Rip out work is set to start this month on board the Ticonderoga-class Aegis guided-missile cruiser Bunker Hill (CG-52) at a BAE Systems shipyard in San Diego. This is the first step in a year-long updating of the ship's machinery, the Aegis weapon system, and shipboard weapons and sensors.
The Bunker Hill work kicks off a comprehensive modernization planned for the Navy's seven Aegis "baseline 2" cruisers, Bunker Hill through Philippine Sea (CG-58) that eventually will be extended to the rest of the Aegis fleet through a broader Aegis modernization program that will encompass the remaining 15 cruisers, Princeton (CG-59) through Port Royal (CG-73) and all 62 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers (DDG-51 through DDG-112).
The upgrade work and "lighting off" the Aegis system for testing on the Bunker Hill is set for completion in August, with her return to service in early 2009. The seven-ship cruiser modernization is scheduled to be complete by 2016; Aegis modernization starts with the Arleigh Burke in 2012.
The Navy built 27 Ticonderoga-class CGs with the lead ship commissioned in 1983. The first five—CG-47 to -51—"baseline 1" ships have been removed from Fleet service.
Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager for sea-based missile defense at Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, the longtime prime contractor for the Aegis system, says that the modernization expands on the company's traditional "build a little, test a little" philosophy for upgrading Aegis.
The cruiser initiative will install the newest version of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software developed for the Aegis system, bringing the cruisers into full compliance with the Navy's Open Architecture initiative, which is managed by the Program Executive Office for Integrated Weapon Systems.
The OA program aims at building highly common combat system architectures for surface combatants sharply limiting the use of non-standard components to those required for unique missions. The OA program eventually also will reach the submarine fleet and the Navy's tactical aircraft.
Jim Sheridan, director of Aegis U.S. Navy programs at Lockheed Martin, says that the Bunker Hill work starts with several ship machinery upgrades and replacement of obsolescent Navy-proprietary display consoles and computer hardware and software with new UYQ-70 display consoles and a new OA-compliant computing infrastructure. That infrastructure will host new OA-compliant software programs for the Aegis weapon system, radar control, and display control.
The OA computer software architecture going aboard the seven CGs, designated COTS Refresh 2 (CR-2), represents the most modern version of OA-compliant Aegis software. The earlier CR-1 is being installed on board Burke-class destroyers DDG-103 through DDG-112, the last ships of the class. DDG-91 through -102 were fitted out with still-earlier CR-0.
Cruiser modernization also will install several new combat systems: the SPQ-9B, which will serve as the primary radar for the ship's gun weapon system and as a queuing system for the Aegis SPY-1, replacing the older -9A. The Phalanx close-in weapon system gun mount will get a Block 9B upgrade, which provides an anti-surface capability.
The ship's Mk 45 deck gun is "upgunned" to a Mod 4 version from 54-caliber to 62-caliber, enabling it to fire new extended-range guided munitions. The Mk 41 VLS is upgraded to launch the Evolved Seasparrow air-defense missile.
Aegis modernization for the DDGs will insert a new CR-3 COTS software refresh. For the destroyers only, Aegis modernization will include an OA version of the Navy's theater ballistic missile defense capability, the SM-6 long-range air-defense missile, and the naval integrated fire-control-counter-air (NIFC-CA) capability. The NIFC-CA, still in development, will be capable of integrating shipboard and joint-service weapons and sensors for long-range air defense.
The effort will add the SQQ-89A(v)15 antisubmarine warfare system, which includes a multi-function towed-array sonar. The (v)15 array will detect returns to the active emissions of the ship's hull-mounted SQS-53 sonar, providing a bi-static acoustic capability needed to detect quieter diesel submarines.
The Aegis modernization also will include the upgrades going to the baseline 2 cruisers. The Aegis modernization enhancements that can be carried out with software changes and don't require equipment upgrades also will be backfitted to the baseline 2 ships. The SQQ-89(v)15, for example, requires additional equipment and won't go to the early CGs.