Google Hangout discussion this week ponders if high-rel industry needs a new term for COTS
On the panel will be Mike Macpherson, vice president of strategic planning at the Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solutions division in Ashburn, Va.; Malcolm Campbell, executive director of international sales at VPT Inc. in Blacksburg, Va.; Jerry Gipper, executive director of the VITA embedded computing trade association in Fountain Hills, Ariz.; as well as John Keller, chief editor of Military & Aerospace Electronics, and Ernesto Burden, publisher of Military & Aerospace Electronics.
COTS describes perhaps the most significant paradigm shift in military procurement since the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) was founded more than six decades ago. At the time the term was coined to differentiate between commercially developed technology and custom-designed military components.
Unfortunately too many still interpret COTS to mean consumer-grade electronics, rather than the high-reliability COTS components that are available today for aerospace and defense systems, that are every but as rugged and reliable as yesterday's MIL-SPEC components.
Panelists will discuss a wide variety of suggestions for terms that better reflect today's high-reliability reality for COTS components.
Check back here Thursday for a link directly to the Google Hangout discussion. The video also will be available on the Military & Aerospace Electronics Website at www.militaryaerospace.com/rapid-fire.
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.
