Smart technologies for next generation fighter systems

The outcome is expected to contribute to:

• significantly reducing the number of computer packages in an aircraft, hence leading to a decreased SWaP;
• the creation of a European ecosystem for next generation integrated modular avionics for defence platforms, hence fostering the development of European technological sovereignty in this area;
• enhancing the ability to trigger modern and faster innovation towards a European air cloud, currently bottlenecked by the absence of a common NG-MIMA concept;
• increasing platform flexibility and modularity with a common open architecture, fostering the use and integration of new disruptive technologies;
• reducing time and costs for iterations of services that require underlying new integrated modular avionics, such as multi-domain mission systems, enhanced collaborative situational awareness and real-time tactical information sharing.

New generation manned and unmanned military aerial platforms require enhanced avionics able to support new architectures and functions, while providing higher performances, safety and cyber resilience.

Against this background, new solutions regarding, for instance, hardware (HW), software (SW, including operating systems, middleware, system services, etc.) and framework, need to be defined in order to comply with new requirements for processing, network, interfaces, storage, power supply, etc.

Military aerial platforms, from fighters to helicopters and other specific mission platforms, could benefit from the application of civil technology breakthroughs and standards. However, they require dedicated solutions to comply with specific military requirements (e.g. SWAP, multi-level security data flow, real time reactive response, etc.).

In particular, modular architectures for avionics are widely recognised as key to reduce development cycles and costs and to increase interoperability in multi-industrial collaborative development, compared to classical federated systems. Therefore, the concept of core integrated modular avionics has been already defined in the civil aviation market.

However, the next generation military aerial platforms, both manned and unmanned, will operate through a system-of-systems approach which implies much higher data sharing and processing needs than in the civil market, as well as new specific requirements in terms of development cycle (cf. need for faster adaptability of mission solutions applying DevSecOps type of development, but also involvement of more industrial entities) and in terms of defence-related missions.

The general objective is then to exploit the knowledge and solutions conceived for civil purposes in the application of such technologies on various military platforms in accordance with defence requirements.

Specific objective

The challenge of this topic is to study, design and demonstrate, within a 3-year timeframe, key components for a next generation military integrated modular avionics (NG-MIMA) for various military platforms able to operate in the tough digital battlefield as foreseen in the future.

The proposals must address the study and the development of key technologies supporting the next generation of military integrated modular avionics (NG-MIMA). The proposals should consider multiple military aerial platforms that should operate in a defence air cloud context, both manned and unmanned, including other than fighters.

Use cases analysis and identification of the NG-MIMA key technologies must be addressed and possible future architectures, including possible applicable methodologies and processes, should be described.

In addition, the proposals should include proofs of concept, demonstrations and even prototyping of a selection of the envisioned key technologies to be determined according to the studies to be performed, hence paving the foundations for future development actions in this area. The proposals may consider simulations and model-based system engineering.

In any case, the use of EU and EDF associated countries (Norway) technologies without restrictions from non-associated third countries must be highly prioritised, leveraging on sovereign European technological components, systems and know-how.

The proposals should target at least TRL 4 (component and/or breadboard in laboratory environment) for the key technologies addressed.

Types of activities

The following table lists the types of activities which are eligible for this topic, and whether they are mandatory or optional (see Article 10(3) EDF Regulation):

The proposals must cover at least the following tasks as part of the mandatory activities:

• Studies:
  • perform gap analysis to identify the standardisation needs beyond the international standards already widely used in this domain or beyond ongoing activities conducted at national, multinational or EU level;
  • provide a use case analysis and identification of requirements, including regarding the key technological components identified for possible future architectures for NG-MIMA. This task should consider other related initiatives at national or EU level;
  • provide a list of requirements and KPIs for new generation computing architecture (e.g. performance, low SWaP, cyber resilience, etc.), exploring segregation of military avionics, as well as flexible and hot reconfiguration capabilities;
  • study multi-level computing solutions to be able to run all functions including safety critical and highly demanding computing requirements, such as AI-based functionalities;
  • study certifiable multi-level real-time operating systems oriented to these new levels of manycore computing solutions;
  • study the process, framework and tools required for NG-MIMA.
• Design:
  • include HW and SW architectures and interfaces able to execute not only different levels of safety critical functionality but also mission functionality;
  • include on-board deterministic high-speed data buses and consolidated backwards compatible with legacy ones;
  • include high-performance graphics capability for the computing solution and its interfaces;
  • include packaging, powering and connecting technology requirements and solutions.

In addition, the proposals must substantiate synergies and complementarity with relevant activities described in the call topic EDF-2021-AIR-D-CAC on European interoperability standard for collaborative air combat.

Moreover:

• projects addressing activities referred to in point (d) above must be based on harmonised defence capability requirements jointly agreed by at least two Member States or EDF associated countries (or, if studies within the meaning of point (c) are still needed to define the requirements, at least on the joint intent to agree on them)
• projects addressing activities referred to in points (e) to (h) above, must be:
  • supported by at least two Member States or EDF associated countries that intend to procure the final product or use the technology in a coordinated manner, including through joint procurement

and

• • based on common technical specifications jointly agreed by the Member States or EDF associated countries that are to co-finance the action or that intend to jointly procure the final product or to jointly use the technology (or, if design within the meaning of point (d) is still needed to define the specifications, at least on the joint intent to agree on them).

Functional requirements

The proposed product and technologies should meet the following functional requirements:

• Multi-functional avionics should:
  • be based on a scalable reference architecture to pave the way for standardisation of interfaces and stacking avionics systems;
  • include high-speed and performing data buses and protocols, including packaging standards;
  • provide the capability regarding high-speed data sharing and regarding assets interoperability throughout the EU as well as with NATO air defence arsenals;
  • include real-time operating system for on-board safety and mission (both critical and non-critical in terms of safety) systems, with multi-level capabilities;
  • include HW and SW complying with multi-safety and multi-mission (both critical and non-critical);
  • be purposely built with a view to comply with security classification with multi-level security segmentation;
  • allow for integration into supportive HW that would facilitate certification by military authorities in the future (cf. machine learning, in particular deep learning algorithms);
  • provide for real-time computation and sharing capability orchestration, e.g. including process, tools and framework to support the development in a multi-industrial workshare and taking into account DevSecOps type of upgrade;
  • provide a high integrity deterministic avionic network with the necessary redundancy to connect various computing nodes and consider solutions when different platforms are engaged;
  • provide a sufficient level of compatibility in order to operate a variety of heterogeneous assets, manned and unmanned, during air operations.
• The system should include data processing and visualisation capability with:
  • state-of-the-art high-performance and ad-hoc HW and SW infrastructure, that allows processing, interfaces and visualisation of tactical data in real time.
• The embedded data processing and networking capacity may:
  • integrate HW with high data processing, notably through AI applications;
  • provide AI-based functional standard interfaces and system monitoring.