By Mark Episkopos, Managing Editor, Center for Military Modernization
Lockheed Martin has won a US Navy contract for the Integrated Combat System (ICS), a revolutionary project to unite all Navy surface ships under a single software system.
The contract is valued at $1.1 billion over a seven-year term, starting with a one-year base period worth $23 million. Work stemming from this contract will be conducted at locations in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, Rhode Island, and California.
“ICS will enable a surface action group, a strike group and a fleet — or any combination of Integrated Combat System-equipped ships — to operate as a single system, to become a system of systems,” said Rear Adm. Fred Pyle at a conference in Arlington, Virginia earlier this year, according to Defense News.
As noted by Defense News, many types of Navy surface ships, including destroyers and cruisers, currently use Lockheed’s Aegis Combat System. Other vessels, including amphibious ships, use the Ship Self-Defense System. The ICS envisions a common software system compatible with every ship and everything on the ship.
The program’s core objective is to decouple software and hardware, a move that officials say would speed up upgrade cycles across the Navy roster and reduce maintenance costs. A unified system would potentially allow servicemembers to operate equipment across different types of surface vessels without additional training, boosting the Navy’s effectiveness and interoperability across the board. The introduction of an overarching, universal software architecture that exists independently of any particular hardware configuration would optimize processes of upgrading existing combat systems and integrating new equipment, ridding the Navy of the headache of having to accommodate individual sub-systems that don’t report to the ship’s combat system. The ICS promises a massive technical leap over the established Navy practice of building ships designed to operate with a particular software-hardware array, like the Aegis System.
The Navy’s vision of a fleet powered by open software architecture means that systems would no longer have to be exclusively designed and maintained by a handful of established players in the combat system space, opening the door to outside developers. A potential market for software development could lead to increased competition, a major boon for innovation and long-term cost reduction as the Navy invests in acquisition and modernization plans with an eye to deterring China’s growing ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.
“When we buy Aegis, it’s kind of flip-phone technology: You buy the software and the hardware together. And you can upgrade it, it’s just hard to do. If we don’t go to a more adaptable model, we are not going to be able to pace the threat.” Rear Adm. Ron Boxall told Defense News.
The ICS program, still in its conceptual stage, is reportedly expected to progress along the acquisition cycle in the mid 2020’s.
