The Universal Armament Interface

The United States Air Force has identified that the time taken to field new weapon capabilities is intrinsically linked to the aircraft Operational Flight Programme (OFP) procurement cycles. Traditionally, should a new weapon requirement be needed, integration could only commence at the start of the next OFP upgrade cycle. As such cycles may only occur every three to four years, the introduction to service of new military capability has the potential to be significantly delayed. The response to this situation has been the development of the Universal Armament Interface (UAI), a concept which aims to break the dependence on the OFP upgrade cycles, thereby enabling new weapons to be introduced to service quickly. This chapter provides an overview of the UAI concept and the potential benefits it brings to weapons integration programmes.