RAF FAIRFORD, England—BAE Systems is to flight-test a Eurofighter Typhoon later this year equipped with multi-core computer processors as part of ongoing efforts to redesign the fighter’s complex mission systems.

The company is in the process of certifying the use of the multi-core processors, based on the Intel Corp.’s off-the-shelf Tiger Lake processors, which potentially can boost the aircraft’s computing power by a factor of 200.

The efforts are part of BAE’s self-funded efforts to de-risk technologies that could form part of the Eurofighter’s development roadmap and pave the way for the fighter that emerges from the Global Combat Air Program.

“We continue to put capability into the Typhoon, but it is getting to that stage where we need to fundamentally upgrade the infrastructure within the airplane,” BAE Business Development Director Anthony Gregory told journalists July 4 during company briefings ahead of the Royal International Air Tattoo here.

As part of those efforts, BAE has been working to redesign the aircraft’s mission software and make it compliant with the UK’s Pyramid open-architecture standard, splitting safety-critical and mission-critical software apart. This effort could enable rapid prototyping and fast software updates without the need for costly and time-consuming re-certification.

Pyramid was developed by BAE on behalf of the UK Defense Ministry to become the backbone of air systems. Such open architectures and planned sensors are expected to demand more computing power.

As part of the engineering effort, BAE has installed the Intel processors onto a chipset that can then be fitted into a line-replaceable unit (LRU), or black box.

Previously these boxes would hold six of the original legacy single-core processor chipsets, but the smaller chipsets of the new Intel-based processors allow for 14 to be installed in the same LRU with the same power consumption as the older chips.

“It is an exponential leap in processing power,” Gregory adds.

“The Intel chips were selected because they have been certified for use on aircraft before and they’ve got that enduring capability going forward,” Project Manager Chris Hodson says.

The processors being used for the testing are quad-core chips, but Hodson says these could expand to processors with 10 cores with better performance and power rating.

“The principle is that as chipsets go out of circulation or move into obsolescence, we will move to the next generation,” Hodson says.

The approach also is highly suited for cyber security, he adds, as the company no longer will be trying to protect 25-year-old processor technology. Introducing new hardware will make the systems less vulnerable, he says.

BAE is in the process of bidding their work into the Eurofighter’s Long-Term Evolution plan, which already has been heavily delayed.

Because of these delays, BAE has been trying to accelerate the work further so it is “ready for insertion by the customers at whatever appropriate point,” Gregory explains.

These efforts by the company are known internally as Typhoon Tranche 5 and also may include technologies such as dynamic adaptive solid-state power management systems that can squeeze more electrical power from the aircraft’s Eurojet EJ200 engines.

Engineers also are continuing to refine development of a large, wide-array display that will be capable of more clearly displaying information such as the radar and threat picture as well as high-definition imagery from sensors such as the aircraft’s targeting pod and the active electronically scanned array radars currently in development.