@military_cots John McHale

Radar’s role at Pearl Harbor 7

Technology Update
Spectrum management for SDRs 12

Mil Tech Trends

Rugged panel PCs for battle vehicles 28

Industry Spotlight
Cyberwarfare calls for system resilience 32
MIL-EMBEDDED.COM July/August 2017 | Volume 13 | Number 5

P 16

P 36
Establishing a root of trust: Trusted computing and Intel-based systems
By Steve Edwards, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions

Videocentric
ISR missions push
rugged computing
to the limits
P 22
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 Volume 13
Number 5

www.mil-embedded.com
July/August 2017
COLUMNS
BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS Editor’s Perspective
DoD Budget Requests FY 2018 7 Radar’s role at Pearl Harbor
16 DoD major program procurement By John McHale
and modernization highlights from FY 2018 Field Intelligence
budget request 8 3U OpenVPX plus 40-gig Ethernet –
By John McHale, Editorial Director best of both worlds
By Charlotte Adams
MIL TECH TRENDS
Rugged Computing Mil Tech Insider
16 10 Augmented reality and
22 Videocentric ISR missions push rugged video-management systems
computing to the limits By Kevin Rooney
By Mariana Iriarte, Associate Editor
Technology Update
26 Performance increases still needed for 12 The role of machine learning
full adoption of mobile rugged computing for in autonomous spectrum sharing
military use By Mariana Iriarte
By Mariana Iriarte, Associate Editor
Cybersecurity Update
28 Integrated panel PC solves many challenges in 44 The power of light: A shortcut to
limited-space battlefield applications satellite-based quantum encryption
By Chris Ciufo, General Micro Systems By Sally Cole
26 University Update
INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT 45 Robotics family leverages open
Cyberwarfare Technology architectures to counter explosive
32 Cyberwarfare: A “Wild West” of ordnance threats
nonkinetic weaponry By Mariana Iriarte
By Sally Cole, Senior Editor

36 Establishing a root of trust: DEPARTMENTS

Trusted computing and Intel-based systems 14 Defense Tech Wire
By Steve Edwards, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions By Mariana Iriarte
40 Editor’s Choice Products
28 46 Connecting with Mil Embedded
By Mil-Embedded.com Editorial Staff

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EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

Radar’s role at Pearl Harbor

By John McHale, Editorial Director

Many of you might not know that the first use of radar in a battlefield situation was
during the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Just prior to the attack by
Japanese aircraft, U.S. Army personnel were training on brand-new radar equipment
when they spotted incoming aircraft, but the warning was thought to be friendly
­aircraft and was subsequently ignored.

I had never heard that part of the story and learned about it while visiting the Arizona
Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, last month while attending the International
Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Honolulu. Yeah, I know, I know … tough assignment,
but we endured …

The morning of December 7, radar operators – Army Privates Joseph P. Lockard and
George Elliott – at the Opana radar station detected approaching aircraft and called
the officer on duty at the Fort Shafter Information Center, 1st Lt. Kermit A. Tyler, who
was on his first day at the station, according to an exhibit at the Pearl Harbor Historical
Site museum. Tyler said that Lockard told him that “it was the biggest plot he had ever
seen, and I told him ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s OK.” [Pictured: The oscilloscope and
radar equipment used by Lockard and Elliot (top) and the Opana radar plot (bottom).]

Tyler later explained that he thought it was likely a flight of B-17s due to land at
Hickam Field at 0800 that morning, saying “There was no way of telling what they
were. The problem was, [at that hour] we had no identification people on staff.”

Mobile radar and radar in general was so new to U.S. military forces that they were
still training and learning how to use it.

Lt. Gen. Walter C. Short, commander of the military defenses at Pearl Harbor in 1941,
said that he did the radar operations “for training more than any idea it would be real.” attack before boarding the transport to
the memorial.
Present time
I also thought it ironic to be reading about the early use of radar while I was in Once you enter the memorial, you
Hawaii attending IMS, an RF and microwave technology event where exhibitors and can actually still smell the oil leaking
attendees discussed the latest RF technologies, such as gallium nitride (GaN) compo- from the wreckage below, even now,
nents. These components are driving the increased capability of radar systems today, 76 years later. (Not to worry, the leak
such as active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems, which use a large is monitored so it doesn’t become an
amount of RF components. environmental hazard.) The site and
the wreckage remain untouched, as it
“Radar, in general, has the broadest market for RF with UHF, L-, S-, C-, and X-Band fre- is sacred ground, not just to the U.S.
quencies all seeing upgrades from legacy technologies which have less performance,” military, but to the American people. It
said Ryan Baker, product marketing manager for RF components at Wolfspeed, an is the grave of the sailors who lost their
exhibitor at IMS this year. “It’s the largest RF market within the military arena. New lives that day.
systems will be funded and RF will play into that funding as a driver.”
Time onboard will be limited; aside from
U.S. forces were not properly structured in 1941 to take advantage of radar prior to your smartphone’s camera, device use is
the attack, but since then the technology has saved countless lives and r­epresents restricted. So rely on your imagination
perhaps the largest growth area for military suppliers of RF and microwave technology and your senses, close your eyes, and
as well as embedded computing systems. think about what happened there. Read
the names on the wall on the far side of
Back to Pearl Harbor the memorial. Say a prayer or a quiet
Every American should definitely experience a visit to the Arizona Memorial if “thank you” for those that gave their
they are anywhere near the island of Oahu. Visitors watch a short film about the lives that day.

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 7

FIELD INTELLIGENCE

3U OpenVPX plus 40-gig Ethernet –

best of both worlds
By Charlotte Adams
An Abaco Systems perspective on embedded military electronics trends

To solve tough problems like synthetic board-to-board communications across

aperture radar, sensor fusion, and target the backplane. Designers of high-speed
recognition processing, the military wants embedded computing (HPEC) systems
and needs performance. That require- prefer Ethernet to PCIe because it is a
ment means getting the fastest through- fast, low-latency network technology
put in the smallest package with the that is well-understood and easier to use
lowest power penalty. The hunger for than PCIe.
performance is even more true for
autonomous platforms – from aircraft
to ground vehicles – that require high-
bandwidth processing to “think” for
Although Ethernet is a relatively ancient
computer technology, it has kept up
with the times – recently hitting 40 giga-
› Figure 1 | Abaco’s SBC367D 3U
OpenVPX single-board computer features
40-gigabit Ethernet support for fast
system interconnect.
themselves and act on their own, as well bits per second, or four times the
as to perform basic sensor and mission maximum Ethernet data rate found on be put together faster and at lower cost,
processing, self-protection, and commu- military platforms today. The Ethernet another selling point for the technology.
nications and navigation functions. programming model also has stayed
relatively stable through the years, and An example of possible foundational
Small-form-factor, 3U, OpenVPX boards the switching mechanism is easier to elements for a 40-gigabits-per-second
were invented for data-hungry and accommodate than with PCIe. What’s Ethernet-based 3U OpenVPX system: a
size, weight, and power (SWaP)-limited more, profiles developed and controlled pair of ruggedized, air/conduction-cooled
applications. OpenVPX, a highly flexible through groups like the IEEE [Institute products with security features from Abaco
standard – and the successor to VME – of Electrical and Electronics Engineers] Systems: the SBC367D SBC, with Intel’s
can run almost any high-speed data keep the standard aligned with the up to 16-core Xeon D-1500-series pro-
transfer technology on its data plane – needs of its most demanding defense cessor; and the SWE440 Ether­net switch,
InfiniBand, PCI Express, Serial Rapid IO, and aerospace users. supporting as many as eight 40-gigabits-
or Ethernet. per-second ports and burning 40 watts or
Lingua franca less of power. (Figure 1.)
OpenVPX boards come in many flavors, Anyone building a multinode system
but multiple single-board computers knows that it’s easier and more cost- High-density, low-SWaP computing is
(SBCs), each using multicore processors, effective for the boards to talk Ethernet key to solving the military’s embedded-
would be appropriate for computation- to each other than to speak PCIe. While processing challenges. The lower the
ally intensive sensor processing tasks. A PCIe works well for systems with one or latency, the faster the data can be dis-
combination of such SBCs and massively two cards and peripherals, Ethernet is tributed among processing nodes, and
parallel graphical processing unit (GPU) preferable for larger systems. the higher the data throughput volumes
cards could also tackle these jobs. per unit of time. Following that logic, the
Ethernet is a lingua franca – or common more reliable and effective the results
The multicore boards, in turn, could be language – that operating systems based on that data can be, the more
interconnected using a 40-gigabits-per- natively understand. With PCIe, in con- effective the sensors or other systems
second Ethernet switch for maximum trast, an extra software layer is required can be, and the shorter the decision
throughput to accommodate the inter­ to allow multiple processors to talk to cycles based on that information will be.
board bandwidth required to keep up with each other. Since each board vendor
front-end data collectors. The ­OpenVPX has its proprietary version of this code, High-speed Ethernet is a good fit for
switch module 3U slot profile (SLT3- PCIe-based backplanes are perceived as low-SWaP, highly compute-intensive
SWH-8F) is a good fit for a 40-gigabit less open and more vendor-dependent. applications, where massive amounts
Ethernet system: A 40 GBASE-KR4 back- of data are being processed per node
plane connection would allow eight 3U Ethernet has a huge installed base in and flowed between nodes. In this con-
payload boards to be interconnected via homes and offices as well as on military text, multiple 40 gigabits-per-second
one switch. platforms. It is well-defined, reliable, modules coupled with a 40 gigabits-
ubiquitous, and affordable – all music to per-second switch could be the best of
Back to the future: Ethernet military ears. Moreover, because it is sim- both worlds.
These days engineers increasingly are pler and easier to implement than other
turning to Ethernet for high-speed data-transfer technologies, solutions can www.abaco.com

8 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

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MIL TECH INSIDER

Augmented reality and

video-management systems
By Kevin Rooney
An industry perspective from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions

Over the last few years, the concept of augmented reality, in which computer-­ and other powerful mission information
generated imagery is combined with views of the real world, has become mainstream. onto a helmet visor or on glasses takes
Formerly found only in very high-end applications, such as helmet-based heads-up the LCD display out of the equation.
displays for fighter-jet pilots, this next-generation graphics capability is poised to Before, if operators turned their head
revolutionize applications such as search and rescue (SAR) and airborne surveillance. away from the video screen, they paid
the penalty of missing sensor data.
As the operator is asked to look at more and more information, we’re seeing display
sizes grow increasingly large. Part of the problem is that it’s very difficult to sit close With augmented reality displayed prop-
to a large display and effectively absorb all of the information it presents. It’s akin erly on a visor or glasses, the o­ perator’s
to watching a movie while seated in the front row of the theatre. On platforms such viewing experience is optimized, enabling
as helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, the space constraints make it unlikely that the the operator to access additional data
operator can sit any distance from the video screen. As a rule of thumb, given a person resources, whenever and wherever they
with 20/20 vision seated 18 inches away from a screen, the largest video display that turn their head. For the operator, the
can be realistically viewed optimally is 17 inches. As displays increasingly embrace the ability to view the real world and have
use of HD, 2K, and 4K formats, the high level of information and detail delivered will overlaid information (such as Google
be difficult to view if the operator is seated too close to the screen. Maps) makes them much more effective,
while essentially removing the technology
Augmented reality promises a solution that solves the constrained space issue, provides as an intermediary barrier. As information
access to more useful and actionable data, and enables a more natural and effective is delivered to the operator in a more
interaction with the real world. Overlaying moving map data, license-plate identification, human, seamless, and intuitive way, the

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10 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com
 Recording and archiving the augmented-reality data, with support for time stamping, so
that the captured video can be used in an evidence chain in court. Augmented-reality
systems also offer an effective tool for crew training and scenario simulation.

As natural as it is to use a rear-view mirror while driving a car, it may well soon become
as seamless to access real-time streaming video data that makes the operator more
effective instead of removing them from the real world by placing a video screen in

› Figure 1 | Curtiss-Wright’s
RVG-SA1 analog video switch, a compact
nonblocking crosspoint switch, is an
example of a COTS element that can be
their field of vision. The next two years should see the emergence of new and prac-
tical augmented-reality solutions for a wide variety of applications. We are already
seeing military implementation of this technology; we expect that the SAR and law-
enforcement markets will follow very shortly.
used to integrate a rugged deployable
augmented-reality solution.
Kevin Rooney is managing director for video and displays, Curtiss-Wright Defense
result will be more successful missions. Solutions.
Augmented reality can also take advan-
tage of new features, such as the ability www.curtisswrightds.com
to dynamically “annunciate” or highlight
any important changes. For example,

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Dawn is the leader in VITA 62
Existing modular and scalable video compliant power supplies for the
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www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 11

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

The role of machine learning

in autonomous spectrum sharing
By Mariana Iriarte, Associate Editor

Speakers and attendees at the recent NIWeek in Austin, Texas, – be essential as the population of devices linking wirelessly to
the annual conference and exhibition held by National Instru­ments each other and to the internet continues to grow exponen-
(NI) – discussed the technological obstacles and potential solu- tially,” Tilghman said in a statement released by DARPA.
tions for enabling autonomous spectrum sharing and touted the
U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) NIWeek events provided a glimpse of what the future will hold
Spectrum Collaboration Challenge (SC2) as an excellent plat- in terms of spectrum management.
form for finding such solutions.
In short, said Manuel Uhm – director of marketing, Ettus Research,
Launched in 2016, SC2’s goal is to create a collaborative a National Instruments company, and chair of the Board of
machine-learning competition to address radio frequency (RF) Directors of the Wireless Innovation Forum – at NI Week: “This
spectrum challenges. DARPA experts created SC2 to help huge effort will enable warfighters and their radios to have
users of the existing radio spectrum overcome the problem spectrum situational awareness through the machine learning
of clogged spectrum. Demand for radio spectrum has grown and AI [artificial intelligence] capabilities.”
steadily over the past century, and in the past several years has
increased at a rate of 50 percent per year. The ideal end goal of the program is to enable autono-
mous spectrum sharing. “Today we need spectrum sensors
SC2 wants to move away from traditional ways of communi- (Environmental Sensing Capability, or ESC) and a Spectrum
cating via one frequency. As DARPA’s Paul Tilghman explained Access System (SAS),” said Uhm. “In the future, it would be
during his keynote speech at NIWeek, one of the biggest amazing if none of that was necessary due to optimized and
obstacles in spectrum management is that “frequency isolation highly effective collaborative spectrum usage. It will take a
completely dominates our spectrum landscape.” long time before DoD [the Department of Defense] or com-
mercial operators put their faith in such algorithms, but one
The problem is that radios can no longer stay in one frequency can dream!”
lane and at the same time meet the growing needs of the com-
mercial and military world, Tilghman pointed out. That’s where SC2 will address current limitations in the communications
SC2 comes in: It’s an open competition to create a unique radio arena. “When a naval radar signal is detected by a spectrum
system that will autonomously collaborate with other radios sensor, all the radios – known as CBRSDs (Citizens Broadband
with no spectrum allocation. Radio Service Devices) – in that area have to stop using that
spectrum within 60 seconds of notification,” Uhm said during
A total of 30 teams joined the competition, all competing for NIWeek. “Adding more of the intelligence into the radio so
$3.75 million in prize money that will be allocated to first-, they can act more autonomously would be a tremendous
second-, and third-place winners. ­benefit, both commercially and for the military.”

To make this competition a reality, National Instruments The SC2 project’s avenue into enabling machine learning are
teamed up with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics NI’s universal software radio peripherals (USRPs). “The teams
Laboratory (APL) and DARPA to create one of the biggest test­ are going to be controlling SDRs [software-defined radios] in
beds in history. Competitors will use what the group calls the multiple possible different scenarios,” Uhm explained. “The
“Colosseum,” with a physical location at John Hopkins, to test USRPs that the performers are going to be using have SDR and
their algorithms and eventually create radios that can cogni- cognitive radio technology by the industry definition today, but
tively collaborate with each other. the secret sauce isn’t for them to develop the radio part of it.
The radio’s a solved problem. The unsolved part is how do you
The purpose of the Colosseum – a 256-by-256-channel RF create a radio that is intelligent enough to be able to adapt
channel emulator – is to emulate the wireless environment. It dynamically to the spectrum situation that it’s facing?”
can calculate in real time more than 65,000 channel interactions
among 256 wireless devices and can emulate thousands of inter- Competitors will use the testbed to “upload machine learning
actions between all types of wireless devices that include the algorithms into those servers that are connected to the radios
Internet of Things (IoT), cellphones, military radios, and the like. and they’ll be judged on the basis of how well those algorithms
do on a series of criteria in terms of being able to communi-
“The Colosseum is the wireless research environment that we cate not just to their team members, but doing so in a way
hope will catalyze the advent of autonomous, intelligent, and – that doesn’t impinge on the communications of other teams,”
most importantly – collaborative radio technology, which will he adds.

12 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

An important factor in the challenge is that each simulated
channel acts on the premise that it has 100 MHz of bandwidth.
Moreover, each transmission and reception frequency can be
tuned anywhere between 10 MHz and 6 GHz.

Knowing these parameters, collaboration is the operative word

in this challenge. “The key is those machine-learning algo-
rithms that are downloaded onto the server, which control the
behavior of the radio in reaction to the scenario being faced,”
Uhm stated.

Additionally, he said, “In the background, there will also be

a system that helps enable spectrum awareness. If you think
about spectrum sharing today, there are systems called SAS
that are used in CBRS to be aware of all the nodes in a par-
ticular area, and what frequency range they’re transmitting in

›
within the 3.55 to 3.7 GHz for CBRS. Then, if a maritime radar Figure 1 | In this photo illustration, a few dozen of the
signal is sensed, the SAS sends a signal to stop transmitting 256 software defined radio units, which comprise the heart of
in that band to all the CBSDs in that geographic vicinity so DARPA’s Colosseum – the world’s largest “channel emulator” for
there’s no interference with the radar. Well, that SAS is a log- simulating electromagnetic communication in different peacetime
and contested contexts – rise up from an image of the original
ical component of how you could create situational awareness
Roman Colosseum, after which the electronic testbed is named.
within Colosseum. It’s also useful in a broader potential wartime Image courtesy DARPA.
­scenario or other types of homeland scenario type of events
where broad communications is vital.” more than a day before being recharged, perhaps years. From
a practical perspective, those are going be scenarios where
The Colosseum in the clouds there will be very limited processing capability in the sensor to
SDR technology will enable SC2 competitors to integrate in a reduce power consumption. The sensor will communicate crit-
cloud-computing-like environment. By using such an environ- ical data to the network for decision-making. But again, that’s
ment, the testbed will be accessible by all teams from around also a tradeoff because it also consumes power to transmit
the country. “Putting such a powerful wireless testbed into back and forth to a cloud. So there are a number of tradeoffs at
the cloud is a first-of-its-kind achievement in and of itself,” the end of the day and the best answer will depend on the use
Tilghman said, “but the most exciting thing will be to see the case and requirements.”
rapid evolution of how AI solves wireless communications chal-
lenges once the competitors have this unique and powerful The benefits of these teams running these scenarios are
resource at their disposal.” ­enormous for the military and commercial world. “There’s
absolutely a huge commercial aspect related to having some
With cloud capabilities, the possibilities of using this testbed level of dynamic capability and cognition in your smart-
are endless. Uhm explained: “If you place the intelligence in the phone,” Uhm said “And again, some capabilities may require
cloud, you have a number of dummy nodes, whether they’re the broader dataset and processing capabilities in the cloud,
radios or some other type of sensor node that is just essen- so your phone just becomes the sensor. Taking some of the
tially passing sensor data to the cloud. In this situation, the technology developed in the DARPA Spectrum Collaboration
cloud is making the decisions and then changing the behavior Challenge and putting that into a commercial content is abso-
of the nodes.” lutely on the table and that’s what DARPA would like to see,
very honestly.”
Putting intelligence at the edge “means those nodes now have
the capability to have some level of intelligence, as well as This issue and challenge is a big deal: “The spectrum is a multi-
being able to communicate with the cloud in most scenarios. billion-dollar asset,” Uhm stated. “Maximizing the value of it is
By having processing capability right at the edge, it is possible critically important, not just for the military, but in particular for
to more quickly make decisions right at the edge. However, commercial operators, and for all of us as end users.”
having artificial intelligence in a node means that you have
to have computing resources, which consume power. For The story doesn’t stop here. Manuel Uhm and Paul Tilghman
example, we all know how long our smartphone batteries last will be hosting a full-day workshop at WinnComm 2017 on
and none of us are happy about it.” November 13-15. The workshop, titled “DARPA Spectrum
Collaboration Challenge Challenges,” will also have multiple
Which brings the competitors to some technical but well-known speakers discussing the challenges that engineers are still
challenges that include processing and power limitations within facing as well as those that have already been tackled. Check
the scenarios. “A smartphone can do amazing things within the it out to get a better picture of SC2 at WinnComm and visit
context of a day before it needs to recharge. There are going to https://spectrumcollaborationchallenge.com to learn how to
be scenarios where battery-operated sensors will need to last get involved.

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 13

 DEFENSE TECH WIRE
NEWS | TRENDS | DOD SPENDS | CONTRACTS | TECHNOLOGY UPDATES

By Mariana Iriarte, Associate Editor

NEWS

NASA’s supersonic X-plane completes preliminary AT&T and Leidos team up to transform
design review DoD network
NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers recently completed Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) officials have
the preliminary design review (PDR) of its Quiet Supersonic tasked Leidos to automate Department of Defense (DoD) pri-
Transport (QueSST) aircraft design. QueSST is the initial design vate networking services. Under the task order, Leidos will team
stage of NASA’s planned Low Boom Flight Demonstration with AT&T to help transform the DoD Information Network
(LBFD) experimental airplane, which is also known as an X-plane. (DoDIN) to a software-defined network.
Following the PDR, Lockheed Martin and NASA engineers con- DISA’s goal is a software-defined enterprise that supports a high
cluded that the QueSST design is capable of fulfilling the LBFD degree of automation and synchronization across networking,
aircraft’s mission objectives: To fly at supersonic speeds, but hosting, and related IT systems, officials say. Leidos and AT&T
create a soft “thump” instead of the disruptive sonic boom will engineer and deliver software-defined networking con-
associated with supersonic flight today. troller technology into the DoDIN backbone. The solution uses
Over the next few months, NASA will work with Lockheed on an open framework developed by AT&T that supports the auto-
finalizing the QueSST preliminary design effort. This under- mation of network services.
taking includes a static inlet performance test and a low- Dr. Daniel Voce, Leidos senior vice president, Enterprise Cyber
speed wind tunnel test at NASA’s Langley Research Center in and Solutions, calls the move “a good initial step to trans-
Hampton, Virginia. forming the DoDIN to be more flexible, secure, dynamic, and
resilient for the warfighter.”

Telephonics wins Navy ARPDD retrofit contract

from Lockheed Martin
Telephonics Corp. has been awarded year two of a multiyear,
indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) production con-
tract – valued at approximately $37 million – by Lockheed
Martin for providing naval helicopters with AN/APS-153(V)1
radar retrofit kits with automatic radar periscope detection and
Figure 1 | A scale model of the QueSST design completed testing in discrimination (ARPDD) capability.
the 8-by 6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in The award – part of phase three of the U.S. Navy’s ARPDD
Cleveland. Photo courtesy of NASA/ Lockheed Martin.
Retrofit Program – is a follow-on phase to a previously awarded
multiyear contract. Under the terms of the contract, Telephonics
ARPDD systems will be installed on the U.S. Navy’s MH-60R
Sea Hawk helicopters, providing advanced maritime and littoral
U.S. Army’s Apache AH-64 completes flight test surveillance.
with high-energy laser
Telephonics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Griffon Corp., will
The U.S. Army Apache Program Management Office collabo- begin delivery of the retrofit kits in spring 2018.
rated with the U.S. Special Operations Command and Raytheon
to complete a test flight of a high-energy laser system onboard
an Apache AH-64 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
The test achieved all primary and secondary goals, providing
experimental evidence for the feasibility of high-resolution,
multiband targeting sensor performance and beam propaga-
tion supportive of High Energy Laser (HEL) capability for the
rotary-wing attack mission.
The design of future HEL systems will be shaped by the data
collected during test flights on the impact of vibration, dust, Figure 2 | Coupled with the ARPDD, the AN/APS-153(V)1 radar system provides
and rotor downwash on HEL beam control and steering. naval helicopters with advanced search. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Navy.

14 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 NEWS

Sea Venom/ANL anti-ship missile completes Northrop Grumman inks torpedo contract with
first firing U.S. Navy
MBDA officials announced that the company’s Sea Venom/ANL The U.S. Navy has awarded Northrop Grumman Corp. a $9.6 mil-
anti-ship missile recently completed its first firing at the Île du lion contract, with options totaling as much as $40.5 million, to
Levant test range in France. The trial of the 100 kg-class missile produce the transducer array/nose shell assembly of the MK 48
was performed from a Dauphin test bed helicopter owned by heavyweight torpedo, the main offensive weapon deployed from
the DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement, France’s defense- all U.S. Navy submarines.
procurement agency).
Under the terms of the initial contract, Northrop Grumman will
The Sea Venom was developed to enable enhanced capability handle engineering and production of 45 torpedo transducer
and replace existing and older systems such as the British- arrays/nose shell assemblies for the MK 48. The contract also
developed Sea Skua and the French-developed AS15TT anti- allows for three additional options of as many as 45 units apiece,
ship missiles. Jointly ordered in 2014, the Sea Venom/ANL for a total of up to 180 systems over five years, and includes
project has been developed 50/50 between the U.K. and orders for spare parts and engineering support services.
France and has played a key part in the creation of shared cen-
ters of excellence on missile technologies in both countries, Work on the arrays and assemblies will be conducted at
according to MBDA. Northrop Grumman’s Annapolis, Maryland facility; at the Ultra
Electronics Ocean Systems facility in Braintree, Massachusetts;
“Although a first firing, this was in no way a cautious one,”
and at additional supplier locations. When completed, the
stated Paul Goodwin, deputy head of the Sea Venom project.
assemblies will be delivered to the Naval Undersea Warfare
“The system was pushed to the very edge of its range capa-
Center in Keyport, Washington, for installation into complete
bility. The next step is to exercise the systems’ operator-in-the-
MK 48 torpedoes.
loop capabilities.”

CH-53K King Stallion starts transition to

Naval Air Station
Lockheed Martin announced that its CH-53K King Stallion cargo
helicopter program has completed its first extended “cross-
country” flight from Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach, Florida, facility
to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, the first of several such flights
that will occur during 2017 and 2018 as the CH-53K flight test
program transitions to the flight-test facilities at Patuxent River.
Figure 3 | In service in the U.K., the Sea Venom missile is expected to be used The CH-53K helicopter flew on June 30 from Sikorsky’s Devel­
from the AW159 Wildcat helicopter, while France will operate the missile from its opment Flight Center in West Palm Beach to Patuxent River, a
new Hélicoptère Interarmées Léger. Photo courtesy of MBDA.
distance of approximately 810 miles.
Lockheed Martin clocked the total flight time at six hours, with
two fuel stops at Naval Air Station Mayport, Florida, and Marine
Comtech Telecommunications obtains $14.5 million Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina.
contract add-on for USMC satellite services
Comtech Telecommunications Corp. announced that its Com­-
mand & Control Technologies group has received a $14.5 million
contract modification from the Defense Informa­tion Systems
Agency (DISA) that will result in the exercise of the fourth-year
option under an existing contract to provide Ku-band satel-
lite bandwidth and support services for the U.S. Marine Corps
Tactical Satellite Communications Network.
The additional option year covers the period from August 1,
2017, through July 31, 2018; the Marine Corps has now ex-
pended $73.0 million to date on this contract.
Under contract, Comtech will continue to provide the Marine
Corps with commercial satellite services to various terminals to Figure 4 | The CH-53K King Stallion arrives at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, on
extend the Marine Corps Enterprise Network for deployed users. June 30, 2017. Photo courtesy U.S. Navy.

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 15

Budget Highlights
DOD BUDGET REQUESTS
FY 2018

DoD major
program
procurement and
modernization
highlights from
FY 2018 budget
request
By John McHale, Editorial Director

WASHINGTON. Funding requested

for Department of Defense (DoD)
Major Defense Acquisition Programs
(MDAPs) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018
totals $94.9 billion, more than
$17 billion dollars over the FY 2017
request, making up 46 percent of the
Trump administration’s $208.6 billion
FY 2018 acquisition budget request.

U.S. sailors aboard the Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) man the rails as the ship pulls in to Norfolk, Virginia,
after conducting builder’s sea trials April 14, 2017. The first-of-class ship – the first new U.S. aircraft carrier design in 40 years –
spent several days conducting builder’s sea trials, a comprehensive test of many of the ship’s key systems and technologies.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Seaman Gitte Schirrmacher.

The acquisition budget request makes Major aircraft programs

up about 33 percent of the overall Funding slated for major aircraft and related systems totals $49.9 billion under
FY 2018 DoD budget request of the DoD FY 2018 acquisition funding request, an increase of $4.6 billion from the
$639.1 billion – $574.5 billion in the base FY 2017 request.
budget and $64.6 billion in the Over­-
seas Contingency Operations (OCO) Aircraft and related systems funding includes procurement of 70 F-35 jets, 29 logistics
budget. This number is an overall support aircraft, 198 helicopters, and 50 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In addition,
increase of nearly nine percent over the funding in this category provides for the development of aircraft-related tech-
FY 2017’s $586.7 billion total. nology, the procurement of aerospace equipment and systems, various modifications
to existing aircraft, and the procurement of initial spares.
The MDAP funding is detailed in the
DoD’s “Program Acquisition Cost by Wea­- Manned platforms
pons System” booklet. Air, ground, and The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) consists of three variants: the F-35A Conventional
maritime platform program highlights Take-Off and Landing (CTOL), the F-35B Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing
are detailed below. To read the entire (STOVL), and the F-35C Carrier variant (CV). The FY 2018 program calls for con-
booklet, visit http://comptroller.defense. tinued development of the air system and the F135 single-engine powerplant;
gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/ it also asks for funding for systems engineering, development, and operational
fy2018/fy2018_Weapons.pdf. testing and supports follow-on modernization. Procurement for a total of 70 aircraft:

16 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 › Figure 1 | Several U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 58th Fighter
Squadron, 33rd Fighter Wing, fly in formation following an aerial refueling qualification
mission over Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. DoD photo by Master Sgt. John R. Nimmo Sr.,
U.S. Air Force.

The AH-64E Apache program is a parallel new-build and remanufacture effort, which
integrates a mast-mounted fire control radar into an upgraded and enhanced AH–64
airframe. The FY 2018 program funds the remanufacture of 48 AH-64D aircraft to the
AH-64E configuration and 13 new build AH-64Es in the second year of a five-year
multiyear procurement (MYP) contract (FY 2017 to FY 2021), along with continued
development of upgrades to enhance operational capabilities. It also procures two
AH-64E aircraft in the OCO. FY 2018 funding requested is $1.441 billion, down from
$1.840 billion in the FY 2017 request.

The UH-60 Black Hawk is a twin-engine, single-rotor, four-bladed utility helicopter

designed to carry a crew of four and a combat-equipped squad of 11, or an external
46 CTOL for the Air Force, 20 STOVL load of as much as 9,000 pounds. The FY 2018 program calls for funding the procure-
for the Marine Corps, and four CV for ment of 48 UH-60M aircraft in the second year of a follow-on five-year MYP con-
the Navy in FY 2018. FY 2018 funding tract (FY 2017 to FY 2021). It also funds the continued development of upgrades to
requested is $10.837 billion, down from the UH-60L Digital, now designated as the UH-60V. FY 2018 funding requested is
$11.323 billion in the FY 2017 request. $1.059 billion, down from $1.352 billion in the FY 2017 request.
(Figure 1.)
The P-8A Poseidon is multimission platform designed to replace the P-3C Orion pro-
The V-22 Osprey is a tilt-rotor, vertical peller-driven aircraft. The FY 2018 program procures seven P-8A aircraft, ­support
takeoff and landing aircraft designed equipment, spares, and advance procurement for FY 2019 aircraft. It also continues
to meet the U.S. military’s amphibious/ research and development on the P-8A capabilities to meet the anti-submarine
vertical assault needs. The FY 2018 pro- warfare (ASW); anti-surface warfare (ASuW); and intelligence, surveillance, and
gram calls for funding the first year of reconnaissance (ISR) objectives that will be delivered incrementally while full-rate pro-
a follow-on seven-year multiyear pro- duction continues for the baseline aircraft. FY 2018 funding requested in this area is
curement contract (FY 2018 to 2024), $1.609 billion, down from $3.267 billion in the FY 2017 request.
procuring six CMV-22 aircraft for the
Navy. FY 2018 funding requested is The F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet is a carrier-based multirole tactical fighter and attack
$961.8 million, down from $1.822 billion aircraft. Two versions are being produced: the single-seat E model and the two-seat
in the FY 2017 request. F model. The FY 2018 program calls for procuring 14 E/F model aircraft, which

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 17

Budget Highlights DOD BUDGET REQUESTS FY 2018

will lessen the shortfall in naval combat aircraft. FY 2018 funding requested is with the MQ-1 Gray Eagle Extended
$1.253 ­billion, down from $2.504 billion in the FY 2017 request. Range engineering change proposal.
The Army plans to procure 11 UASs in
The Long Range Strike (LRS) platform is intended to counter post-2020 challenges FY 2018, which is the last planned year
to the DoD’s power projection capabilities. The FY 2018 program seeks to continue of procurement for the MQ-1C Gray
engineering and manufacturing development of the next generation B-21 and per- Eagle. FY 2018 funding requested for
form upgrades to modernize legacy strategic bombers. FY 2018 funding requested is these particular unmanned platforms is
$2.945 billion, up from $2.241 billion in the FY 2017 request. $174.4 million, down from $308.1 million
in the FY 2017 request.
The F-22 Raptor is a fifth-generation air superiority aircraft fighter. The FY 2018 pro-
gram continues planned modernization for F-22 aircraft via incremental capability The U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper UAS
upgrades and reliability and maintainability improvements. It also continues devel- ­program is comprised of an aircraft seg-
opment and testing of advanced air superiority capabilities to include integration of ment consisting of aircraft configured with
AIM-120D and AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, additional electronic protection, and an array of sensors to include day/night
improved geolocation. The program completes fielding of Increment 3.1, enhancing full-motion video (FMV), signals intel-
Global Strike capabilities such as Small Diameter Bomb I, synthetic aperture radar ligence (SIGINT), and SAR sensor pay-
(SAR), and geolocation. FY 2018 funding requested is $915.5 million, up from loads, avionics, data links, and weapons;
$704.4 million in the FY 2017 request. a ground control segment consisting of
a launch and recovery element; and a
Unmanned platforms mission control element with embedded
The U.S. Air Force MQ-1B Predator and the Army MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight
aircraft systems (UASs) are comprised of aircraft configured with a multispectral communications equipment. The FY 2018
­targeting system (electro-optical, infrared [IR], laser designator, and IR illuminator) program funds the continued develop-
providing real-time full-motion video, weapons, data links, and ground control stations ment, transformation, and fielding of
with communications equipment providing line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight con- Reaper aircraft and ground stations. The
trol. The FY 2018 program calls for funding the test and evaluation efforts associated base request includes the procurement

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of 10 dual ground control stations and intelligence effort. Total FY 2018 funding requested for these platforms is $1.282 ­billion,
continues the modification of MQ-9s to up from $1.213 billion in the FY 2017 request.
the extended-range configuration. The
OCO request includes the procurement The RQ-7 Shadow, RQ-11 Raven, RQ-20 Puma, and RQ-21 Blackjack UAS platforms
of 32 additional aircraft, updated mul- provide organic reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition (RSTA) capa-
tispectral sensors, and payload modi- bilities. The FY 2018 program calls for funding upgrades to system hardware and
fications. FY 2018 funding requested is payloads for the RQ-7 Shadow. It also procures upgrades and provides training and
$1.008 billion, down from $1.053 billion contractor logistics support for the RQ-11 Raven. In addition, the program procures
in the FY 2017 request. RQ-20 Puma systems for the Marine Corps and Special Operations Command, while
procuring a total of four systems and provides contractor logistics support for the
The U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, RQ-21 Blackjack. Total FY 2018 funding requested for these platforms is $129.7 million,
Navy MQ-4C Triton, and NATO Alliance down from $522.4 million in the FY 2017 request.
Ground Surveillance (AGS) UAS pro-
grams provide high-altitude, long- Major ground systems
endurance ISR capabilities. The FY 2018 Funding slated for major ground systems totals $11.2 billion under the DoD FY 2018
program for RQ-4 funds the develop- acquisition funding request, an increase of $1.4 billion over the FY 2017 request.
ment and modification efforts for the
Block 30, Block 40, Airborne Signals Ground systems funding includes the Army efforts to continue to modernize and
Intelligence Payload (ASIP) Increment II, upgrade MDAP programs such as Stryker vehicles, Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting
and various sensor enhancements, along Vehicles, and Paladin 155 mm howitzers. The Marine Corps’ ground force focus in
with the U.S. contribution to the NATO FY 2018 is on the Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV). All the services will procure the
AGS. For MQ-4C, it funds the procure­- Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) as part of the LRIP. Program highlights are below.
ment of three low rate initial produc-
tion (LRIP) systems and continues to The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) is a joint program currently in development
fund development activities associated for the Army and Marine Corps. The FY 2018 program calls for funding the third and
with software upgrades and the multi- final year of LRIP, procuring 2,777 trucks. It continues full-up system level (FUSL) test;

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www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 19

Budget Highlights DOD BUDGET REQUESTS FY 2018

multiservice operational test and evaluation (MOT&E); automatic fire extinguishing the areas of training devices: command,
system (AFES) test; and command, control, communications, computers, intelli- control, communications, computers,
gence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) test. FY 2018 funding requested is intelligence (C4I) obsolescence; reli-
$1.142 billion, up from $775.8 million in the FY 2017 request. (Figure 2.) ability, capability, and performance deg-
radation; safety; and operational-related
issues. It also provides for the fielding
of a 30 mm weapon system. FY 2018
funding requested is $178.2 million,
down from $735.4 million in the FY 2017
request.

The Amphibious Combat Vehicle (ACV)

will replace the aging Amphibious
Assault Vehicle. The FY 2018 program
funds the purchase of four FUSL test
vehicles and continued test and evalu-
ation efforts. It procures the LRIP of
26 vehicles, plus procurement of related
items such as production support,
systems engineering/program man-
agement, engineering change orders
(ECOs), government furnished equip-
ment (GFE), and integrated logistics sup-

› Figure 2 | The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle on the production line at Oshkosh Defense.
Photo courtesy of Oshkosh Defense.
port. It also provides for initial spares,
which support the ACV Increment 1.1
program. Milestone C is scheduled in
The Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) will replace the M113 Armored Personnel FY 2018. FY 2018 funding requested is
Carrier program that was terminated in 2007. The FY 2018 program funds engineering $340.5 million, up from $158.7 million in
and manufacturing development (EMD) prototype testing (including performance and the FY 2017 request.
reliability testing), completion of the interim design review (IDR) and functional con-
figuration audit (FCA), continued development of logistics support products, procure- Shipbuilding and maritime systems
ment of live-fire test assets, and procurement of 107 LRIP vehicles. FY 2018 funding Funding slated for major shipbuilding and
requested is $674.4 million, up from $184.2 million in the FY 2017 request. maritime systems totals $30.4 billion
under the DoD FY 2018 acquisition fund-
The Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV) consists of the Palletized Load System ing request, an increase of $3.4 billion
(PLS) and the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT). The FY 2018 program over the FY 2017 request.
calls for funding the procurement of 621 FHTVs, as well as trailers to modernize the
heavy tactical vehicle fleet for the active, National Guard, and reserve units as well as The shipbuilding portfolio for FY 2018
to fill urgent theater requirements. FY 2018 funding requested is $118 million, up from includes funding for the construction
$57.1 million in the FY 2017 request. of 12 ships (two SSN 774 Virginia-class
nuclear attack submarines; one CVN 78
The M1A2 Abrams is the Army’s main battle tank, first entering service in 1980; it Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier; two
was produced from 1978 until 1994. Since then, the Army has modernized the M1A2 DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers;
with a series of upgrades to improve its capabilities, collectively known as the System one Littoral Combat Ship (LCS); one
Enhancement Package (SEP) and the Tank Urban Survival Kit (TUSK). The FY 2018 Fleet Replenishment Oiler; one Towing,
program funds the upgrade of 56 M1A1 vehicles, variants to the M1A2 SEP v3 Salvage, and Rescue [T-ATS(X)] ship;
variant. Also requested: Continued support of the engineering change proposal (ECP) one landing craft and three ship-to-
1A installation of M1A2SEP v3 production in FY 2018 as well as numerous approved shore connectors; and the second year
modifications to fielded M1A2 Abrams tanks, including the Ammunition Data Link (ADL) of incremental construction funding for
to enable firing of the Army’s new smart 120 mm ammunition, Low Profile Commander’s one amphibious assault ship, the USS
Remote Operating Weapon Station (CROWS), and Active Protection System. FY 2018 Bougainville (LHA 8). In addition, the
funding requested is $1.213 billion, up from $898.7 million in the FY 2017 request. FY 2018 request contains funding for
advance procurement to support detail
Stryker is a 19-ton wheeled armored vehicle that provides the Army with a family design activities and long-lead items
of 17 different vehicles (10 flat bottom and seven double V-hull). The FY 2018 pro- for the Columbia-class Fleet Ballistic
gram for the Stryker funds ECP 1 testing, ECP 2 lethality upgrades, and continued Missile Submarine (SSBN) and a long-
support of the application of multiple fleetwide modifications. Modifications address lead item for the refueling and complex

20 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 overhaul of USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). of ship systems. FY 2018 funding requested is $4.013 billion, up from $3.498 billion
Program highlights are below. in the FY 2017 request.

The CVN 78 Gerald R. Ford-class ships The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a small surface combatant capable of operations
will include new technologies and close to shore. The FY 2018 program funds construction of one LCS seaframe,
improvements to improve efficiency and outfitting, trainers, and development costs for a new class of small surface com-
operating costs as well as reduced crew batant. FY 2018 funding requested is $1.152 billion, down from $1.598 billion in the
requirements. These ships will be the FY 2017 request.
premier forward asset for crisis response
and early decisive striking power in a The Virginia-class submarine is a multimission, nuclear-powered attack submarine.
major combat operation. The FY 2018 The FY 2018 program calls for funding two ships as part of a multiyear procurement
program funds the first year of construc- contract, advance procurement for two ships in future years, and outfitting and sup-
tion costs for USS Enterprise (CVN 80); port equipment. It also continues funding the development of the Virginia Payload
the final year of construction costs for Module, technology, prototype components, and the systems engineering required
USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79); plus for design and construction. FY 2018 funding requested is $5.546 billion, up from
outfitting, training, and continued devel- $5.322 billion in the FY 2017 request.
opment of ship systems. FY 2018 fund-
ing requested is $4.638 billion, up from The Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine is designed to replace the current
$2.791 billion in the FY 2017 request. Ohio class of SSBN. The FY 2018 program funds advance procurement for long-lead
items, detail design, and research and development of nuclear technologies and
The DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class guided ship systems such as the propulsion system, combat systems technology, and the
missile destroyers provide a wide range of common missile compartment. FY 2018 funding requested is $1.884 billion, up from­
warfighting capabilities in multithreat air, $1.864 billion in the FY 2017 request.
surface, and subsurface environments.
The FY 2018 program calls for funding USS America-class ships are large-deck, amphibious assault ships designed to land
two Flight III DDG 51-class destroyers and support ground forces. The FY 2018 program continues construction funding
as part of a multiyear procurement for of LHA 8, outfitting costs, and continuing research and development efforts.
10 ships from FY 2018 to FY 2022, outfit- FY 2018 funding requested in this area is $1.748 billion, up from $1.648 billion in the
ting costs, and continued development FY 2017 request. MES

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www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 21

Mil Tech Trends
RUGGED COMPUTING

Videocentric
ISR missions
push rugged
computing
to the limits
By Mariana Iriarte, Associate Editor

The 721st Communications Squadron provides monitoring of the nation’s strategic missile-warning systems to
ensure a constant flow of key information. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force/Airman 1st Class Krystal Ardrey.

Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions put extreme performance demands on data servers,
as they struggle to contend with large amounts of video and data coming in while hewing to strict size, weight, and
power (SWaP) constraints. Even as SWaP dominates the conversation, though, designers are beginning to realize that
performance eclipses nearly everything else.

ISR missions are bringing in all kinds of a focus on size and weight, we’re not
actionable data, but not without pushing seeing such a focus on power anymore;
the high-power/high-performance what we are seeing is a strong push
servers to the limit. “Our military has towards performance. Our customers
the tremendous capability to gather are really, really, starting to push the
the world’s best intelligence, but the boundaries with technology and where
hardware and software applications that it’s going, therefore we need to have
really need to do this collection of infor- the highest-performance systems in the
mation in real time are really pushing field. This is really driven primarily by the
COTS [commercial off-the-shelf] prod-
ucts to the limits,” says Jason Wade,
president of ZMicro in San Diego.
need to gather some deep intelligence
out in the field.” › Figure 1 | Systel’s EB7001 is
rugged small-form-factor embedded
video capture system for intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR)
Performance means that the server needs applications. Photo courtesy of Systel.
SWaP: The P stands for performance to be able to handle video processing,
The commercial technology revolution data processing, storage, even live video marketing manager at Systel in Sugar
is undoubtedly affecting military tech- streaming, all of which needs to be in a Land, Texas. An example of the small form
nology, and the focus is definitely “SWaP, small package. “We are seeing more factor is Systel’s EB700 (Figure 1). “It’s a
SWaP, SWaP. How do you reduce size, and more small-form-factor embed­ded rugged high-performance small-form-
weight, and power?” Wade asks. “What systems for applications like on air- factor embedded system that provides
we’re seeing is that the SWaP acronym craft or Humvees, ground vehicles, and video processing, compute, encoding,
might still be valid but the definition has UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], where storage, and networking capabilities in a
completely changed. While there’s still space is an issue,” says Aneesh Kothari, single system,” Kothari says.

22 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 › Figure 2 | Crystal Group’ s rugged
embedded computer RE1312 features
6th-generation i7/ Broadwell-DE, Xeon-D
CPU technology. Photo courtesy of
Crystal Group.

The live video stream is not just in one

channel: “We have some airborne ISR
customers and what they’re doing
with their software is they’re pulling in
multiple video streams,” Wade says.
“They’re fusing this video. They’re fusing
data sources. They’re georegistering
data. They’re encoding, they’re decoding,
and then they’re starting the full exploi-
tation. There’s so much data that’s get-
ting processed and it’s such a priority to
get this data for good intelligence that
the software developers are now starting
to push the performance boundaries.”

Leveraging standards
The warfighter – looking to gain an
edge by streaming video and ­processing
Serving up multiple live video streams data in real time – is increasingly finding
With increased demand for more “eyes in the sky” to gather intelligence, “video is that open standards can ease the way.
playing a much more vital role and will continue to do so going forward,” Kothari says. “Increased display resolutions are driving
“What we really see is this push towards everything to be very videocentric. This leads the video processors to move more and
to managing increased data volume, bandwidth issues, and the challenge of being more data quickly,” says Steve Motter,
able to accurately and consistently stream live video feeds from various platforms in vice president of business develop-
the battlefield to command and control headquarters to then be able to make real- ment at display provider IEE in Van
time decisions.” Nuys, California. “The open standards
are driving video protocols at several
This push for a videocentric world brings latency issues. “It does no one any good levels. Within the devices, there are
if you have these video feeds streaming in and you’re not seeing the video till a few newer internal video standards, such
seconds after the fact,” Kothari says. “Therefore, you really have to minimize that as MIPI and eDP, that directly link the
latency, which is hard at high bandwidths and high resolution. “ silicon processor to the LCD row/column
driver circuits.”
In order to deliver that high resolution and capability in real time, companies are
taking a deep dive into the design process. “When they’re developing this software, Engineers are leveraging everything at
they’re not looking at, ‘How do we keep this power down?’ They’re not looking at their disposal to take this technology
the hardware limitations, what they’re really looking at is the limitations of technology to the next level. “Between embedded
that’s out there,” Wade explains. In response to this need for power, “they’re using computer products, we are seeing high-
high-end gamer GPUs [graphics processing units], the latest Intel CPUs [central pro- speed serial digital interfaces, such as
cessing units], the latest multicore processors.” SMPTE-292, become more common re-
placements for legacy video interfaces,”
There is a “significant interest in general-purpose processing and virtualization,” says Motter adds.
Jim Shaw, executive vice president at Crystal Group in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The reason
for this increase is because “the platforms that are in demand continue to push the They are also looking to fiber optics that
edge for CUDA cores or CPU cores. Much of the core cycles being expended focus enable better performance: “In the aero-
on analyzing large amounts of data or creating virtual machines to spin off processes space community, ARINC-818 is offering
for control or communication.” (Figure 2). high-speed serial on either copper or

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 23

Mil Tech Trends RUGGED COMPUTING

fiber optic, allowing for lightweight long advances, however, comes the reality of but at the end of the day, that’s our job,”
cable runs,” Motter adds. “Although increased thermal challenges and pack- Wade states.
not an open standard, GigE Vision may aging difficulties.”
make inroads for a switched, packet- Powerful CPUs and GPUs are certainly
based video transport. ARINC-661 is an Thermal challenges magnified posing a challenge: “From a core and
example of a mechanism to manipulate Designing in the latest technology means rackmounted server perspective, the
pre-ertified graphic display elements that engineers are pushing the thermal power dissipation per core continues
located in a display’s local library by a threshold in systems. For example, de- to drop; however, the core count per
remote user application.” signers at ZMicro are starting to “load CPU is increasing at a significant rate,”
in multicore CPUs ... I think we’re now Shaw says. “What used to be an eight-
GPUs and CPUs are also popular: “More selling 16-core Xeons dual-socketed,” to 12-core system dissipating 80 watts
and more we are seeing customers Wade says. is being replaced with silicon that has
wanting to integrate GPUs and higher- 24 cores, and is dumping 150 watts of
end CPUs within a closed environment, What does that mean for the engineer? heat into a socket. With a dual-socket
which bring thermal concerns to the It means 300 watts of CPU power to motherboard, this equates to 300 watts
forefront,” Kothari says. contend with. “Then we’re putting in that needs to be dissipated in 1U space.”
these high-end gamer GPUs, which adds
Ultimately, data is at the center of every- another 250 watts. Now with just CPU “As computing becomes more dense,
thing. “The latest Intel Xeon Skylake and GPUs, we’re pushing 550 watts of our engineers must think outside the
architectures are demonstrating excep- processing. It’s a serious engineering box to find ways to address thermal con-
tional advancements in state-of-the- challenge to figure out how to keep cerns,” Kothari notes. This also means
art computing,” Shaw adds. “With these those computers and those servers cool, working with the user during the design

Data security in the realm of servers

Hardware security is a relatively new arena: After all, no one the current server or system won’t be able to boot up. That’s
ever expected the adversary to able to hack into servers via kind of one of our approaches towards ensuring data security
a microcontroller or a line-replaceable unit (LRU). In the past, in the product line moving forward.”
hardware security for a server meant locking up all that valu- “Fortunately now there have been transitions and changes in
able data with an actual lock and key. technology that have self-encrypting drives, which are sup-
Interestingly enough one of ZMicro’s first product launches ported in all of our removable hard drives, but the idea behind
was “specifically for data security,” says Jason Wade, presi- it is there are industry groups that support various standards,”
dent of ZMicro in San Diego. “This was back in the ‘80s, so Wade says. “Opal 2.0 and self-encrypting drives are pretty
data security meant pulling it out of a computer and locking it much the standard in the industry right now to ensure that
in the safe at night.” data is encrypted as it’s written to disk.”
That method is still used today, but more sophisticated forms In addition, engineers at Systel “can design servers to the red/
of security are now available. “We manage data security black security enclave architecture with isolated domains to
through what comes on the SSDs [solid-state drives] we buy,” ensure security,” Kothari explains. “In effect, two separate
says Aneesh Kothari, marketing manager at Systel in Sugar computing systems are housed in the same enclosure with
Land, Texas. In fact, he adds, “Most commercial SSDs do not the utmost care taken to partition based on classification
offer any security. But the majority of industrial SSDs offer levels and prevent any information or signal leakage between
AES-256 encryption and/or zeroization (the ability to erase the two.”
sensitive information in the event the equipment is compro-
mised; FIPS 140-2 standard). In other words, we spec in the Many options exist to ensure security. Jim Shaw, executive
components that offer the appropriate security level that the vice president at Crystal Group in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says
customer requires.” that “Most server-class architectures come with the capa-
bility to add Trusted Platform Modules (TPM), which provides
Hardware security is not an easy fix, so “From a mechanical a dedicated microcontroller designed to secure hardware by
perspective, we provide locking mechanisms on the must- integrating cryptographic keys into the motherboard system.”
have removable hard drives and have even installed ‘locking Crystal Group offers products that “also provide the capability
bars’ over some hard-drive carriers,” Kothari adds. to secure erase drives by selecting FIPS-compatible drives
Moving forward, some industry experts are adjusting to meet and enable line options. Customizing the I/O with mil-spec
a user’s security requirements. “In our upcoming products, circular connectors and limiting intrusion points is one of the
we have the capabilities for users to support embedded elec- most useful approaches to limiting unwanted access to a net-
tronic serial numbers, so that way they can create their own worked server. Beyond these options, tamper-proof screws
security protocols,” Wade states. The beauty of this method and chassis-intrusion monitors are reasonable hardware
is that “Hard drives that aren’t authorized to be connected to methods of maintaining a secure server system.”

24 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

process in order to “marry the customer Additionally, these ‘microappliances’ could be connected to everything important to
requirements with power budgeting, a particular user via connections integrated on a single piece of silicon.”
package size, and environmental condi-
tions to determine the optimal thermal These advancements in technology, while the military user may not initially relate to
solution.” them, “are really going to accelerate the implementation of machine learning and arti-
ficial intelligence into industries across the world, and of course the military is going
Servers are carrying quite a load. Miti­ to be all over this technology and this capability,” Wade asserts.
gating the heat necessitates different
methods that include thermal modeling. For the next phase to begin, rugged computers will have to “support the high-end
“There’s heatsinking the heat pipes. computation that’s needed to support emerging technology,” Wade adds. “There
There’s making sure that there’s plenty will be systems that are not going to be the traditional CPU with PCI card expansion
of exhaust and evacuation,” Wade says. and storage. It’s going to be systems that are more architected around heteroge-
“At the end of the day, we consider it neous computing, so you’ll see FPGAs [field-programmable gate arrays], you’ll see
always a high-risk item, and so we track GPUs, you’ll see CPUs all working in concert, load-sharing, balancing the different
that through our design process. It’s just computing requirements to take advantage of the high-end parallel processing
a combination of prudent thermal mod- that’s needed.” MES
eling in design. It’s verification testing for
the various components after the proto-
type is built. And then it’s the qualification
to make sure at the end of the day that
the system does perform.” SWa P
As industry experts try to satisfy users’
requirements, “it’s a design challenge,”
Wade states simply. “It’s an engineering
risk; we need to understand what tried-
and-true techniques are used to mitigate
the thermals.”

The next phase of development

Department of Defense (DoD) offi-
cials have been preaching their SWaP
mantra for years, so much so that
SWaP-optimized embedded servers are Great Things Do Come
the future for the military, Kothari says. In Small Packages The ARCX rugged mission computer
“Modern warfighter applications will offers great flexibility to meet ever-
▪ 4 Gen Intel Core i7 Haswell CPU
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SWaP requirements continue to drive the
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computing, but technology doesn’t stand ▪ Counter/Timer
▪ PMC/XMC expansion
still and trying to figure out what’s next ▪ Serial Communication
for rugged computing is an exciting chal- ▪ SWaP-optimized
▪ Multifunction I/O
lenge. “Where we’re at right now? We’re
kind of in that next phase of technology ▪ Advanced thermal management ▪ 10-Gigabit Ethernet
where the next major technology disrup- ▪ Optional removable solid state drives
tion is self-driving cars,” Wade says. with RAID support
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www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 25

Mil Tech Trends
RUGGED COMPUTING

Performance
increases still
needed for full
adoption of
mobile rugged
computing for
military use
By Mariana Iriarte, Associate Editor

The crew for an RQ-4 Global Hawk is shown using mobile-computing technology to review technical orders and
prepare the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for launch. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Force/Staff Sgt. Bennie J. Davis III.

The constant drive forward in These types of capabilities are what military users are looking for “in their rugged mobile
commercial technology is also driving devices,” Motter adds. “The innovations and advances achieved in the ­consumer
space are tremendous; we should similarly enable and equip warfighters. We should
military-computing technology to
build a framework [in the industry] that rewards invention.”
new heights. As this progress occurs,
mobile computing is becoming more Commercial offerings are still beyond anything the warfighter can experience today,
relevant to the warfighter, while at the however. “Tablets continue to be constrained by battery power, thermal limitations,
and an insatiable demand for more processing,” points out Jim Shaw, executive vice
same time posing huge challenges
president of engineering at Crystal Group in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. With an increase in the
for designers and engineers. Even use of smaller computing devices, and as more battlefield applications get deployed on
as engineers deal with shrinking tablet-like devices, Shaw says, “processing demand increases accordingly.”
size and weight requirements,
At the core of what will drive the true adoption of mobile laptops and tablets in the
performance is still a big issue that
field: raw performance capabilities. “The designer (and the customer that selects the
mobile computing doesn’t quite appropriate device) is challenged to select a device with the maximum performance
answer for military use. (processing speed, connectivity, display, and peripheral, etc.), while still low-power
enough that the device will operate (in the rugged environment) long enough to
achieve the mission parameters,” Motter explains. “There should also be adequate
“Today’s soldiers and military personnel reserves to handle contingencies and unexpected emergencies, often encountered in
have device performance and operation the dynamic fielded operation.”
expectations set by the latest tablet and
smartphone devices,” says Steve Motter, “While rugged tablets are becoming more and more powerful, they are of course still
vice president of business development not able to process as much information as a traditional server (Intel Core CPUs versus
at display provider IEE in Van Nuys, Xeon, for example),” adds Aneesh Kothari, marketing manager at Systel in Sugar
California. “Extremely high-resolution Land, Texas. “That being said, tablets are still able to perform many of the same tasks
touchscreens (beyond full HD) are com- at a much lower price point. Between pricing and much smaller footprints, rugged
monplace [in consumer applications], mobile solutions are extremely attractive for the military.”
with interoperable applications, com-
mon user interfaces, and dependency Traditional servers were not designed to run on batteries, explains Jason Wade,
on networked information” ­president of ZMicro in San Diego. In addition, “the power requirements or the power

26 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 is driving toward smaller, lighter-weight devices that are truly portable,” Motter says.
“With most of the weight allocation given to the battery, the thermal design of the
device depends on careful material selection. The enclosure requires a combination
of molded lightweight materials and selective application with high thermal-conduc-
tive materials. Electrical shielding and EMI/EMC ­compliance remains a requirement,
driving the designer to select deposition techniques for applying conductive materials
within the housing.”

That still doesn’t change the reality that “the processing isn’t necessarily going to be
taking place on the mobile-computing solution, just because there is such high-end,
backend server processing that’s still required for collecting the data, analyzing the
data, and distributing the data,” Wade clarifies. “I think it’s kind of a synergistic role
between the two platforms, the mobile and the server platform. I think that as the
power of mobile computing goes up, so will the backend processing that will feed that
information out to the server. There’s a pretty dramatic difference.”

What end users are currently seeing is “several key manufacturers that are producing
families of multicore processors around scaled performance; from the extreme
low-power ARM processors, to midrange power Atom x86 devices, to the latest-­
generation i7 workhorses,” Motter explains. “In the rugged embedded space, there
are wide-temperature-range, controlled- (lower) power variants of each of these that
lend themselves nicely to rugged embedded mobile computing.”

Wade says he thinks that talking about mobile computing in the same terms as tradi-
tional servers is a little bit premature: The benefits that tablets and laptops bring to the

› Figure 1 | IEE’s 3.5-inch handheld

control display unit (CDU) with embedded
processor hardware implementation.
Photo courtesy of IEE.
warfighter are just out of reach, but, he says, “there’s no doubt that as the warfighter
becomes more mobile and the capabilities of technology provide more information,
that will bring the increase in the use of mobile computing in the field.” MES

limitations aren’t an issue for servers so

much, versus power requirements for
mobile computing.”
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www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 27

Mil Tech Trends
RUGGED COMPUTING

Integrated panel
PC solves many
challenges in
limited-space
battlefield
applications
By Chris Ciufo

Saving space in cramped ground

vehicles is as “simple” as combining
computers and displays into one
chassis – once the new system
challenges that arise are managed.

The interior of this Stryker armored vehicle appears to have loads of space, but vetronics computer chassis are
stuffed into every cranny, including panel PCs and displays. Other Stryker variants have human-machine interfaces (HMIs)
on either side for squad and commander use. (Image courtesy of Wiki Commons; used under open source license.)

The modern battlefield depends on equipment that enhances the vehicle’s battlefield utility and interoperability versus
computers on the move. While the prac- that equipment taking up space at the expense of personnel comfort and amount of
tice of embedding a range of rugged crew and gear that can be carried?
computers into military vehicles is well-
established, the human-machine inter- Reducing individual chassis size is an option for freeing up space. Another is com-
face (HMI) for these systems presents bining more functions into each box to reduce the total number of vetronics chassis.
new challenges, especially with the need Taken even further, since the HMI must remain – it can’t be eliminated – why not move
for real-time, high-definition video. A a whole vetronics box inside the HMI itself?
vehicle such as a Stryker personnel car-
rier, for instance, may contain multiple A panel-PC-style “smart display” that integrates a vetronics chassis and computer
systems for communications, weapons subsystem and display into a single, rugged, application-tailored form factor is an
control, identification friend or foe (IFF), ideal option for these mobile applications. These smart displays can reduce the total
battlefield mapping, inertial navigation, space required for separate computer and display, and can be networked so that a
and more, and many of those systems single smart display interfaces with multiple systems.
require a display as part of the human-
machine interface. In Figure 1, the General Micro Systems architecture shows one or more computers
feeding purpose-built HMIs. Merely integrating each HMI’s computer into the display
The Stryker appears to have more inte- chassis itself will free up space in the vehicle, but that move changes a few things:
rior room than a Humvee, mine-resistant We’ve moved some of the heat load from a separate box into the display, created
ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle, or some new HMI mounting challenges to remove that heat, and possibly wreaked havoc
Apache cockpit to incorporate all those with the cabling.
systems, but that space fills up quickly.
Moreover, while rugged embedded com- The upshot is that while an integrated panel PC will free up space, the designer needs
puters can be tucked into every available to pay attention to these three challenges:
nook and cranny, the HMI displays to
interact with them must be easily acces- ›› HMI heat dissipation
sible by onboard personnel. Yet what’s ›› HMI mounting for cabling and usability
the tradeoff between more computer ›› Video or local-area network (LAN) integration between multiple or “slave” displays

28 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 › Figure 1 | General Micro Systems photo of a typical ground vehicle architecture with
commander’s display and mission processor, plus one or more crew displays and associated
computers (such as for navigation and IFF).

› Figure 2 | This modular smart display from General Micro Systems offers flexible mounting
options and conduction cooling, and allows a single display to support multiple computer
systems, or to daisy-chain to other smart displays.

heat to a minimum. At the same time, the display must be designed to be as thin as
Integrated computer and display possible to reduce its footprint – there’s no room inside a vehicle for a display that is
bring new heat-dissipation challenges five inches thick due to a bulky heatsink.
Soldiers commonly refer to computers
in vehicles as “personnel heaters.” For An ideal approach to cooling the whole HMI starts at the hottest point: the CPU and/or
missions in snowy areas, that warmth video processor. Here, a high-efficiency conduction heat sink can be used that’s com-
might be appreciated, but recent wars posed of a corrugated alloy slug with an extremely low thermal resistance. This acts as
are primarily being fought in deserts; a heat spreader at the processor die (see Figure 2). Once the heat is spread over a large
the last thing warfighters need are addi- area, a liquid silver compound in a sealed chamber transfers the heat from the spreader
tional heat sources inside the confined to the systems’ enclosure. This approach yields a temperature delta of less than 10 °C
spaces of military vehicles. This reality from the CPU core to the cold plate, compared with more than 25 °C for typical systems.
means that convection cooling is a non- In this manner, the increased heat load of the computer plus HMI is quickly conducted
starter. Fans would simply blow hot air to the vehicle’s cold plate, while keeping the whole HMI extremely thin.
into the vehicle and grit and dust into
the computer, making these mechanical Another advantage of this hot-spot approach is the effect on shock and vibration.
elements a source of discomfort for sol- Because the CPU die does not make direct contact with the system enclosure, but
diers and a significant point of failure for rather connects via a liquid silver chamber, that acts as a shock absorber that saves
the embedded computer. the processor from microfractures that can cause failure.

Integrated smart displays, therefore, Mounting options require flexible, customizable design
must use conduction cooling, which can Computer systems inside military vehicles often require creative mounting options to
still dump hundreds of watts of heat onto make the best use of limited space for equipment and personnel. While embedded
the “cold plate” – the metal shell of the computers can be tucked out of the way, the challenge for displays is mounting them
vehicle. That will still eventually heat the with appropriate viewing capability for operators to manage weapons control, mon-
interior, so smart displays – which now itor maps, examine video, and more.
include a full-featured vetronics com-
puter such as a mission processor – must Smart displays can be bulkhead-mounted (cut into the vehicle’s wall) or surface-mounted
also use highly efficient design and low- on the wall; can fold down from a ceiling mount; or can be installed on a swing arm. Each
power electronics to keep dissipated of these options requires a different cable output location – out the back, from the top

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 29

Mil Tech Trends RUGGED COMPUTING

or bottom, or right or left side. A modular design approach to the smart display enables This standard enables video to be
the cable location to be easily adapted to any configuration requirement. routed to multiple displays within a
vehicle – or from a camera outside the
Consumer video interfaces not up to the task vehicle to the display – without running
Cables present additional challenges, however. Even though a vehicle is a relatively additional cables between systems. A
small area, displays and the systems they are connected to may not be mounted setup using an integrated smart display
close together. In some applications, an operator may need to share information with and network server is also possible,
another operator’s screen. For instance, if one operator receives thermal imaging or which would provide a backbone for
moving map data from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over the battlefield, the digital switching of video data from a
operator may need to share that information with a gunner or tactical platoon leader central, compact workstation.
located on the other side of the vehicle.
Another way to route video between
Cabling may need to snake as much as 20 feet around the inside of the vehicle perim- master and slave displays is by daisy-chain
eter rather than taking the shortest distance. Video quality breaks down over these method; however, most civilian commer-
long distances using typical video interfaces such as HDMI or DisplayPort. Another cial off-the-shelf (COTS) video standards
factor: The electromagnet interference (EMI) from the vehicle’s engine and alternator are not up to the task. Fortunately, the
can also affect performance, which can hamper the safety and efficiency of the soldiers Society of Motion Picture and Television
in the vehicle. Engineers (SMPTE) has developed high-
performance standards for long cable
One way to deliver video is digitally over a LAN. For some implementations, a single runs. High-definition serial digital inter-
display can provide the interface for multiple computer systems. Packetized video is face (HD-SDI) is standardized in SMPTE
efficient and can be delivered over long runs using video protocols as long as each 292M, which supports uncompressed
HMI includes 1 GbE or 10 GbE [Gigabit Ethernet] network interfaces up to the task. video streams at full high-definition rates
that can run over hundreds of meters
GigE Vision is a high-performance interface standard designed for industrial cameras with no quality degradation. These
that transmits high-speed video and related control data over Ethernet networks. cables can also be used to connect cam-
eras outside the vehicle to computers
and displays inside, or to daisy-chain

High-end processing platforms

computers and displays as needed.

Smart design for smart displays

The human-machine interface is a tradi-
tional challenge in demanding, space-
constrained environments, but with the
right design approach, an integrated
rugged display and computer makes
mobile battlefield applications viable
and reliable. MES

Chris A. Ciufo,
the CTO of General
Micro Systems, is a
Stay ahead with veteran of more than
IC proven solutions three decades of the
embedded systems
and semiconductor
Embedded SBCs based on the latest Intel® industries. Ciufo brings extensive
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to secure your critical computing application needs. program offices and prime contractors
for M1A2 and M2A3 (Army), F14D
(Navy), AAAV (USMC), and B-2 (USAF).
Ciufo holds degrees in electrical
engineering and materials science
www.interfaceconcept.com from the University of California.
Please contact Elma Electronic Inc. for further information on these products
www.elma.com • [email protected] • 510-656-3400 General Micro Systems
www.gms4sbc.com

30 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

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Industry Spotlight
CYBERWARFARE TECHNOLOGY

Cyberwarfare:
A “Wild West”
of nonkinetic
weaponry
By Sally Cole, Senior Editor

Cyberwarfare is akin to “a guerrilla

warfare domain,” where attackers
hide behind proxies to maintain a
level of plausible and diplomatic
deniability.

The term cyberwarfare is so ambig- command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and recon-
uous – a solid definition that everyone naissance (C4ISR) in military operations.”
can agree on remains elusive – and there
is certainly no accepted set of rules to “Wild West” in terms of lack of rules and laws
follow ... yet. So far, no treaty provisions deal specifically with cyberwarfare. “NATO produced the
Tallinn Manual in an attempt to provide direction and guidance, but it’s a nonbinding
It tends to focus on “intentionally break- study,” points out Neil Haskins, general manager, Middle East, for IOActive.
ing or damaging the software that a
critical system depends on to function so Once you begin developing capabilities that fit the description of a cyberweapon, “it
that it’s no longer functional or capable must meet guidelines that we as a nation agree are appropriate – the weapon needs
of carrying out its intended use,” says Bill to be legal and not indiscriminately kill or cause civilian populations undue harm,”
Leigher, director of Raytheon’s govern- Leigher says. “It must be possible to responsibly control it, and a commander who
ment cybersecurity solutions business uses it needs to have an understanding of the limits of its power and what really hap-
and a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral. pens once they use it in a combat situation. This starts to define the nature of cyber-
Cyber and other nonkinetic capabilities weapons, and I think it needs to meet the same standards the International Law of War
“are an emerging class of weapons that demands. But we’re not really there from in a mature way from a cyber perspective.”
will eventually mature and make their
way into the arsenals of commanders.” Cyberwarfare is evolving in a variety of intriguing ways. It used to be “nation-states
squaring off against other nation-states with their own hacking teams,” says Dennis
These noncombat attacks are used to Moreau, senior engineering architect, networking and security, for VMware. “That’s
“deny, deter, disrupt, or delay elec- not what we’re seeing now. Cyberwarfare is being conducted in more of a guerrilla
tronic communications of infrastructure, warfare domain where attackers use proxies to maintain a level of plausible and dip-
public confidence, or military technolo- lomatic deniability. But the victim is clearly a national interest, and we’re seeing these
gies used to support combat opera- attacks across the very broad spectrum of their interests. Attackers are using every bit
tions,” explains Bryan Singer, director of the technical sophistication developed by nation-states, including the U.S.”
of Industrial Cybersecurity Services for
security firm IOActive. “The intent of Deniability extends “not just to the malactors but also to the targets. For example, the
these cyber operations is to enhance attack on the Democratic National Committee, which the U.S. maintains didn’t reach
the ‘fog of war’ against enemy nation the level of being cyberwarfare,” Moreau points out. “Yet, right now NATO is wrestling
states to impede their ability to support with the question: Does a cyberattack against critical infrastructure trigger Article 5

32 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

in a joint defense sort of response? This seeing right now is proof-of-concept tests,” Moreau says. “It’s not so much large
is a conversation about the definition of superpowers throwing cyberweapons at each other so much as smaller and emerging
cyberwarfare – in terms of what’s consid- or independent states that don’t necessarily have the power to respond to attacks.
ered to be an ‘act’ and what it means for We’re seeing a ‘toe dipping in the water’ in some broad sense.”
policy – being discussed at the highest
levels. So far it’s in flux as to where the In Ukraine, attackers have gone after the media infrastructure, power grid, financial
lines are.” institutions, and quite possibly many other things. “A clearer picture will begin to
emerge as more of the forensic aftermaths become visible,” Moreau says. “If you
What’s crystal clear, Moreau says, is that look at the information warfare associated with the cultivation of extremism, it’s being
it’s no longer the case that only nation- used as a proxy for a level of international policy expression or ‘rage.’ There’s no clear
states use advanced persistent threats boundary – the targeted infrastructure and capabilities are becoming more diverse.
(APTs) and go only after direct national We’ve seen everything from intellectual property theft to the attempt to close the
military assets. “Cyberwarfare includes arms gap by stealing R&D [research and development] and operational and testing
critical infrastructure, decision making, information. But we’ve also seen direct attempts to disrupt operational activities to
and population influence. In a broad interfere with signals intelligence, control systems, satellites, and all of the communi-
sense, nothing is off the table,” he adds. cations infrastructure.”

Not quite so clear is what exactly the The availability of “very high-end exploits and techniques” that don’t require the users
U.S. is capable of in terms of cyber- to be rocket scientists are enabling record-setting attacks such as “a 600-Gbit DDoS
warfare, because “very few people carried out by leveraging compromised webcams,” Moreau notes. “Sophisticated
on the planet have accurate, detailed malware becomes a tool that can be used without much capital investment or infra-
information about the true adversarial structure, which effectively levels the playing field in terms of who can inflict devas-
digital capabilities of the U.S.,” says tating levels of disruption.”
Brad Hegrat, practice director, Advisory
Services, for IOActive. Cyberwarfare tends to be a “passive-aggressive style of conflict,” according to Hegrat.
“It’s equally suited to the removal of the enemy’s desire and ability for conflict. The
Cyberwarfare targets aggressor in any scenario may have many goals and, like many nuanced campaigns,
What’s being targeted with cyberwar- multiple fronts. On the ‘desire’ front, the focus would likely be on digital targets with
fare? Ukraine seems to be providing the greatest physical and psychological impact. Attacks that disrupt people’s lives
a clear example of how things might could range from catastrophic – power, water and wastewater, communications, and
play out, Moreau points out. “Since banking – to inconvenient.”
2015, with the efforts of BlackEnergy
and TeleBots, we’ve seen distributed From a military standpoint, there is “little to no impact for operations across this spec-
denial of service (DDoS) attacks front trum,” Hegrat says. “This speaks to the ‘ability’ front. To deny an enemy the ability to
and center there for denial of services wage conflict, targeting must focus on that enemy’s digital backbone. For example,
of all sorts,” he says. “We expect to see the U.S. intelligence community refers to its own backbone as C4ISR capabilities. In
information theft, especially logistical targeting adversaries, removing the ability to engage in conflict doesn’t always need
and deployment information directly to be kinetic; the use of the cyber battlespace to deny adversarial use of its own C4ISR
related to the military. But also expect to capabilities is the ideal use of this front.”
see more strategic attacks, discovering
and closing arms gaps, understanding Cyberwarfare attacks
defense posture, and strategic planning The types of cyberwarfare attacks launched depend largely upon targets and objectives.
sorts of attacks.”
Haskins categorizes them as advanced disruptive attack vectors. “If the aim is sabo-
Even more so, expect “disinformation tage, for example, it could be something like targeting the opposition’s ability to
attacks to influence decision making by generate power through a malware-based attack or disrupting normal function of a
corrupting the intelligence or creating vital government or financial website with a DDOS attack. Alternatively, if the objec-
‘intelligence fog.’ In Ukraine, we’re see- tive is espionage, the acquisition and exfiltration of an opposition’s tactical or strategic
ing a complex broad-sweeping stroke information – such as troop movements – could be the result of sustained phishing,
that is the difference between the clas- social engineering, or malware-enabled attacks.”
sical view of cyberwarfare and what we’re
seeing today,” Moreau continues. “I think The “sky is the limit” for attacks, adds Singer, although he doesn’t dismiss sky-based
we’ll see that full spectrum form of war- threats, which are all too real. “Low-intensity conflict or noncombat operations will
fare – well beyond just turning off lights likely see attacks ranging from low-order denial-of-service (DoS) and psychological
or interfering with the national gas.” operations (PSYOPS) to harassing infrastructure, such as events that have occurred
in Ukraine. Combat operations could see similar attacks as well, ranging up to elec-
Not surprisingly, targets are continuing tromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats from ballistic missiles to pre-positioned satellites in
to expand. “In a lot of ways, what we’re space,” he says.

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 33

Industry Spotlight CYBERWARFARE TECHNOLOGY

What kinds of cyberwarfare might we see? The types of things Leigher worries
Some attacks will be blatantly obvious, but many are often stealthy and never about in this scenario include being
acknowledged. able to do “the targeting that allows me
access to a processor in an adversary’s
In a war scenario, if you wanted to go after the U.S. banking structure, “you could aviation squadron maintenance shop so
figure out where a bank’s primary data centers are, for example, and lurk off the coast that when the next aircraft is connected
of the U.S. and launch a cruise missile to target and destroy them,” Leigher notes. “Or to its maintenance console malware
you could do the same thing with cybertargets much more subtly by learning how to gets uploaded,” he says. “The next time
get access to their network and taking control of the facility by either subverting its or 15th time it flies, the pilot will get a
software or causing things to happen within the computing system that will flat-out warning that causes them to question
break the computers. When you’re at war with a nation, we need to acknowledge that the material condition of their aircraft so
these two actions are fundamentally equivalent.” they can’t fly it anymore. Or malware that
targets the engineering plant on a ship,
because if a ship can’t make electricity
its combat systems won’t work. The ship
may go through the water, but it won’t
be an effective warfighting platform.”

Speaking of targeting warships, when we

recently saw a container ship smash into
the U.S.S. Fitzgerald, an Arleigh Burke-
class destroyer within the U.S. Navy, it
prompted the question: Is it possible to
hack and hijack a container ship? While
no one is publicly suggesting that’s what
occurred, it is indeed possible. (Figure 1.)

“There’s a wealth of satcom and GPS

research that suggests shipborne telem-
etry and control assets are vulnerable
to remote compromise and hijacking,
so these types of attacks are absolutely
possible,” Hegrat says. “But in a wartime
scenario, a container ship is unlikely to
be able to get within a few thousand
feet of a combat vessel before it would
be attacked, disabled, and likely sunk
based on wartime rules of engagement.”

Moreau concurs that this sort of attack

is entirely possible. “The underlying
systems – navigation, tactical steering,
broadscale GPS – can all be interfered
with and we’ve seen attempts to inter-
fere with them,” he elaborates. “Our
most recent revision of the GPS system
is intended to cultivate more resilience
in our geopositioning and navigation
capabilities, as well as to be more resis-
tant to attacks on satellite infrastruc-
ture and those sorts of things. As we
move to more autonomous and assisted
technologies, we need to worry about
interference with the underlying infor-
mation systems. The right response is
to make them more resilient by design –
assuming that something can go wrong

34 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

or be compromised and have the design
and forethought in place to be able
to confirm independently that things
are doing what we intend them to do,
as compared to what they’re demon-
strating as automated behavior.”

Protecting U.S. infrastructure and

military assets
One glaring difference between pro-
tecting U.S. infrastructure and military
assets is control and responsibility. “The
U.S. government handles both for the
military, which means that maintenance,
response, and protection are all under the
purview of a single well-funded entity,”
points out Hegrat. “But the vast majority
of U.S. critical infrastructure is owned
by individual corporations with differing
goals, business drivers, operational
responsibilities, budgets, constituents,
and customers, which are only influenced
by the market and regulation.”

Perhaps the biggest chink in our armor

› Figure 1 | The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62)
returns to Fleet Activities (FLEACT) Yokosuka following a collision with a merchant vessel while
operating southwest of Yokosuka, Japan. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist
1st Class Peter Burghart.
is that the U.S. has assets that have
been around a very long time, with “Any cybersecurity person will tell you that the only 100 percent impervious system
embedded technology that has a long is one that isn’t turned on,” Leigher says. “Even with our best cybersecurity, penetra-
life cycle, some based on outdated and tions can occur.”
unsupported technologies, Moreau says.
“These were designed before the current Attackers will “find ways to access the industrial-control systems and software that
threat profiles were known, so they don’t run our power plants, financial systems, and our lines of communications to aircraft,
necessarily have the right kinds of hard- ships, and roads,” Leigher continues. “Everything is connected, so how do we think
ening or protection and can get compro- about protecting these systems in an IoT environment? What are critical infrastructure
mised when adversaries go after critical capabilities, and what’s the relationship between the network and the basic things
infrastructure. So the biggest concern is connected to the network? How can they be made more resilient? It’s all about the
the legacy footprint of older technologies resiliency of the system and the ability to withstand an attack.”
and their embedded vulnerabilities.”
Software isn’t perfect and it isn’t likely to ever be perfect, so “the focus should be on
There are current legislative initiatives system resiliency, which is the idea that we can design systems capable of tolerating
aimed at making headway within this attacks and continuing to operate with integrity,” Moreau says. “For example, this
realm, including the work under the might leverage the ability to detect when something’s acting anomalously and, in
Modernizing Government Technology response, reprovision or correct it from trustworthy sources. Cloud-platform opera-
Act of 2017, which is largely focused tors do this to maintain services when they see an important service start using
on the basics of leveraging hosting and memory or resources differently … they simply reprovision it. It’s a compelling form
eliminating unsupportable platforms. of resilience.”

System resilience The idea of system resilience needs to become a first-class part of software design,
One way to protect U.S. infrastructure right up there with performance, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, Moreau says.
and military assets is by focusing on “It doesn’t happen by accident,” he adds. “It happens by intention and focused
system resilience. Much of the cyber­ action, so we need to cultivate a development culture that embraces resilience. The
security discussion today centers on pro- good news is that emerging technologies are creating the opportunity to do just
tecting networks, smarter passwords, that. Software-designed infrastructure, application/service blueprints, containers,
better firewalls, and technical things, as and API [application program interface] brokering, virtualized security techno-
Leigher points out, but we’re not dis- logies, distributed scalable analytics, and granular instrumentation all are enablers
cussing the systems that are connected of simpler, more effective security that’s ‘designed in’ rather than ‘bolted on’ after
to our networks enough. the fact.” MES

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 35

Industry Spotlight
CYBERWARFARE TECHNOLOGY

Establishing
a root of trust:
Trusted computing
and Intel-based
systems
By Steve Edwards

Advanced weapons systems – like that in the F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft – rely on complex software that is
constantly vulnerable to cyberattacks. In this photo, a U.S. F-16 Fighting Falcon flies towards Rimini, Italy, to join
the Italian air force on a training mission. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dave Ahlschwede.

In the global defense-electronics market there is a growing demand for trusted computing solutions that carry
effective protections against cyberattacks. Users want to be confident that when they power up their deployed embedded
system, the code that their system is running can be trusted. In this sense,“trusted” means that the system is running only
the software code that the system integrator intends it to, and that no other code – malicious or otherwise – has been
added to it.

Unfortunately, it takes almost no effort on a URL link to inadvertently install malicious code into a computer’s BIOS – the mali-
to think of recent examples where cor- cious code then essentially owns that infected system. The threat is real and demands
rupted code has caused great harm to a proactive response.
computing systems around the world.
One potent example is the WannaCry Embedded defense systems are also vulnerable to cyberattacks. In 2015, the U.S. Air
ransomware worm unleashed in May Force Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) conducted a study on “Cyber Vulnerabilities of
2017 that wreaked havoc on thousands Embedded Systems on Air and Space Systems” and concluded that “there is a broad-
of computers by encrypting their data. In based set of immediate actions that can significantly mitigate embedded system cyber
just one day, WannaCry infected 230,000 risk.” Moreover, a 2015 RAND Corp. report on “Cybersecurity of Air Force Weapon
systems in 150 countries. According Systems” concluded that cyber capabilities “create potential opportunities – and
to the FBI, ransomware is the fastest incentives – for adversaries to counter U.S. advantages through cyberattacks.” To
growing malware threat, targeting users counter the cyberthreat in its weapons systems, the U.S. Air Force established the
of all types – from the home user to the Cyber Resiliency Office for Weapons Systems (CROWS), which has the task of sup-
corporate network. On average, says the porting the design, development, and acquisition of weapons systems that are more
FBI, more than 4,000 ransomware attacks resilient to cyberattack.
have occurred daily since January 1, 2016,
a 300 percent increase over the approxi- A foundational concept in cybersecurity, and the starting point for the right response,
mately 1,000 attacks per day seen is the hardware root of trust (RoT). Such components establish trusted functions, based
in 2015. It only takes one innocent click on hardware validation of the boot process, that ensure that the device’s operating

36 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 THERE ARE A VARIETY OF APPROACHES AVAILABLE

FOR SYSTEM DESIGNERS TO SELECT AND MIX OR MATCH

TO ESTABLISH A TRUSTED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT.

SOME OF THESE APPROACHES ARE MORE SECURE

THAN OTHERS.

system is being started up with uncor-

rupted code; these functions are located
in hardware so they can’t be changed.
Protecting embedded systems against
cyberattacks must start with the very first
instruction a processor executes.

There are a variety of approaches avail-

able for system designers to select and
mix or match to establish a trusted
computing environment. Some of these
approaches are more secure than others.

For Intel-based embedded hardware,

two important weapons in the system
designer’s trusted computing arsenal
are Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology
(TXT) and Boot Guard. With TXT, after
the code begins executing, the system
inspects and “measures” the executed
code, comparing it to what would be
expected if every piece of code is as
it should be. TXT provides hardware-
based security technologies, built into
Intel’s silicon and a device called the
trusted platform module (TPM), that
harden a platform against attacks to

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 37

Industry Spotlight CYBERWARFARE TECHNOLOGY

the hypervisor, operating system, or BIOS; malicious root kit installations; and other launch policy, the decision to continue to
software-based attacks. run is made with the full knowledge that
the system is no longer trusted.
Intel TXT creates a cryptographic hash (a “measurement” in Intel terminology) of
­critical BIOS components and compares them to a known good measurement. TXT Boot Guard works in a complementary
provides hardware-based enforcement mechanisms to block the launch of any code fashion to TXT. Intel describes Boot
that does not match approved code. This trust can then be extended all the way Guard as “hardware-based boot integ-
through the boot loader and into the operating system. Any error in the code will be rity protection that prevents unauthor-
detected and addressed according to the launch control policy (LCP) established by the ized software and malware takeover of
user. Because TXT provides the system integrator with a launch control policy, a notifi- boot blocks critical to a system’s func-
cation of corrupted code can have different consequences. After being informed that tion.” Boot Guard is a hardware trust
the system has been modified and is no longer trusted, the user can choose to either system that inspects an initial boot
continue to run or to shut down. If the system integrator has established an “open” block, which runs prior to the BIOS, and
ensures that it is trusted before allowing
a boot to occur.

Both TXT and Boot Guard are valuable

tools for establishing RoT in Intel-based
embedded systems and are important
elements of a comprehensive trusted
computing solution. Designers of em-
bedded commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
hardware and systems remain informed
and knowledgeable about the latest
options for protecting their hardware and
data from malicious attack or intrusion.

COTS products are now available that

include designed-in security features that
enable users to quickly and economically
implement their protection plans for crit-
ical technology and data. Such secure
products enable designers and users
to begin their system development on
standard COTS hardware and software
and then move to a secure, 100 percent
­software- and performance-compatible
version of the product when they are
ready to implement their program pro-
tection requirements. (Figure 1.)

Deployed embedded military systems

run applications that may contain critical
program information (CPI), which – if
compromised – could lead to a loss of
competitive advantage to the U.S. mili-
tary and put the warfighter in danger.
Defense electronics designers and users
need to know that their application
code is secure, and that their valuable
software intellectual property (IP), such
as algorithms for intelligence, surveil-
lance, and reconnaissance (ISR), can’t
be accessed or corrupted by an adver-
sary. Trusted computing techniques
should go beyond protecting hardware
at the module and chassis level; trusted

38 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

 BIOS will cause no harm. The first step is
to establish the root of trust. MES

Steve Edwards is
Director, Secure
Embedded
Solutions, for
Curtiss-Wright
Defense Solutions.
Steve joined the
company in 1998 in the position of
senior hardware engineer, and has since
held numerous leadership positions
including CTO for Curtiss-Wright

› Figure 1 | Intel’s 7th Generation Core processor used on select Curtiss-Wright rugged SBCs
supports TXT and Boot Guard. Image courtesy Curtiss-Wright.

computing must also provide a comprehensive approach to data protection that

Controls Embedded Computing,
technical product lead, and product
development manager. He was also
enables data to be securely stored, retrieved, and moved in a system while allowing responsible for the development
only authorized access. This level of trust may require secure network routers for data of the company’s first FPGA-based
in motion solutions as well as secure storage for data at rest, with support for Type I, computing platform. He holds a BS in
FIPS 140-2, FIPS-197, AES-256, and AES-128 encryption. electrical engineering from Rutgers
University. Readers may reach him at
Ensuring that a system is trustworthy begins with the first instruction on trusted hard- [email protected].
ware. An effective trusted computing strategy for COTS solutions can include antitamper
protection that guards against physical hardware intrusion, encryption techniques for Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions
critical data at rest, and effective cyberattack protections that ensure that a corrupted www.curtisswrightds.com

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Editor’s Choice Products

Video encoding and streaming for rugged environments

Tyton VS2 is a H.265 (HEVC) / H.264 (AVC) video encoding and streaming solution
from Eizo Rugged Solutions, which is aimed at video-transmission needs in harsh field
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well as the H.265 (HEVC) standard. All streams are then sent out from the 1 gigabit-per-
second Ethernet output.
Tyton VS2 is ruggedized for harsh environments (shock, vibration, humidity) and temperatures from -45 °C to 85 °C (meeting
MIL-STD-810G & IP67) and also comes with dedicated mounting holes for mounting onto racks. Its rugged small-form-factor
design meets the SWaP [size, weight, and power] requirements for vertical markets. Three encoders can fit in a 19-inch 2U
rack with accessible front-facing connectors. In the default configuration, the product accepts two high-definition video inputs
through BNC connectors. Audio, 1 gigabit-per-second Ethernet, and RS-232 are routed over a 22-pin rugged circular mil-spec
connector. The product can be modified to meet various user requirements, such as different video-input formats.
Eizo Rugged Solutions | www.eizorugged.com | www.mil-embedded.com/p374264

C-band RF power modules for radar applications

Communications Power & Industries (CPI) developed the VSC3645, C-Band gallium nitride (GaN)
4.2 kilowatt (kW) pursed solid-state radio frequency (RF) amplifier module to be combined to
create high-power C-band radar transmitters for use in maritime surveillance and weather radar
transmitters. The module covers the 5.2 – 5.9 GHz frequency band. The air-cooled GaN transistors –
with a combined 4.2 kW output – are air-cooled. The modules can be power-combined using
waveguide combiners to achieve the higher power levels required for various radars.
Features include a building block for C-band radar systems, four combined 1.1 kW pulsed modules,
high-efficiency GaN transistors; built-in-test (BIT) and controls via EIA-422 remote connection,
blind mate DC and control connectors, and controllable output power reduction. Operating ambient
temperature ranges between +5 +50 °C.
Communications Power & Industries (CPI) | www.cpii.com | www.mil-embedded.com/p374215

Amp for low-level sensor telemetry data in

communication satellites
Intersil’s ISL70617SEH is a high-performance, differential input, differential
output instrumentation amplifier aimed at precision analog-to-digital applications.
It can operate over a supply range of 8 volts (±4) to 36 volts (±18) and features a
differential input voltage range up to ±30 volts. The output stage has rail-to-rail
output drive capability optimized for differential analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
driver applications. Separate supplies power the output stage, enabling the output
to be driven by the same low-voltage supplies powering the ADC; this configuration
provides protection from high-voltage signals and the low-voltage digital circuits.
The gain of the ISL70617SEH can be programmed from 0.1 to 10,000 via two external resistors, RIN and RFB; gain accuracy
is determined by the matching of RIN and RFB. The gain resistors have Kelvin sensing, which removes gain error due to
PC trace resistance. The input and output stages have individual power-supply pins, which enable input signals riding on a high
common-mode voltage to be level shifted to a low voltage device, such as an ADC. The ISL70617SEH is offered in a 24-lead
ceramic flatpack package with an operating temperature range of -55 °C to +125 °C.
Intersil | www.intersil.com | www.mil-embedded.com/p374268

40 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

Editor’s Choice Products

Miniature connectors with IP68 rating for body-worn

applications
The Fischer MiniMax Series of miniature rugged connectors handles mixed-
signal and power connections in a higher-density configuration, enabling
designers to save design space and reduce weight by as much as 75 percent.
The miniature solution is suited for handheld or body-worn applications when
space is limited. It also can be designed into smaller devices and can lower the
total cost of ownership.
The Fischer MiniMax Series is available in two sizes, 06 and 08, with
receptacles having 10 mm and 12 mm footprints, respectively. It is available in
three locking systems – push-pull, screw, and quick-release – and are designed
to connect and disconnect up to 5,000 times. Configurations range from four to 24 contacts; the connectors are tested for high-
speed protocols such as USB 3.0, HDMI, and data transfer up to 10 gigabits per second. The series is IP68 (sealing) rated for
both mated and unmated connectors.
Fischer Connectors | www.fischerconnectors.com | www.mil-embedded.com/p374265

Cross-domain solution that delivers network

isolation
The OCDS-ST06 from Owl Cyber Defense filter is designed as an
all-in-one cross-domain solution: It is Unified Cross Domain Services
Management Office (UCDSMO) baseline-listed and received its
Authorization to Operate (ATO) in 2015. The OCDS-ST06 is designed to stream User Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic from
“unclassified”-level networks to “secret”-level network domains; it transfers UDP packets containing MPEG-TS video. When
installed at a ground station, OCDS-ST06 receives multiple inbound UDP video streams from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
supporting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) activities, and transfers the video across network boundaries
to the secret network.
The OCDS-ST06 filters the corresponding metadata as remotely gathered unclassified video is collected. The Owl MPEG data
filters explicitly check MPEG-TS packet framing, MPEG-TS protocol, and KLV metadata conformance to MISB standards. The
incoming full-motion video UPD streams are then multiplexed into one stream for transfer across the domain boundaries to the
secret enclave. It is available in an all-in-one 1U (1.75 inches high) rack-mountable chassis. The OCDS-ST06 delivers network
isolation and discrete domain separation at bandwidth rates from 26 to 155 megabits per second.
Owl Cyber Defense | www.owlcyberdefense.com | www.mil-embedded.com/p374266

SMHF42 DC-DC converter withstands transients to as much

as 80 volts
The Crane Aerospace Interpoint SMHF42 Series of converters is intended
to withstand transients up to 80 volts for up to 50 ms. The SMHF42 Series of
42-V DC-DC converters offers a wide input voltage range of 35 to 55 volts and up to
15 watts of output power, and are targeted for operation on a 42-volt satellite power
bus. The converters are switching regulators that use a quasi-square wave, single-
ended forward converter design with a constant switching frequency of 500 kHz
(typical). Isolation between input and output circuits is provided using a transformer in the forward path and a temperature
compensated optocoupler in the feedback-control loop. The optocoupler is radiation-tolerant for space applications.
Dual-output models maintain cross regulation with tightly coupled output magnetics. As much as 70 percent of the
total output power is available from either output, provided the opposite output is simultaneously carrying 30 percent of
the total output power. SMHF42 converters offer screening to Class H or K and radiation hardness assurance (RHA) levels
L - 50 krad(Si) or R - 100 krad(Si). Single-event effects (SEE) allow linear energy transfer (LET) performance to 86 MeV cm2/mg.
The converters are screened to MIL-PRF-38534. Class H, Class K, RHA L, RHA R, and SEE are pending product validation.
Crane Aerospace & Electronics | www.interpoint.com | www.mil-embedded.com/p374270

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 41

 ADVERTORIAL EXECUTIVE SPEAKOUT

COM Express Type 7 Will Revolutionize

Rugged ISR Computing
zmicro
By Jason Wade, President – ZMicro, Inc.

ISR platforms are critical for gathering the deep intelligence

required to ensure the safety and security of the United States
and our allied partners. Our military recognizes this and now
includes ISR capabilities in nearly every mission, requiring
higher levels of intelligence from every node on the network.
Investments in high-resolution sensors and state of the art
exploitation software greatly enhance our information gath-
ering capabilities, but can also dramatically increase require-
ments for size, weight, power, (SWaP) and thermal performance.
In the case of manned ISR aircraft, which can only support a
set payload, increases in equipment weight require more fuel Storage Designed for Video Collection
and thus limit the duration of missions. The new COM Express Video collection and storage is pivotal to intelligence gath-
Type 7 standard is a game changer because it offers a far more ering. COM Express Type 7 supports the NVMe PCIe Gen 3
efficient SWaP platform while delivering far more compute and interface, which is designed specifically for SSDs to overcome
networking performance. In the coming years, ISR systems the speed bottleneck imposed by the older SATA connec-
will be designed around the COM Express Type 7 form-factor tions. NVMe drives support read/write speeds three to four
because it provides server-class performance with the capa- times faster than SATA 3 to support more data and situational
bility to shrink the physical size and weight of ISR platforms. awareness in real-time applications, increasing the value of
intelligence. In addition, the COM Express Type 7 provides
Heterogeneous Processing 10GbE LAN to support rapid communication of video over
As ISR applications have evolved and the software has become the network.
more sophisticated and visual, there has been a shift to het-
erogeneous processing architectures where software tasks are High-Density Packaging
assigned to specialized processors that can efficiently share the Military customers have clearly communicated to the industry
computational load. For example, applications that require real- that they want a lightweight, minimized packaging. The
time analysis can off-load computation to a parallel processor COM Express Type 7 form-factor provides mechanical design
such as a GPU or FPGA while near real-time requirements flexibility to create systems that are right-sized for any given
might leverage the CPU. The COM Express Type 7 architecture ISR application. Since COM Express is an industry standard that
supports this type of distributed architecture by providing up plugs into a baseboard for the supported I/O, the mechan-
to 32 lanes of PCI Express in the system. This flexibility allows ical packaging can be tailored to optimize the physical space
manufacturers of rugged computers to design systems ideally resulting in a very dense, efficient packing that maximizes the
tailored for ISR applications by allocating the PCI Express lanes performance to volume ratio. Since there are no physical con-
to high-end graphics card, encoder cards, and storage devices. straints to remain in an ATX or Extended ATX form-factor, there
is little to no unused space in an ISR focused computer. Rugged
Versatility in Rugged Environments computer designers such as ZMicro now have a new opportu-
Since the COM Express Type 7 module is a PICMG industry nity to revisit their approach and strategy for the mechanical
standard, computers designed around this form-factor ensure form and fit to respond to customer needs.
long-term program support and versatility for rapid customiza-
tions to varying environmental requirements. For many manned ZM3 Compact Computer
ISR applications, a 50C operating temperature is sufficient, ZMicro invites you to learn about its ZM3 compact computer
but for environments where the temperature grade is more designed specifically to minimize size, weight and power for
extreme, like 70C, a more rugged Type 7 module can be used airborne ISR applications. Built to provide advanced com-
to provide users with the flexibility to determine the tradeoffs pute capability in the smallest form-factor possible, the ZM3
between ruggedization and performance. use COM Express Type 7 modules to offer full server capa-
bility in small, rugged packaging. The ZM3 incorporates two
Boosting performance in small form factor systems has always ZMicro TranzPak 1 compact removable M.2 NVMe SSDs for
been a challenge due to stringent space and power constraints. high capacity and best-in-class storage performance. In addi-
Additionally, it’s difficult to keep up with the changing design tion to a 16-Core Intel Xeon D processor, the ZM3 has support
rules associated with implementing new processor generations. for a x16 GPU, up to the NVIDIA Quadro P6000 GPU and a
COM Express solves this by essentially isolating the processor, x8 encoder card for video ingestion.
chipset and memory from the rest of the design. This allows
manufacturers to dial-in the right amount of performance by ZMicro
bringing together the best mix of available computing modules. www.zmicro.com
WHERE TECHNOLOGY
EXPERTS GATHER

MARKET TRENDS, TECHNOLOGY

UPDATES, INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS

Military Embedded Systems focuses on embedded electronics – hardware and software – for military
applications through technical coverage of all parts of the design process. The website, Resource Guide,
E-mags, and print editions provide insight on embedded tools and strategies such as software, hardware,
systems, technology insertion, obsolescence management, and many other military-specific technical
subjects.

Coverage includes the latest innovative products, technology, and market trends driving military
embedded applications such as radar, sonar, unmanned system payloads, signals
intelligence, electronic warfare, C4ISR, avionics, imaging, and more. Each issue
provides readers with the information they need to stay connected to the pulse
of embedded technology in the military and aerospace industries. mil-embedded.com
CYBERSECURITY UPDATE

The power of light: A shortcut to

satellite-based quantum encryption
By Sally Cole, Senior Editor

Researchers in Germany have demonstrated ground-based measurements of quantum operate, which enabled them to make
states sent by laser aboard a satellite 38,000 kilometers above Earth, suggesting that quantum-limited measurements from
satellite-based quantum encryption may be within reach by as soon as five years. the ground.

Quantum entanglement, which Albert Einstein termed “spooky science at a distance,” is From their measurements, they deduced
the physical phenomenon at the heart of the demonstration by of a team of researchers that “the light traveling down to Earth
at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light that the technology on satellites – already is very well suited to being operated as
space-proofed against the harsh environments – can be used to achieve quantum- a quantum key distribution network,”
limited measurements. They believe this puts satellite quantum networks within reach Marquardt says. “We were surprised
much sooner than anticipated and significantly reduces the development time involved. because the system wasn’t built for this.
The engineers had done an excellent job
“We were quite surprised by how well the quantum states survived traveling through of optimizing the entire system.”
the atmospheric turbulence to a ground station,” says Christoph Marquardt, group
leader of Quantum Information Processing at the Max Planck Institute for the Science Now, the researchers are working with
of Light in Germany. Tesat-Spacecom and others within the
space industry to design an upgraded
Satellite-based quantum encryption networks could provide an extremely secure way system based on hardware already used
to encrypt data sent over long distances. The researchers estimate that such a system in space. Marquardt says that while
is possible within five years, although that seems extremely fast if you consider that quantum communication satellite net-
satellites generally require roughly 10 years of development work. works won’t need to be designed from
scratch, converting ground-based sys-
Quantum key distribution encryption, instead of relying on math, taps properties of tems to quantum-based encryption to
light particles known as quantum states to encode data and send the decryption key. communicate quantum states with satel-
If anyone attempts to measure the light particles to steal the key, it changes the par- lites may still take five to 10 years. This
ticles’ behavior in a way that alerts the intended communicating parties that the key effort will involve upgrading the laser
has been compromised and should not be trusted. In other words: Eavesdropping will communication design, incorporating a
be detected, so secure communication is guaranteed. quantum-based random number gen-
erator to create random keys, and inte-
“Quantum cryptography ensures long-term security of information,” Marquardt says. grating post-processing of the keys.
“This is especially important for strategic information, but also ensures that you’re
safe against unknown threats against current encryption algorithms – apart from the The team’s work is generating “serious
quantum computer threat that will become more urgent during the next decade. And interest from the space industry and
a satellite service could connect different bases or embassies.” other organizations to implement scien-
tific findings,” Marquardt says. “We, as
To measure quantum states, the researchers worked with satellite communications fundamental scientists, are now working
company Tesat-Spacecom GmbH and the German Space Administration. The German with engineers to create the best system
Space Administration had previously contracted with Tesat-Spacecom on behalf of and to ensure no detail is overlooked.”
the German Ministry of Economics and Energy to develop an optical communications
technology for satellites. The technology they previously developed is now being It’s also worth noting that another signifi-
commercially used in space for laser communication terminals onboard Copernicus – cant advance within this realm was very
the European Union’s Earth Observation Program – and by SpaceDataHighway, the recently made by an unaffiliated team
European data-relay satellite system. of researchers from the University of
Science and Technology of China: They
Marquardt and colleagues discovered that this satellite optical communications tech- demonstrated satellite-based distribu-
nology works much like the quantum key distribution method developed at the Max tion of entangled photon pairs over a
Planck Institute. So they set out to see if it was possible to measure quantum states distance of 1,200 kilometers, which they
encoded within a laser beam sent from a satellite already in space. say now “opens the door to both prac-
tical quantum communications and fun-
During 2015 and the beginning of 2016, the team made these quantum state mea- damental quantum optics experiments
surements from a ground-based station at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Spain. at distances previously inaccessible on
The team created quantum states within a range where the satellite normally doesn’t the ground.”

44 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

UNIVERSITY UPDATE

Robotics family leverages open

architectures to counter ordnance threats
By Mariana Iriarte, Associate Editor

Designers and engineers are taking technology that was once considered a
advantage of the ability of open architec- figment of the imagination becomes a
tures and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) reality, it is clear that open architectures
technologies to counter emerging threats are readily addressing the Department
quicker by more easily upgrading legacy of Defense (DoD) demand to quickly
systems with newer, faster technology. In upgrade and stay ahead of the game.
one such project, a U.S. Navy-sponsored
program focuses on a family of robotics In the AEODRS case, the program
that will keep soldiers out of harm’s way.

The U.S. Navy teamed up with John

addresses the dangers of explosive
ordnance disposal (EOD). “It is comprised
of three classes of vehicles, Increment 1,
› Figure 1 | AEODRS Increment 1
system and handheld operator control
unit. Photo courtesy of OpenJAUS.

Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab Increment 2, and Increment 3. The JAUS [joint architecture for unmanned
(JHU/APL) and an industry team that Increment 1 Primary System Integrator systems] expertise to JHU/APL and others
includes Northrop Grumman, OpenJAUS, program has been awarded to Northrop in the form of architecture analysis and
and GuardBot to work on the U.S. Navy’s Grumman Corp.,” Kent explains. recommendations, software develop-
Advanced Explosive Ordnance Disposal ment activities, and general consulting
Robotic System (AEODRS) program. Leveraging COTS components and open and support. OpenJAUS also provides
architectures is a big part of the program, system integration testing, evaluation,
The goal of the program is “to develop as COTS has helped the military control and support to Northrop Grumman as
modular, open-architecture robotic plat- costs, particularly during its sequestra- part of its AEODRS Increment 1 project.
forms for use in explosive ordnance dis- tion years. “Using COTS components on
posal across the U.S. Navy,” says Danny government programs such as AEODRS Under the program, OpenJAUS supplies
Kent, Ph.D., president and cofounder of enables the military to leverage the rapid software services including “integration
OpenJAUS. “By utilizing an open archi- progress being made in the robotics of hardware with the program architec-
tecture, components and modules can community,” Kent says. ture for risk reduction and development
be reused across the family of systems. In of more user-friendly interfaces to tools
addition, future technologies and capa- This is especially essential in the field of developed for testing and validation of
bilities can rapidly be brought from the robotics: “What is innovative technology the AEODRS architecture,” he adds.
research laboratory to the warfighter.” today may be obsolete in a matter of
years and sometimes months,” he ex- Robotic-vehicle maker GuardBot, with
To that end, the team announced in plains. OpenJAUS – a Florida company support from OpenJAUS, developed the
May 2017 that the AEODRS Increment 1 specializing in middleware solutions SPAAR system, which enables reconnais-
and Spherical Platform for AEODRS for unmanned systems developers – is sance in harsh environments. Engineers
Appliance Research (SPAAR) systems helping commercial companies adapt at OpenJAUS integrated the SPAAR
had completed a demonstration for Joint their technology to the AEODRS pro- architecture with the AEODRS system
Services EOD Action Officers in Indian gram at a quicker pace, lower cost, and architecture, according to a statement
Head, Maryland. While Increment 2 and at a reduced risk, Kent adds. ”By utiliz­- released by OpenJAUS. The results of
Increment 3 systems are still awaiting ing OpenJAUS’s commercial JAUS and this collaboration enabled engineers
award, the U.S. Navy’s AEODRS program AEODRS software libraries, companies to integrate and demonstrate a system
aims to be “the Navy’s next-­generation, jumpstart integration into the existing using “AEODRS Handheld Operator
open architecture robotic family of sys- AEODRS architecture.” Control Unit (HOCU) and the Multi-
tems,” Kent says. Robot Operator Control Unit (MOCU)
Officials consider Increment 1 as the first software application.” (See Figure 1.)
The program is capitalizing on the open of a family of open architecture robotic
architecture movement, which will help systems designed to be interoperable The end result of the SPAAR program
today’s warfighters to fight emerging and having the capability to integrate demonstrates that technology can be
threats by enabling engineers to quickly new technology quickly that will benefit more interoperable and will likely prompt
adapt new technology to current systems. the warfighter. engineers to quickly integrate new tech-
nologies into the AEODRS family, both
JHU – along with the industry team – is Kent explains that OpenJAUS’s role in of which will benefit military-sponsored
taking advantage of the movement. As the AEODRS program is “to provide our programs.

www.mil-embedded.com MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS July/August 2017 45

CONNECTING WITH MIL EMBEDDED
By Mil-Embedded.com Editorial Staff www.mil-embedded.com

CHARITIES | MARKET PULSE | WHITE PAPER | BLOG | VIDEO | SOCIAL MEDIA | E-CAST

CHARITY

United Through Reading

Each issue in this section, the editorial staff of Military Embedded Systems will highlight a dif-
ferent charity that benefits military veterans and their families. We are honored to cover the
technology that protects those who protect us every day. To back that up, our parent company – OpenSystems Media – will make
a donation to every charity we showcase on this page.
This issue we are highlighting United Through Reading, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to uniting U.S. military fami-
lies who face physical separation by facilitating the bonding experience of reading aloud together. In more than 200 locations
worldwide – available to all deploying military units and at select USO locations – United Through Reading offers military service
members the opportunity to be video-recorded reading books to their children at home.
The program, says the organization, aims to help the deployed service member and the child to make powerful connections, aids
the deployed military personnel as they try to parent from afar, reassures the child that their parent is safe and thinking of home,
and provides support to the parent or caregiver at home.
United Through Reading was founded in 1989 by Betty Mohlenbrock, the wife of a Naval flight surgeon who was deployed when
their daughter was a baby. When her husband returned, their daughter didn’t recognize him and it took time to rebuild their bond.
Mrs. Mohlenbrock – who was also actually a reading specialist with a master’s degree in education – realized that she could help
parents and children stay connected during separations by enabling them to read together using video recordings.
According to the organization, United Through Reading has helped more than two million mothers, fathers, and children to sustain
family bonds and build childhood literacy skills by reading stories together across long distances.
For more information, please visit www.unitedthroughreading.org.

E-CAST WHITE PAPER

Demystifying security for military data storage High data rates over the VPX
Sponsored by Mercury Systems infrastructure
By Kontron
Modern military sensor and other high-performing processing
VPX VITA 46 has been one of the first
systems generate massive amounts of data, much of which is
modular computer open standards to
stored on solid-state drives (SSDs). While commercial off-the
define a connector and backplane infra-
shelf (COTS) SSDs can usually offer an attractive initial price,
structure allowing data transfers at rates in excess of one
use in military applications often end up requiring time and gigabit per physical channel.
work so that they can deliver the security, ruggedness, and per-
VPX is now ready to adopt the higher data rates required by
formance required for most defense applications. As a result,
the latest version of two fundamental protocols: PCIe gen3 at
the initial cost savings is lost and the added time and effort can
8 gigabits per second and Ethernet at 10 gigabits per second.
lead to blown schedules.
In this white paper, learn what designers will encounter when
This webcast will cover the differences between COTS SSDs implementing 10 gigabit per second rates over a VPX copper
and secure military-grade SSDs. Also discussed: the fact that backplane and discover some of the available architectures and
security must be embedded into the design of military systems, products.
which is the only avenue for designers to obtain the highly
Read the white paper:
desired “CSfC” listing granted by the NSA.
http://www.embedded-computing.com/hardware/
View archived e-cast: ecast.opensystemsmedia.com/747 high-data-rates-over-the-vpx-infrastructure
View more e-casts: Read more white papers: http://mil-embedded.com/
http://opensystemsmedia.com/events/e-cast/schedule white-papers

46 July/August 2017 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS www.mil-embedded.com

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