General Dynamics was awarded a $16.2 million contract by the U.S. Navy to produce Type-3 Advanced Mission Computers (AMC) for the F/A-18 E/A-18G Super Hornet aircraft. Since 2002, General Dynamics has produced, tested and delivered the F/A-18 AMC, which serves as the nerve center of the Super Hornet and provides the Navy with situational awareness and combat systems control.
Under the contract, General Dynamics will produce, build, test and deliver the Type-3 AMCs to the U.S. Navy and Australia. Designed to operate in extreme environmental conditions, the ruggedized, high-performance AMC processes high-speed data rates from aircraft sensors. The integrated information processing system also performs general purpose, input/output, video, voice and graphics processing, and is configurable to any operating environment.
The AMC is a set of digital computer hardware and software that performs general purpose, I/O, video, voice, and graphics processing. Communication is over multiple buses, including 1553, Fibre Optic Fibre Channel, and Local PCI, and all modules integrate in an industry standard 6U VME backplane. The I/O configuration may be tailored with PMC mezzanine modules.
This contract will be performed primarily at the General Dynamics facility in Bloomington, Minn., where it is supported by more than 125 employees. This contract will be completed by March 2016.
[Image courtesy: U.S. Navy]