Eurotech subsidiary Parvus Corporation announced a follow-on contract with Lockheed Martin Systems Integration – Owego to supply rugged VME Ethernet switch cards for the Navy’s MH-60 R and MH-60S SEAHAWK helicopters. For more than six years, Parvus has supplied rugged VME Ethernet switches in support of the Navy helicopter program. The latest follow-on contract for a few hundred units is expected to be fulfilled during 2010.

The MH-60R model is the world’s most capable naval helicopter available today and is designed to operate from frigates, destroyers, cruisers and aircraft carriers. Similarly, the MH-60S Seahawk helicopter is designed to perform vertical replenishment, combat search and rescue, special warfare support, airborne mine countermeasures missions and can conduct anti-surface warfare. Rugged Ethernet switches are critical to the SEAHAWK’s multiple missions as the switches interface with a variety of instrumentation systems used onboard the helicopters.

The VME Ethernet switch being delivered to Lockheed Martin is similar to Parvus’ new COTS COM-8000 – an ultra-rugged, conduction-cooled 6U single-slot VME Ethernet Switch card compliant with IPv6 traffic and developed for command & control / situational awareness subsystems. To meet stringent US Naval Helicopter environmental and performance requirements, Parvus qualified the VME switch card to extreme temperature and vibration profiles experienced on the platform.

“The SEAHAWK helicopter program is a state-of-the-art, multi-mission naval platform which means only the most trusted, durable electronics will suffice,” said Dusty Kramer, vice president of sales and marketing for Parvus. “By leveraging our extensive expertise in electrical design and MIL environmental qualification, Parvus is able to deliver a highly rugged switch that can meet the rigorous demands of the SEAHAWK helicopters.”

Parvus Corporation is a leading supplier of rugged COTS computing and IP networking subsystems for Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) constrained military, aerospace, and homeland defense applications. Parvus’ tactical mission processors, network routers, Ethernet switches and embedded board-level products provide highly reliable command, control, computing and communication (C4) capabilities for situational awareness and mobile data processing in airborne, ground vehicle, and naval installations. Parvus was founded in 1983 and is part of the Eurotech Group (ETH.MI), a world leader in small form factor and high performance computing with operations across North America, Europe, and Asia.