Video: R-COTS the right direction for redefining COTS, but still misses mark, panelists say

NASHUA, N.H., 28 March 2014. It looks like R-COTS -- short for ruggedized commercial off the shelf -- is emerging as the term of choice to describe commercially developed electronic technology that can operate in environmental extremes and offer the market long-term manufacturer support.

That's the consensus of a group of experts who joined Military & Aerospace Electronics for a Google Hangout Thursday to discuss replacement terms for COTS.

On the panel was 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.

Although panelists agreed that a term like R-COTS or MIL-COTS might help differentiate ruggedized COTS from consumer-grade COTS, they also cautioned that today's commercially developed military technology defies a simple term, and instead called for in-depth descriptions of its many levels of ruggedization.

Click on the screen above to see the conversation in its entirety.