Navy asks North Atlantic to supply synchro-to-digital cards for shipboard interrogator system
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 2 April 2014. U.S. Navy shipboard electronics experts needed spare VME synchro-to-digital converter (SDC) circuit card assemblies (CCA) for the AN/UPX-29(V) Interrogator System Mode 5 shipboard identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) system. They found their solution from North Atlantic Industries (NAI) in Bohemia, N.Y.
Experts from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced their intention last week to purchase synchro-to-digital cards, as well as card repair services, from NAI sole-source. The federal part number for the cards is 64SD1-06KSP2-63.
Navy officials say they have little choice other than to procure the synchro-to-digital cards from NAI. This board is the only one available that is interoperable with existing operational software packages of the Northrop Grumman interrogator set AN/UPX-24(V).
This subsystem is the core IFF processor of the AN/UPX-29(V) shipboard interrogator system. The AN/UPX-24(V) identifies aircraft and surface vessels equipped with selective identification feature (SIF) modes 1, 2, 3A, and C, and provides secure identification of cooperative mode 4 targets.
Related: Navy needs synchro/resolver-to-digital measurement motherboard from North Atlantic
The IFF data from one AN/UPX-24(V) can be synchronized with as many as four individual radars, and provides the operator with synthetic IFF symbology for target recognition and tracking. The system is installed in Ticonderoga-class cruisers, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks, and Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.
Navy officials are asking NAI to provide 10 synchro-to-digital cards and to repair four others. The value of the order has yet to be negotiated.
Synchros and resolvers are transformer-type voltage and current transducers that convert a shaft or other rotating device's angular position and velocity to a multi-wire AC electrical signal. Both deliver signals proportional to the sine and cosine of the shaft angle. A synchro-to-digital converter switches these signals to a digital output corresponding to the shaft angle and velocity.
NAI offers several kinds of multi-channel programmable, isolated output, synchro and resolver measurement synchro/resolver–to-digital function modules, including VME, OpenVPX, CompactPCI, PMC, and PC/104.
The company's Synchro/Resolver–to-Digital function modules feature background wrap-around self-test capability and most platforms support an optional programmable AC excitation supply.
The NAI model VME 64CS4 single slot multi-function 6U VME board, for example, is designed for applications requiring digital-to-synchro/resolver (D/S) stimulus output, as well as I/O and communication functions.
More information about this procurement is online at https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DON/NAVAIR/N00421/N00421-14-T-0213/listing.html.
For additional information contact North Atlantic Industries online at www.naii.com, or the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at www.navair.navy.mil/nawcad.
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.
