Lockheed Martin to upgrade obsolete data and graphics processors in C-130 aircraft displays
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, Ohio, 25 Oct. 2013. U.S. Air Force avionics experts are working together with Lockheed Martin Corp. to upgrade embedded computers in primary flight displays aboard the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft in an effort to improve capability and stave-off component obsolescence.
Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, have announced a $21.6 million contract to the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics segment in Marietta, Ga., to do the avionics display work on the C-130J.
The contract is for the diminishing manufacturing sources solution for CMDUs and MFCUs aboard the C-130J aircraft. The contract modification redesign effort for the CMDU and MFCD is to replace the display's obsolete common central processor and graphics processor chip sets.
Air Force officials announced the avionics displays contract to Lockheed Martin at the end of last week just as the government shutdown ended and military contracting resumed.
The CMDU, manufactured originally by L3 Display Systems in Alpharetta, Ga., is a 10.4-inch viewable active-matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD)-based smart display with embedded processing and graphics processing.
Five CMDUs serve as primary flight displays providing situational awareness for the flight crews aboard the C-130J. The CMDU is a sunlight readable display that is night vision compatible.
The display is high-resolution XGA with 60-degree viewing angle, and luminance from 0.3 to more than 200 foot Lamberts that can be used with night-vision goggles.
On this contract Lockheed Martin will do the work in Marietta, Ga., and should be finished by September 2015. This contract includes 15 percent foreign military sales Norway, Israel and Kuwait.
For more information contact Lockheed Martin Aeronautics online at www.lockheedmartin.com/us/aeronautics, or the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at www.wpafb.af.mil/aflcmc.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
