Simulation Software Solutions Lower Cost to Develop Upgraded Avionics for Aging U.S. Military Aircraft

By Industry News Release - March 20, 2020

Senior Airman Tim Mullane and Airman 1st Class Bella DiLorenzo, 104th Maintenance Group integrated avionics technicians, perform a phase inspection on an F-15 Eagle Sept. 7, 2019, at Barnes Air National Guard Base, Massachusetts. Avionics technicians are responsible for maintaining all of the computer systems, such as radar and threat detection, on the F-15s. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Senior Airman Randy Burlingame)

Physical Optics Corporation (POC) is using Ansys simulation software solutions to develop avionics for U.S. military aircraft. Ansys® SCADE® Solutions for ARINC 661 Applications (Ansys SCADE for ARINC 661), will enable POC to reduce development time and accelerate certification — integrating new functionality at a much lower cost and enabling a faster path to market.

U.S. Department of Defense legacy aircraft equipped with aging avionics and controls require costly upgrades to add new capabilities. As avionics software becomes increasingly sophisticated, complying with complex requirements, satisfying safety-critical standards and reducing costs present major development challenges. Efficient model-based software development with qualified code generation offers a more streamlined approach to decrease software cost and development while effectively managing highly complex designs.

“We selected Ansys SCADE for ARINC 661 with the hope of significantly streamlining model-based software development and lowering the risk path to certification,” said Omar Facory, vice president of Mission Systems at POC. “Ansys SCADE 661 is instrumental for driving interoperability and reusability — enabling our team to easily update new functionality for military aircraft as it becomes available.”

Ansys SCADE for ARINC 661 provides excellent model-based software development and automatic qualified code generation to quickly create and certify avionics software. Development time can be greatly reduced while adhering to ARINC 661, DO-178C and the FACE Technical Standard. Driving reusability across aircraft platforms, Ansys SCADE 661 expedites integration of new functionalities and greatly reduces platform-specific design.

“Ansys SCADE for ARINC 661 provides the ability to rapidly generate avionics software in full compliance with ARINC 661 and enables alignment to the FACE Technical Standard,” said Eric Bantegnie, vice president and general manager at Ansys. “This delivers outstanding reliability, dramatically increases productivity, achieves a top-tier level of quality and swiftly expedites software certification, while fully qualifying with DO-178C.”