Engineers at L-3 Communications needed a hard disk to record data aboard Boeing’s P-8A Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA). The P-8A program will replace the U.S. Navy’s fleet of P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft with next generation maritime surveillance aircraft.
L-3 found a solution with the ToughDisk 7204 Rugged Hard Disk from Formation Inc. in Moorestown, N.J.
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As part of the P-8A system development and demonstration phase, engineers in the Communication Systems-East (CS-East) division of L-3 Communications, in Camden, N.J., will provide the acoustic data recorder, digital video recorder and network system storage from its Strategic/Tactical Airborne Recorder (S/TAR) product line.
Formation is now under contract to L-3 to modify the company’s off the shelf ToughDisk product to meet specific program requirements. This new product variant, known as HiPERDisk (High Performance Environmentally Rugged Disk) is L-3’s latest innovation in removable magnetic disk media for their S/TAR product line. The TD7204 is a 480-gigabyte, hot-swappable, self-contained mass memory unit with four Serial ATA (SATA) interfaces. For more information, see www.formation.com.
The P-8A, a militarized version of the Boeing 737-800 jetliner, brings together a reliable airframe with an open architecture mission system. This combination, coupled with next-generation sensors, will dramatically improve anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Current plans call for the U.S. Navy to procure 108 P-8As to replace the fleet of P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.
“Formation has the expertise to provide high quality rugged disk drives for our suite of high performance disk recorders,” says Dave Micha, director of the S/TAR Product Line at L-3 Communication Systems - East. “We selected a partner who could provide us with a reliable rugged data storage solution able to withstand the harsh environmental conditions found aboard military aircraft. We chose ToughDisk because it can handle vibration and shock, as well as the extreme high and low temperatures in this environment.”
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