Military data transfer

An industry team led by

has demonstrated a new technology that increases data transfer speeds in tactical aircraft, making them more effective in meeting the demands of future, network-centric operational environments.

The new data "bus" technology, which uses existing aircraft wiring, has proven it can transfer electronic data at least 40 times faster than current data bus technology. These advantages will allow aircraft systems to be upgraded for future combat environments much more quickly and affordably than with other high data rate options.

The new technology - HyPer-1553TM - is a high performance version of MIL-STD-1553, the current military standard data bus. It is similar to Digital Subscriber Line technology that's used to expand the data-carrying capability of ordinary telephone lines.

"HyPer-1553, developed by Data Device Corporation, is particularly well-suited for applications in which it is difficult or impossible to add or replace wiring," said Steve Wilson, Boeing Phantom Works lead engineer for the project. "And because it operates in parallel with existing MIL-STD-1553 data buses, upgrades can be done incrementally, which further expands the options for upgrading the war-fighting capabilities of current and future aircraft."

The team of Boeing, Data Device Corporation (DDC) and Honeywell Aerospace demonstrated HyPer-1553's capabilities by conducting a flight test aboard the Boeing F-15E1 Advanced Technology Demonstrator aircraft on December 17, 2005, in St. Louis.

During the test, Boeing Phantom Works engineers used the HyPer-1553 data bus to transmit imagery between a rugged computer mounted in the forward equipment bay of the F-15E and a modified Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) mounted on a wing pylon. A DDC circuit card was mounted to a Honeywell general purpose processor board on either end of the interface.

The results showed that HyPer-1553 transferred data at 40 megabits per second in parallel with MIL-STD-1553 data being transferred at 1 megabit per second. The team also transferred data at 40, 80 and 120 megabits per second on a second bus dedicated to the higher speed data.