Lockheed Martin’s Rotary and Mission Systems—the Navy’s longtime prime contractor for the Aegis combat system—is continuing development of software to be adopted in a major upgrade for the system, designated Advanced Capability Build (ACB-16).
As part of an extensive Aegis modernization program under way, ACB-16 will deliver new capabilities for Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)-class destroyers for long-range defense against ballistic missiles (BMD) in a new baseline 9 configuration.
When the new program is completed, it will reside in a common source library (CSL) that serves as a permanent repository for all Aegis system computer programs. The CSL enables the Navy, as well as international navies that have the Aegis system, to access the code required to provide combat system capabilities for every mission of the Aegis fleet.
Jim Sheridan, Lockheed Martin’s vice president for naval combat & missile defense systems, says the CSL concept was the “next logical evolution” in Aegis program management. It follows the Navy’s successful shift, in 2008, to an “open architecture” (OA) for the Aegis system that introduces hardware and software based on common standards used for commercial technology. The initial OA configuration went to sea on board the USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) in 2009.
CSL provides combat system programs for the entire Aegis fleet—the Ticonderoga (CG-47)-class CGs and Arleigh Burke-class DDGs, as well as the two Aegis Ashore facilities. Interestingly, CSL also supports the Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships (Lockheed Martin is teamed with Marinette Marine) and the Coast Guard’s Legend-class national security cutters.
The CSL, Sheridan says, represents a process. “It includes specifications and testing of the various system configurations. The CSL is a repository of a lot of capability, not all of which is fielded into every instantiation of the system,” he says. The CSL provides new program “builds” roughly every four months.
He adds that CSL uses software tools and processes that allow the Aegis program to include in every system delivery only the capabilities the customer has determined for specific ships. For example, Sheridan says, because the Navy isn’t fielding BMD to the Ticonderoga-class cruisers, they receive an updated antiair warfare (AAW) capability without the BMD program. Conversely the Aegis Ashore facilities in Hawaii, Romania, and Poland receive BMD capability but not the AAW. DDGs will receive both capabilities, designated integrated air-missile defense (IAMD).
CSL also provides new combat system capabilities for allied navies with Aegis ships. Lockheed Martin will provide the IAMD program to Japan’s two Atago-class DDGs and South Korea’s three new KDX-III DDGs.
The Japanese, South Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, and Australian navies all benefit from CSL, because capabilities developed for and funded by the U.S. Navy, or any other Aegis navy, potentially are available to all.
This fall, at White Sands Missile Range, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Lockheed Martin conducted a successful first-time demonstration of the naval integrated fire-control counter-air (NIFC-CA), through integration of Aegis and the F-35B Lightning II joint-strike fighter. A Marine F-35B detected a threat missile and transmitted targeting data to a ground-based Aegis site, which then guided a Navy SM-6 antiair missile to destroy the threat. The effective integration of F-35B and Aegis, showcasing the NIFC-CA, now resides in the CSL, even while development continues.
The company now is testing Aegis baseline 10, the combat system program for the first new Flight III Burke-class DDGs. As baseline 10 is completed, it will be preserved in CSL on the four-month cycle, available for access by the Navy, which maintains a copy at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. “We’re out of ‘big-bang’ development. CSL allows for continuous evolution of combat system capability,” Sheridan says.
Mr. Walsh is a veteran reporter of Navy and Marine Corps news and former editor of Naval Systems Update.