News

June 22nd 2010 - General Dynamics UK demonstrates its scalable Core Infrastructure Distribution System for Electronic Architectures on Jackal and Cougar at DVD 2010

Showcases complete re-role of vehicle in only 24 minutes and delivers measurable performance improvement for combat vehicles

• 100% growth in data and power availability relative to the needs of a modern Armoured Fighting Vehicle
• 60% reduction in space taken up by conventional cabled system
• 21% reduction in weight compared to conventional cabled system
• Re-role and repair time reduced by an order of magnitude
• ASCOD SV to benefit from innovative system

Millbrook Vehicle Proving Ground, United Kingdom – Today’s armoured vehicles will benefit from tomorrow’s technology thanks to the availability of General Dynamics UK’s Core Infrastructure Distribution System (CIDS) for Electronic Architecture (EA), which the company will demonstrate on two vehicles at DVD 2010 on 23 – 24 June. Two different versions of CIDS will be demonstrated by the General Dynamics UK team: a complex fit on a Cougar and a CIDS LITE version on an M-WMIK Jackal. CIDS was a key discriminator in the selection of ASCOD SV by the UK MoD as its preferred vehicle to fulfil the Scout SV role.

The more complex version of CIDS, on the Cougar, will support a Command Post fit-out with all the power and data required for an entire Bowman, Tacsat and ECM suite. The General Dynamics UK team will also use the Cougar to showcase how CIDS allows users to rapidly re-role a vehicle. The Cougar vehicle on display was re-roled from its Command Post variant into a troop carrier in only 24 minutes thanks to the easy removal of the horizontal modular Bowman racks from one side of the vehicle, which were replaced with a vertical Bowman unit and two extra seats. The vehicle can be put back to its original format in the same amount of time.

CIDS-LITE demonstrates the ability and benefit of reducing infrastructure on light vehicles and platforms, such as M-WMIK, by delivering increased data management capability to such light vehicles for the first time. It supplies the user on the ground with the capability to capture and share vital information and data, enabling faster decision making. Designed specifically for light vehicles such as M-WMIK, CIDS LITE’s infrastructure allows users to gather intelligence on the ground by capturing and storing voice, data, Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS), plus video and multiple sensor information. The system will then allow delivery of that data instantly to the commander, either on the vehicle or via Wi-Fi or cable on return to a Forward Operating Base.

CIDS Advantage
Compared with current conventional cabling in a modern fighting vehicle, General Dynamics UK’s CIDS system delivers 100 percent growth capability for power and data services; a 60 percent reduction in the space taken up inside the vehicle, making it more fightable and survivable; and a 21 percent reduction in the weight of the system. In addition, vehicle re-role and repair times are reduced by an order of magnitude, as seen in the Cougar demonstration at DVD 2010, while user training and logistics are simplifies through the use of a common system.

General Dynamics UK’s CIDS provides a standardised, modular infrastructure which allows manufacturers and systems integrators to offer their customers vehicles that are easily tailored to their specifications, highly configurable when in service and capable of being enhanced in the future as new technology becomes available.

Plug-and-play
The General Dynamics UK’s CIDS infrastructure features an innovative bus configuration with nodes that enable the vehicle manufacturer, integrator or operator to easily install or replace systems using a plug-and-play approach. The new CIDS system provides improved power, data and video distribution around the vehicle and is fully compliant to Vehicle Systems Integration (VSI) standards making it possible to connect vehicle and mission systems, with plug-and-play simplicity at any one of multiple nodes, while simplifying the end users’ task in adapting the vehicle to different roles or repairing damage.

The benefits of CIDs are felt early on in the life of a vehicle, when new designs are in the planning, specification and development phases. The designer can work with a standard, proven solution that’s compatible across all vehicles and the system is scalable and efficient.

Flexibility in design is also provided by CIDS’ compliance with multiple databus standards, all of which are supported at each take-off node, including CAN, Serial Interfaces and 10G Ethernet.

Other features that CIDS brings to the vehicle design include high-current distribution, high-voltage capability, built-in redundancy and increased EMC/EMI tolerance. CIDS also helps vehicle manufacturers and systems integrators get their solutions to market faster, with reduced risk, thereby benefiting the end user who receives the new equipment sooner. Similar advantages apply during the manufacturing phase, where the rapid installation of equipment provided by CIDS makes assembly simpler, leading to reduced costs.

Flexibility in service
In service, users can reconfigure or re-role a vehicle rapidly thanks to the modular “plug and play” nature of the architecture. Commanders are given much greater flexibility in terms of the resources they have available and the vehicles can be easily re-roled for the task ahead. The standardised, modular architecture also means damage repair is simple and fast as the damaged section of the architecture can simply be extracted and replaced.

Open future
The ability to plug-and-play using standard interfaces provides an easier, low-risk path to future growth, accommodating new technologies so that vehicles can deliver more capabilities and adapt to new roles. With such an open architecture, vehicles are readily adaptable to the needs of customers worldwide, while those customers will have access to solutions that genuinely meet the challenges they face.

The origins of CIDS
The genesis of CIDS lies in General Dynamics UK’s work to upgrade more than 13,000 military vehicles of all types from analogue to digital C4I systems during the integration of Bowman for the British Armed Forces – a programme that made General Dynamics UK a leading vehicle integrator with the most up-to-date skills and techniques in the industry. In addition, General Dynamics UK played a key role with various open standards bodies important to the future direction of EA including the MoD’s VSI working group, DefStan 00-82, the MilCAN working group and lead the Generic Vehicle Architecture industry team to set open standards for GVA.

Today, General Dynamics UK’s customers will be the first to benefit directly from the company’s work to innovate and deliver the best EA possible.