MELBOURNE, Fla., 1 Feb. 2006. VMETRO in Houston won a contract from the Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems Division in Melbourne, Fla., to provide the central electronics chassis for the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS), the company announced Feb. 1.
The chassis uses VMETRO's Phoenix VXS (VITA-41) single-board processors for real-time multi-processing with high-speed serial communications. The system processes image sensor data in a liquid-cooled system, which has several Phoenix VPF1 quad processor payload cards and VMETRO's CSW1 zero-latency switch card.
The initial contract is worth $600,000, and has a potential value of $15 million over the life of the program, VMETRO officials say. Deliveries will be during the first half of this year.
VMETRO's uses field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), Serial Front-Panel Data Port (FPDP) and VXS technologies in a ruggedized system that offers a roadmap for expanding system capabilities over the life of the program, says Deon Harkey, ALMDS Program Manager of Northrop Grumman.
"The computing power delivered by VMETRO's design is absolutely key in gaining the required depth of the sensor system and enabling the synchronization and manipulation of data for rapid decision making under hostile conditions," Harkey says.
ALMDS is deployed on helicopters to enable the U.S. Navy to detect sea mines at or near the water's surface. Using an airborne light detection and ranging blue-green laser, the ALMDS system covers a large area of the ocean detecting, localizing and classifying mines.
More than fifty helicopters are to receive ALMDS technology. For more information contact VMETRO online at www.vmetro.com.
