Navy improves Hawkeye computers with Elma Bustronic

Engineers at Northrop Grumman Corp. in Bethpage, N.Y., needed a rugged circuit-card backplane to upgrade the U.S. Navy’s E-2 Hawkeye carrier-based, battle-management, airborne early warning, command-and-control aircraft.

They found an electronics solution from Elma Bustronic of Fremont, Calif. Elma will deliver VME and PCI adapters to provide mechanical interfaces for new system cards and a custom backplane.

This upgrade will increase the processing reserve capabilities of the CP-2319/ASQ mission computer on the Hawkeye 2000 aircraft. The Navy is developing an SCS-05 software commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) upgrade for Hawkeye 2000 aircraft, planned for fleet introduction in early 2006.

Elma’s VME adapter can accommodate many COTS components, including two single-board computers, a network switch, and a DC-DC power converter.

Elma’s PCI adapter provides the mechanical and electrical interface between a COTS Dual Compact PCI Mezzanine Card (DCPMC) and the custom PCI backplane.The DCPMC is a conduction-cooled carrier card in a 6U form factor that can accommodate one or two COTS Ethernet cards.

For more information, see www.elmabustronic.com.