GE to provide rugged embedded computing systems for British Army Scout armored vehicle vetronics

Editor's note: GE Intelligent Platforms changed its name to Abaco Systems on 23 Nov. 2015 as a result of the company's acquisition last September by New York-based private equity firm Veritas Capital.

TOWCESTER, England, 5 March 2015.Vetronics designers at General Dynamics UK in Bryn Brithdir, Wales, needed embedded computing subsystems for the British Army Scout specialist vehicle (Scout SV). They found their solution from GE Intelligent Platforms in Towcester, England.

General Dynamics UK has made about $100 million worth of orders to GE for scalable, open-architecture subsystems, which include Ethernet switches, gateway processors, data servers, and video servers, GE officials say.

GE's embedded systems will enable low Scout SV platforms to be easily upgraded during their lifetime as new requirements and technologies emerge, GE officials say.

These subsystems provide the backbone of the Scout SV's vehicle electronics (vetronics) architecture. The Ethernet switch connects the networked elements of the vehicle together; the gateway processor provides processing for the General Dynamics UK software to run the platform; and the data and video servers enable the vehicle to store and distribute data and video around the platform and on into the wider connected battlefield.

The GE offering took advantage of two GE capabilities. GE's close working relationship with NVIDIA and its expertise in developing and deploying rugged graphics processing unit (GPU) technology that helped GE meet the Scout SV's size, weight and power (SWaP) constraints.

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GE designers also were able to use their company's OpenWare switch software to help optimize the vehicle's network to Scout SV requirements.

Scout SV are replacing replace the British Army's CVR(T) vehicles. General Dynamics UK will deliver 589 of the new vehicles, which have six variants: scout, reconnaissance, mobile reconnaissance, command and control, engineering reconnaissance, repair, and recovery. Each variant will be an agile, tracked, medium-weight armored fighting vehicle.

Scout SV vehicles are built on a common base platform to make the most of commonality in mobility, electronic architecture, and survivability. Each vehicle has acoustic detectors, laser-warning, local situational awareness, electronic countermeasures, route marking, advanced electronic architecture, and high-performance power pack.

For more information contact GE Intelligent Platforms online at www.geautomation.com, General Dynamics UK at www.generaldynamics.uk.com, or the British Army at www.army.mod.uk.