AUSA 2014, Washington, D.C. (Booth #7809) – Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW) today announced that its Defense Solutions division has intensified its commitment to develop commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions designed to provide the hardware components and software services needed to implement the U.S. Army’s VICTORY (Vehicular Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability) standard on legacy and future Ground Vehicles. The VICTORY standard is prevailing as the DoD’s mandated approach for eliminating “stovepiped” system functionality and increasing interoperability. Demand for certified VICTORY compliant solutions in program requirements is proliferating. Work on the standard also continues apace, with the latest version of the specification, VICTORY 1.6.1, recently released. To address the growing demand, Curtiss-Wright has announced that it is expanding VICTORY validation testing for select existing and new products. The validated products will be selected from the Company’s broad family of rugged line replaceable modules (LRMs) and line replaceable units (LRUs). They include network switches, routers and Ground Vehicle computing resources.
Curtiss-Wright established itself as a leading supplier of COTS VICTORY solutions with the introduction in September 2012 of its Digital Beachhead™ 16-port Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) Network Switch and high performance, power efficient Vehicle Management Computer. Digital Beachhead is the industry’s first low-cost rugged Ground Vehicle “appliance” for modernizing ground vehicles to comply with the VICTORY standard. Since its debut, Digital Beachhead has generated significant interest in the Ground Vehicle community with multiple units acquired by and shipped to the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC), Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) and the Nevada Automotive Test Center (NATC) for evaluation.
“From our perspective the Army’s VICTORY standard has passed the ‘tipping point,’ essentially becoming a de facto requirement in requests for proposal issued today by the DoD and system integrators,” said Lynn Bamford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Defense Solutions division. “In response, Curtiss-Wright is ramping up its VICTORY related design and development activities, ensuring that we continue to lead the industry in providing the SWAP-C optimized hardware, needed to end ‘stovepiped’ systems and foster interoperability.”
Fulfilling the Promise of VICTORY
Today’s combat vehicles are typically deployed with multiple independent systems that have limited ability to share their functionalities or data. To address and mitigate this problem, the U.S. Army’s VICTORY initiative encourages the use of SWaP-C optimized COTS open-architecture subsystems and Ethernet-based in-vehicle data sharing services in order to increase interoperability and enable the elimination of redundant functionality and hardware. Curtiss-Wright is helping to advance the use of VICTORY through the development of innovative rugged COTS subsystems and modules designed to support the new standard and help achieve the U.S. Army’s goals.
About the Digital Beachhead™
The Digital Beachhead combines a 16-port Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) Network Switch with a high performance, power efficient Vehicle Management Computer. Designed as a cost effective rapidly integrated “VICTORY starter kit”, the Digital Beachhead provides advanced Vehicle Management Framework software simplifying vehicle management and pre-integrated VICTORY services software. Housed in a compact and lightweight rugged enclosure, it is designed to deliver optimal performance in harsh military environments. By installing a single Digital Beachhead unit on a vehicle it is now possible to quickly integrate a VICTORY data bus and a modern vehicle control system on a platform that previously had no embedded on-board electronics. The Digital Beachhead supports direct connection to an external GPS receiver (DAGR or equivalent) providing real-time GPS position and time data across the vehicle’s VICTORY network. A GB-GRAM can also be integrated into the unit, further reducing overall system SWaP by eliminating redundant GPS receivers on the vehicle.
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About Curtiss-Wright Corporation
Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE:CW) is a global innovative company that delivers highly engineered, critical function products and services to the commercial, industrial, defense and energy markets. Building on the heritage of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright brothers, Curtiss-Wright has a long tradition of providing reliable solutions through trusted customer relationships. The company employs approximately 10,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.curtisswright.com.