30 août 2018 | International, Naval

Navy Making Room for Railguns in Next Warship, But No Extra Investments

By:

THE PENTAGON – The Navy's next large surface combatant will have all the space, weight and power margins the sea service could need now and into the future to accommodate new weapons in development – but the director of surface warfare said the Navy would not accelerate weapons development to get them ready in time to outfit the new ships.

Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, OPNAV N96, spoke to USNI News on Aug. 28, in his first interview on the Future Surface Combatant program since its initial capabilities document was signed out by leadership.

Noting that the next large surface combatant would pull from some of the advances made with the Zumwalt-class destroyers (DDG-1000) – including potentially its integrated power system that could easily support laser guns, an electromagnetic railgun, powerful radars and other power-hungry technologies – Boxall told USNI News that the new large surface combatant represented an opportunity to put these technologies into the surface fleet whereas the legacy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers simply do not have the power and cooling capacity to do so.

“We're just excited that we think we do have something that is expandable, has SWaP-C (space, weight, power and cooling) for the future. I think all of us were kind of a little bit nervous about the DDG Flight III and whether we'll have long-term ability to put future energy weapons on there, or the power that we need for directed energy, lasers, things like that,” he said.

But just because the new ship will be able to support energy weapons doesn't mean Boxall wants to accelerate energy weapons development to ensure they're ready to field on the first new ships. He said moving to the Future Surface Combatant in 2023 is an “aggressive timeline” and that at some point the Navy will have to “snap the chalk line and say, this is what you have that's good enough to go on there” – and if a technology isn't ready, it would wait for fielding in a later block buy of the ship.

With the Navy already seeking a new hull to better support the Aegis Combat System and the AN/SPY-6(V) Air and Missile Defense radar – collectively called the DDG-51 Flight III capability – Boxall said he didn't want to force too many changes all at once.

“So I'm inclined to say, as long as we build it modularly, we're going to make those assessments in stride” in terms of inserting in new weapons as they come through the development process, he said.
“But I don't want to get too crazy about trying to accelerate new technology in the first of the class as we change hulls, which will hopefully be a hull that will be with us for a very long time.”

Full article: https://news.usni.org/2018/08/29/navy-making-room-railguns-next-warship-no-extra-investments

Sur le même sujet

  • US Army awards $179M missile warning contract to BAE Systems

    16 juillet 2020 | International, Terrestre

    US Army awards $179M missile warning contract to BAE Systems

    By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army has awarded BAE Systems a contract for the first two production lots of its Limited Interim Missile Warning System, or LIMWS. The contract, which is worth $179 million, also includes funding to field the next-generation Missile Warning System, an upgrade on the Army's Common Missile Warning System. “Threats are evolving and proliferating at a rapid pace and our aircrews who fly into harm's way need the most advanced protection systems available,” Chris Austin, director of threat detection solutions at BAE Systems, said in a statement. “These orders follow an intensive two-year development and qualification program, made possible by a strong industry-government partnership focused on achieving an aggressive schedule.” The company won an initial $98 million contract to produce the systems in April 2018, with the goal of putting the capability onto 400 Black Hawk helicopters. A BAE spokeswoman this week declined to comment on what systems the LIMWS might deploy on. The Army competitively awarded that initial contract to BAE through a quick reaction capability mechanism, which bypasses the traditional lengthy acquisition process. The core of the upgrade is BAE's 2-Color Advanced Warning System, or 2CAWS, which the company says includes “an open system processor, two-color infrared sensors for increased range, and a fiber optic A-kit for faster data transmission.” Put simply, the 2CAWS should allow pilots to receive signals of incoming threats more quickly than before, and should be compatible with existing Army missile warning systems. Work will occur at the company's Merrimack, New Hampshire, and Huntsville, Alabama, facilities, the latter of which is undergoing upgrades for the project. https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/07/15/us-army-awards-179m-missile-warning-contract-to-bae-systems/

  • The DARPA Small Business Programs Office (SBPO) has pre-released the following SBIR/STTR Opportunities (SBOs)

    17 septembre 2019 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

    The DARPA Small Business Programs Office (SBPO) has pre-released the following SBIR/STTR Opportunities (SBOs)

    The DARPA Small Business Programs Office (SBPO) has pre-released the following SBIR/STTR Opportunities (SBOs): "Holistic Object Tracking", FBO Solicitation Number HR001119S0035-13, published at: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/HR001119S0035-13/listing.html. "Patterned, Responsive Cellular Therapies Using Novel Mammalian Cellular Regulator Systems", FBO Solicitation Number HR001119S0035-16, published at: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/HR001119S0035-16/listing.html. "Sparse Information Orbit Estimation for Proliferated LEO", FBO Solicitation Number HR001119S0035-22, published at: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/HR001119S0035-22/listing.html. "Self-Reconfigurable Modular Ground Robots", FBO Solicitation Number HR001119S0035-23, published at: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/HR001119S0035-23/listing.html. "Fabrication and Testing of Large Aperture Achromatic Visible Metalens for Imaging Applications", FBO Solicitation Number HR001119S0035-24, published at: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/CMO/HR001119S0035-24/listing.html. These SBOs will open for proposals on September 27, 2019 and close on October 28, 2019.

  • A Sneak Peak At The Singapore Airshow Flying Display

    11 février 2022 | International, Aérospatial

    A Sneak Peak At The Singapore Airshow Flying Display

    Despite a lower attendance and fewer participants, the Singapore Airshow continues to attract a respectable lineup for its flying display.

Toutes les nouvelles