US Navy Awards $208.7M To LockMart For Three Aegis Weapon Systems

MISSILE DEFENSE

File photo of an Aegis Weapon System missile test fire.

Moorestown NJ (SPX) Feb 01, 2005
The US Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $208.7 million contract to produce three Aegis Weapon Systems. These Aegis Weapon Systems will equip the next three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, the 60th, 61st and 62nd ships of the class, and will provide the Navy with an adaptable open architecture weapons system that can easily and affordably be upgraded as technology evolves or threats change.

"Aegis Open Architecture gives the Navy greater flexibility to continue to adapt the Aegis Weapon System for new and more complex missions - and to do it faster and at lower cost," said Orlando Carvalho, vice president of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors' Surface Systems line of business.

"With a focus on whole-systems thinking, Aegis Open Architecture is designed to retrofit Aegis-equipped ships already at sea as well as be transportable across all of the Navy's surface force, providing extensive commonality and linkage in a way that further reduces acquisition and certification risk and cost."

Aegis Open Architecture is built using an Open Architecture Computing Environment (OACE) Category 3 infrastructure. OACE is a set of international standards designed to minimize the requirements for custom software, speed the development of new applications and significantly reduce the cost of technology upgrades and refresh.

The Navy has chosen OACE Category 3 as the first step in the service's move to an open computing environment. The SPY-1 radar and display control programs in these three Aegis Weapon Systems represent the key Aegis Open Architecture components.

Lockheed Martin's approach to open architecture is built on nearly a decade of "open system, rapid capability" deliveries to the Navy, including combat system, sonar, communications and electronic warfare capabilities.

For example, Lockheed Martin's Acoustic Rapid Commercial Off-The-Shelf Insertion (ARCI) program provides open architecture solutions for the Navy's submarine force. Since 1998, ARCI systems have been installed on 44 submarines, consistently on-schedule and under-budget, and is scheduled to be installed on all active submarines.

The Aegis Weapon System is the world's premier naval surface defense system and the sea-based element of the nation's Ballistic Missile Defense System.

Aegis is currently deployed on 68 U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers on station around the globe, with 18 more ships currently planned.

Aegis is also the primary weapon system on the Japanese Kongo-class destroyers, it is part of two European ship construction programs - the Spanish F-100 and the Norwegian New Frigate, and the Republic of Korea is now building three Aegis- equipped destroyers. Recently, Australia selected the Aegis Weapon System for its Air Warfare Destroyer program.

While this contract will not create new jobs, it sustains high-skill manufacturing jobs at Lockheed Martin's business in Moorestown.

MISSILE DEFENSE

Analysis: Missile Defense Semantics

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 17, 2005
With the failure of the latest test of the U.S. national missile defense system in December, the Pentagon seems to now be engaged in semantic gymnastics, declining to say whether the system is operational or not, and suggesting it never promised it would be.

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