Application of the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) to the Navy MultiMission Helicopter (MMH) Program

The system design requirement of compliance with the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA) open system standards for a real-time weapon avionics system has positively influenced the system design of the Navy MultiMission Helicopter (MMH) Program. The JTA Version 2.0 [1] provides a minimum set of standards which, when properly implemented, permits the flow of information in support of the warfighter. The common cockpit avionics has selected a core JTA profile [2] which includes POSIX, X-Windows, and TCP/IP software standards. Traditionally these software standards have not been applied in the real-time avionics environment due to latency and predictability concerns. The MMH program utilizes a hybrid client/server communication layering of Fibre Channel, VME Bus, and MIL-STD-1553 network standards to interconnect new and legacy components. The MMH program has defined an open system standards evaluation process to be implemented in assessing emerging JTA and non-JTA standards against new capability and P3I system upgrade applications. The future extension of emerging JTA standards into the MMH architecture will be based on a continued reassessment of the benefit to system life cycle cost and interoperability of the migration to the emerging JTA standards. Some near term assessments planned include emerging real-time software middleware standards, multimedia network data distribution standards [3], quality of service network extension standards, and imagery and information exchange standards to other cooperative platforms.