U.S. aviation firm Curtiss-Wright has partnered with Korean Airlines Ltd to advance flight avionics systems for future unmanned aerial vehicles using Sensor Open Systems Architecture technical standards.
The collaboration will see KAL’s Research & Development Group demonstrate how the technical standards can deliver advanced command, control, computers, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. The group will develop a prototype based on Curtiss-Wright’s Fabric100 3U and 6U VPX modules to showcase the features.
According to the U.S. company, the Fabric100 was designed to handle the large amounts of data required by the next generation of advanced systems, such as UAVs. The complete end-to-end ecosystem of high-speed OpenVPX modules and system components comes with an architecture that will ensure the delivery of full 100 gigabit Ethernet and high-performance PCIe Gen4 interconnect speeds.
The SOSA technical standards offer several advantages:
- enabling technology transition,
- facilitating interoperability,
- isolating the impact of change,
- increasing commonality and reuse,
- reducing development cycle time and cost,
- reducing sustainment costs,
- reducing system integration cost and risk, and
- supporting capability evolution.
Brian Perry, senior vice president and general manager for defense solutions at Curtiss-Wright, expressed the team’s excitement about the collaboration with KAL. “This [memorandum of understanding] reflects KAL’s trust in Curtiss-Wright as a strong leader in defense technology and their recognition that SOSA will be the next mandatory requirement for many C5ISR platforms,” he said.