Electronic Warfare System - Leonardo DRS Tuner

Electronic Warfare (EW) platforms face an increasingly challenging task in terms of RF channel density and signal evasiveness. That's why Curtiss-Wright and Leonardo DRS have collaborated on a range of rugged open architecture RF signal processing systems.

The rugged EW system is a compact solution to today’s RF challenges. It provides multiple receiver channels with independent or phase coherent tuning and supports frequency extensions to 18 GHz and an optional exciter channel exciter channel covering 2 MHz to 6 GHz. The RF tuner provides the bandwidth, dynamic range with low noise, processing, and configurability required for today’s EW applications.

That means this solution can deliver performance in hostile RF environments that was not possible previously in much larger systems.

The Curtiss-Wright EW multi-channel tuner system is a ruggedized compact 3U VPX system that combines state-of-the-art multi-channel receivers, Intel Xeon D multi-core DSPs, and AMD FPGAs. The Leonardo DRS SI-9172 Vesper tuner/exciter card provides four high-performance configurable tuner channels. The Intel Xeon D octal-core (12-core optional) CHAMP-XD1 DSP processor card provides the EW signal processing and system control. Signal processing in the system is augmented by the XF07-523 XMC that provides a user programmable AMD Kintex-7 FPGA with direct connection to the SI-9172 tuner.