Navy picks three companies to provide COTS electronics for Tomahawk shipboard missile control
PORT HUENEME, Calif., 25 April 2016. U.S. Navy shipboard weapons experts are looking to three electronic parts distribution and logistics companies to provide commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts for shipboard missile control systems.
Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Port Hueneme, Calif., are awarding contracts to Crestwood Technology Group in Yonkers, N.Y.; Gideon Services Inc. in Huntsville, Ala.; and RC Electronics in Orange, Calif., to deliver certifiable and traceable COTS electronics parts for Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System (TTWCS) suites.
The three companies will deliver COTS electronics, hardware, and components for the TTWCS suites being installed on new ships and retrofitted on existing ships under terms of a maximum $9.9 million 3-year firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple award contract.
The Tomahawk Block IV is the latest variant of the Tomahawk cruise missile that has been in the U.S. military's inventory since the 1970s. The Block IV missiles are redesigned with an improved turbofan engine for deep-strike capabilities and are equipped with a real-time targeting system for striking fleeting targets.
Related: Raytheon to replace obsolescent I/O circuit cards in Tomahawk missile communications system
The Block IV can be launched from Navy surface warships and submarines, and has a range of 900 nautical miles. The missile is designed to attack high-value land targets. Its manufacturer, Raytheon Co., is developing new versions of the missile with bunker-buster capabilities and the ability to attack sea and moving land targets.
The Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System, designed originally Lockheed Martin Corp., is one of three major components that comprise the Tomahawk Weapons System. Integrated with the ship's navigation, communication, situational awareness, and launch systems, TTWCS computes the missile's route to strike targets.
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The system also helps plan new missions and communicate with several Tomahawk missiles to re target and redirect the missiles in flight, if necessary. Navy vessels carrying the Tomahawk include cruisers, destroyers, attack and guided-missile submarines.
Navy experts are providing the companies the with vendor item control drawings (VICD), part numbers, quantities, delivery requirements, and delivery dates. Contractors are asked not to substitute any part number or manufacturer without Navy approval.
Navy experts need the contractors not only to locate and procure necessary Tomahawk control parts, but also to provide technical expertise to understand and comply with drawings and to identify discontinued or obsolete parts, and to reject suspected counterfeit parts.
Navy experts periodically will update part numbers, drawings, and authorized manufacturers because of parts obsolescence or diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS) throughout the contracting period.
The three contractors will deliver materials to the Navy via traceable means by the dates provided in each delivery order. Navy experts will inspect and accept the parts in Port Hueneme, Calif.
On these contracts Crestwood Technology, Gideon Services, and RC Electronics will do the work at company facilities in Yonkers, N.Y.; Huntsville, Ala.; and Orange, Calif., and should be finished by April 2019.
For more information contact Crestwood Technology /a>; Gideon Services at www.gideon-services.com, RC Electronics at www.rcusa.com, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Port Hueneme at www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/WarfareCenters/NSWCPortHueneme.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.