Apache Mission Processor Software Architecture: Architectural Decisions

The Apache attack helicopter Mission Processor software architecture continues to evolve to meet current and future platform requirements. The software architecture was re-evaluated in 2008 by a joint Software Engineering Institute (SEI) / Army panel and several technical proposals have recently been submitted that add enhanced software based war fighter capability. With planned software enhancements, architectural decision-making and tradeoffs continue as the architects gain knowledge and experience and as the demand for new capabilities continues throughout the project lifecycle. This paper reflects on several architecture decisions and lessons learned during development and evolution of the Networked Common Operating Real-time Environment (NCORE) open systems software architecture. After updates to the current NCORE architecture are described and key architectural decisions are presented, one high importance, low difficulty use case scenario taken from the architecture re-evaluation is qualitatively analyzed. Through this analysis, the NCORE architecture is shown to be well capable of meeting current and future Army needs. Paper conclusions emphasize the importance of sound architectural decisions early in the program, the need for continued research and development funding to reduce overall new technology insertion risks and timelines, and strategic deployment of lessons learned to further reduce the software development life-cycle and system integration and test costs.