Lockheed AC-130 has several variants. In picture, an AC-130U gunship. Credit: Senior Airman Julianne Showalter.

Abaco Systems has secured a key order to support a major upgrade to an existing Side Head Up Display (HUD) platform in AC-130J gunships.

The company’s high-performance embedded computing system called MAGIC1A was selected through a competitive selection process for the upgrade of the HUD platforms.

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The Side HUD in the aircraft provides pilots with operational visibility of the battlespace.

The design win carries an initial value of $505,000 with a lifetime potentiality of $4.5m.

Abaco Systems chief growth officer John Muller said: “We have had an excellent source of relationship capital with this customer from years of exceptional service.

“Our innovative approach met synchronised expectations to deliver exactly what the customer needed to succeed. This design win is a prime example of Abaco’s ability to innovate so that we can deliver best in class military and aerospace contributions.”

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Over the past several years, Abaco has delivered around 50 legacy MAGIC1 systems for Side HUD application.

According to the Abaco website, the system uses a combination of Intel and NVIDIA processors in a low SWaP-C3 package to ensure seamless integration with different commercial and military applications.

Deliveries of these systems are slated for this quarter of the year.

Abaco Systems specialises in open architecture computing and electronic systems for aerospace, defence and industrial applications.

In April, Abaco Systems partnered with Amergint Technologies to develop electronic warfare (EW) communications technology for troops.

The collaboration will involve combining Abaco’s ruggedised VP430 RFSoC hardware platform with Amergint’s Softlink architecture to create a lower cost, rapidly available technology.

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