Rockwell Collins’ CAAS Ready for Deployment

Rockwell Collins said its Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) in the Boeing CH-47F cockpit was declared operationally ready for deployment by the U.S. Army. The first CAAS-equipped platform, the MH-47G, completed final qualification testing and was deployed this year. Development and testing of the CH-47F was recently completed, paving the way for the fielding of more than 500 CAAS cockpits in Chinook aircraft, Rockwell Collins said. "The significance of this upgrade is our CAAS cockpit will provide enhanced levels of situational awareness for CH-47F pilots and can be easily upgraded as new technology is matured," said Phil Jasper, vice president and general manager of Integrated Systems for Rockwell Collins. Initially developed for the Special Operations Forces' MH-47 and MH-60 helicopter fleets, Rockwell Collins' CAAS solution has also been selected for the UH-60M, ARH-70A, MH-60T, VH-60N, CH-53E and CH-53K. CAAS uses common, reusable processing elements in each piece of hardware and incorporates an open systems architecture based on commercial standards. Rockwell Collins said the commonality of hardware components is designed to provide lower total life cycle cost and reduce expenditures for technology insertion and supportability.