Considerations for testing and simulation of MIL-STD-1760E/HS1760 avionics interfaces

MIL-STD-1760, a Department of Defense Interface Standard, was developed to reduce the proliferation of interfaces between aircraft and their stores, and instead to promote interoperability between weapons and aircraft platforms. The original version of the MIL-STD-1760 defined a standardized electrical interface and connector that included both digital and analog databuses, a standardized message protocol (MIL-STD-1553), power, and discrete signals. In 2007, the latest version of MIL-STD-1760 was released. MIL-STD-1760E, employed the previously unused High Bandwidth 2 and High Bandwidth 4 pins of the standardized MIL-STD-1760 connector. These pins were utilized to carry a Fibre Channel based high speed digital databus, FC-AE-1553 which is an adaptation of MIL-STD-1553 for Fibre Channel. This paper provides a brief technical overview of the HS1760 databus and related standardized protocols and also provides an overview of the key technical considerations that must be accounted for when designing test and simulation equipment used to test various aircraft systems and stores which employ the MIL-STD-1760E interface.