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Up to $32 million to Lockheed Martin for submarine satellite communication prototype. (March 5/10)

An impressive 18 companies won indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contracts to develop integration and management technology for radio frequency (RF) radar and communications functions on future naval platforms. The contracts are being awarded by the Office of Naval Research for its Integrated Topside (InTop) Program, which will develop a scalable family of electronic warfare, radar and communication equipment to support multiple classes of ships and other Navy platforms. Each contract has an ordering ceiling of between $50 million and $800 million.

InTop plans to reduce the number of topside equipment on Navy ships through a modular/ open RF architecture…

CG 58: the problem
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In the past, the topside design approach was based on developing separate systems and associated antennas for each individual RF function, which led to a significant increase in topside antennas and problems with electro-magnetic interference, radar cross section, and overall performance of ship electronic warfare (EW) and communication functions. The InTop vision is to enable innovation through a common set of open architecture hardware and software. That makes systems more interoperable, easier to swap out, and easier to build on. The result is a set of affordable and scalable systems that eventually perform many different functions.

The InTop Innovative Naval Prototype (INP) will use a teaming arrangement between Navy research, Navy acquisition and industry to define the RF form, fit, function and interface standards, pursue different array architectures, and support development of component technology to reduce array cost. ONR has completed site visits and held meetings with industry to present the InTop concepts and the modular open scalable architecture approach.

The list of companies receiving the InTop contracts includes a number of major defense firms:

• ATK Space Systems in Dayton, OH (N00014-09-D-0699);
• Argon ST in Fairfax, VA (N00014-09-D-0708);
• BAE Systems in Nashua, NH (N00014-09-D-0690);
• Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Broomfield, CO (N00014-09-D-0711);
• Boeing Co. in Seattle, WA (N00014-09-D-0705);
• Cobham Defense Systems in Landsdale, PA (N00014-09-D-0703);
• Colorado Engineering Inc. in Colorado Springs, CO (N00014-09-D-0707);
• DRS Signal Solutions Inc. in Gaithersburg, MD (N00014-09-D-0698);
• FTL Systems Inc. in Rochester, MN (N00014-09-D-0706);
• General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems in Fairfax, VA (N00014-09-D-0709);
• HYPRES Inc. in Elmsford, NY (N00014-09-D-0700);
• ITT Corp.’s Electronic Systems & Radar Systems in Van Nuys, CA (N00014-09-D-0704);
• ITT Force Protection Systems in Thousand Oaks, CA (N00014-09-D-0701);
• Lockheed Martin Corp. in Moorestown, NJ (N00014-09-D-0702);
• Northrop Grumman Corp. in Baltimore, MD (N00014-09-D-0710);
• Raytheon Co. in Tewksbury, MA (N00014-09-D-0696);
• S2 Corp. in Bozeman, MT (N00014-09-D-0697); and
• Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, TX (N00014-09-D-0691).

The 18 companies compete for delivery orders under the terms and conditions of their InTop contracts.

Contracts and Key Events

All task orders under the Integrated Topside contracts are issued by the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, VA, unless otherwise noted.

March 5/10: Lockheed Martin in Moorestown, NJ received a $10.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee task order (#0002) under the InTop contract to support the technology development phase of a US Navy acquisition program to develop a satellite communication prototype/ advanced development model system suitable for integration into Navy submarines. This contract contains options which, if exercised, would bring the value of the contract to $32 million. Lockheed Martin will perform the work in Moorestown and expects to complete it by March 2011, or July 2013, if all options are exercised.