Category Archives: Navy

Cyberdefense and Information Assurance, Navy, tech

Navy 2nd Fleet drops own network for NMCI

The US Navy’s Second Fleet has migrated  the Navy Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) as part of its establishment of a Maritime Operations Center, according to a Navy spokesperson.  Second Fleet, which had a waiver from using NMCI because of its command and control mission,  will now operate both its unclassified but sensitive (NIPRnet) and secret-classified (SIPRNet) systems on NMCI, which is operated for the Navy by Hewlett-Packard’s EDS.

EDS’s NMCI contract ends on September 30, 2010. However, the Navy is still working on the procurement strategy for Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN), the follow-on to NMCI–which will “in-house” operation of the Navy’s networks again–and the Navy is preparing to offer a no-compete contract to EDS to continue to operate NMCI’s services during a transition period to the new network.  The contract will also give the Navy access to the intellectual property EDS has generated around the operation of NMCI.  So while the NMCI contract is close to its end, the lifecycle of the NMCI infrastructure is far from over.  Migrating also helps Second Fleet save on network operation costs, and will probably improve overall security since the command will benefit from EDS’s patch management and information assurance operations, served up out of EDS’ enterprise Network Operations Centers in Norfolk, San Diego and Pearl Harbor. (A fourth NOC at Quantico serves the Marine Corps.)

The decision to move to NMCI was made by Commander Second Fleet  independent of the NGEN program. A spokesperson for NMCI characterized the move as being a purely operational decision. But it speaks to the maturity of NMCI, in its 10th year of operations, that a C2 organization would move to what was originally devised as a purely administrative network.  And  Navy CIO Robert Carey has been beating the drum for the consolidation of the Navy’s multitude of legacy and “waiver” networks into a smaller number of service-wide networks as part of his NNE 2016 vision for Navy IT — which Second Fleet’s move, while executed independently from the DON CIO’s office, conforms to.

Carey recently blogged about the value of “thinking like an enterprise” with the Navy’s networks in a discussion of the current Navy shipboard IT procurement, Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES).  “It is important for the Department of the Navy to think and act like an enterprise because of the potential to realize a number of important benefits including increased integration of our operating forces, improved interoperability, and consistent and improved information assurance,” he wrote. “These benefits are in addition to cost savings, cost avoidance and more effective use of the Department’s resources.”

Standard
Navy, tech, weapons systems

Boeing puts moving land targets in the SLAM ER

imav032706_01_02

The SLAM ER attack missile

Boeing has modified its SLAM ER air-launched attack missile to allow it to attack moving targets on land. The Standoff Land Attack Missile Expanded Response was declared operational by the Navy in July, and now Boeing is preparing to roll it out to the fleet.

“Upgrading the SLAM ER’s system software to include LMT capabilities was a Navy Rapid Technology Transition effort to fill a critical need by making SLAM ER an effective weapon for destroying or disabling high-value land-based moving targets, such as missile launchers and mobile radar. The software enables F/A-18 Hornet and Super Hornet aircraft to continuously receive updated target coordinates from appropriate Command and Control platforms, on-ship radar, or other third-party targeting sources, and then transfer these updates to the SLAM ER in flight.”

“Third party” could, concievably, include Predator UAVs and other unmanned vehicles.  Theoretically, SLAM ER could be flown on the Raptor UAV, though that would require additional engineering.  A “man in the loop” mode allows the pilot or operator to adjust the impact point during the final approach to the target; doing that from a ground station would require additional bandwidth to the launching UAV, or direct control of the SLAM ER by someone on the ground.  But tying that capability to a long-range C4ISR platform like the Predator or Raptor would significantly extend their reach in supporting ground units in places like Afghanistan.

The SLAM ER is an evolution of the Harpoon antiship missile, which uses infrared terminal guidance to lock onto its target instead of the radar used by the Harpoon. It can be navigated by a combination intertial guidance and GPS navigation system, and has a range of over 150 nautical miles.

Standard