. Real-time recorders capture wideband signals from radar and communications receivers as raw, digitized data that must be analyzed after the mission. These signals can yield vital information about which radars and radios are operational in the area, identify the type of enemy equipment, determine which countermeasure systems are operating, and decrypt encoded signals for content. Real-time recording of wideband RF signals plays a critical role in ensuring radar, SIGINT, and EW systems within unmanned aerial systems (UASs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) can keep pace with technological improvements. Reduce program risk A MOSA approach to system architecture maximizes technology reuse to dramatically reduce development time and cost. This reuse helps mitigate obsolescence risk while emphasizing commonality and interoperability across platforms and domains. In applications like unmanned systems, where real-time data processing is imperative to critical decision-making, having a clear path for rapid, cost-effective upgrades gives embedded designers the confidence to build open standards-based systems for longterm system sustainability. MES
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Figure 2 | Rear view of Model 5553 SOSA aligned module with two VITA 67.3D backplane connectors, each with 10 coaxial RF signals and 24 optical lines. Mercury photo.
Figure 3 | Mercury’s QuickPac drive pack holds eight SSDs (solid state drives) and enables the quick removal of all data storage from an onboard recorder via the front panel to reduce downtime between missions. Mercury photo. Note
https://www.dsp.dla.mil/Portals/26/ Documents/PolicyAndGuidance/MemoModular_Open_Systems_Approach.pdf
Rodger H. Hosking is director of sales for Mercury’s mixedsignal products. He is responsible for new product definition, technology development, and strategic alliances. Rodger has more than 30 years in the electronics industry and is one of the co-founders of Pentek; he has authored hundreds of articles about software radio and digital signal processing. Prior to his current position, he served as engineering manager at Wavetek/ Rockland, and he holds patents in frequency synthesis and spectrumanalysis techniques. He holds a BS degree in physics from Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and BSEE and MSEE degrees from Columbia University in New York. Mercury https://www.mrcy.com/ www.militaryembedded.com
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EDITOR’S CHOICE PRODUCTS
Portable power systems for military, defense applications Custom Electronics, Inc. (CEI) offers its CMP2500 portable battery system, a quiet-running battery solution designed to provide defense and government training and in-field applications with uninterrupted power in a minimal footprint. The CMP2500 battery system uses lithiumiron phosphate (LiFePO4) cells: Each battery has a 2.5 kWh capacity, while the entire system provides as much as 10 kWh [kilowatt hours] capacity at 24 VDC or as much as 5 kWh at 12 VDC. The batteries are protected with a rugged military-spec case that can be moved by a single person, making it useful for military field and training applications including drone charging, field simulations, targetry, and silent watch. Users can set up in a field or training space without the need to run a cable to a generator or back to the military installation. The CMP2500 uses a proprietary battery-management system (BMS), which takes a modular design approach to generate, store, distribute, and use the stored energy. The system’s voltage and capacity is also fully scalable and can replace or supplement the need for additional generators by reducing operating time, fuel consumption, and related noise.
Custom Electronics, Inc. (CEI) | https://www.customelec.com/
Wireless system-on-chip enables satellite IoT Semiconductor company Orca Systems introduced its ORC3990, the first wireless system-on-chip (SoC) solution for the satellite Internet of Things (IoT). The new SoC solution works together with satellite-connectivity provider Totum, leveraging radiofrequency (RF) technology that enables direct-to-satellite, indoor operation over Totum’s low Earth orbit (LEO) network. The ORC3990 SoC integrates all required system functions into a small 68-QFN/8 by 8 mm package. Included in the SoC design is the Orca Live Wireless RF and digital radio subsystem, which is customized for the needs of the LEO satellite network. Additional function blocks integrated within the part include a low noise amplifier (LNA), a digital power amplifier (PA), a satellite modem, a power-management unit (PMU) subsystem including all analog blocks, dual Arm Cortex-M0+ CPUs for separate network and application processing, all necessary volatile and nonvolatile memory for the on-chip CPUs, the required security functions, and key analog and digital peripherals. The device also supports a suite of digital and analog interfaces, which enables connection to sensors that detect temperature, humidity, shock, vibration, and flow. External components are reduced to a minimum, which the company says supports an endpoint solution based on the ORC3990 for less than $10.
Orca Systems | https://www.orcasystems.com/
Computers-on-module sport 12th-gen Intel cores for AI, graphics, unmanned systems use Congatec has integrated 12th-generation Intel core mobile/desktop processors (formerly codenamed Alder Lake) on 10 new COM-HPC and COM Express computers-on-module (CoMs) for use in demanding embedded, edge-computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The processors handle as many as 4 cores/20 threads on BGA and 16 cores/24 threads on desktop variants (LGA-mounted). In addition, the CoMs have optimized Performance-cores (P-cores) and as many as 8 low-power Efficient-cores (E-cores) plus DDR5 memory support to accelerate multithreaded applications and execute background tasks more efficiently. The built-in Intel “Deep Learning Boost” technology leverages different cores by way of vector neural network instructions, while the part’s integrated graphics processor supports AI-accelerated DP4a instructions. The part also supports dynamic noise suppression and speech recognition and is able to run while the processor is in a low-power state, responding to wake-up voice commands. It will run Real-Time Systems’ hypervisor technology and carries operating system support for Real-Time Linux and Wind River VxWorks.
Congatec | https://www.congatec.com/us/ 44 March 2022
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By Editorial Staff
GIVING BACK | PODCAST | WHITE PAPER | BLOG | VIDEO | SOCIAL MEDIA | WEBCAST
GIVING BACK Each issue, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a different charitable organization that benefits the military, veterans, and their families. We are honored to cover the technology that protects those who protect us every day. This issue we are highlighting The Battle Buddy Foundation (TBBF), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to training and placing service dogs for combat veterans, with the aim of helping the vets transition back to civilian life. The foundation’s executive director and co-founder is Kenny Bass, a Marine combat veteran who served in the Iraq War. In 2003, Bass was wounded during a counter-ambush patrol, where he was hit with an IED. He has since lived with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), hearing loss, and multiple other physical injuries due to his combat service. After spending more than eight years in various treatment programs through the Veterans Administration (VA) system, Bass’s physician at the VA prescribed a service dog. While the VA was willing to suggest the aid of a service dog, Bass found that the VA does not cover any part of the acquisition or training of a service animal. After struggling to come up with the $15,000 he was charged for his service dog, Atlas, Bass decided that he would help veterans in the same position as he had been: He and fellow Marine combat veteran Joshua Rivers, president of TBBF, created The Battle Buddy Foundation came to fruition in February 2013. The Battle Buddy Foundation was founded with the combined mission of assisting veterans, of all eras, to obtain service dogs at no cost to the veteran, while providing a network of peer support and activity and promoting education and awareness of PTSD, TBI, the epidemic of suicides among veterans, and the life-saving benefits of highly trained service dogs. For additional information on The Battle Buddy Foundation, please visit https://www.tbbf.org/.
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The McHale Report podcast: Semiconductor supply chain, radar & electronic warfare designs, engineering talent
Cybersecurity Trends in Aerospace and Defense Applications
In the latest episode of the McHale Report podcast, Military Embedded Systems Editorial Director John McHale welcomes Bryan Goldstein, VP, Aerospace and Defense, at Analog Devices, to discuss how complex radar and electronic warfare systems drive innovation from RF and microwave designers while supply-chain shortages continue to give them headaches.
Cybersecurity has always been a neverending battle between developers devising new kinds of protection for systems and hackers creating new mechanisms for thwarting these protections. Defense and aerospace companies have a particularly difficult mission in protecting and maintaining mission-critical systems and insulating them from cybersecurity threats.
Bryan and John tackle these trends while also exploring how the defense industry will begin adopting 5G technology and where it will likely deploy first. Bryan also shares his passion for recruiting young engineering talent into the defense electronics industry through science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs and other unique internship and recruiting methods. This podcast is sponsored by Pentek, now a part of Mercury Systems. Listen to this podcast: https://bit.ly/3LSLTsz Listen to more podcasts: https://militaryembedded.com/podcasts
46 March 2022
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
By Wind River
In this white paper, the authors discuss the emerging antitampering approaches for real-time operating system (RTOS) implementations. As a complement to the discussion around updates and patches as important pieces of the puzzle involved in maintaining cybersecurity – particularly on systems out in the field – many Wind River solutions have adopted container technology. For example, the VxWorks secure, embedded RTOS recently gained support for containers; and Wind River Linux has offered container support for several years. Read this white paper: https://bit.ly/35jtnbV Read more white papers: https://militaryembedded.com/whitepapers www.militaryembedded.com
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