Navy picks Curtiss-Wright for high-speed flight test data acquisition in $49.9 million sole-source contract
PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md. – U.S. Navy airborne test and measurement experts needed high-speed data acquisition systems hardware and repair services. They found their solution from the Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solutions segment in Newtown, Pa.
Officials of Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., announced a $49.9 million sole-source contract to Curtiss-Wright on Tuesday to provide high-speed data acquisition systems for the Naval Air Systems Command Special Flight Test Instrumentation Pool.
Navy aircraft test
This specialized equipment pool is a collection of specialized equipment used for testing and evaluating naval aircraft during flight trials.
This pool essentially is a dedicated inventory of advanced instrumentation that Navy experts can deploy on various aircraft types to gather detailed data during rigorous flight test maneuvers, and allows for efficient and flexible instrumentation setup for different flight test scenarios.
Seven years ago Curtiss-Wright won an $86 million U.S. Air Force contract for high-speed data acquisition systems, network switches, data recorders, telemetry systems, and ground station systems for the Air Force High Speed Data Acquisition System (HSDAS) program at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Last fall the Navy announced a $47 million contract to Safran Defense and Space Inc. in Norcross, Ga., for airborne instrumentation modular data recorder system hardware for a variety of naval aircraft, in support of the Naval Air Systems Command Special Flight Test Instrumentation Pool.
Flight test data recording
For this contract Safran is providing solid-state recorders, recorder modules, cameras, connector kits, and power supplies for use on F/A-18, EA-18G, V-22, F-35, E-6, C-130, CH-53K, MQ-4, MQ-8, MQ-25, P-8, H-1, and MH-60 aircraft.
Curtiss-Wright offers several products for military aircraft data acquisition and test instrumentation. Central to these products is the Curtiss-Wright ADSR data recording system family that helps users capture, record, and output data based on their unique requirements.
The ADSR product family consists of advanced data server and recorder (ADSR) products for uses such as mission data recording, mission file servers, digital video recorders, or instrumentation network recorders.
Curtiss-Wright also provides the nREC-7000-1 data recorder, which can store data at fast sustained speeds, with support for 1,000 Megabytes per second data rates over each of its four 10-Gigabit Ethernet ports. It supports simultaneous data recording of several data formats such as DARv3, PCAP, IRIG-106 Chapter 10/11, and NFS.
On this contract Curtiss-Wright will do the work at Patuxent River NAS, Md., and should be finished by January 2030. For more information contact Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions online at www.curtisswrightds.com/products/storage-recorders/test-recorders, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
