INTEGRATED MISSION SOLUTIONS DD(X ... - Raytheon

cantly greater capability from a ship perspective
at significantly lower crew levels.”
• Survivability “DD(X) will use a combination
of passive and active means to
fight in coastal (littoral) and other environments
with incredible warfighting
capabilities,” says Hoeffler.
• Mobility “DD(X) will be designed to
operate in forward areas for extended
periods,” says Hoeffler. “It will have the
ability to replenish underway—including
long-range land attack projectiles. In
addition, because of the way the ship is
designed, it will have the ability to transit
minefields and operate in other difficult
littoral areas and do so with great success.”
• Integrated Warfare Systems “If you
look at ships today,” says Hoeffler, “land
attack, anti-air warfare and anti-submarine
warfare each are separate systems.
On DD(X) we have fully integrated the
capability that combines each of these
domains into one cohesive system. We
have a single integrated command center,
such that the ship has the ability to
think and fight in a multi-domain perspective:
land attack, undersea warfare,
anti-air warfare, information dominance,
and so forth. It can look at all of those
missions simultaneously and execute
them with greater effectiveness. The
technologies underpinning this architecture
are truly revolutionary. This was in
fact the major element of our proposal
to the navy, to harness that revolution
in technology.”
The Role of Raytheon Integrated
Defense Systems
Reflecting back on the U.S.S. Monitor, one
of the most important attributes that made
it such a significant departure from conventional
1860’s shipbuilding approaches is
related not to the ship itself but to the manner
in which it was created. It was designed
and built by an independent contractor—
John Ericsson—whose foresight, innovative
ideas, and keen ability to engineer a truly
well-integrated and highly effective surface
combatant were unlimited by the traditional
boundaries of naval ship design then in
vogue. So too is the situation with DD(X)
and Raytheon’s ongoing role in the project.
Achieving all DD(X) objectives within a
single naval vessel involves a myriad of
complex integrated warfare systems and
subsystems. Working in concert with the
program’s prime contractor, Northrop
Grumman Ship Systems and the Navy,
Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems has
been designated overall DD(X) electronic
and weapon systems integrator, tasked with
the responsibility of making certain that all of
these concepts are transformed into reality.
As the systems integrator for all shipboard
electronics, missions systems engineering,
software development and test
and evaluation systems on the DD(X) program,
Raytheon is facing some new and
exciting challenges in the days ahead. Bestof-breed
methodologies and approaches
are being applied to the design of the
DD(X) system and software architecture.
Raytheon has been renowned for building
shipboard radars, missiles, electronics and
communications equipment for many years,
but DD(X) is the first program in which the
company has had the opportunity to put all
the pieces together. The approach to designing
a system architecture is essential to understanding
how to put those pieces together.
Using a side-step approach modeled after
the George Mason University systems architecture
design process, DD(X) system
designers are defining all the parts of the
system, the best ways to assemble all those
parts, and the most suitable strategies for
testing the collective system.
George Mason University is one of the leaders
in defining system engineering processes.
DD(X) is combining that process with the
DoD Joint Technical Architecture and the
Navy Open Architecture precepts to create a
system and software architecture that is easily
accessible to team members and customers
throughout the DD(X) distributed network.
DD(X) system engineers will face some truly
unique and exciting challenges ahead as
they design a system architecture that will
successfully integrate approximately 30
major shipboard subsystems, including the
Where We Are Today
Raytheon engineers, who are spearheading
Phase III of the DD(X) program, are creating
the engineering development models
(EDMs) that are described in this special
edition of Technology Today. Developing the
EDMs and testing them before actual ship
construction begins in 2005 reduces
risk and assures operational excellence
Continued on page 15
Systems Architecture
radar, launchers, guns, navigation system
and communications suite, most of which
are being built by other contractors. The
DD(X) system is the largest and most complex
of its kind that Raytheon has ever built,
employing technologies that go beyond
anything used in today’s Navy. “We’re still
trying to figure out how large the ship is
going to be, how much equipment it will
carry, how fast it will go”, said Brian Wells,
Raytheon systems architect on DD(X). The
new ships will be manned with approximately
one-third the crew that currently
operates the destroyers of today. To achieve
such a high level of automation requires
using new technologies like data fusion and
intelligent agents that essentially behave
like a person. Intelligent agents help the
operator make decisions by collecting and
analyzing information, plotting one or two
courses of action and making recommendations,
thereby reducing the amount of
human involvement and the possibility of
human error.
An engineer’s dream, this program gives
people a rare opportunity to be involved
with the creation of a system from the early
concept stages right on through to the final
sell-off to the US Navy. The DD(X) program
has placed Raytheon in the enviable role of
a large systems integrator, a key factor in
positioning the company to win contracts
for which we might not otherwise have
been considered. As an added benefit, the
work being done on this program will give
smaller programs the opportunity to capitalize
on the technological and innovative
strengths of DD(X). ■
– Brian Wells
summer 2003 5