A service-oriented framework for manned and unmanned systems to support network-centric operations

Network-centricity and autonomy are two buzzwords that have found increasing attention since the beginning of this decade in both, the military and civil domain. Although various conceptions exist of which capabilities are required for a system to be considered network-centric or autonomous, there can hardly be found proposals or prototypes that describe concrete transformations for both capabilities into software. The presented paper reviews work accomplished at EADS Military Air Systems driven by the need to develop an infrastructure that supports the realisation of both concepts in software with respect to traditional and modern software engineering principles, e.g., re-use and service-oriented development. This infrastructure is provided in form of a prototypical framework, accompanied by configuration and monitoring tools. Tests in a complex scenario requiring network-centricity and autonomy have shown that a significant technical readiness level can be reached by using the framework for mission software development.