Lockheed Martin has been the US Navy’s Aegis combat system engineering agent for the past 40 years. During this time, they have managed the entire Aegis lifecycle from concept through lifetime support and sustainment; everything from cradle to grave.

Katherine Ziesing | Canberra

In essence, they do all the systems engineering, systems integration and test, ship integration and test, and all the lifecycle and performance based logistics support.

They produce all the hardware as well, from cabinets to cabling and everything in between.

In order to reduce computer programming and equipment integration risk at the shipyard, Lockheed Martin conducts early integration testing at the USN’s Combat Systems Engineering Development Site (CSEDS – more commonly known as the cruiser in the cornfield).

In addition, Lockheed Martin tests each Aegis ship set at their Moorestown Production Test Centre facility to ensure that the entire system is integrated and works prior to delivery at the shipyard.

"The changes between Baselines 8 and 9 include both hardware and software changes to the system."

This enables problems to be found earlier in the test lifecycle at a significantly reduced cost. Anecdotally, Lockheed Martin estimates every dollar spent troubleshooting in the lab is 10 times that when done in the shipyard, and 100 times that when done at sea. There is also a thorough program of ship integration and testing.

All the weight, space, power, topside electromagnetic effects, etc, are evaluated by Lockheed Martin and the USN during the ship design phase to mitigate risk and ensure the ship is delivered on schedule. Throughout this process, Lockheed Martin works closely with ship designers and their engineers to make sure they’re all on the same page.

This rigorous process is followed for all of the USN ships, during both modernisation and new construction.

Lockheed Martin still lives by that motto coined by the father of Aegis, Admiral Wayne E Myer, “Build a little, test a little, learn a lot”. With Aegis Baseline 9 now in production, the approach still holds true.

When testing concludes on the Aegis system, it will be ready for installation HMAS Hobart, the first of three AWDs.

The original Aegis system that first went to sea with the USN in 1983 is vastly different than the variants of Aegis that currently sail around the globe with various navies. See breakout box for more details on each of the Aegis baselines and what they mean.

Baseline 9

While most of the USN is sailing with Baseline 8 and earlier (Australia’s three Aegis shipsets for the AWD are all Baseline 8), the capability improvements as part of that evolutionary program are an important progression of the system. The Baseline 9 upgrades broadly consist of:

integrated air and missile defence (IAMD);
naval integrated fire control counter attacks (NIFC-CA);
surface electronic warfare improvement program (SEWIP);
Romeo helicopter integration (MH-60R)
fully open architecture through the use of the Common Source Library (CSL).

The CSL builds on all the work that Lockheed has done on Aegis, their variant of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and Coast Guard ships.

“It’s a common set of specifications, common source code and it’s common testing at the unit level,” Pat Pepper, Hobart Class Aegis Program Manager for Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems and Training explained to ADM.

“The CSL is configured for different builds for the ships. So when you go in and make a change, that change is done once and it applies to the subsequent computer program builds then for any of those ship classes. It saves on non-recurring engineering (NRE) and reduces risk.

“It also means that instead of going through a complete test program for a new ship or a new build for a ship, you only have to test at the higher levels, the integrated tests. You still need to conduct the integration test program but the lower level code testing has already been done in the CSL.”

So if for instance, the AWD moved to Baseline 9 and Sea 5000 was designed for Aegis Baseline 9, unique changes that Australia wanted to make for their ship configurations would only have to be engineered once, resulting in NRE savings during development. The CSL would facilitate a common implementation of indigenous Australian capability across both classes of ships.

Lockheed Martin says that the changes between Baselines 8 and 9 include both hardware and software changes to the system. For Baseline 9, the major hardware change includes a new signal processor for the radar suite to enable the IAMD capability improvements mentioned earlier and moving from a two console display to three. Baseline 9 is currently deployed on CG 60 and has been installed on five other Aegis ships.

ADM understands that Australia has expressed tentative interest in Baseline 9 as a future upgrade element for the AWDs. The ‘Aegis Light’ system that operates on the USN’s Littoral Combat Ships and Coast Guard ships is also thought to be a contender for Sea 5000.