Navy chooses DRS to provide TIH embedded computing, displays, and networking for Navy submarines
KEYPORT, Wash., 30 Sept. 2014. Submarine electronics experts at DRS Laurel Technologies in Johnstown, Pa., will provide embedded computing, display, and networking hardware to upgrade U.S. and Australian combat submarines under terms of a $171.2 million contract announced Monday.
Officials of the U.S. Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport in Keyport, Wash., are asking DRS to provide Technology Insertion Hardware (TIH) to upgrade electronics installed on Navy Los Angeles-, Seawolf-, and Virginia-class fast-attack submarines, as well as on Ohio-class ballistic and guided missile submarines.
TIH hardware includes computer processing and memory hardware, data storage and extraction hardware, I/O interfaces for the processing system designed around commercially available hardware and software, upgrade kits, electronic enclosures, and other submarine electronics hardware.
Related: General Dynamics to upgrade COTS combat system computers on U.S. and Australian submarines
The contract includes TIH hardware for Collins-class attack submarines of the Royal Australian Navy as part of the Foreign Military Sales program.
DRS also will install initial TIH-based systems for new-construction Virginia-class attack submarines. The contract has options for future TIH hardware that if exercised could increase the value of the contract to as much as $384.3 million.
TIH is the latest generation of display, processor, and network electronics for combat control and sonar systems for naval submarines, Navy officials say. The equipment is for mission-critical and mission-essential systems aboard submarines.
TIH components consist of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) workstations, processors, file servers, and other networking equipment. The contract involves a five-year base period and an overlapping option that could result in a total seven-year contract.
The contract announced this week is not the first time DRS has been involved in the Navy's TIH program. In late 2011 DRS Laurel Technologies won a potential $691 million subcontract from the Lockheed Martin Corp. Mission Systems and Training segment in Manassas, Va., to provide TIH submarine combat and sonar systems designed around commercially available hardware and software.
On this contract DRS will do the work in Johnstown, Pa.; Burnsville, Minn.; and Manassas, Va., and should be finished by September 2019. For more information contact DRS Technologies online at www.drs.com, or the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport at www.navsea.navy.mil/nuwc/keyport.
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.
