In December 2003, the Aegis destroyer Donald Cook (DDG-75) will take the first elements of a new electronic-warfare system to sea for an operational evaluation that will signal a new start in a long-term, deliberate effort to transform shipboard electronic warfare for current and future ships. The operational evaluation will be the first major step forward for surface electronic warfare since Assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition John Young decided in April 2002 to terminate work on an advanced integrated electronic-warfare system.
Captain Arch Macy, manager of surface electronic-warfare programs in the program executive office for integrated warfare systems, says the termination was "a business decision--it had become too expensive." With the advanced integrated electronic-warfare system, he says, "we were trying to do everything at once."
The retooled initiative, called the surface electronic-warfare improvement program (SEWIP), aims at a strictly incremental rebuild of the current SLQ-32(v) system. The approach reverses the strategy of the earlier program, led by Lockheed Martin, which tried to develop a complete replacement for the SLQ-32.
The SEWIP also will "drive toward the open architecture," Macy says. Open architecture aims to identify a common library of combat-system modules in an effort to consolidate the multiple shipboard combat systems now in service.
Macy points out that the Navy owns about 173 SLQ-32s, built by Raytheon Electronics Systems and fielded in five variants to surface combatants, aircraft carriers, and amphibious warfare ships. Some 40-60 more systems are in service on board former U.S. Navy ships that have been transferred to other navies. The early (v)1 system, now on board older amphibious warfare ships and the Whidbey Island (LSD-41) class, provides electronic support consisting of passive warning, identification, and direction-finding on one radio frequency band. A second version added additional radio-frequency coverage.
The SLQ-32(v)3, now on board Ticonderoga (CG-47)-class cruisers, Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)- and Spruance (DD-963)-class destroyers, Wasp (LHD-I)- and Tarawa (LHA-1)-class amphibs, Supply (AOE-6)-class auxiliaries, and most fleet command ships, adds an active jammer for electronic attack. Some newer destroyers are fitted with (v)2s, anticipating replacement by the advanced integrated electronic-warfare system.
The (v)4 provides the (v)3 capability for the carriers. The newest variant, (v)5, which emerged from the undetected attack on the Stark (FFG-31) in the Persian Gulf in 1987, adds the active jammer for the (v)1 ships, mainly guided-missile frigates.
Macy points out that the Navy has not built a new SLQ-32 since 1996. New ships get systems that have been removed from decommissioned ships and refurbished to classic condition. Restoring old systems, though, is a losing battle, as the Navy's inventories of obsolescent spare parts shrinks and suppliers move to new technologies.
Macy stresses that the Navy's requirement for advanced integrated electronic warfare system-type performance remains. While the system's development was canceled, the operational requirements document remains in effect.
Critical mission requirements for the advanced integrated electronic-warfare system remain in the same order for SEWIP: antiship missile defense, countertargeting, countersurveillance, situational awareness, and electronic intelligence data collection. Five functional priorities are retained: threat warning, antiship missile defense threat response, tactical situational awareness, combat identification and threat classification, and combat system hard-kill/soft-kill integration.
The program is being pursued in four clearly defined block upgrades, each of which will be subdivided further—and open to further industry competition. Block 1A, to be tested in the December operational evaluation, replaces the 1970s-vintage SLQ-32 computer, a Rolm machine that runs old Assembly software code. The Rolm computer is "literally a Commodore 64 in a gray box," Macy says.
Blocks 1B and 1C will complete replacement of the computer-display core infrastructure. Block 2 will replace the receiver and antenna and improve electromagnetic interference performance. Block 3, aimed at fiscal year 2013, will replace the jammer and introduce new waveforms. Block 4 will expand electro-optical and infrared detection capability and hard-kill/decoy integration.
Macy stresses that while no decisions have been made about the electronic-warfare suite for the DD(X) land-attack destroyer, littoral combat ship, future carrier, or future cruiser, his office is responsible for providing such a system for all those platforms. The Navy also will provide the self-protection suite for the Coast Guard's national security cutter and offshore patrol cutter.