U.S. Navy leaders needed an electronics contract manufacturing specialist to build signal data processor-Sierra (SDP-S) systems for the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) programme, which blends radar information from several different Navy systems to create one common air defense tactical display, or “air picture,” which is based on all sensor data available.
Officials of U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington awarded Sechan a $64.2 million contract Monday to manufacture (SDP-S) production units and engineering support services for the CEC program. The prime contractor for CEC is the Raytheon Co. Network Centric Systems segment in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The SDP-S includes the Sierra II cryptographic chip designed by the Harris Corp. RF Communications division in Rochester, N.Y., which helps the CEC meet cryptographic modernisation requirements and use commercial-off-the-shelf components to create an open-systems architecture, Navy officials say. The SDP-S, which is the core of the CEC system, provides the processing power necessary to fuse the radar sensor tracks from several different radar systems on the ground, in the air, and at sea.
CEC distributes sensor and weapons data from existing systems by fusing tracking data from participating sensors and distributing it to all other participants using identical algorithms to create one common radar air defense tactical picture based on all sensor data available.
EC is designed to provide early detection and consistent tracking of air threats such as cruise missiles, manned aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles, and is based on a high-bandwidth military communications system with electronic countermeasures that blends in the global positioning system (GPS). The SDP-S assemblies are used on CEC shipboard, airborne, and land mobile platforms to provide a composite network picture.
In addition to the $64.2 million contract Sechan is receiving to manufacture (SDP-S) production units, the company also is receiving a $13.8 million Navy contract for 84 SDP-S assemblies.
The current contract includes purchases for the U.S. Navy and partner countries, the first of which is Australia. Sechan will do the work in Lititz, Pa., and should be finished by October 2016.