Modular Stores Management System

Advanced Military aircraft operational requirements demand an ever increasing variety and quantity of Stores, coupled with continuous improvement in mission success, safety of operation, aircrew and groundcrew workload, interoperability and ground support facilities. Until now these ever more demanding requirements have been met by costly customized stores management system designs. GEC Avionics has surveyed the potential SMS requirements of a comprehensive range of aircraft and weapon types, in order to define a universal SMS design concept based on system availability, integrity and reliability, operational functions, peripheral interfaces and maintenance/human factors. This advanced concept not only includes provision for all existing weapon types but also has growth potential for the evolving MIL-STD-1760 weapon interfaces. System interface requirements have been rationalized in order to achieve a Modular Stores Management System (MSMS) design based on major factors such as cost, mission requirements and customer specifications. The key work for a successful MSMS design is flexibility and GEC Avionics has evolved a set of standard modules which can be packaged to satisfy specific customer needs. Typically, the standard modules provide over 80% of the hardware in every Stores Management application. The MSM concept features much reduced development costs and timescales, commonality between aircraft types minimizing parts inventory, VLSI technology providing high reliability and a common product support and maintenance philosophy. The MSM design offers a highly cost effective low risk concept for meeting the needs of modernization and new aircraft programs.