Advanced electronic counter-measures laboratory design

The Department of Defense has decreed that all new or upgraded laboratory facilities must use an architecture that is highly flexible. New Designs must have sufficient flexibility to satisfy future needs, make maximum use of commercial off-the-shelf products, include products with built-in vendor support, and adhere to DoD and industry standards. Under contract to the US Air Force, AIL Systems Inc./Technical Services Operations developed an advanced electronic warfare system consisting of real-time and non real-time networks. The laboratory encompasses digital, radio frequency, and platform simulation and measurements. This paper describes the architecture used in the laboratory to tie together the disparate elements of digital, radio frequency, and avionics simulators in a manner that is both cost effective and flexible. The program yielded an electronic warfare assessment system suitable for either man-in-the-loop or automatic testing