C4I: MTWAN powers ahead | ADM Oct 2010

Implementation of the RAN’s Maritime Tactical Wide Area Network (MTWAN) is now well underway, providing packet-based communications switching for all security levels within a ship and moving the navy closer to achieving its network centric warfare ambitions.

Julian Kerr | Sydney

Developed by Thales Australia as prime contractor for Project SEA 1442 Phase 3, the MTWAN enables applications on existing shipboard local area networks to access line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications bearers such as INMARSAT, MASTIS, UHF and HF radios.

The system has significant growth capability and other bearers could be added in the future such as 3G.

Moving the RAN from an analogue communications environment to an Internet-Protocol-based network allows more efficient use of these disparate bearers and greatly improves access to video, chat, web browsing, email and databases.

Ships in company, whether Australian or coalition, can share information directly through line-of-sight bearers, instead of utilising expensive and bandwidth-limited satellite links.

“It’s not just messaging, it’s also networking and control of the communications bearers,” Peter Bull, Thales Australia’s vice president national security and C4I explained to ADM.

“If the Commanding Officer needs to prioritise mission objectives the system controls the bearers over which those objectives are communicated and executed.

“It gives them more options for their bandwidth, it provides the management solution that looks for the lowest-cost routings.

“If one bearer drops out it will move on to the next bearer.

“There’s cryptographic equipment on board and the traffic moves through the appropriate crypto capability.”

Interoperability within the RAN and with coalition partners is ensured by the inclusion in MWTAN hardware of network infrastructure, cryptographic devices and RF interfaces compliant with Allied Communications Publication 200 – Maritime Tactical Wide Area Networking protocols and procedures.

Timeline

The $42 million Phase 3 contract was awarded to Thales in May 2006 and the final design review was signed off in December 2008, assisted in advance by extensive derisking activities undertaken by the then newly-established Network Enabled Warfare Laboratory (NEWLab) in Sydney.

The first two installations were completed in Sydney by the end of 2009; at the Fleet Network Centre within Maritime Headquarters and at the Defence Force School of Signals’ Maritime Wing training facility.

MTWAN is being installed in all four FFGs, both LPAs, HMAS Success, and the eight Anzac-class frigates.

As of September, installation had been completed in HMAS Success and three of the FFGs, with work on HMAS Newcastle and one of the LPAs scheduled to begin in November this year.

Installation of MTWAN on the first of the Anzacs, HMAS Warramunga, was completed in December 2009 by the Anzac Alliance, with Thales undertaking the set to work and Acceptance Testing.

The contracting model for the installation of the other Anzac vessels has yet to be decided, although Thales will begin the set to work on HMAS Perth this October.

The project office has asked Thales for a schedule of rates through a Panel Deed, and Bull says whether the company undertakes all the installation work on the other Anzacs or just the already-contracted component may be decided by tender.

With technical teams deployed on the east and west coasts, work on HMAS Newcastle, HMAS Manoora and HMAS Perth will probably be conducted in parallel.

The installation process takes approximately 12 weeks and is scheduled for maintenance periods, although these are liable to change from time to time because of operational requirements.

“We can’t control ship availability – we might schedule to do five Anzacs in the next two years but if there are only three available we can’t do much about it,” Bull said.

To date no problems have been experienced in fitting MTWAN to what are, in the case of the FFGs and HMAS Success, older ships.

“The power is the same, we have to watch the heat in the communication centres which are quite small to ensure that the system will be supported, and make sure that shock and vibration felt at sea doesn’t wreck the solution.

“So we do a lot of work in making sure there’s good stability in the racks,” Bull said.

COTS focus

Overall, the challenge has been to put a COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) solution aboard a ship in a military environment.

“We wanted to keep it simple for the sailor so we were trying to avoid a lot of MOTS (military off-the-shelf) solutions that come at a cost; most of the COTS stuff will keep your budget low,” comments Bull.

“The main issue has been finding the appropriate level of redundancy and capability in COTS, whether it’s a CISCO router or something else, integrating that into the environment and providing the system stability that’s required.”

Despite the system’s lengthy rollout, evolutionary changes during the process are unlikely.

Although the basis of MTWAN was drawn from Thales input into the French RFIN system, Stage One of which has equipped French Navy surface ships and nuclear attack submarines with an IP-based, broadband networking capability, Bull says the Australian system has drawn ahead.

“We took a lot of synergies from what was being done overseas because in the first instance the French were about two years ahead of us.

“We trained our skills, and from an IP network point of view we’re probably quite advanced in comparison to where the French are today,” he commented.

With the UK Royal Navy seeking a similar networking solution, Thales Australia is helping colleagues at Thales UK understand the issues involved.

Interest is also being shown by the New Zealand Department of Defence, whose Chief Information Officer visited Thales in August for a briefing on the system.

As Bull points out, from a useability point of view the system is similar to working on a computer in an office or at home.

“They used to have to send all their message traffic via the Poseidon system where the guy is sitting there typing into a network that gets converted and goes over a satellite back to base – a teletext-type capability.

“Now they work as if they’re in an office anywhere.

“It’s not specialised, but we don’t want sailors playing around with the routers, so we’ve put some quite intelligent management solutions around the outside.

“If there’s a real problem they can press a button and it resets the whole system.”

An additional attribute of the MWATN is the ability it provides for Maritime Headquarters to monitor the communications status of the fleet.

This element utilises IBM’s Tivoli systems management platform to check on the communications, the bearers and the routers of individual ships, each of which is identified by an icon on a single console at Maritime HQ.

This capability also enables Maritime HQ to roll out patches and upgrades online, and advise ships of how to adjust routers’ headings for the areas into which they’re moving.

“The management component is very important; all we did is utilise the system already being used by the Chief Information Officer’s Group for fixed infrastructures and develop the scripts that sit underneath it,” Bull said.

Phase 4

First pass approval for SEA 1442 Phase 4, currently in the capability definition stage, is now not expected until early 2011 with an Request for Tender anticipated later in the year and a decision in 2012.

Costed towards the middle of a $100-500 million band, Phase 4 involves expansion of MWTAN into RAN ships not so-equipped during Phase 3; integration of capabilities being delivered to maritime platforms by other approved communications projects; and possible replacement of radios, antennae and other systems to enhance maritime communications.

Priority is expected to be given to replacing the radio infrastructure on the Anzac class, and to extending the MWTAN into the three Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyers and two Canberra-class amphibious assault ships now under construction.

Budgetary considerations are likely to determine whether the level of upgrade to the Anzacs involves a complete digital upgrade of communications, or simply the replacement of high frequency radios and ancillary systems.

Thales Australia will certainly be bidding for all elements of Phase 4, and sees no technical reason why Phase 3 technology should not also be viable for Collins-class submarines.

With MWTAN a COTS solution, suppliers such as CISCO and Microsoft will drive technical advances that could enhance its capabilities.

“We need to keep a close watching brief on what the COTS providers are doing so we can look at how we can integrate different solutions into their space,” Bull commented to ADM.

“Moving back to a MOTS solution is unlikely to be the right way to go unless there’s a really good, specific reason.

“At the moment the COTS solution is working well, integrated by people who understand the military environment.”

Meanwhile, separately from SEA 1442 Thales Australia is developing a cross-domain communications workstation capability for the Anzacs and the FFGs.

This involves previously separate Secret National, Secret Coalition and Restricted communications terminals being combined into a single workstation with information held in the server infrastructure, thus saving scarce space.

 

Aegis for AWD progresses

Lockheed Martin Mission Systems & Sensors of Moorestown, New Jersey, has been awarded a $197,500,977 cost-plus-fixed-fee, performance incentives contract for post-Critical Design Review Aegis Combat Systems Engineering to support the government of Australia under the Foreign Military Sales program.

The government of Australia selected the Aegis Combat System for the Australian Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) program.

These requirements include the necessary combat systems engineering, computer program development, ship integration and test, logistics technical services, technical manuals and staging support to design and build an Aegis Weapon System to support the AWD program.

The AWD Aegis Weapons System (AWS) baseline will be derived from a technology refreshed variant of the US Navy AWS Baseline 7 Phase I.

This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $211,425,860.

Work will be performed in Moorestown (86 per cent), and Adelaide, Australia (14 per cent), and is expected to be completed by December 2014.

Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.