The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing
10
COTS (kots), n. 1. Commercial off-the-shelf. Terminology popularized in 1994 within U.S. DoD by SECDEF Wm. Perry’s “Perry Memo” that changed military industry purchasing and design guidelines, making Mil-Specs acceptable only by waiver. COTS is generally defined for technology, goods and services as: a) using commercial business practices and specifications, b) not developed under government funding, c) offered for sale to the general market, d) still must meet the program ORD. 2. Commercial business practices include the accepted practice of customerpaid minor modification to standard COTS products to meet the customer’s unique requirements. —Ant. When applied to the procurement of electronics for the U.S. Military, COTS is a procurement philosophy and does not imply commercial, office environment or any other durability grade. E.g., rad-hard components designed and offered for sale to the general market are COTS if they were developed by the company and not under government funding.
Ground Vehicle Modernization Looks to Modular Solutions
CONTENTS May 2011
Volume 13
Number 5
SPECIAL FEATURE Military Vehicle Modernization
10 Ground Vehicle Modernization Looks to Modular Solutions Jeff Child
16 Open Standards and Phased Approach Benefit Ground Vehicle Modernization
Departments 6 Publisher’s Notebook Back to More DoD Budget Drivel 8
The Inside Track
60
COTS Products
70 Editorial Good News and Good Intel
David Jedynak, Curtiss-Wright Controls Electronic Systems
TECH RECON
Coming in June See Page 68
Military Success Stories for cPCI and MicroTCA
22 CompactPCI and MicroTCA Secure Their Roles in Net-Centric Designs David Pursley, Kontron
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT Subsystems and Displays for Command Control
32 Display Tech Advances Overhaul Command Control Systems Jeff Child
38 Open Approach Enables Cost Reduction for Naval Radar Displays David Johnson, Cambridge Pixel
44 Military Displays Systems Leverage PCI Express Backplane Architectures Mark Lovett & Brad Trent, Trenton Technology
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS FPGA Processing Boards
52 FPGAs Push the Signal Processing Envelope Further Still Jeff Child
56
FPGA Processing Boards Roundup
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On The Cover: Recent upgrades to the M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle include a system that provides 360-degree panoramic surveillance capability. The vision system provides the commander with a 360-degree battlefield view and includes enhanced capabilities for early threat detection from longer stand-off ranges. Here a U.S. Army staff sergeant guides an M2A3 onto a flatbed trailer at Forward Operating Base Warrior in northern Iraq. (DoD photo by MC Specialist1st Class Steven King, U.S. Navy)