Military avionics designers at Northrop Grumman Corp. will provide mission computers for new U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopter avionics under terms of an $18.3 million order.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., are asking the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems segment in Woodland Hills, Calif., for tech refresh mission computers and trays in support of Lot 13 AH-1Z Super Cobra and UH-1Y Super Huey attack and utility helicopters.
The mission computer purchases are for the U.S. Navy and the government of Pakistan under the Foreign Military Sales program. The UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopters are in full production by Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. in Fort Worth, Texas.
Northrop Grumman Gen III mission computers are the heart of the company's Integrated Avionics System that powers the glass cockpit avionics of the UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopters. The conduction-cooled Gen III Technical Refresh mission computer incorporates a ruggedized 6U VME PowerPC-based single-board computer. Interfaces include Fast Ethernet, four serial ports, parallel I/O, and built-in-test. FlightPro has a standard, partitioned real-time operating system with ARINC 653 and POSIX support.
Northrop Grumman is providing identical Gen II mission computers for the UH-1Y and AH-1Z aircraft that make up the Marine light attack helicopter squadrons to help save money and simplify logistics.
The mission computer's standard configuration also includes a quad-channel 1553 mezzanine card, high-speed serial card, digital I/O module with eight channels of opto-coupled discrete inputs, eight channels of opto-coupled discrete outputs, and 16 channels of general-purpose, bi-directional discretes that can be programmed individually as outputs or inputs.
The FlightPro mission computer is capable of Required Navigation Performance/Area Navigation (RNP/RNAV) in all flight regimes, including departure, en route, terminal, and non-precision approach using GPS as the sole navigation source. The flight computers use 28-volt DC or 115-volt AC three-phase 400-Hz input power, measure 13.61 by 11.5 by 7.55 inches, and weigh 30.4 pounds. The computers have rated 3,200 hours mean time between failures.
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit North-rop Grumman Mission Systems online at www.northropgrumman.com.
