Military Electronics Chassis & Enclosures

Military electronics enclosures are specialized protective housings designed to shield electronic components and systems used in defense applications from environmental hazards, such as extreme temperatures, humidity, shock, and electromagnetic interference
Overview Military Electronics Chassis & Enclosures
By Mike Ball Last updated: December 4th, 2024

Electronic chassis enclosures provide protection as well as connectivity and additional functionality for critical military electronic systems.

Typically manufactured from materials such as aluminium, stainless steel, or reinforced plastics, they house cards and electronic modules used for applications such as image and video processing, mission computing and flight control, signals intelligence (SIGINT), electronic warfare (EW), radar, payload management and communications.

Enclosures for aircraft electronics are often known as Air Transport Racks (ATR).

Enclosure Standards and Form Factors

Electronic enclosures will typically have a backplane that serves as a way to interconnect the electronic cards inside, providing them with a common power supply and communications interface. The layout of the backplane, including its insertion slots and other aspects of electronic design, will depend on the specific form factor.

Ultra-Thin Rackmount Enclosure by Atrenne

Ultra-Thin Rackmount Enclosure by Atrenne

Common standards include

  • VPX (VITA 46)
  • OpenVPX
  • CompactPCI
  • PXI
  • PXI Express

Electronic enclosures and chassis may also be aligned with the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) initiative to support U.S. Department of Defense applications.

Military electronic chassis may be provided in a variety of standard sizes such as 3U and 6U. In addition to slots for cards and power supplies, they may also provide bays for removable hard drives and data storage devices. The front panels of the enclosures may provide a variety of different I/O capabilities, including MIL-STD-38999 circular connectors.

Ruggedized Defense Electronics Enclosures

6U Universal Enclosure by LCR Embedded

6U Universal Enclosure by LCR Embedded Systems

Rugged enclosures for defense applications need to provide protection against a variety of environmental conditions, including temperature, shock, vibration, moisture and dust, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and chemicals.

Ruggedized chassis may be designed to military specifications such as MIL-STD-810 and MIL-STD-461, as well as aircraft-specific standards such as DO-160.

In order to ensure that the electronic systems within continue to run efficiently despite the heat that they generate, electronic enclosures for military and defense systems will typically require cooling.
Cooling Mechanisms include:

  • Forced air cooling using fans
  • Conduction cooling using heatsinks and thermal conduction
  • Liquid cooling
  • Combined methods

Products (18)

RMC3-160 3U VPX Chassis

16-slot 19” rackmount chassis for 3U VPX and SOSA aligned payloads

16-slot 19” rackmount chassis for 3U VPX and SOSA aligned payloads
... 19" rackmount chassis designed to host 3U VPX and SOSA aligned payloads. With 16 conduction-cooled...
DK3HS Development Platform

Development platform for high-speed modules with 100Gb data rates

Development platform for high-speed modules with 100Gb data rates
The LCR DK3HS Development Platform is designed for the development of high-speed 100Gb SOSA Aligned ...
DK3-SAVE Development Chassis

Development chassis for SAVE-compliant army land vehicle systems

Development chassis for SAVE-compliant army land vehicle systems
...VE development chassis is engineered specifically for testing and integrating systems compliant with...
DK3 Development Chassis

8-slot 3U VPX benchtop development platform

8-slot 3U VPX benchtop development platform
The LCR DK3 Development Platform is a highly adaptable benchtop solution designed for SOSA-aligned 3...
DK3-1200 Development Chassis

12-slot 19″ development chassis for VPX and SOSA-aligned modules

12-slot 19″ development chassis for VPX and SOSA-aligned modules
...PX Development Chassis is a versatile and robust solution tailored for both small and large scale...
AoC3U-1440 ATR Chassis

14-slot forced air & conduction-cooled enclosure with mission-configurable backplane

14-slot forced air & conduction-cooled enclosure with mission-configurable backplane
...ion-cooled ATR enclosure equipped with air assist, tailored for high slot count 3U VPX systems and... The AoC3U-1440 enclosure is equipped with MIL-STD-1275 and 704 power supplies, ensuring reliability...
AoC3U-821 ATR Chassis

Eight-slot air over conduction cooled chassis for VPX & SOSA-aligned cards

Eight-slot air over conduction cooled chassis for VPX & SOSA-aligned cards
This chassis is part of the air-over-conduction cooled ATR chassis line, ensuring optimal thermal... ...itionally, the chassis's design accommodates expansion for additional thermal management or storage,...
AoC3U-610 ATR Chassis

Six-slot mil-spec ATR chassis with enhanced thermal management

Six-slot mil-spec ATR chassis with enhanced thermal management
The AoC3U-610 chassis is engineered for superior thermal management in military and defense... This ATR chassis optimizes temperature control by integrating forced air with conduction cooling,...
AoC3U-412 ATR Chassis

Four-slot 3U VPX chassis with removable drive bays & combined air/conduction cooling

Four-slot 3U VPX chassis with removable drive bays & combined air/conduction cooling
...... AoC3U-400 Series ATR chassis lineup, enhancing data storage and access in military applications.... This chassis is engineered for optimal thermal management, combining forced air and conduction...
AoC3U-210 ATR Chassis

Dual-slot VPX chassis for airborne & ground radar & ISR sensors

Dual-slot VPX chassis for airborne & ground radar & ISR sensors
...l Slot VPX ATR Chassis is rugged and compact, tailored for EW/ISR and radar applications in... This ATR chassis accommodates software-defined radio, RF tuners, and RFSoC boards in 3U VPX format,...
200 Series HPEC System

VPX and SOSA-aligned system for high-performance tactical edge computing

VPX and SOSA-aligned system for high-performance tactical edge computing
...h signals. The chassis, LCR's 200 Series AoC3U-210, is designed for optimal size, weight, and power...
600 Series VPX HPEC System

3U OpenVPX system for high-performance onboard computing

3U OpenVPX system for high-performance onboard computing
... LCR AoC3U-620 chassis, which supports six payload slots and two VITA 62 power supplies. It is...
800 Series CMOSS MOSA System

SOSA-aligned 3U HPEC modular open sensor system for radar and ISR

SOSA-aligned 3U HPEC modular open sensor system for radar and ISR
... AoC3U-821 ATR chassis, the system accommodates 8 payload slots, 2 VITA 62 PSU slots, and a...
716 Series

3U & 6U ATR chassis designed for maximum airborne cooling

3U & 6U ATR chassis designed for maximum airborne cooling
Rugged enclosures for avionics and computing requirements for applications such as ISR, electronic... ...ransport Rack) enclosures provides a range of rugged solutions for avionics and computing...
582 Series

Ultra-thin rackmount enclosure in 1U or 2U form factors

Ultra-thin rackmount enclosure in 1U or 2U form factors
...thin rackmount enclosures is designed for high-availability computing and networking applications,...
Chassis SFF-4

Lightweight and compact conduction-cooled chassis for airborne and ground vehicles

Lightweight and compact conduction-cooled chassis for airborne and ground vehicles
...ctor ATR-style chassis designed to provide maximum strength and cooling for military vehicle... ...duction-cooled chassis is engineered with extended temperature, shock and vibration tolerance, and...
524 Series

Open-frame CMOSS, SOSA and OpenVPX development systems

Open-frame CMOSS, SOSA and OpenVPX development systems
......Ideal for development of new mission-critical military aircraft and vehicle computing systems. ...ng development chassis provides a 9-slot 3U OpenVPX backplane with profiles aligned to the Sensor...
Vulcan

Development system for VPX projects based on Intel CPUs

Development system for VPX projects based on Intel CPUs
...ent system for military and aerospace designers and systems integrators looking to create VPX...

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