The
U.S. Navy successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for
a new command, control, communications, computers & navigation (C4N)
suite for Landing Craft, Air Cushion (LCAC) NAVSEA announced Oct. 2.
The LCAC C4N suite, also known as the command module electronics package,
is the user interface the crew uses to operate the craft.
This new C4N suite, the System Baseline Configuration 4 (SBC4) design,
employs a Modular Open Scalable Approach (MOSA). This approach will
improve sustainability while helping the Navy reduce procurement costs.
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"The
critical design review is an important milestone," said Senior
Software Engineer Lisa Nowalk, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City
Division (NSWC PCD). "This technical review assessed the system
final design and established the initial product baseline for SBC4."
During the CDR, the NSWC PCD team demonstrated an operational prototype
based on the MOSA, along with more than 90 percent of the Technical
Data Package completed.
The LCAC C4N suite provides a glass cockpit display environment for
the craft's three-person crew in the Command Module. The suite consists
of a fly by wire craft control system with two fully redundant engineering
control system processing units, along with four sensor interface units
that provide the signal conditioning and conversion of 190 different
sensors and alarms on the craft. It includes a fully integrated navigation
system that integrates with a 25-kilowatt surface search radar system,
a primary and secondary GPS system, and an inertial navigation system.
Also included is a display system consisting of six sunlight readable,
Night Vision Device compatible LCD displays and a common data recorder
used to perform mission plan transfers, as well as recording of real-time
navigation, audio, and engineering data/actions.
"SBC4 will incorporate MOSA best practices to reduce the complexity
of maintenance efforts and increase supportability of components in
the baseline," said Robert Holmes, Landing Craft C4N Manager within
Program Executive Officer Ships Amphibious Warfare Program Office.
During the CDR demonstration, Craftmasters and Navigators from Assault
Craft Units (ACU) 4 & 5 provided recommendations for improving maintainability
and supportability. NSWC-PCD also simulated various failure modes to
help LCAC crew members assess training impacts.
This next generation configuration, SBC4, will significantly reduce
the footprint of the electronics in terms of volume, weight and power
requirements. Also, the transition to front I/O connectors and a box
level lowest replaceable unit should allow easier access and significantly
reduce the actual time required to perform corrective and preventative
maintenance.
In order to address software obsolescence in the C4N suite, the LCAC
Software Support Activity is transitioning from embedded Windows XP
to Windows 7 for the Windows-based nodes of the system. The C4N software
re-host from SBC3 to SBC4 is also leveraging off of newer technology
in order to reduce the required number of processing units to support
the new modular, open-scalable architecture approach. |
