The military avionics procurement system is increasingly challenged to deliver sufficient quantity and performance in avionics to meet a wide variety of operational user requirements. This paper traces the development of military avionics over the past forty years to provide a historical perspective of the process. The authors conducted an extensive review of user requirements for selected fixed and rotary wing aircraft assigned to the U.S. Air Force and Army. This study lead to the development of a two-tiered approach to aircraft avionics. The core avionics package (CAP) provides the capabilities required of all aircraft. Extended avionics packages (EAPs) are sensor packages that use the services of the CAP to meet the full user requirement. The authors address several of the challenges that must be met to implement a new approach towards the development of military avionics. They recommend additional study of two fundamental concepts in the Department of Defense (DOD) avionics acquisition process.
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