F-16 Agnostic Rapid Weapons Integration

Description

This effort is focused on a rapid, modular, and scalable weapons integration architecture, developed on the Open Systems Enclave (OSE) system, that can deploy a broader range of munitions in months (vs years) in order to solve a critical interoperability constraint, enhance the relevance of legacy platform; and enable greater agility, lethality, and dominance. This topic primarily addresses the Air National Guard (ANG) & Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) "Lethality" Modernization Imperative, specifically extending long-range kill chains to maintain offensive advantage. The long-term owner of this capability will be the F-16 program office with PEO Fighters .The Air National Guard (ANG) and Air Reserve Component (AFRC) must be able to integrate new weapons or weapons software updates without the need to code, test, and field entirely new aircraft OFPs requiring two to three years on average. Additionally, ANG and AFRC requires hardware solutions to allow a larger capacity of weapons to be carried to generate the maximum effects on each mission. Successful efforts will result in the development and integration of a hardware/software solution that will be demonstrated on the ANG F-16 aircraft in order to meet the urgent requirement for the integration of an Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM).This effort will involve development and integration to deliver the architecture for a hardware/software solution that will be demonstrated on the Air National Guard (ANG) F-16 Block 30 aircraft. This effort will not involve the acquisition or integration of munitions, but is instead focused on the rapid integration of munitions and the development of an architecture that will facilitate that capability. This effort will enable the Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Component Test Center (AATC) to meet their urgent requirement for the integration of an Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) on the F-16 aircraft then the effort will then focus on additional weapons and aircraft.The long-term plan is to scale the solution to active-duty F-16 aircraft and other OSE platforms. Desired outcomes include the generation of evidence that the proposed solution can be potentially adopted by Active Duty F-16s and other Combat Air Forces (CAF) Open System Enclaves. This topic seeks to advance this technology from a current TRL of 6-7 to a target TRL of 8-9.