The U.S. Navy expects by March to award a contract for work as systems integrator for Advanced Capability Build 2016 (ACB-16), the combat system planned for fielding in 2016 for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Lockheed Martin MS2 is the longtime systems integrator for the Aegis combat system for the Burkes and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
The combat-system baselines for the Burkes and Ticos (CGs-52 through -73) define the range of the ships’ weapon and sensor capabilities. The Navy has been pursuing critical upgrades to the baselines for both the CGs and DDGs as elements of comprehensive modernization programs for both classes.
Jim Sheridan, director of U.S. Navy Aegis programs at Lockheed Martin MS2, said the company has completed installations of baseline 8—formerly called ACB-08, designating the year of first fielding—for the USS Bunker Hill (CG-52) through Philippine Sea (CG-58).
Baseline 8 supports modifications to the Mk-41 vertical-launch system needed to deploy the Evolved Seasparrow missile. The new baseline also adds the SPQ-9B search radar, the Mk-15 Phalanx Block 1B close-in weapon system for terminal air defense, a shipboard advanced-radar target-identification system, the Common Link data management system, the Mk-116 undersea-weapons tracking system, and the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) sensor-netting system.
Cruisers between CG-59 and -72, except for several the Navy plans to retire next year, are expected to receive baseline 9, formerly called ACB-12. All of the destroyers now in service and under construction also eventually will get baseline 9. The cruiser variant is designated 9A; the destroyer program is 9C.
In late 2012 Lockheed Martin completed installation and light-off for Aegis baseline 9A on board the Chancellorsville (CG-62) in San Diego. Baseline 9C installation also is under way on board the first Burke-class destroyer to get the program, the John Paul Jones (DDG-53), also in San Diego.
Navy officials say the cruiser and destroyer baseline 9 variants differ in that 9A provides only anti-air-warfare upgrades, while 9C provides a significantly enhanced ballistic-missile/integrated air-defense (BMD/IAMD) capability.
The baseline 9 programs are maintained in a common-source library that allows the Aegis program to maximize commonality for both modernizations and new-ship construction, and minimize or eliminate the need for new software development. The common-source library also will provide baseline 9E for the Aegis Ashore program, scheduled for deployment in Rumania in 2015 and in Poland in 2018.
The BMD/IAMD capability for the destroyers is enabled primarily by Aegis “open-architecture” software, including a BMD 5.0 program and a multi-mission signal processor that supports the naval integrated fire-control-counter-air (NIFC-CA) capability and the Raytheon-built RIM-174 SM-6 air-defense missile (the cruisers also get NIFC-CA with baseline 9A). Baseline 9C also includes display and processing upgrades for the destroyers’ Aegis SPY-1D(v) phased-array radar.
“The IAMD capability going aboard John Paul Jones allows the Navy to dynamically balance radar resources in a way it has not been able to do before,” Sheridan said.
The SM-6, built by Raytheon Missile Systems, is fitted with an active seeker for extended range effectiveness.
NIFC-CA, supported by baseline 9, integrates the surveillance and tracking capabilities of the E-2D advanced Hawkeye aircraft and other remote sensors such as the Army’s JLENS (joint land-attack cruise-missile-defense elevated netted sensor system) with CEC and SM-6 to provide a remote targeting capability.
In September the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems and the Army conducted a successful demonstration of NIFC-CA at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. For the demo, the baseline 9 program used sensor data provided by the JLENS via CEC to launch an SM-6, which intercepted a cruise-missile target.
In the Navy’s current plan, the lead ship Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) through the Porter (DDG-78) will be the first destroyers to be fitted out with baseline 9C.
The Aegis program then will introduce baseline 9D for the John Finn (DDG-113), now under construction as the first ship to be built in the restarted Burke program (originally planned to end with DDG-112 but now extended at least to DDG-125). Baseline 9D will incorporate 9C capabilities and new radar advances, making the Finn the first ship designed and built to be BMD-capable.
The combat systems for future new-build Burkes will be based on capabilities that emerge with ACBs-14, -16, and -20. In current planning, ACB-20 also will support a new air- and missile-defense radar that will replace the SPY-1D(v) for ships beginning with DDG-123.