13 June 2005

Commenting on the company's J-UCAS involvement, Dr. John Ferrie, President, Smiths Aerospace said, "This win marks the next step in Smiths' actuation control from our new Vehicle Management System. We look forward to continuing a long and successful relationship with Northrop Grumman."

In addition to this win, Smiths has recently delivered the program's first electronics including vehicle management computers (VMCs) and remote input / output units, plus mission computers for the surrogate air vehicle. The vehicle management computers are the heart of aircraft avionics, acting like the vehicle's central nervous system. The triple-redundant J-UCAS VMCs are the backbone of the air vehicle's computers, networks, and interfacing electronics, and together with the Smiths-supplied redundant mission computers, will host all of the airplane's avionics, flight controls and utilities functions. The system will replace dozens of traditional, standalone computers and data busses fitted to present day aircraft.

Smiths combined systems make it the largest non-partner equipment supplier to the Northrop Grumman X-47B J-UCAS programme. Should X-47B J-UCAS enter production, Smiths' total contract value could potentially be worth more than $300 million over the life of the program and includes the following systems:

• Engine interface unit

• Engine throttle actuators with Eaton Aerospace

• Landing Gear System, including

• Holdback bar mechanism for the carrier catapult system

• Retraction actuation for the landing gear

• Vehicle management computers

• Electrical power generation and distribution systems

• Mission management computers

• Remote input / output units

• Fuel probes, fuel measurement and management through partnership with Argo-Tech

• Ground-based data link computer

Notes to editors

About the mission computers

Just as an aircrew shares the burden of flying the vehicle and operating the sensors, the mission computers and VMCs are integrated to execute combat missions. The dual mission management computers (MMC) that Smiths is supplying are the same design as the VMC; but extended with solid state mass memory. The system interface is a general-purpose design that implements the subsystem interface for both the VMC and the MMC.

About remote input / output units

The remote input/output (RIO-1394) product is a part of Smiths RIU product family which has been used on several military programs. The RIO was recently fielded to support the F-35 and is a major contributor to saving weight in the aircraft by eliminating the need to install several hundred feet of analog discrete signal wires to the VMC from remote locations.

The RIO-1394 provides digitization of analog, discrete, and fuel probe signals from the vehicle and provides an output via IEEE-1394 interface to Smiths' VMC for further processing. The RIO also converts the commands received from the VMC to analog and discrete outputs for controlling various functions in the aircraft. A total of nine units will be utilized per aircraft.

About the vehicle management system

Smiths is supplying the vehicle management computers (VMC) for the X 47B, which Northrop-Grumman is developing for DARPA's Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS). In addition to Guidance, Navigation, and Flight Control, the VMC automates the other system functions that an aircrew performs on a manned vehicle. The triple-redundant VMCs exchange system state and control information to detect faults by means of approximate consensus; and manage the redundant components to provide fail-operational service.

The system is easily scaled to a quad configuration, and in 2003, Smiths demonstrated an innovative approach to start, vote, synchronize, and restart a quad modular system. The open hardware an