From Concept to Combat: Reliable Connectivity for Battlefield Protection

Customer Challenge

The Customer approached Aptiv to address complex connectivity challenges in order to deploy a new defensive system engineered to protect soldiers on the battlefield. Aptiv had to rapidly design and develop a robust and reliable solution to meet operational deployment schedules of the system. The system was integral and critical to the situational awareness and protection of soldiers’ lives while operating in Afghanistan and was field deployable where it would receive repeated ongoing abuse in harsh conditions.

Challenge Review

The task for the Aptiv technical team was to develop a solution that met the strict Mil-Std-810C environmental and Mil-Std-461 EMC requirements, plus all other performance and technical requirements. This was a “can’t fail” solution that had to move from concept to production in less than six months.

Aptiv Solution

Our technical team prioritized the requirements and developed a unique, highly sophisticated solution that allowed the customer to take advantage of existing high speed data networking cable designs and modify them for use in battlefield conditions.

In collaboration with the design team, the operational team built prototypes and developed critical production tooling and processes that were ready the minute customer qualifications were complete. Utilizing the strengths of our vertical integration of both cable and interconnect manufacturing, the program went from concept to production in record time.

Through our decades of experience and concurrent engineering collaboration, the Aptiv team was able to mitigate technical risks and create a solution of molded cable assemblies that met all the required data rates, while also meeting both Mil-Std 810C environmental requirements and Mil-Std-461 EMC requirements.

Improvement

Typically military programs move from concept to production in 18-24 months. The US Army recognized Aptiv’s speed, quality, and technical prowess with appreciation for supporting the development of 575 systems – “Your conversion of over 1,000,000 feet of raw cable into thousands of cable assemblies in less than six months allows the US Army to network the systems together providing enhanced protection of our soldiers. Completing those cables in such a short period of time is quite an accomplishment we have never seen before.”