The feasibility of applying safety certifiable software standards to comanche mission processing

The RAH-66 Comanche helicopter represents state of the art technology that provides interoperable reconnaissance and attack capabilities for the battlefield of the future. The program is currently in the Engineering Manufacture and Development (EMD) phase with first low rate initial production delivery scheduled for summer 2008. The current trend toward Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) for mission processing in military programs has long been the fundamental enabling concept of the Comanche Mission Equipment Package (MEP). Operational requirements and aggressive performance specifications relative to weight size, processing power, and IO throughput necessitated use of IMA as well as many unique design and integrations solutions resulting in an early instance of Open System Architecture technologies and approaches. As work continues on the program, typical problems associated with component obsolescence and a desire to reduce total ownership costs have meant evaluation of new technology and its application for argumentation as well as replacement of components in the current MEP. As in the past, the program continues to maximize incorporation of Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) products and the use of standards-based solutions as development cost reduction measures. New capabilities, just now being incorporated into commercial real-time operating systems, offer the potential of considering a COTS replacement for the comanche MEP OS. Over the last few years, advancements in COTS computer and telecommunications technologies are enabling broader acceptance of COTS OSA concepts. These concepts leverage commercial designs more closely, incorporate more modern commercial standards, and offer less costly obsolescence mitigation while meeting military rotorcraft integration challenges. This paper will give an overview of those