Electronic-warfare technologies being developed for production and deployment on board surface combatants, carriers, and amphibs through the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) are slated to undergo a preliminary design review in June. An industry team led by Lockheed Martin Radar Systems will join with the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems in conducting the review.
Since 2002, the SEWIP initiative has evolved into a series of incremental technology and performance improvements to the Navy's longtime shipboard electronic-warfare (EW) system, the SLQ-32(v). First introduced in 1979, the system has gone through multiple upgrades to counter growing EW threats. The SEWIP also sought to fill a gap in EW capability projected when the Navy in April 2002 terminated an advanced integrated electronic-warfare system under development for the then-DD(X) destroyer, now DDG-1000, and other surface combatants.
Since 2003, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems has acted as the systems integrator for work on SEWIP Blocks 1A, 1B1, 1B2, and 1B3, each of which replaced obsolete SLQ-32(v) components with new technology: new signal processing, new displays and, in Block 1B3, a new high-gain high-sensitivity subsystem. (Lockheed Martin Radar Systems acted as a subcontractor for General Dynamics on Block 1B3.)
In September 2009 the Navy awarded a contract valued at $9.9 million for preliminary design of the Block 2 system to Lockheed Martin, teamed with ITT Electronic Systems of Morgan Hill, California; Cobham Defense Electronic Systems of Lansdale, Pennsylvania; Research Associates Syracuse; and Azure Summit Technology of Fairfax, Virginia. Assuming a successful preliminary design review, the team will receive funding to build engineering development models and eventually shift to low-rate initial production. If all contract options are exercised, the contract could be worth about $168 million.
Joseph Ottaviano, senior program manager for surface electronic warfare systems at Lockheed Martin, said that the Block 2 effort aims at three goals: upgrading the SLQ-32(v) antenna, introducing digital technology for rapid reprogramming of the system receiver, and compliance with the Navy's Open Architecture (or "objective architecture") initiative for ship combat systems, which mandates the use of commercial software standards to the maximum extent possible.
At the Surface Navy Association exposition in January, Ottaviano noted that new Navy EW requirements respond to the surface Navy's "full spectrum" of blue-water and littoral close-to-short operations, and reflect a need to reduce costs, minimize manning, and simplify maintenance.
The Lockheed Martin Block 2 system is based on the company's Integrated Common Electronics Warfare System (ICEWS), which was demonstrated at sea aboard the amphibious assault ship Comstock (LSD-45) during RIMPAC 2008, a biennial Pacific-region naval- and air-power exercise.
Ottaviano explained that the ICEWS consists of a series of building blocks that use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and well-defined interfaces. The ICEWS design enabled the Lockheed Martin team to reconfigure the system rapidly with COTS components. For example, the team was able to replace the tuner for the ICEWS on board the Comstock only three weeks before the at-sea demo, an effort that would have taken months for other programs.
The ICEWS system, which includes four antennas per ship, demonstrated the system's ability to provide the critical receive capabilities required, said Ottaviano.
ITT is providing outboard antenna components, and Cobham is providing elements that support the receive capability for the antenna.
In December 2009 the Navy awarded Azure Summit Technology a Phase 1 small-business innovative-research contract for development of "EW parametrics for improved emitter classification/identification" for the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems. Azure will develop software and signal-processing techniques to help identify and locate hostile emitting systems. That capability is expected to be integrated with the SEWIP Block 2 effort.
In March 2009 the Navy awarded General Dynamics a $39.9-million contract for additional work on SEWIP Block 1B. The award encompasses full-rate production for Block 1B2 systems, which provide a specific emitter-identification capability as well as network-centric mission-planning capabilities. The award also funds continuing design and development of SEWIP Block 1B3, including integration of the high gain/high sensitivity system in engineering development models.