Military Avionics Innovation

In our first edition of Avionics International for 2022, we feature coverage of some of the most innovative military fixed, rotary and unmanned aircraft technologies being developed, operated and upgraded around the world. While the end user mission goals and desired outcomes of military aircraft operators are distinct and unique to individual defense agencies and aviation units, some major themes that are common among new military avionics development includes adoption of open architecture, digital transformation and computer processing that occurs in smaller and smarter form factors and graphical user interfaces.

There are also several next generation aircraft being developed with clean-sheet avionics designs highlighted throughout this issue that favor communications, navigation and surveillance systems with touchscreen displays instead of analogue dials and a noticeable advancement in the use of specialized cameras, intuitive flight control systems and the increased use of autonomy. This issue will also feature our first contribution from Jessica Reed, who provides some coverage around the progress made by the U.S. Air Force AFWERX Agility Prime program's efforts to develop and adopt electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for a variety of defense missions in the near future. Her article provides some perspective from AFWERX leadership and some of the companies developing eVTOL aircraft that are involved in Agility Prime flight demonstrations and testing. In between issues, Jessica will be the lead editor for our recently launched Advanced Aviation Report (AAR) e-letter, that is distributed free to email subscribers on a weekly basis.

Elsewhere in this issue, David Walsh provides an overview of some of the avionics technologies currently being developed for next generation helicopter cockpits. Mark Robins returns with an article covering some of the latest advancements in military drone technologies such as swarming and collaborative applications that link unmanned and manned aircraft together for certain missions. I also provide an article covering the increasing number of avionics companies that are developing military aircraft software aligned to the open system architecture principles of the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) Technical Standard.

What did we miss? We hope you enjoy this exciting, technology-packed issue and please email me with suggestions on any military aviation related topics you'd like to see covered in 2022!