The data bus of the next generation European fighters

STANAG 3910 is a NATO standard which describes the high speed data bus that is used on board both the next generation European fighters currently being developed: the Anglo-Germano-Italo-Spanish European Fighter Aircraft (EFA) and the French RAFALE fighter. STANAG 3910 is a "dual-speed" (1 Mbps+20 Mbps) data bus: a 20 Mbps, data-block-transfer-dedicated, High Speed line is added to, and controlled through a MIL-STD-1553B-fully-compliant Low Speed line. The optimized 20 Mbps data rate together with the use of MTL-STD-1553B as a basis result in a very cost-effective data highway which meets the requirements of the most recent aircraft. Next generation airborne systems require the exchange of many different kinds of data. Dassault Electronique has developed and produced compact MIL-STD-1553B/STANAG 3910 BCRT interface module (named HBM 3910) which provides the necessary functionalities and performances. STANAG 3910 has become a living reality fully supported by off-the-shelf products. It is expected to become the avionic data bus standard of the next 20 years in Europe. After briefly presenting the STANAG 3910 data bus, this paper focuses on how the latest requirements of military avionic systems have driven towards high-performance and enhanced-functionality bus interface components.<<ETX>>