Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, this fall will deliver to Northrop Grumman's Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard elements of the command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) suite for the lead ship of the Coast Guard's new eight-ship class of national security cutters.
The company acts as prime contractor for the Coast Guard's Integrated Deepwater program, a massive effort to rebuild the service's cutters, patrol boats, and aircraft, and link them with an advanced C4ISR architecture.
In August, the joint venture began testing the first production set of C4ISR hardware at Lockheed Martin's Maritime Domain Awareness Center in Moorestown, New Jersey.
Deepwater, initiated in the mid-1990s, was even then a long overdue effort to replace the Coast Guard's elderly cutter fleet. For years, as a component of the Department of Transportation, the Coast Guard lost out on funding for modernization, despite warnings from its leadership. Meanwhile, the service's traditional law enforcement missions became critical national concerns, and interdiction of illegal immigrants and drug traffickers in Caribbean waters became a major drain on the service's resources.
On 11 September 2001, the Coast Guard's mission underwent a seismic shift. In the immediate aftermath, 12 cutters and more than 20 patrol boats, port security units, and HH-65 Dolphin helicopters deployed to the New York City area, and other cutters stood off port cities on both coasts, as the Coast Guard stepped into the new role of homeland defense. The Coast Guard was incorporated into the Department of Homeland security when the department was established in November 2002.
Leo MacKay, company president, said that "the pre-9/11 mission need statement for Deepwater has been completely rewritten-the Coast Guard has reevaluated the requirements and goals for mission, assets, and the C4ISR system in light of its new role in homeland defense."
He added that the new statement retains the broad focus on modernizing Coast Guard assets, but now addresses the unique requirements of homeland defense. The Coast Guard, as a member of the intelligence community, requires classified secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET) and chat capabilities, and enhanced interoperability with the four other armed services.
The Deepwater program encompasses construction of the new cutter and a range of communications and sensor upgrades for six 123-foot patrol boats, installation of SIPRNET email, chat, and International Mobile Satellite Organization (INMARSAT) and automatic identification system features for the Hamilton-class high-endurance and Famous- and Reliance-class mediumendurance cutters. Other components include new engines for the HH-65A and B helicopters, development of a new maritime patrol aircraft, fielding of a vertical takeoff/landing unmanned aerial vehicle, and C4ISR improvements at 21 shore command centers and communications stations.
The lead cutter-421-feet long and displacing 4,112 tons fully loaded-is schedueled for delivery in mid-2007. It will be outfitted with several Navy-developed systems, including the SPQ-9B surface-search radar and the SLQ-32 electronic countermeasures system.
Joe Villani, the company's chief engineer, said that the design team is pursuing for the cutter and the entire Deepwater architecture, a "system-of-systems" design approach that adopts and expands on the Navy's design strategy for surface ship combat systems, referred to as open architecture. Deepwater, like the Navy's architecture, uses an incremental, spiral development focus to adopt commercial standards for C4ISR system functions. It also is using several components planned for the Navy's littoral combat ship.
Deepwater, Villani said, is based on incorporating new technology in four increments, or spirals, to be completely defined by 2012. As new systems and upgrades are adopted, however, they could be fitted to new ships and retrofitted to older ones.
This approach projects system design 20 years into the future. "Even the cabinets are designed to be dynamically changeable, enabling the system to evolve in a streamlined way to accept new hardware and software," he said.
Deepwater C4ISR program manager Doug Wilhelm said that the center accommodates test systems that replicate all the elements of the cutter's suite. As C4ISR components are delivered, they are tested against the in-house systems. The center also is designing, building, and testing component systems for a Deepwater training facility, to be built at Petaluma, California, which will house a full-size replica of the shipboard system.