GRiD has many years of experience in facilitating customer requirements for keeping legacy systems in service, which often includes upgrading sub-systems to maintain operational relevancy and manage obsolescence. One of our key differentiators in this area is our in-house engineering expertise on connectors and interfaces. In this blog we look in more detail at requirements for military connectors and interfaces as part of platform upgrades.
As we all know, defence can be a slow-moving and unwieldy mammoth. Changes don’t come around often – especially when we talk about equipment – and when changes do happen they are generally complex, expensive and time consuming. Look at any current major programme in a developed country and there’ll be examples of this.
At the same time, systems deployed by the military must be qualified and certified to strict standards, including environmental and electromagnetic compatibility, and therefore making any changes to a system or the introduction of new kit can require significant resource for test and qualification.
And where there is change there is a risk.
Reducing risk in mid-life upgrade programmes
When military systems on vehicles and other platforms become obsolete and require replacement, a mid-life upgrade (MLU) is usually carried out in order to keep the capability in service for several years longer. This approach is often preferred to ensure that platforms stay in service and to avoid expensive new equipment programmes.
Another reason for an MLU is when the originally deployed operating system is no longer supported, putting the device’s security at risk. In such cases, updated hardware may be required to support the latest operating systems. For example, Windows 11 mandates TPM (Trusted Platform Module) as a standard requirement – something that was not widely available in hardware when Windows 10 was first released.
MLUs are critical to maintaining military capability and readiness, while avoiding the significant expense and time required to bring new platforms into service, especially on the qualification side.
In our specialist areas of advanced rugged computers, a reduced risk MLU would see new computers installed on an existing platform that is in-service and already qualified.
Existing platform hardware such as connectors and interfaces that interlink systems – effectively the underlying platform architecture – can be kept the same while new computers are added to avoid the customer having to requalify a platform all over again.
The most effective upgrade possible is in fact replacing the computer, rather than the interfaces, cables, or the software application.
While this may not result in a capability that fully matches a brand new platform, it will give frontline users a significant boost without the cost and complexity, and probable delays, that bringing in a brand new platform would involve.
Keeping connectors and interfaces the same
The low-risk upgrade approach, therefore, is to keep connectors and interfaces the same on a platform.
This comes with significant benefits as it might mean that customers do not need to do anywhere near as much qualification, especially if both the rugged computer and host platform are already qualified to meet particular military standards.
If our product is already qualified and we can have the same connector interface, it is a very low risk update to the system. We are already working with several customers, including NATO armed forces, to carry out exactly this type of work.
We manage obsolescence and ensure compatibility with existing systems, which is often the preferred choice for customers requiring bespoke and complex interface solutions.
And ultimately, not many companies can do this. GRiD offers a unique capability to provide any required interface on any connector, leveraging our in-house electronics design capabilities. As long as the real estate on the computer allows for it, something that is determined by the size of the back panel, we are able to provide any interface on any connector required.
Legacy interfaces
But what interfaces are we referring to when we talk about any interface?
This can include standard ones that you would expect such as USB and ethernet, but also more specialist legacy examples like communication ports (COM ports) – or serial ports as they are also known – that allow a computer to connect to an external device.
Introduced in the 1960s in accordance with the RS-232 telecommunications standard, COM ports have largely been replaced by USBs in the commercial world, but are still common in the military, and consideration of them needs to be included in mil-spec rugged computer designs.
Not only is GRiD able and well versed in incorporating this type of interface, we are also able to integrate them in a high density configuration.
Where there is the real estate for it, we can include far more ports than the handful that are normal for a standard device. It is because we design our systems in house and in line with each individual requirement that we are able to respond to customer requirement for multiple ports.
Rarer still is a parallel port that was developed to connect peripherals, and as such is commonly known as a ‘printer port’ that you might remember from way back in the 90s. GRiD can still include these when required via a circular rugged connector, ensuring compatibility and performance in austere environments.
We are also able to provide multiple interfaces on the same connector – something unique to GRiD – that reduces the cabling required and maximises the available real estate on a device.
Of course, we also provide other interfaces, including a MIL-STD-1553-compliant data bus for avionics, and we offer expansion options by adding cards for unique requirements and custom requests.
Read more about the MIL-STD-1553 data bus standard here.
Conclusion
The reason we can provide so many interface and connector options is because we design our own electronics, so have lots of interfaces available as standard. When we do not have an interface available, we have expansion options that allow us to add cards for bespoke and unique interfaces, even if they are customer designed.
We can add more interfaces to a single device than our competitors can, and this is testament to our in-house electronics design. It is common practice at GRiD to be able to accommodate many customer requirements – no matter how unique! – thanks to our decades-long design experience.
All this results in a reduction in risk for platform upgrades, especially as part of an MLU.
And we always welcome new challenges! We relish working with customers to design bespoke systems that truly meet their requirements, whether this is for multiple or unique connectors and interfaces.
Get in touch with the team to discuss how we can help with your design requirements at sales@griduk.com.
