Apache Mission Processor Software Architecture: Architectural Approaches

The Apache attack helicopter Mission Processor software architecture continues to evolve to meet current and future platform requirements. Increasing emphasis is being placed on the software architecture as it provides the foundation and framework (blueprints and guidelines) that high-level applications must conform to. Ongoing informal architecture assessment is performed by analyzing architectural approaches and trading quality attributes throughout the project lifecycle. This paper provides insight into many of the architectural approaches employed by the Networked Common Operating Real-time Environment (NCORE) open systems software architecture. After updates to the current NCORE architecture are described and the dominating architectural approaches are presented, one scenario that addresses the addition of a candidate third-party developed software application will be qualitatively analyzed to identify risks, nonrisks, sensitivity points, and tradeoffs. Through this analysis, the NCORE architecture is shown to be well capable of meeting current and future Army needs.