Avionics architecture for performing fire control research in AH-64 aircraft

It is shown how the avionics architecture principle of distributed processing can be exploited to permit extensive research, with rapid software changes, in a saturated software environment. Specifically, it is shown how part of the newly developed Apache C/D distributed avionics architecture was added to a standard Apache A system with its inflexible centralized computer. Adding the weapon processing part of the Apache C/D architecture allowed the decoupling of the existing fire control tasks, and created an R&D environment for testing new technology associated with improving lethality of the Apache weapon systems. The specific research task involved air-to-air fire control using the AH-64´s turreted 30-mm cannon