Elbit upgrading Apache mission processor

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FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The U.S. subsidiary of Israel's Elbit Systems is redesigning and upgrading the mission processor of U.S. Army Apache Bock III helicopters.

The contract is for five years and worth $17.5 million. It was awarded to Elbit Systems North America by Boeing.

"The Elbit Systems of America Mission Processor lies at the heart of the Apache Block III Attack Helicopter and provides Boeing and its U.S. Army customer unparalleled computing power and capabilities," said Elbit Systems of America President and Chief Executive Officer Raanan Horowitz. "The refresh and upgrade program will ensure the Apache takes advantage of the latest processing technology available.

"We are pleased to be a part of this important program and look forward to working closely with both Boeing and the U.S. Army to provide leading edge technologies to the warfighter."

The Block III Mission Processor was originally designed and developed by Elbit Systems of America. It provides an open-system computing architecture that allows integration of new technologies. It contains 48 processing cores and can be expanded to 80 cores for general purpose processing.

Elbit said the system also has four graphics processors, enhanced video processing and additional encoding/decoding capabilities.

The Mission Processor will provide the Apache Block III avionics and mission equipment with the capability of sophisticated "networking" and on-board computing tasks and will allow the Apache Block III aircraft to more easily accommodate emerging capabilities.

This new mission computer underwrites a set of established technical standards through a "system-of-systems" approach so that new systems, sensors, applications and electronics can be easily integrated.