Navy looks to Mercury Systems to provide electronic spare parts for shipboard EW systems
CRANE, Ind., 14 May 2015. U.S. Navy shipboard electronics experts needed various electronic spare parts for the Navy's AN/SLQ-32(V)6 ship-mounted electronic warfare (EW) system. They found their solution from Mercury Systems Inc. in Chelmsford, Mass.
Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., announced a potential $7.3 million contract to Mercury this week to provide digital and RF and microwave components as spares for the AN/SLQ-32(V)6 shipboard EW system, which is part of the Navy's Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block 2 upgrade program.
The contract calls for Mercury to provide ARC bus controllers, PDF synthesizers, PDF tuners, 8-channel digital receivers, 4-channel digital receivers, and clock generator VME cards for the AN/SLQ-32(V)6 EW and shipboard missile-defense system.
The five-year contract has a minimum value of $54,000 and a maximum value of slightly more than $7.3 million, Navy officials say. The prime systems integrator for the AN/SLQ-32(V)6 is the Lockheed Martin Corp. Mission Systems and Training segment in Liverpool, N.Y.
Navy officials are awarding the contract to Mercury sole-source because Mercury is the only qualified supplier of the spare electronic parts, and an award to any source other than Mercury would result in an unacceptable delay of more than 38 months with additional costs, Navy officials say.
Lockheed Martin awarded a contract to Mercury in 2011 to provide advanced RF microwave tuners and intermediate frequency (IF) products as part of the SEWIP Block 2 upgrade program.
For that contract Mercury provided the company's Echotek series microwave tuner and digital receiver, which are optimized for fast tuning and high performance. The SEWIP block 2 upgrade includes receiver, antenna, and combat system interface.
The Lockheed Martin Block 2 SEWIP design is based on its integrated common electronics warfare system (ICEWS), which enables rapid reconfiguring of the system with commercial technology.
For more information contact Mercury Systems online at www.mrcy.com, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane at www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/crane.
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.
