NEWS
Boeing Selects Wind River Workbench as the Device Software Development Tool Suite for the U.S. Army's Future Combat System (FCS) Program
The FCS forms the basis for the visionary transformation plan from the U.S. Army, and is aimed at increasing the Army's agility, improving its capability to go anywhere and overcome any adversary. The FCS program, considered the core building block of the Army's future force, consists of the following elements:
- The network (information and communications)
- 18 individual combat systems including manned and unmanned systems
- The soldier
Because all of the constituent parts of the FCS program are viewed as systems in themselves -- including the 18 platforms, the network itself, and even the individual soldier -- it is commonly referred to as a "system of systems." The network is being designed by more than 2000 developers in various development sites across the United States to enhance coordination among all U.S. forces, as well as between U.S. and coalition forces. FCS will allow soldiers to link to sensors, to unmanned air platforms, and to manned and unmanned ground platforms using advanced communications and technologies.
The aerospace and defense (A&D) industry today is undergoing rapid transformation as devices require increasing levels of connectivity, interoperability and reliability, combined with decreasing size, weight, and power consumption. Without effective development processes in place, the strict safety and interoperability requirements of the A&D industry can make the costs of innovation exorbitant. In order to remain competitive in today's fast changing landscape, A&D manufacturers must optimize their device software development processes to rapidly build next-generation applications.
This project was competitively bid against multiple companies to provide the FCS program with a common development environment. Wind River's Eclipse-based development suite, Wind River Workbench, stood out for its ability to increase productivity, enable collaboration between hardware and software developers, and meet the diverse development needs of the FCS program.
"The FCS program sought a common software development environment that was an extensible, standards-based platform, to address a broad range of needs for its software development projects," said Paul Schoen, Director of Software for SoSCOE, FCS. "Based on these and other defined criteria, the historical evidence of Wind River Workbench's Eclipse foundation promises a significant increase in productivity due to its flexibility, ease-of-use and scalability."
Wind River enables A&D manufacturers to optimize their device software development and create applications with more interoperability, safety, security and connectivity. The company provides a fully integrated commercial off-the-shelf solution to its more than 900 A&D customers, including both an operating system and integrated development suite. With Wind River, A&D device manufacturers can develop safety critical, standards-based, integrated, modular A&D applications faster, better, and at lower costs.
"Wind River is honored to be part of the FCS 'One Team' – a highly-skilled task force of organizations committed to the success of the U.S. Army's transformation initiative," said Ken Klein, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Wind River. "As the common development suite for FCS, Wind River Workbench, along with our world-class support and specialized professional services team, stands to further solidify Wind River's position as the de facto industry standard for the A&D market."
Wind River and the FCS Network
At the heart of the FCS program will be the world's foremost communications system and technology infrastructure. Wind River Workbench will be applied across the program to support the heterogeneous platforms that host the various applications. Workbench will be used to develop the system-of-systems common operating environment (SoSCOE), as well as other FCS applications and hardware projects, including battle command (BC) software, tactical and strategic communications, and intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance (ISR) sensors:
- System-of-systems common operating environment (SoSCOE): supports multiple mission-critical applications by using a non-proprietary, standards-based architecture and common commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computing hardware adapted for military applications
- Battle command (BC) software: includes mission planning and preparation, situation understanding, mission execution, and warfighter-machine interface (WMI) applications
- Tactical and Strategic Communications: provides secure, reliable access to information sources over extended distances and complex terrain
- Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) sensors: distributed, networked array of multi-spectral sensors that provide a "see first" capability that is rapidly shared across the FCS network
About Wind River
Wind River is the global leader in device software optimization (DSO). Wind River enables companies to develop and run device software faster, better, at lower cost, and more reliably. Wind River platforms are pre-integrated, fully standardized enterprise-wide development solutions. They reduce effort, cost and risk and optimize quality and reliability at all phases of the device software development process from concept to deployed product.
Founded in 1981, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, California, with operations worldwide. To learn more, visit Wind River at http://www.windriver.com or call 1-800-872-4977.
Forward-Looking Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements regarding the potential impact of Wind River's products and services on the productivity, risk, complexity and costs of the FCS Program as well as on the A&D market in general, are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, delays in the development or integration of technologies and rapid technological or business changes that adversely affect customer demand or partner strategies. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Wind River disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements
The Wind River logo is a trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc., and Wind River and VxWorks are registered trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc. Other marks used herein are the property of the respective owners.
Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited, TACOM 08 MAR 2006, case 06-048
Contact Information
Jessica Miller
Global Corporate Communications