The Common Airborne Instrumentation System Program Overview

Abstract

The Common Airborne Instrumentation System (CAIS) is being developed by the Department of Defense through a Tri-service Program Office. The goals of the program are two fold. The first is to develop an instrumentation system that will meet the needs of the Air Force, Army, and Navy into the next century. The system is designed to support a full breadth of applications from a few parameters to engineering and management and development programs. The second is to provide a system that is airframe as well as activity independent. To accomplish these goals, the CAIS consists of two segments. The airborne segment consists of a system controller with a suite of data acquisition units. The system is configured with only the units that are required. The ground segment consists of a variety of support equipment. The support equipment enables the user to generate formats, load/verify airborne units, perform system level diagnostics and more.