Boeing to Supply Data Transfer System to Arleigh Burke Class Destroyers
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The Boeing Company received a $14.6 million US Navy contract (N00178-09-C-2003) to produce the information transfer system that controls mission-critical capabilities on guided missile destroyers. Boeing will supply 6 shipsets of the Gigabit Ethernet Data Multiplex System (GEDMS) AN/USQ-82(V) for the Navy’s modernization efforts on Arleigh Burke Class (DDG 51) destroyers.
The equipment will be retrofitted on the USS Barry (DDG 52), USS Stout (DDG 55), USS Benfold (DDG 65) and 3 foreign navy vessels. The US Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, VA manages the contract, which also includes spares.
The GEDMS for Arleigh Burke Class destroyers acts as a ship-wide data transfer network…
The network connects the ship’s machinery, steering, navigation, combat, alarm and indicating, and damage control systems. It was designed to replace the miles of point-to-point cabling, signal converters, junction boxes, and switchboards associated with conventional ship’s cabling. The GEDMS program is part of the Navy’s DDG modernization program, under which new shipboard network communications technologies are being retrofitted on Arleigh Burke Class destroyers during ship availabilities and installed as new destroyers are constructed.
Boeing has previously delivered GEDMS modification kits for the USS Spruance (DDG 111) and USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112), which are under construction, and is on track for delivery to the USS John Paul Jones (DDG 53) later this year for the start of this phase of the DDG modernization program.
In addition, Boeing recently received a separate contract from the Navy’s Dahlgren Division to continue providing the network design and technical engineering services for GEDMS.
