Curtiss-Wright displays rugged COTS subsystem solutions for unmanned platforms at AUVSI 2014

ORLANDO, Fla., 13 May 2014. Curtiss-Wright Corp. (NYSE:CW) is presenting its latest rugged space, weight, and power (SWaP)-optimized commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processing and networking solutions for unmanned aerial platforms at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems 2014 (Booth #653).

Featured products for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), on display in Curtiss-Wright’s booth include:

Mission Computers and Network Switches

Parvus DuraCOR 80-40 Rugged Modular Core i7 Mission Computer: The DuraCOR 80-40 is a rugged commercial o Off the Shelf (COTS) tactical mission computer LRU subsystem based on the high performance Intel Core i7 processor with a high-speed, stackable PCI-Express bus (PCIe/104) architecture for I/O card expansion. Optimally designed for Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP)-sensitive unmanned vehicle applications, the DuraCOR 80-40 combines powerful graphics and multi-core processing with ultra-reliable mechanical robustness and modular I/O expansion for extreme environmental and EMI performance per MIL-STD-810G (thermal, shock, vibration, dust, water, humidity) and MIL-STD-461F.

Parvus DuraMAR 5915 Rugged IP Router: This rugged Cisco IOS-managed mobile router LRU is integrated with Cisco’s 5915 Embedded Services Router (ESR) card in an ultra-rugged chassis optimized for harsh unmanned vehicle installations. This COTS solution is ideal for IP networking technology refresh and situational awareness applications, including those seeking a migration path for previous generation Parvus rugged networking subsystems deployed in unmanned surface vehicles. It features dual WAN uplinks and is available as either a standalone 5-port network router or with an integrated Gigabit Ethernet switch for a total of 19 Ethernet ports.

Parvus DuraNET 20-10 GbE Switch: This new Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Switch LRU subsystem delivers double the port count of Curtiss-Wright’s previous DuraNET GbE Switch products, while drastically reducing power consumption ~50% per port and reducing the unit’s volume size by ~26%. Well suited for adding high speed networking to platforms such as legacy and new naval aircraft, the fully featured SWaP-optimized subsystem provides true carrier-grade Ethernet software Layer-2 management features, including support for the IEEE-1588 Precision Timing Protocol (PTP).

MPMC-9310/9321 Mission Computers: The MPMC-9310 and MPMC-9321 are fully integrated rugged Application Ready COTS systems that feature LRM backplane-based processing. They provide all the elements required of modern mission computers, vetronics systems, and avionics computers for use on unmanned vehicles.

Rugged Deployed Storage Solutions

Compact Network Storage 4 (CNS4): New scalable Compact Network Storage (CNS4) system supports up to 8TB of solid state storage with four removable memory modules, supports variety of encryption levels, and provides flexible I/O front-end. This rugged, high-capacity storage solution was designed for size, weight and power (SWaP) constrained military applications that require cryptography to ensure the integrity of critical “data-at-rest” in demanding military environments such as those endured by UAVs.

Vortex Data Transport System (DTS): This SWaP-optimized, rugged network file server supports industry-standard storage protocols (NFS, CIFS, HTTP and FTP) through 4 1GbE ports. To protect critical data-at-rest, the Vortex DTS network attached storage (NAS) system offers an AES-256-bit encryption option or special encrypted SSDs. The DTS allows scalable storage with 3 rugged Removable Memory Cartridges (RMC) for unmanned vehicle data.

Multi-Purpose Flight Recorder (MPFR): The MPFR provides unmatched flight recorder versatility, in a highly compact package, fully approved for current and anticipated requirements. On-aircraft download is achieved in less than two minutes and can be networked directly to a remote operational base for diagnostics and fault reporting. The MPFR is packaged as a compact unit ideal for the small/medium unmanned aircraft. Importantly, this compact unit may be attached directly to the airframe without requiring bulky equipment racks or anti-vibration mounts, thus permitting optimum aircraft performance to be attained for lower operating costs.