24 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News
NSWC Panama City said the Navy is
employing new methods to test and cer-
tify the mission packages.
Much of the LCS combat capability
comes from systems that were originally
developed for use with some other plat-
form or for some other purpose. Some
of these systems are quite mature and
have been thoroughly tested. Others
have not been fully tested. "We decide
how much risk there is in bringing new,
unproven systems into the mission pack-
age, and determine if that level of risk is
acceptable. We are using a lab-based
test environment as well as at-sea test-
ing. So we will end up deploying with
some systems that have not been
through the full OPEVAL process," says
Brady. "That's the new paradigm for the
50-knot Navy."
"We used to wait until a system was
completely ready for an operational
evaluation, and then we created an elab-
orate test regime that took six to nine
months, maybe longer. After that, we
would wait for the analysis and the
report of the results. Now we are con-
stantly testing. We test a little, learn a
little, and test some more. It's ongoing,
and we are incorporating what we
learn," Brady says. The systems being
employed on LCS address the full
regime of mines at all depths. Some of
the systems are in production, some are
in low-rate production, and some are
engineering development modules
(EDMs). Greg Roberts heads up the
Mission Package Development Lab at
Panama City where they have replicated
the actual operation centers to be found
on each of the LCS seaframes. The
ruggedized COTS workstations will
have the same software packages. The
lab enables the flexible development,
integration and certification of the initial
spiral software packages.
The software packages can be readily
adapted as the technology and process-
ing capability matures. "It's rapidly
reconfigurable," Roberts says. "We can
be certifying 1.0 while we are develop-
ing 1.1.”
“We're looking at tighter integration if
the command and control software for
the vehicles, with less legacy software
employed where possible," says Sandy
Martin, a system engineer at NSWC
Panama City. The RMV, for example,
is autonomous, and follows pre-planned
waypoints. The operator on the LCS can
monitor the visual presentation transmit-
ted from the camera on the mast. The
vehicle operator works next to the sen-
sor operator. In the future, the two sta-
tions might be combined, or one opera-
tor might be able to control multiple
vehicles. "We want to aim for less and
less vehicle control, and only intervene
with an autonomous vehicle as needed,"
Martin says. "LCS has shattered all of
the old approaches to shipbuilding,"
says Martin. "This is the first time we
have pulled this many items together
that were never designed to work togeth-
er."
About the Author
Edward Lundquist is a senior science
advisor and naval analyst with Alion
Science and Technology, Washington,
D.C. A retired U.S. Navy captain, he
currently supports the Navy's Surface
Warfare Directorate.
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