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.
Military Comms and Networking Pick Up the Pace
CONTENTS September 2011
Volume 13
Number 9
SPECIAL FEATURE Next-Gen Military Comms and Networking Solutions
10 Military Comms and Networking Pick Up the Pace Jeff Child
20 10 Gbit Ethernet Offers an Alternative to Bus-Based Slot Cards
Departments 6 Publisher’s Notebook The Perfect Storm 8
The Inside Track
72
COTS Products
82 Editorial UAV Innovation in All Sizes
Angsuman Rudra, D-TA Systems
TECH RECON
Coming in October See Page 80
Rugged Laptops and Panel PCs
30 Laptops and Panel PCs Muster for Rugged Military Duty Jeff Child
44 Rugged Military Computers Bulk Up for Harsh Environments Mark Holleran, Xplore Technologies
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT Secure Embedded Systems
56 Solutions Emerge to Meet Secure Embedded System Needs Jeff Child
TECHNOLOGY FOCUS Rugged Box Systems
62 Rugged Box Systems Widen Their Scope of Functionality Jeff Child
64
Rugged Box Systems Roundup
Digital subscriptions available: cotsjournalonline.com
On The Cover: This summer Lockheed Martin delivered its secure AMF JTRS to the U.S. Army’s AH-64D Apache Avionics Integration Lab. The delivery included the Engineering Development Model (EDM) of the Joint Tactical Radio-Small Airborne two channel radio running the Link-16 waveform and 200W Link-16 power amplifier. Shown here, an Army AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter flies over Rodriguez Live Fire Range, South Korea. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson/ Released)