The cost of sustaining deployed complex weapons system over their lifetime is typically
many times the upfront cost. A large part of that sustaining cost is the cost of repairs -
not just the actual repair operations themselves, but the logistics tail of mobile repair
shops and spares holdings. By far, the most cost-effective and efficient way to maintain
and upgrade today’s warfighting systems is to repair and replace faulty components in the
field. In-the-field maintenance and upgrading of individual modules is significantly
faster and substantially less complex and costly than today’s most common approach, the
removal and replacement of an entire subsystem
(chassis, modules, power supply and disk drives) with the faulty system then transported
to a remote repair depot. Until recently, the dirt and dust of the battlefield or the
static-rich environment of a pitching aircraft carrier deck have been the big barriers to
wide adoption of this superior Line Replaceable Module (LRM) approach. The lack of an open
standards solution for LRM left the military with the costly and complex logistics
inherent in the status quo subsystem-level Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) replacement
strategy. The good news is that in recent years, Curtiss-Wright Controls
Embedded Computing, prime military integrators and other COTS industry leaders have come
together to collaboratively tackle the military’s urgent need for LRM based systems and
have responded with new open standards, technology, and products that now make LRM a
practical reality.

LRM technology solves a fundamental problem. When a standard unprotected system module
is improperly handled or inadvertently exposed to electro-static discharge
(ESD) its sensitive electronics can be easily damaged. Today’s new LRM modules and
LRM-based systems are designed using the first open standard, VPX-REDI (VITA 48), that
defines enhanced ruggedization using top and bottom metal covers, built-in ESD protection
and fault isolation down to the module/card level. VPX-REDI LRMs enable for the first time
the deployment of COTS circuit boards that can be quickly and easily removed and replaced
in the field without special training or tools. Key to VPX-REDI is its innovative use of
protective metal covers that, while shielding the circuit board from the environment, also
provide enhanced stiffening against the shock and vibration typical of harsh battlefield
conditions.
The new standard also specifies the use of the new high bandwidth connector, the MultiGig
RT-2, that provides built-in ESD protection by routing static discharge away from
sensitive electronics. The MultiGig
connectors are designed to withstand a discharge of 15 kV (per ANSI/VITA 47).

At Curtiss-Wright, we’re helping to drive the move toward two-level maintenance through
our leadership role in bringing rugged, ESD (electro-static discharge)-protected
VPX-REDI modules to the embedded COTS market. We continue to introduce COTS single-board
computers and DSP engines that support LRM maintenance requirements.

Curtiss-Wright’s VPX6-185, the industry’s first 6U VPX single board computer, employs
the Freescale 8641 single/dual-core PowerPC processor and provides a nominal backplane
bandwidth of 8 GB/sec via four Serial RapidIO or PCI Express ports. It also includes two
PCI Express VITA 42 XMC/PMC sites, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE), serial ports, and mass storage
interface options. It’s joined by the VPX3-125, a 3U single board computer utilizing the
PA Semi PWRficient™ PA6T-1682M processor and providing two 4-lane PCI Express fabric
ports.

The CHAMP-AV6, a DSP engine based on the new VPX-REDI standard, is also available in an
LRM variant. It features quad PowerPC 8641 processors, four Serial RapidIO ports and an
option for one PCI Express port. For applications requiring a reconfigurable platform, the
CHAMP-FX2 is a 6U VPX-REDI format processor combines the power of two Xilinx
Virtex™-5 FPGAs, a Freescale 8641D dual-core PowerPC processor and a Serial RapidIO
switching fabric to provide unprecedented computational densities.