The U.S. Army is developing a universal electronic warfare capability designed to be interoperable with any platform. Called the Modular Mission Payload, or MMP, the standardized EW kit can be integrated onto any system and will enable the introduction of updates and new technologies to existing capabilities.
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Modular Mission Payload Development Update
In an interview with Breaking Defense, Col. Scott Shaffer, project manager within the Army’s Program Executive Office for Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Sensors, shared that the MMP is still in the early stages of development.
“I probably don’t have a lot of information on the production quantities and demand, because part of the prototyping process, which we’re going to dig really deep into next fiscal year, is understanding how many do we need?” Shaffer said. “And then where do they fit in the formations?”
What is currently known about the MMP, according to the official, is that it needs to be commercial-off-the-shelf or government-off-the-shelf. He explained that a COTS and GOTS configuration will allow the Army to easily swap systems with newer kits in the future, “as long as they conform to some kind of standard in that system.”
Differences Between MMP and CMOSS
Despite similarities, Army officials insisted that MMP diverges in some aspects from another service effort, the Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Cyber, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and EW Modular Open Suite of Standards, also known as CMOSS.
CMOSS has a plug-and-play architecture, allowing an exchange of software cards between platforms to respond to specific environmental threats. During a recent panel discussion, Col. Leslie Gorman, EW capability manager for the Army, said CMOSS is not modular enough compared to MMP and may be too large for some unmanned aerial systems and armored fighting vehicles.
“With the modular EW systems, we’re looking at lighter weight chassis, in some cases, dual-use EW sensors,” Gorman revealed.
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