Officials with Melhcorp LLC, a designer and integrator of embedded systems, electronic payloads, and sensor modules for severe environments in Slidell, La., sought sturdy mission computers for Northrop Grumman’s MQ-5B Hunter unmanned aircraft system (UAS). They found their solution at Parvus Corp. in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Parvus has delivered more than 40 of its DuraCOR 810 mission computers to subcontractor Melhcorp. The subsystems have been configured to operate as the payload interface unit for the Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle. The DuraCOR 810 units monitor, control, and communicate between payloads onboard the Hunter, and control the mounted payloads, which include electronics and sensors.

Currently being deployed by the U.S. Army, the MQ-5B Hunter UAS conducts battlefield surveillance using its multimission electro-optical payload. Flying over the battlefield, it gathers reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition, and battle damage information in real time. The Hunter then relays this information via video link to commanders and soldiers on the ground.

Melhcorp chose the Parvus DuraCOR 810 for the Hunter program because of its rugged modularity and MIL-STD-810F environmental compliance for extreme temperatures, shock/vibration, and ingress. This commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) tactical computer server integrates a low-power Intel Pentium M CPU together with a MIL-STD-704/1275 power supply in a rugged aluminum chassis with MIL-DTL-38999 connectors. Up to 6 spare PC/104(+) slots are available for integrators or Parvus to integrate mission-specific I/O (input/output) functionality.

“The rugged design of the DuraCOR 810 from Parvus fulfills my operational requirements and the fact that these systems can endure the harshest environment make the unit a perfect fit for the Hunter UASs,” says Julio Melhado, president of Melhcorp. “By working with the Parvus Duracor 810, Melhcorp is helping deliver durable, reliable interface units for the Hunter UAS program.”

“The selection of the Parvus DuraCOR 810 for the Hunter UAS is a testament to Parvus’ proven track record of supplying highly-reliable, small form factor computing solutions for unmanned vehicle and other demanding military and aerospace applications,” notes Les Goodman, president of Parvus.

For more information, visit Parvus Corp. online at www.parvus.com.

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