Rockwell Collins achieved its most significant milestone yet for the KC-390 program with the completion of a successful Critical Design Review (CDR) at the Embraer facility in São José dos Campos, Brazil in February. The announcement was made today at LAAD Defence & Security 2013.

Rockwell Collins also announced it has fully established an in-country program management and engineering team in Brazil. The team, fully dedicated to the KC-390 program, is co-located at Rockwell Collins do Brazil and Embraer facilities in São José dos Campos.

“The co-location of our KC-390 team with our customer in Brazil contributed significantly to the successful on-time completion of the CDR. We're focused on bringing additional resources to the region to provide in-country support to the program moving forward,” said Thierry Tosi, vice president and managing director, Americas for Rockwell Collins. “We expect continued investment in employment, infrastructure and advanced technology in Brazil to support the KC-390 and other programs in years to come.”

Rockwell Collins recently increased its employment in Brazil by 35 percent, including establishing a new leadership structure, to help support current programs and to drive future growth. Part of this growth is being driven by plans to produce the state-of-the-art Pro Line Fusion displays and control panels for the KC-390 – as well as assembling, testing and repairing High Frequency (HF) radios in Brazil.

First military application of Pro Line Fusion avionics

The KC-390 program marks the first military application of the company's highly advanced Pro Line Fusion® integrated avionics system, which entered the business jet market in 2012. It also represents the most content that Rockwell Collins has on an Embraer military aircraft.

Although Pro Line Fusion debuted in the commercial systems market segment in 2012, its scaleability and flexibility make it highly adaptable to the needs of the military market segment. For instance, on the KC-390, the system will be enhanced to include night vision capability and allow the display of customer unique mission specific information on the Pro Line Fusion displays. The team is also working on integrating video capability from sensors on the aircraft to the main displays, and an additional display will be located in the additional crew member station, a position in the flight deck that can be used for specific mission systems operation.

Main features on the KC-390 flight deck include: five high-resolution 15-inch diagonal Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD), advanced Flight Management Systems (FMS) with Wide Area Augmentation System that supports Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance approaches (WAAS/LPV) and Required Navigation Performance (RNP) capabilities, advanced graphical flight planning capability, and an Information Management System to manage databases and facilitate wireless interactivity with the ground infrastructure. Optional features include Integrated Flight Information Systems with electronic charts and enhanced maps as well as Rockwell Collins Synthetic Vision System.

Additional KC-390 content

In addition to the Pro Line Fusion avionics system, Rockwell Collins is providing its DF-430 Direction Finder, HF-9000 High Frequency radio system and latest generation Satellite for the KC-390 program.

For search and rescue missions the DF-430 provides rescuers the ability to home in on a signal from greater distances than any other system – allowing the rescuers to pinpoint the location of distressed vessels from as far away as 200 nautical miles.

The HF-9000 High-Frequency radio system allows for automatic link establishment that affords the best data channel available. Its pressurized antenna coupler offers full operational capability at extreme altitudes and temperatures, while maximizing the radiated high-frequency signal power. The system stores 50 manually tuned frequencies and can learn and store tuning data for 99 preset channels. It has a global range with 200 watts of power. Rockwell Collins is also providing the DVP 200 data and voice privacy processor, a new product, which offers data and voice privacy with outstanding audio quality. This new device removes the static normally associated with HF communications to provide crystal-clear digital audio.