InTop Program: US Navy Develops Open RF Architecture for Future Platforms

(click to view full) 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(click to view full) 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 […]