GE’s Intelligent Platforms business (NYSE: GE) has announced that it has
secured orders from General Dynamics UK valued at £64 million (~$100
million) to provide a range of embedded computing subsystems that will
be deployed onboard the British Army’s SCOUT Specialist Vehicle (SV)
platforms. The scalable, open architecture subsystems – which include
Ethernet switches, gateway processors, data servers and video servers –
will allow SCOUT SV platforms to be easily upgraded during their
lifetime as new requirements and technologies emerge.
These subsystems provide the backbone of the vehicle electronics
architecture. The Ethernet switch connects all the networked elements of
the vehicle together; the gateway processor provides all the processing
capability for the General Dynamics UK software to run the platform; and
the data and video servers allow the vehicle to store and distribute
vehicle and scenario data and video around the platform and on into the
wider connected battlefield.
The GE offering took advantage of two unique GE capabilities. GE’s close
working relationship with NVIDIA and its expertise in developing and
deploying rugged GPU technology enabled a solution to be proposed that
uniquely met the SWaP (size, weight and power) constraints of the
requirement.
GE was also able to propose the use of its OpenWare switch software,
which allowed the operation of the vehicle’s network to be optimized to
the specific requirements of the platform.
“A strength of the GE proposal was that it was based exclusively on COTS
– commercial off-the-shelf – products, minimizing program risk and cost
and reducing time to first deliveries,” said Andy MacCaig, Business
Segment Leader, Ground at GE’s Intelligent Platforms business. “However,
an even greater strength was GE’s ability to work in close collaboration
with General Dynamics UK to fully understand the requirement and to
adapt the proposed solution such that it was an exact fit with what was
needed.”
The SCOUT SV platforms replace the British Army’s CVR(T) vehicles and
are all-new, heavily protected, high mobility, fully digital platforms
featuring state of the art ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target
acquisition and reconnaissance) capabilities. According to General
Dynamics UK, who have been chosen to deliver 589 of the new platforms,
the SCOUT Specialist Vehicle provides a step-change in the armored
fighting vehicle capability being delivered to the British Army.
The SCOUT SV program includes six variants: SCOUT Reconnaissance,
Protected Mobility Reconnaissance Support (PMRS), Command and Control,
Engineering Reconnaissance, Repair, and Recovery. Each SCOUT SV platform
variant will be a highly-agile, tracked, medium-weight armored fighting
vehicle, providing British troops with state-of-the-art best-in-class
protection.
SCOUT SV vehicles are developed upon a highly-adaptable and capable
Common Base Platform, maximizing commonality in mobility, electronic
architecture and survivability that ensures the British Army has a
family of world-class platforms.
Each SCOUT SV platform variant has extensive capabilities, including
acoustic detectors, a laser warning system, a local situational
awareness system, an electronic countermeasure system, a route marking
system, an advanced electronic architecture and a high performance power
pack.
About GE’s Intelligent Platforms business
GE’s Intelligent Platforms business is headquartered in Charlottesville,
VA and part of GE Energy Management. The company’s work in the
military/aerospace segment, headquartered in Huntsville, AL, and
Towcester, England, provides one of the industry’s broadest ranges of
high performance, rugged, SWaP-optimized embedded computing platforms.
Backed by programs that provide responsive customer support and minimize
long term cost of ownership for multi-year programs, GE’s solutions are
designed to help customers minimize program risk and cost, and to speed
time-to-market. For more information, visit defense.ge-ip.com.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Copyright Business Wire 2015