Sabtech to provide NTDS circuit boards for Navy Vertical Launch System surface warship missile weapons
PHILADELPHIA, 9 July 2010. U.S. Navy officials are choosing Sabtech Industries in Yorba Linda, Calif., to provide board products for data buses and networking in the MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS), Next Generation (NG-2) launch control units aboard Navy surface warships.
Sabtech will provide the Navy with 44 Dual Channel Naval Tactical Data System (NTDS) Type E circuit board assemblies and 106 Dual Channel Type D circuit card assemblies under terms of a contract yet to be negotiated, Navy officials announced Wednesday.
Sabtech will negotiate for the military circuit board work with officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division's Philadelphia Site in Philadelphia. Navy officials say they expect to award a firm fixed price embedded computing contract to Sabtech.
Earlier this month the Navy Carderock division announced plans to buy VME boards from Dynamics Research Corp. (DRC) in Andover, Mass., for the MK 41 VLS NG-2 system. DRC will provide 15 Global Positioning System (GPS) Embedded Module V Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module 3.3 VME boards for the VLS launcher.
Also this month, the U.S. Coast Guard chose Sabtech to provide the company's Shipboard Peripheral Replacement System (SPRS) to upgrade the Mk 92 Fire Control System (FCS) on Coast Guard medium- and high-endurance cutters. Coast Guard engineers will employ the Shipboard Peripheral Replacement System to replace a key, but obsolescent component of the combat system aboard the current fleet of cutters.
The MK 41 Vertical Launching System (VLS), built by the Lockheed Martin Corp. Naval Mission Systems and Sensors (MS2) Marine Systems unit in Baltimore, is a standard in shipborne missile launching system that fires missiles for anti-air warfare, antisubmarine warfare, ship self-defense, strike warfare, and anti-surface warfare.
Although the Navy plans to procure these NTDS Type E and Dual Channel Type D circuit card assemblies only from Sabtech, other companies may submit written proposals for consideration until 6 Aug. 2010. Graphic Research Inc. in Chatsworth, Calif., also has expressed interest in this contract.
Send written proposals to the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division Philadelphia Office, 5001 South Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19112-1403, Attn: Anthony V. Ricciardi, Code 3353.
The Navy deploys MK 41 VLS on AEGIS-equipped Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Spruance- and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and will use this system aboard next-generation surface warships to fire munitions such as the Standard Missile, Tomahawk missile, and Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles (ESSMs).
VLS is able to fire missiles quickly from canisters against hostile threats. The missile launcher consists of an eight-cell missile module able to launch missiles used against hostile aircraft, missiles and surface units. The Mk 25 Quad-Pack enables the system to store and fire four ESSMs in a canister space that normally contains one missile.
The VLS launch control units receive launch orders from the multi-function computer plant (MFCP). In response, the launch control units select and issue prelaunch and launch commands to the selected missile in the VLS launcher, according to Lockheed Martin.
The status panel receives status and hazard signals from the VLS monitoring assemblies, and sends launcher hazard and module status signals to the ship central control station.
For more information contact Sabtech Industries online at www.sabtech.com, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors at www.lockheedmartin.com/ms2, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division at www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/carderock.
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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.
