Navy asks SESCo for crucial parts in Tactical Tomahawk shipboard missile control in $50.9 million deal
PORT HUENEME, Calif. – U.S. Navy shipboard weapons experts are looking to information technology specialist Systems Engineering Support Co. Inc. (SESCo) in San Diego to provide commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts for shipboard missile control systems.
Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Port Hueneme, Calif., are asking SESCo to build and test Tactical Tomahawk Weapon Control System (TTWCS) suites of equipment under terms of a $50.9 million five-year contract announced Friday.
SESCo will deliver COTS electronics, hardware, and components for the TTWCS suites being installed on new ships and retrofitted on existing ships.
The RTX Raytheon Tomahawk Block V is the latest version, and is an upgraded Tomahawk Block IV, which has a data link that enables the missile to switch targets while in flight. It can loiter for hours and change course on command.
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The Tomahawk Block V is a recertified and modernized missile with upgraded navigation and communications. The Block Va can strike moving targets at sea, while the Block Vb has a multi-effects warhead that can hit diverse land targets. Tomahawk's most recent use was in 2018 when U.S. Navy surface warships and submarines launched 66 Tomahawk missiles at Syrian chemical weapon facilities.
Block Va, the Maritime Strike Tomahawk (MST), enables the missile to engage a moving target at sea, and Block Vb outfitted with the Joint Multiple Effects Warhead System (JMEWS) warhead for hard-target penetration.
Tomahawk Block V has longer range and dynamic targeting than its predecessors, and has unique flight, launch, and information-processing capabilities. Raytheon can integrate a new sensor suite into the Tactical Tomahawk quickly. The company provides seeker, processor, software, and a new inertial measuring unit for terminal maneuvers, as well as redesigned power budget and system cooling.
The Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System, designed originally Lockheed Martin Corp., is one of three major components that comprise the Tomahawk Weapons System. Integrated with the ship's navigation, communication, situational awareness, and launch systems, TTWCS computes the missile's route to strike targets.
The shipboard missile control system also helps plan new missions and communicate with several Tomahawk missiles to re target and redirect the missiles in flight, if necessary. Navy vessels carrying the Tomahawk include cruisers, destroyers, attack and guided-missile submarines.
Navy experts are providing SESCo the with vendor item control drawings (VICD), part numbers, quantities, delivery requirements, and delivery dates.
Navy experts need SESCo not only to locate and procure necessary Tomahawk control parts, but also to provide technical expertise to understand and comply with drawings and to identify discontinued or obsolete parts, and to reject suspected counterfeit parts.
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Navy experts periodically will update part numbers, drawings, and authorized manufacturers because of parts obsolescence or diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS) throughout the contracting period.
SESCo will deliver materials to the Navy via traceable means by the dates provided in each delivery order. Navy experts will inspect and accept the parts in Port Hueneme, Calif.
On this contract SESCo will do the work in San Diego, and should be finished by September 2029. For more information contact SESCo online at www.sescoinc.com, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Port Hueneme at www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NSWC-Port-Hueneme.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
