VITA: best opportunities in military embedded computing revolve around advanced intelligence systems

FOUNTAIN HILLS, Ariz., 11 Oct. 2012.Military embedded systems designers should concentrate on advanced intelligence systems with supercomputing power as the most promising and profitable area of the aerospace and defense market for the foreseeable future, say officials of the VITA Open Standards, Open Markets embedded computing trade association in Fountain Hills, Ariz.

Demand for basic traditional embedded computing systems in aircraft, ships, and ground vehicles, meanwhile, will be small, says VITA Executive Director Ray Alderman in a report released Wednesday entitled 2012 State of the VITA Technology Industry.

"It is clear that military board and box suppliers will need to look for the most promising subsegments of the MIL market, and focus on the most promising opportunities," Alderman says in the report. "It's time for vendors to sub-segment the MIL markets to find gold."

Traditional commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) board vendors serving the aerospace and defense market may not see numerous lucrative opportunities in the near future. "Will the military buy more pure COTS to reduce their total costs?" Alderman asks. The answer: "Not really."

The defense business will be tough for embedded computing manufacturers, just as it is for major systems integrators and prime contractors, Alderman points out. "The military markets are experiencing severe uncertainty at this stage," he says. "Procurement contracts at the Pentagon are paralyzed, with the exception of a few advanced system designs."

The brightest opportunities in the aerospace and defense embedded computing market involve radar, sonar, signals intelligence (SIGINT), communications intelligence (COMINT), and electronic warfare (EW), Alderman says.

Even in these areas, contracts issued are low volume, and for existing platforms. "This situation will persist for the remainder of this year," Alderman warns.

As U.S. military forces continue to focus on "asymmetrical" warfare -- shorthand for terrorism -- the Pentagon will concentrate more on cyber weapons than they do on traditional weapons; that means more software than hardware, Alderman says.

Major trends in military embedded systems design revolve around the tight integration of sensors, RF front ends for data collection, and data processors in the same backplane.

"You can see that it is only a few short years before we tightly integrate the knowledge, decision, and action phases of intelligence into the existing data-collection and -analysis phases," Alderman says.

A .pdf copy of the 2012 State of the VITA Technology Industry is available online at www.vita.com. For more information contact VITA online at www.vita.com.

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