Test Vendors Support MIL/Aero Upgrades

Military and aerospace applications can benefit from flexible, interoperable test systems that span the lifetimes of the systems they target yet can adapt as the systems under test themselves evolve. As the Department of Defense put it, “The flexibility required by the warfighter in modern conflict scenarios requires that the Services move toward the capability for interoperability among automatic test systems. Interoperability of ATS functions is needed within the Services and across the Services.” Unfortunately, the DoD continued, “The closed architectures of most legacy DoD Automatic Test Systems prohibit interoperability.”¹

To meet the challenges involved in supporting, upgrading, and replacing legacy test systems, vendors are offering a variety of instruments.

Jean Manuel Dassonville, modular solutions outbound manager at Agilent Technologies, noted, “Aerospace and defense applications are different from other industries because this market demands reliability, upgradability, and longevity to support the designs for much longer time spans.” To support such applications, he said, “Agilent offers a choice of different platforms, and one size does not fit all. Our application engineering team supports customers worldwide, including the military and aerospace markets to ensure that our customers are successful.”

Dassonville cited additional challenges: “Every customer’s implementation is unique, and there is an extremely high level of confidentiality in the aerospace/defense industry. The adoption of a new technology usually is the result of an iterative process including different scenarios and technical choices, each one driven by the need to combine open industry standards with proprietary IP while ensuring robustness of design for a long-term solution.” Agilent’s applications-engineering team, he said, offers configuration help and migration services.

A-10 Thunderbolt in Flight in the 1970s
Courtesy of the U.S. Air Force

National Instruments also addresses military and aerospace applications. Luke Schreier, senior group manager for automated test at NI, said, “We offer extensive service and support for modular-instrument deployments into military/aerospace applications. The National Instruments professional services team consists of NI applications and systems engineers and the worldwide National Instruments Alliance Partner program—a network of more than 600 independent consultants and integrators. Applicable services are available from design and specification to application development, project management, and integration of third-party software and hardware.”

Sundance Multiprocessor Technology also offers modular instruments for military/aerospace applications. “Our customers, like the U.S. Navy or Thales Avionics, require us to offer them a path for modernization and to have up-to-date solutions compatible with their ‘already-deployed’ systems,” said Sebastien Maury of Sundance America. “We do handle such issues by using the 3U form factor and the PXI/PXIe backplane, which is common to all ‘backbones.’ Then the latest technology in terms of processors, coprocessors, and data-acquisition components remains compatible with the chosen form factor. So, having the PXI/PXIe solution standardized helps us to always offer the latest technology while overtaking the electronic obsolescence problems.”

Another company offering modular instruments for military/aerospace applications is ZTEC Instruments. President Christopher Ziomek said, “ZTEC understands legacy support requirements and often provides instrument modernization or redesign to address obsolescence. Our cross-platform instrument offerings enable customers to move from one platform to another if necessary.” Finally, he said, “ZTEC will commit to multiyear support for its military/aerospace customers when required.”

Mike Dewey, senior product marketing manager at Marvin Test Solutions, commented that his company offers various products for upgrading legacy systems. For example, he said, the company supports solutions that can replace legacy functional-test systems such as the Teradyne L200/L300 systems, and the company offers GPIB form/fit/function replacement products for pulse and function generators. In addition, he said, Marvin Test Solutions provides PXI products such as the GX2065 DMM, which offer compatibility with discontinued Signametrics DMM products.

Marvin Test Solutions demonstrated some specific aerospace test capabilities at the Paris Air Show in June. In particular, the company noted that increasingly complex armament systems with longer lifecycles require efficient, feature-rich, specialized aerospace test solutions that address legacy system obsolescence.

“As a retired USAF major general leading a company with deep experience in armament test, I constantly see the significant challenges in testing today’s cutting-edge armament systems,” said Steve Sargeant, Marvin Test Solutions CEO and the Marvin Group vice president for strategic development, in a press release. He added that the company’s solutions can “solve the space, energy, and ultimately, maintenance and sustainment test challenges that are of utmost concern in this industry.”

Marvin Test Solutions noted as an example that fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft have received numerous upgrades to avionics and armament systems and that aircraft from the F-22 to the A-10 now possess “smart” (MIL-STD-1553 and -1760) weapons technology and enhancements to legacy weapons. Although today’s armament systems bear little resemblance to the original systems, maintainers still use the same or similar armament circuits preload test set (ACPTS) and big-box test equipment—a combination that doesn’t deliver the capabilities needed to support today’s smart weapons.

Having identified the armament test gap in legacy fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft several years ago, the company reported, it has developed, qualified, and successfully deployed the MTS-3060 SmartCan universal O-Level aircraft armament tester for smart and legacy weapons and systems. While maintaining the small footprint of the ACPTS, the MTS-3060 tester bridges the armament test gap by combining all of the capabilities of the ACPTS (and the 75501 tester in the case of the F-16) and providing maintainers with the necessary tools to test and troubleshoot today’s aircraft loaded with both legacy and “smart” weapons. It provides preload testing of suspended and alternate mission equipment including missiles, bombs, and rockets and offers measurement, stimuli, and communications functions previously unavailable at the flight line.

Also at the Paris Air Show, Marvin Test Solutions showcased the MTS-235 F-35 armament tester, a portable test set that combines the test capabilities of an I-Level and D-Level test set in a compact, rugged, flight-line qualified enclosure; the MTS-209 common armament test set that provides I-Level armament test capabilities for F-16, F-15, and many other platforms; the GBATS benchtop production tester; and various O-Level armament testers for the Hellfire weapons platform.