ASHBURN, Va. – April 10, 2014 – Curtiss-Wright Corporation today announced that its Defense Solutions division has received a contract from United Launch Alliance (ULA) to supply its COTS-based rugged Ethernet Switch technology for use in the Atlas V and Delta IV expendable space launch vehicles as part of the U.S. Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. Under the agreement, Curtiss-Wright will provide ULA with its Parvus DuraNET® 3000 switch products. The estimated lifetime value of the contract is in excess of $2 million.
“We are very excited to have been selected by United Launch Alliance to provide our cost-effective, proven Cisco®-based Ethernet Switch technology for use aboard the Atlas V and Delta IV space launch vehicles,” said Lynn Bamford, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Defense Solutions division. “This agreement represents our first opportunity to supply our Parvus rugged network solutions to the space launch vehicle market. The selection of our SWaP-optimized rugged subsystems helps bring the advantages of standards-based COTS hardware to these important space vehicles.”
Curtiss-Wright’s Parvus DuraNET® 3000, a ruggedized COTS version of Cisco Systems’ IE-3000 industrial Ethernet switch, is hardened for use in demanding military and civil IP networking technology applications. It will contribute to a fully redundant on-vehicle Local Area Network (LAN) used prelaunch to communicate with the flight control computer transferring pre-flight information to launch control, and route compressed digital video off the launch vehicle. The Ethernet switch is part of ULA’s “Common Avionics” initiative, enabling the same avionics design to be utilized on both Atlas and Delta launch vehicles.
About the Parvus DuraNET 3000
The Parvus DuraNET 3000 delivers the security, advanced Quality of Service (QoS), high availability, and manageability that customers expect from Cisco IOS-based switching technology, including optional Layer 3 IP Routing services. Designed with mechanical enhancements to support deployment of data, video, and voice services in extreme temperatures, shock, vibration, humidity, as well as exposure to dust, water, and EMI/EMC environments, the unit requires no active cooling, is completely sealed, and provides interfaces over MIL-C-38999 style connectors.
The Defense Solutions division will manufacture the products covered by this agreement at its Parvus business unit facility located in Salt Lake City, Utah. The products will be shipped to ULA in Centennial, Colo.
For more information about Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division, please visit www.curtisswrightds.com. For more information about Parvus products, please visit www.parvus.com.
About the EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program
The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program was established by the United States Air Force to provide assured access to space for Department of Defense and other government payloads. The commercially developed EELV Program supports the full range of government mission requirements, while delivering on schedule and providing significant cost savings over the heritage launch systems.
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.