Sechan to manufacture digital signal processors for Navy CEC sensor-fusion system
WASHINGTON, 3 June 2014. U.S. Navy leaders are looking to electronics contract manufacturing specialist Sechan Electronics Inc. in Lititz, Pa., to build digital signal processors (DSPs) that help Navy commanders create one common air defense tactical display, or "air picture," which is based on all sensor data available.
Officials of U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington awarded Sechan an $8.7 million contract last week to manufacture signal data processor-Sierra (SDP-S) systems for the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) program. The prime contractor for CEC is the Raytheon Co. Network Centric Systems segment in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The SDP-S includes the Sierra II cryptographic chip designed by the Harris Corp. RF Communications division in Rochester, N.Y., which helps the CEC meet cryptographic modernization requirements and use commercial-off-the-shelf components to create an open-systems architecture, Navy officials say.
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The SDP-S, which is the core of the CEC system, provides the processing power necessary to fuse the radar sensor tracks from several different radar systems on the ground, in the air, and at sea.
CEC distributes sensor and weapons data from existing systems by fusing tracking data from participating sensors and distributing it to all other participants using identical algorithms to create one common radar air defense tactical picture based on all sensor data available.
CEC is designed to provide early detection and consistent tracking of air threats such as cruise missiles, manned aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles, and is based on a high-bandwidth military communications system with electronic countermeasures that blends in the global positioning system (GPS).
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The SDP-S assemblies are used on CEC shipboard, airborne, and land mobile platforms to provide a composite network picture. On this contract Sechan Electronics will do the work in Lititz, Pa., and should be finished by June 2015.
For more information contact Sechan Electronics online at www.sechan.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at http://www.navsea.navy.mil/default.aspx.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
