Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
7/24/2015
Northrop Grumman demonstrated the ability to “rapidly integrate” subsystems onto the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber using Open Mission Systems (OMS)-compliant architecture in June at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the company announced this week. "This demonstration paves the way for the B-2 weapon system to provide new operational capability well into the future at an affordable cost," said Brig. Gen. Eric Fick, Program Executive Officer for Fighters and Bombers at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
OMS is an Air Force effort to develop plug-and-play interfaces between mission systems and services. “This standardized approach allows OMS-compliant mission systems and services to be reused across multiple aircraft,” the release says. Northrop Grumman “defined and integrated” the B-2’s OMS infrastructure in about six weeks, it says. The demonstration was meant to show that “OMS-compliant architectures are feasible on legacy platforms” and will allow “for new capabilities to be integrated rapidly and affordably across advanced manned and unmanned aircraft,” the release says.
The test flight involved another aircraft detecting a ground threat and broadcasting its location “across an OMS-compliant line-of-sight (LOS) Link-16 data link,” according to the announcement. After receiving the threat information, the battle management command and control node “assigned a nearby B-2 to engage the target,” after which the bomber “used its onboard OMS-compliant auto-routing function to replan its mission to prosecute and destroy the target in a simulated attack,” the announcement says.
