Military Avionics Systems

2Technology and Architectures

2.1 Evolution of Avionics Architectures

The introduction gave examples of how an avionics architecture may be structured and explained that, in the main, aircraft level and equipment level architectures would be addressed within the book.

The application of avionics technology to military aircraft has occurred rapidly as aircraft performance has increased. The availability of reliable turbojet engines gave a huge performance boost to both military and civil operators alike. New and powerful sensors such as multimode radars, electrooptics and other advanced sensors have provided an immense capability to modern military aircraft that enables them better to perform their roles. At the same time, the advances in digital avionics technology in the areas of processing and digital communication – by means of data buses – enabled the new systems to be integrated on a much higher scale.

This chapter addresses some of the developments and technology drivers that have led to many of today’s advanced platforms; in many cases significant barriers have defeated the attainment of the original aims. These may be summarised as:

• The evolution of avionics architectures from analogue to totally integrated digital implementations (section 2.1).
• Aerospace-specific data buses – the ‘electronic string’ that binds avionics systems together (section 2.2).
• A description of the joint industrial avionics working group (JIAWG) architecture; originally conceived as a US triservice ...