DESIGNING AT THE SYSTEM-TO-SYSTEM LEVEL: THE INDUSTRY’S NEW CHALLENGE
LIKE IT OR NOT THINGS ARE CHANGING IN HOW MILITARY PROGRAMS ARE SELECTED, MANAGED AND ARCHITECTED. BUDGET SHIFTS AND AN INCREASING FOCUS ON PLATFORM ELECTRONICS IN DELIVERABLE SYSTEMS DEMANDS THE USE OF THE LATEST AND MOST COST EFFECTIVE ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY. HAVING CRITICAL PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGY IS NOT ONLY KEY FOR PLATFORM ARCHITECTS BUT ALSO FOR SYSTEM DEVELOPERS DESIGNING SYSTEMS FOR THESE PLATFORMS.
Winners in the next decade of military system development will be those who make the best use of technology over the extended deployment cycle of a military program—and how such solutions can ensure requirements are met over several generations of technology upgrades and refreshes.
Meanwhile, the global issues include everything from controlling costs to insuring reusability and interoperability between program platforms—even between those of different services.
To keep pace with these challenges high-level technical decision makers—from DoD execs, to program mangers (both uniformed and non-uniformed), to engineering managers—need to keep current with the program-level technology issues that will drive and effect technology decision making. Program-level issues span a host of areas including choice of backplane-based version vs single packaged systems, open architecture vs proprietary, program-level thermal and power management, EMI, Multiple Independent Layers of Security and so on.
With all that in mind, COTS Journal is presenting a series of articles in September and October issues focusing on exactly those program-level technology trends and the key global issues that are tightly linked to technology decision making. These articles look through a lens of program requirements and matching particular program needs to technology solutions.