Raytheon to upgrade shipboard computers, networking, and combat systems aboard Zumwalt-class destroyers
WASHINGTON – U.S. Navy shipboard electronics experts are asking Raytheon Technologies Corp. to upgrade computers and computer networking equipment aboard the Navy's three Zumwalt-class (DDG 1000) land-attack destroyers under terms of a potential $1.7 billion contract announced last week.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington announced a $482.7 contract to the Raytheon Missiles & Defense segment in Tewksbury, Mass., for DDG 1000-class combat systems activation, as well as sustainment and modernization for mission systems and Total Ship Computing Environment Infrastructure (TSCEi) equipment.
The three Zumwalt-class destroyers are multi-mission stealth ships that focus on land attack, with secondary roles of surface warfare, anti-aircraft warfare, and naval gunfire support. This contract has options that could increase its value to as much as $1.7 billion.
The contract includes non-recurring engineering services supporting shipboard combat system installation, integration, development, testing, correction, maintenance, and modernization of Zumwalt-class destroyer mission systems and mission systems equipment.
Related: Sustaining combat electronics for littoral combat ship
The label destroyer is somewhat of a misnomer because the Zumwalt-class vessels are about the size of small World War II battleships.
Navy officials separately have reached out to industry to find companies able to help integrate future hypersonic weapons aboard the Zumwalt-class destroyers: the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000), the USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), and the USS Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG 1002).
Installing hypersonic weapons aboard these three vessels is to be part of the Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike project to launch attacks against targets around the world in less than an hour. The focus is on attacking high-value, or fleeting targets, with extremely fast hypersonic weapons, which can fly faster than five times the speed of sound.
The Zumwalt-class destroyers have integrated electric propulsion (IEP) systems that can send electricity from turbo-generators to the electric drive motors or weapons, the Total Ship Computing Environment Infrastructure (TSCEI), automated fire-fighting systems, and automated piping rupture isolation. The class is designed to require a smaller crew and to be less expensive to operate than comparable warships.
The Navy Conventional Prompt Strike Weapon System Platform-Specific Development and Production project focuses on systems system architecture; subsystem, component, and test requirements; design analysis, and design integration; system integration, verification, and validation testing to support initial operating capability.
On this contract Raytheon will do the work in Tewksbury, Mass.; Portsmouth, R.I.; San Diego; Nashua, N.H.; Pascagoula, Miss.; and Fort Wayne, Ind., and is should be finished by April 2023.
For more information contact Raytheon Missiles & Defense online at www.raytheonmissilesanddefense.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
