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Radio frequency products spanning multiple functions have become increasingly critical to the warfighter. Military use
of the electromagnetic spectrum now includes communications, electronic warfare (EW), intelligence, and mission
command systems. Due to the urgent needs of counterinsurgency operations, various quick reaction capabilities (QRCs)
have been fielded to enhance warfighter capability. Although these QRCs were highly successfully in their respective
missions, they were designed independently resulting in significant challenges when integrated on a common platform.
This paper discusses how the Modular Open RF Architecture (MORA) addresses these challenges by defining an open
architecture for multifunction missions that decomposes monolithic radio systems into high-level components with welldefined
functions and interfaces. The functional decomposition maximizes hardware sharing while minimizing added
complexity and cost due to modularization. MORA achieves significant size, weight and power (SWaP) savings by
allowing hardware such as power amplifiers and antennas to be shared across systems. By separating signal conditioning
from the processing that implements the actual radio application, MORA exposes previously inaccessible architecture
points, providing system integrators with the flexibility to insert third-party capabilities to address technical challenges
and emerging requirements.
MORA leverages the Vehicular Integration for Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence,
Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR)/EW Interoperability (VICTORY) framework. This paper concludes by
discussing how MORA, VICTORY and other standards such as OpenVPX are being leveraged by the U.S. Army
Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) Communications Electronics Research, Development,
and Engineering Center (CERDEC) to define a converged architecture enabling rapid technology insertion,
interoperability and reduced SWaP.
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