The ability to provide high-voltage power on ground vehicle platforms is a rapidly growing requirement as high peak power is often needed to accelerate a high-inertia load.

From the outside, the turret system on a ground vehicle may appear a straightforward mechanism.

Some environmental constraints for deployed military computing systems are operational temperature, humidity, sand, dust, vibration, shock/basic, leakage (immersion), steam and water jet cleaning, rapid decompression, contamination by fluids (e.g. oil, fuel, cleaning), nuclear hardness, and input voltage.

Awards are in three tiers -- ranging from platinum, the highest, to the gold awards, and finally to the silver awards.

Industrial participation is seen as a way to develop and maintain production, technology and expertise, so that critical defense products and services can continue to be produced under emergency conditions.

The proliferation of connected systems has been enabled by the U.S. military embrace of the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) revolution.

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are being embraced so the technology can be serviced at the base instead of waiting for specialized parts or sending the system back state-side.

Aaron Frank and Ivan Straznicky look at VITA 47. The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard VITA 47 gives system integrators a baseline for reliable and rugged products.