Kenneth Blemel, vice president at Management Sciences, Inc, said the company was awarded a $1.5M Small Business Innovation Research contract to upgrade the traditional flight data recorder suite for the Navy's aircraft starting with the F-18 A/E strike fighter. The new product enables Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance with a data centric approach that has the potential to combine the capabilities of five separate products currently on the aircraft into a single box. In addition, it adds the ability to collect and process data during a mission, download it to a ground/aircraft carrier station, and upload real-time mission information queries. The new capabilities reduce the space required on the aircraft for information technology and recording, while providing revolutionary new features that monitor, diagnose and report in flight. Another key benefit is that the new product is based on a commercial off the shelf solution, designed to save the Naval Air Systems Command dollars, time, take-off weight, plus opening slots for other advanced systems.

Blemel says the new technology will undergo flight-testing this year and is expected to move into production 2004. "The D3 is a critical part of the military's data centric system model," he explained. "It provides the air traffic controller, maintainers, and operations with information never before available in real time.  The D3 sends reports on aircraft status, which helps in positioning the aircraft for maintenance and in reducing the time needed to put the aircraft back in the air. The PMA209 conference gives us an opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities of the new technology before the Navy's key decision makers."

Currently Management Sciences Inc. has five people assigned to the D3 FIR product. The company, which was founded in Albuquerque in 1976, provides programs for reliability, safety, maintainability and life-cycle cost analysis. At full production, the D3 FIR will require several hundred units for delivery for the F-18 A/E upgrade program.   Management Sciences Inc. has teamed with Honeywell to manufacture the D3 FIR.  Meeting the size and weight constraints of the F-18 allows the D3 FIR to fit most other aircraft that have a need for common data centric systems that enable network centric warfare.