Lockheed Martin's MS2 business unit is working on a contract awarded in December for continuing design, testing, and integration of the Aegis combat system computer program, called Advanced Capability Build (ACB) 08. This will be followed by delivery to the Ticonderoga-class cruiser Bunker Hill (CG-52), the first ship in a modernization program that eventually will upgrade all 22 Ticos. The Bunker Hill combat system went through successful energizing and testing last August.
The modernization initially will involve the seven cruisers (CG-52 through CG-58) fitted with the SPY-1A phased-array radar, first introduced in 1983. The cruisers' performance will be enhanced significantly by the insertion of the ACB08 software program (the number represents the delivery year) and a new computer infrastructure, including Navy-standard UYQ-70 display consoles powered by IBM Blade Server processors.
The Bunker Hill modernization began a year ago at BAE Systems' San Diego shipyard with hull, mechanical, and electrical upgrades. The process for all the SPY-1A cruisers is set for completion by 2011. The second phase, for the Princeton (CG-59) through the Port Royal (CG-73), which are equipped with the SPY-1B radar, will commence in 2012 along with a parallel modernization for the Arleigh Burke
class destroyers. The SPY-1B CGs and the DDGs will receive an ACB12 computer program. The destroyers from the Burke through the Chaffee (DDG-90) are equipped with the SPY-1D, while the DDG-91 through -112 carry the SPY-1D(v). This version is configured to be effective in the intense clutter of close-to-shore littoral environments.Jim Sheridan, manager of Aegis programs at Lockheed Martin, says that both the ACB08 and ACB12 upgrades comply with the Navy's requirement for a "common objective architecture" for combat system programs, based on such criteria as separation of computer hardware and software and use of commercially developed open standards as defined by the Navy's Open Architecture initiative. The rationale for the objective architecture, Navy and industry officials say, is to "build it once, field it many times" by maximizing use of common components for the combat systems of surface combatants, carriers, and amphibious ships, thereby achieving dramatic cost reductions. The current plan calls for a new ACB every two years in parallel with hardware upgrades, designated technical insertions, or TIs, such that fielding a single TI could support two ACBs.
The ACB08 software will provide the SPY-1A with the capability to launch the evolved Sea Sparrow air-defense missile, with some modifications to the MK 41 vertical-launch system. The cruisers also will replace the SPS-49 surface-search radar with the new SPQ-9B and an upgraded Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapon system, which provides an antisurface capability. Ships not yet equipped with the cooperative engagement capability (CEC), which integrates sensor data from multiple ships in a CEC network into a common track picture, will get the capability during modernization.
The computer suite for the newer CGs and the DDGs will be upgraded with the common display system provided by General Electric, and a common processing system, for which the contract has not yet been awarded. Both the CDS and CPS are fully open—capable of running commercially developed software from a host of qualified Navy vendors.
In addition to the ACB12 program, the destroyer modernization for DDGs-51 through -90 includes a new multimission signal processor and radar transmitter modification that will provide SPY-1D(v) capability. The Navy is considering requesting funding in the Fiscal Year 2010 budget for the new signal processor for the SPY-1B cruisers.
The DDGs also will be configured for the Navy's ballistic-missile defense capability, which includes the ability to launch a new SM-6 BMD missile, developed by Raytheon Missile Systems, enhancements to the VLS, and introduction of the naval integrated fire-control-counter-air (NIFC-CA), which is a component of ACB12.
Three SPY-1B cruisers, the Shiloh and Lake Erie (CG-67 and -70), and the Port Royal, already are BMD capable. The Navy has not yet decided which other cruisers will receive the capability.