Hello. My name is Claude Sweeton, and I’m with technology provider TEVET. I’m delighted that Abaco has chosen us to contribute the first ever Abaco channel partner blog post for The Connected Battlefield.
I have a story I’d like to share with you—but first, a little background. TEVET—headquartered in Greeneville, TN—was founded in 2004, and we’re a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned (SDVOSB) and HUBZone Small Business. We’ve long had a relationship with GE Intelligent Platforms—now Abaco Systems, of course—and it’s one that we value highly, both for the products and the people.
My story begins with a Total Small Business Set-Aside Solicitation placed by the US Navy, who were looking to upgrade their airborne Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) mission, which has at its heart the Raytheon AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS). The AN/AQS-22 is the only deployed “dipping active sonar” with multi-frequency operational capabilities that adapts to varying environmental conditions, and identifies threats sooner over a large area.
One of the most critical systems within the AN/AQS-22 is a high power digital signal processing single board computer and its data link that transmits tactical information back to the sonar operator. The AN/AQS-22 is integrated with the US Navy’s MH-60R Multi-Mission Helicopter, the MK 54 Lightweight Torpedo, and other battlegroup assets providing the US Navy with full detect and engage ASW capability.
Face lift
The AN/AQS-22 was first deployed in 2002, so the US Navy recognized that it was time for a “face-lift” to take advantage of the advancements made in the last decade in the areas of electronic warfare, digital signal processing, and data link throughput.
TEVET engaged directly with the engineering team at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and Raytheon IDS in San Diego to gain a full understanding of the application and the test challenges they were faced with. TEVET conducted a full gap analysis to gain further insight into what was required for not only today’s need, but also future capabilities would be required. Determining factors of the gap analysis for identifying the best COTS solution included not only selecting a high performance SBC that met all the current required specification, but also selecting a provider that offered platforms for future requirements. In addition to meeting today’s need, we knew that Abaco Systems has an extensive offering of hardware and software products for future modernization.
Of course, I wouldn’t be telling you this story if it didn’t have a happy ending… We received an order from the US Navy for 22 of Abaco’s XCR15 rugged CompactPCI singe board computers, together with 22 Abaco PMC-0247RC solid state disk drives.
I’ll look forward to sharing with you more of our—and Abaco’s—successes in future posts.
