ALL SYSTEMS GO TRW SOFTWARE SAILS THROUGH F-117 STEALTH TESTS.

Byline: Daily News

PALMDALE - Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. and TRW said flight tests with an F-117 stealth fighter showed commercial off-the-shelf computer hardware could be used to replace aging military computer equipment.

The tests used TRW's ``emulation technology'' called Reconfigurable Processor for Legacy Applications Code Execution. which the companies said has the potential for saving the Defense Department hundreds of millions of dollars in software redevelopment costs.

The technology has the potential to upgrade numerous aging Department of Defense computer systems to state-of-the-art processors, the companies said.

The flight demonstration program was conducted as part of a collaborative effort among the Air Force Research Laboratory, TRW Radio Systems and Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics completed five flight demonstrations on schedule and under budget, the companies said.

The F-117 flight demonstrations tested the navigation and weapon systems, dropped BDU-33s (Bomb Dummy Units) to revalidate the aircraft's bombing accuracy, and concluded with dropping two GBU-12 (Guided Bomb Unit).

Test pilot Air Force Lt. Col. Rod Cregier, F-117 Combined Test Force director, said he could not tell the difference in performance between the commercial, off-the-shelf computer running the RePLACE emulator and the actual weapon system computer, the companies said.

``The capabilities of the emulation technology seem almost too good to be true,'' said Keith Pedersen, F-117 RACE/RePLACE program manager for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. ``But the performance of the emulator through actual flight testing more than met my expectations. This technology provides us with an opportunity to explore a low-cost, low-risk approach for avionics upgrades.''

TRW's RePLACE technology enables old software to run unaltered on commercial hardware - maintaining desired functionalities and preserving existing software investment.

This allows the military to replace obsolete computers with faster commercial systems, continue use of old software such as existing operational flight software without change, and incrementally improve hardware and software to support new and modified capabilities.

RePLACE technology can potentially save the Department of Defense hundreds of millions of dollars in software redevelopment costs, officials said.

AFRL is addressing the problems associated with embedded information systems by using newly developed emulation technology hosted on the latest commercial processor hardware.

AFRL enlisted Lockheed Martin to evaluate TRW's RePLACE technology as part of a concept demonstration.

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(color) Lockheed Martin and TRW are pleased with software tes ted on the F-117 stealth fighter.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer