All F-15 fighters are now equipped with solid state digital recorders. These devices were designed with extra computing power and I/O ports that have already been used to broaden their application. For example, the addition of a data acquisition unit and crash survivable memory unit turned all DVRs into Flight Data Recorders (FDRs) with only a minor change to the hardware. These FDRs are being further modified to provide an interface to the Sniper targeting pod and an upgraded cockpit display for F-15C/D aircraft. The added processor board for this purpose, with USAF source control of the processor OFP, offers additional opportunity for even more sophisticated computational based operational upgrades, with the same reduced cost and schedule benefits as those realized from the pod and display upgrades. In order to fully exploit this resource for the other priority upgrades to F-15 systems, such as EW, IRST, data link, and mission operations, additional Removable Memory Module (RMM) data rate and storage capacity are required. This upgrade to the FDR systems will replace the 30Mbyte/sec IEEE-1394b channel to/from the RMM with a 100Mbyte/sec Gigabit Ethernet channel and replace all 64 Gigabyte IEEE-1394b RMMs with double capacity (128GB), higher bandwidth Gigabit Ethernet units.

Without an increase in FDR native bandwidth the Air National Guard will not be able to take advantage of the built-in computing power of the FDR. In addition, the United States Air Force has adopted IRIG 106 Chapter 10 as the format standard for all solid state recorders. That standard is being modified to drop IEEE 1394b and replace it with Gigabit Ethernet for future systems. Funding this change now during the FDR upgrade and installation will save time and significant logistical expense over a future RMM upgrade.

Estimated Cost:
130 x DVRs @ $24,963 per Unit Cost; Program Cost: $ 3,245,190
260 x RRMs included in Unit Cost and Program Cost.
Total: $ 3,245,190