Program officials at Lockheed Martin [LMT] are conducting preliminary tests for a new electronic attack-capable variant of the Navy’s next generation electronic warfare system, designed to provide force protection for the sea service’s surface warfare fleet.
Navy officials observed as Lockheed Martin program officials conducted land-based testing of Block 3 capabilities for the Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) at Lockheed Martin’s facility in Syracuse, N.Y.
“We have had Navy representatives here at our Syracuse facility that has seen the activities that we have to date,” Dave Beard, Lockheed Martin’s naval electronic warfare business development manager, said. “They seem to be pleased [and] think we are going in the right direction.”
The development model for the Block 3 version of SEWIP will be patterned closely after the company’s ongoing efforts to stand up the Block 2 variant of the system.
The Navy granted the Block 2 SEWIP system critical design review approval back in Feburary. Construction work is ongoing for two Engineering Development Models (EDM) of the Block 2, according to Beard.
“EDM 1 will come off the factory floor [in] late fall, early winter of this year, and go into probably eight or nine…months of testing before we deliver it to the Navy for its testing,” Joe Ottaviano, program director for Lockheed Martin’s SEWIP effort, said during the same interview.
Lockheed Martin officials anticipate the initial development contract with the Navy for the Block 3 system to drop in 2012, which will cover preliminary design with a follow-on option for limited-rate production.
“Until the industry day and the [request for proposals] is out, our assumption is that the Navy will follow the same path as they did for Block 2,” according to Beard, adding that Lockheed Martin is constructing a new test bed facility in upstate New York, specifically designed to prove out the Block 3 technologies.
The new test facility, which is expected to be up and running by this fall, will also be used to continue development on the Block 2 EDM already in the works, Ottaviano said.
The testing scenarios being used to validate the Block 3 technology are also similarly patterned against those used during the Block 2 EDM trials, Beard said. “Block 2 was designed to [electronically] intercept, Block 3 is designed to perform [electronic attack],” he said. “So it is a consistent set of standards that the system will be measured up to.”
Unlike the Navy contracted work for the Block 2 system, prototype work on the Block 3 variant has all been funded internally by Lockheed Martin, Ottaviano said.
That said, the current level of maturity on the Block 3 prototype “has the ability to go to sea now” since company officials have been able to integrate that prototype technology into the Block 2 test bed, which has already undergone open water tests., Joe Ottaviano, program director for Lockheed Martin’s SEWIP effort, said during the same interview.
The location of the next phase of Block 3 testing, whether it takes place at sea or over open water, is still under discussion between Navy and company officials. “There are several opportunities this year and at the end of next year that will allow us to put this system over water,” Beard said.
One option would be to run the electronic attack SEWIP system at a location like the Chesapeake Bay, he said. Another option would be to have the Block 3 prototype installed on board on of the ships participating in next year’s Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) large scale exercise run by U.S. Pacific Command.
That said the SEWIP program officials are currently working to upgrade the antenna on the Block 3 test platform, to ensure it can perform the electronic attack mission, regardless of the next testing location, according to Ottaviano.