U.S. Navy seeks Raytheon SSDS protection from cruise missiles

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Raytheon Co. announced Tuesday it has won a $23 million U.S. Navy contract that would involve providing a defense system against anti-ship cruise missiles that could be fired at major Navy surface vessels, including nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.

The threat is escalating with the proliferation of Russia's advanced anti-ship cruise missiles that can fly at 1,700 mph at sea. They have been sold to China and Iran.

Under the contract, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems will become the platform systems engineering agent for the Ship Self-Defense System. The agreement was "the first step toward a base year with options years through fiscal year 2012 platform systems engineering agent contract," the company said.

Raytheon described its Ship Self-Defense System as "an open, distributed combat management system for carriers and expeditionary warfare ships. It is designed to expedite the detect-to-engage sequence to defend against anti-ship cruise missiles. SSDS links and automates stand-alone sensors and weapon systems to provide the required combat reaction."

Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems will integrate capability upgrades into many aircraft carrier and amphibious ship combat systems, the company said. "Services will include platform systems engineering, configuration control, testing, training and logistics," it said.

Raytheon said that under the contract it would install SSDS open architecture anti-cruise missile protection systems to the CVN 78, the U.S. Navy's next-generation aircraft carrier; the newest Tarawa-class ship (LHA 6) and the Whidbey Island class (LSD). Raytheon also would install the Zumwalt-class destroyer's Dual Band Radar on the CVN 78 aircraft carrier.

"SSDS is an open architecture solution that leverages our expertise and advanced technologies to provide critical situational awareness and proven self-defense capabilities to the U.S. Navy," said Robert Martin, Raytheon IDS' vice president and deputy of Seapower Capability Systems. "With this contract, we will expand our role and support to ensure the reliability and effectiveness of the Navy's surface fleet."

Raytheon said the SSDS fulfilled the standards of the U.S. Navy's Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems Open Architecture Computing Environment. The company said its SSDS MK 2 marked "the first fleet use of this open architecture computing environment software that includes selected software components from the Total Ship Computing Environment Infrastructure developed for the Zumwalt-class destroyer."

The SSDS is already deployed on four classes of aircraft carriers and expeditionary ships -- LSD, CVN 68, LPD 17 and LHD class -- the company said.

Raytheon IDS will implement the program at its Expeditionary Warfare Center in San Diego and at its Seapower Capability Center in Portsmouth, R.I., the company said.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a United Technologies Corp. company, announced Monday it has won a $12 million contract from the U.S. Missile Defense Agency for the first phase of a contract "to design, build, integrate, and test a prototype Divert and Attitude Control System -- DACS -- that will power two different types of kinetic vehicles on missile interceptors."

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne described the Commonality Pathfinder DACS as an element of the Multiple Kill Vehicle program that would give the agency the capability to carry out controlled-flight hover tests on its two kinetic vehicles. "The Pathfinder DACS will use existing Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne propulsion system technology, which will significantly lower development risk, cost and time," the company said.

"The Pathfinder DACS will allow the Missile Defense Agency to test the avionics, software and sensor capabilities of the kinetic vehicles, simulating the conditions of flight and demonstrating its ability to seek and destroy incoming ballistic missile targets," said Bruce Janeski, MKV Commonality Pathfinder program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne said the Pathfinder DACS would be equipped with a high-precision propulsion system capable of propelling kinetic vehicles into a position where they could intercept and shoot down many incoming ballistic missiles, even if these were equipped with countermeasures.

The company said the Pathfinder DACS prototype would be tested for the first time in the middle of 2010 and hover tests on the two kinetic vehicle designs were planned to start in 2011. All those tests would be performed at the National Hover Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base in California.