The 5-Decade Standard for Flight Control & Weapons Systems Sees No End in Sight... MIL-STD-1553 data buses have been ubiquitous on military aircraft, helicopters, drones, ground vehicles and spacecraft for the past 50 years. 1553’s longevity is due to its physical layer robustness, redundancy and deterministic and reliable command/response protocol. Further, 1553 enjoys an extremely large installed base (virtually every military aerospace platform globally utilizes the 1553 communications bus), with dozens of suppliers of components, IP, boards, software, testers, couplers and cables. Over recent decades, there have been various communication standards vying to be “the next 1553”, yet 1553 remains the de facto backbone for aerospace/defense and space systems that will be prevalent for decades to come.
1553 interfaces can take multiple forms based on specific application needs. These include integrated components and IP/FPGA implementations. Integrated components provide ease of use, small size and high reliability. FPGA and IP implementations enable processors, 1553 interfaces, and other functionality to co-exist on the same silicon, while also providing flexibility.
Other considerations include:
Power consumption and board space.
Avoiding transmission of residual voltages (“tails”).
Cybersecurity. For example, for weapons applications, these can include intrusion detection and protection systems (IDS/IPS) against “spoofing” (impersonating) bus controllers (BC) or remote terminals (RT). Such systems can leverage various strategies, including methods operating at the physical, protocol and data layers. Further, for preventing illicit data bus “eavesdropping” (surveillance), data encryption is another possibility.
- Is an RT spoofing attack a realistic threat for MIL-STD-1553? - What is the potential for a MIL-STD-1760 cyber-attack and what are the vulnerabilities? - Are there methods to detect BC spoofing attacks?
The need to detect open and short circuit wire faults in data buses. Ideally, such detection can detect such faults while they’re still intermittent; i.e., before they can become catastrophic. In addition, it’s highly advantageous to determine the type and locations of detected faults.
- After 22 years in service, what percentage of an F15 squadron’s weapon busses become damaged and need repair? - Are there technologies for finding and locating wiring faults in a MIL-STD-1553 bus, other than the good-old ohm meter? - This webinar includes an impactful war-time example of the use of such technology. How did we find and fix a MIL-STD-1760 Apache bus failure during war time?
Packaging and screening. While plastic packages are acceptable for many platforms and environments, some applications such as deep space require hermeticity.
In this webinar, experts in MIL-STD-1553 interface and systems design share their many decades of knowledge and experience to provide system designers and engineers with an end-to-end overview of this fail-safe data bus protocol, and the best practices for its use in embedded military and aerospace applications. Attendees and viewers will gain deep insight to leverage the value and performance of 1553 for their high-reliability data bus communications.
Proposal/Product Manager of Micross Hi-Rel Components
Mike is Proposal and Product Line Manager for Micross Hi-Rel Components, located in Apopka, FL. Prior to that, he was a Sales Engineer for Sital Technology USA of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and held several positions at Data Device Corporation in...
Bob has a diverse background in many aspects of Sales, Marketing, General Management through his 30 years in Electronics. Bob started out testing power supplies for NEC then moved quickly to inspection of their PBX phone systems, then on to...
Ofer Hofman is a hardware engineer with a passion for finding the best ways to improve the world. He holds a degree in software engineering from the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel. In 1995, he founded Sital Technology and has been serving as...
Dan Taylor has covered the defense industry in depth for more than 15 years. He started covering the industry with Inside Defense in 2007 and has been published in USA Today, C4ISR Journal, Seapower Magazine, and many other outlets. He is a...