Navy Early-Warning Aircraft Groomed for CEC.

Operational tests in 2002 and 2003 will probe radar data accuracy

The U.S. Navy's early-warning radar aircraft, the Hawkeye, could be certified by 2003 as a data source for the service's cooperative engagement capability (CEC) network of shipboard air-defense sensors.

CEC is a sensor-netting mechanism to generate and distribute fire-control data on enemy aircraft and missile threats across a battle group. It provides a common picture of those threats by combining information from multiple sensors into a single track.

The program, so far, has focused on the CEC shipboard hardware and software. The E-2C Hawkeye aircraft has been used in recent tests of CEC at sea, but only as a data-relay platform. Its radar data was not used to validate the performance of CEC.

The next step for the Navy is to incorporate the data from the Hawkeye radar into the CEC network and certify that the information is reliable enough to be part of the battle group's common air picture.

The service expects to complete the integration of E-2C into CEC in time for a scheduled deployment of the USS Nimitz battle group in fiscal 2003. When the USS Kennedy battle group deploys in 2002, the E-2C will not be certified for the CEC network.

The Navy's policy is to "freeze" software configurations of a major weapon system 12 months before deployment, so the E-2C CEC software will have to be ready by January 2002, said a spokesman for Capt. Dan Busch, program manager for CEC. "As trouble reports are generated in the course of testing, they will be corrected up to six months prior to the deployment," he said.

During the next five years, the Navy plans to buy 21 new E-2C aircraft, called the Hawkeye 2000, which will be CEC-compatible, program officials said. The E-2C, which operates from carrier decks, has been around since 1973 and is equipped with the APS-145 radar. The new Hawkeye 2000 will have the same radar, but more advanced computers and communications capabilities. Northrop Grumman Corp., in Bethpage, N.Y., received a $1.3 billion contract from the Navy, in 1999, to build the 21 aircraft.

The software that will be integrated with the Hawkeye for next year's test is called CEC baseline 2.0. It is the same version that the Navy plans to install on ships. The cur rent prime contractor for baseline 2.0 is the Raytheon Company's command, control and communications division in St. Petersburg, Fla. The company also is developing an upgraded baseline, called 2.1.

A CEC suite already has been installed on an older Hawkeye. Once the first Hawkeye 2000 aircraft has the CEC equipment on board, Navy testers will begin formal evaluations in mid-2002. Testing will continue through 2003. At that point, the E-2C would be a certified sensor and data provider in the CEC network, said W. Clifford Clegg, Raytheon's director of advanced tactical programs.

The airborne CEC suite consists of seven boxes, to include the antenna, processors, digital distribution systems and power converters. The hardware currently weighs 686 pounds. Raytheon plans to cut that weight down by 90 pounds during the next several years, said Clegg.

The spokesman for Capt. Busch noted that there are long-term plans to integrate the E-2C Hawkeye with CEC baseline 2.1, which Raytheon plans to complete within the next two years. The integration work with CEC 2.1 could take place as late as January 2004. Baseline 2.1 will be compatible with the Navy's ship self-defense systems on board aircraft carriers and amphibious ships.

The Navy also has funded the development of another baseline, called 2.2, which will be compatible with the Aegis combat system and with the Navy's area missile-defense capability. The contractor for this version of CEC is Lockheed Martins naval engineering division, in Moorestown, N.J. The company plans to compete against Raytheon for future CEC production contracts.

Orlando Carvalho, director for Aegis development at Lockheed Martin said the company currently is not involved in any "preparation to support" the E-2C testing planned for next year. "I am not sure what the role of Aegis is in that test," he said in an interview.

Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, has been "in negotiations" with the Navy to secure more funding for baseline 2.2, said Julian Warrick, the company's program manager. He estimated that the development of CEC 2.2 will cost about $36 million, Warrick told reporters in an April briefing.

Navy officials pointed out that all three baselines of CEC will be compatible with each other.

The integration of Hawkeye with CEC baseline 2.2, however, has not been funded by the Navy yet, said Marc A. DeBlasio, program director for airborne early-warning systems at Northrop Grumman.

"In my opinion, baseline 2.2 will cause changes on the airborne side [of CEC]. Lockheed Martin is still struggling with the architecture and how they will implement it in the CEC battle group," DeBlasio told National Defense. One big unknown, he said, is whether the Navy will endorse a networking technology called TCN (tactical component network) to be bundled into CEC 2.2. TCN is made by a small engineering firm in Laurel, Md., called Solipsys. Lockheed Martin wants to include TCN in baseline 2.2, but the Navy has not made up its mind about this new technology yet.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding TCN, Busch does not expect significant technical hurdles in the integration of the aircraft with CEC 2.2, he said. "CEC 2.2 should preserve the functional and interface compatibility with CEC 2.0 and 2.1," said his spokesman. In the Hawkeye, "CEC 2.0 and 2.1 exchange the same information using the same protocols, so there is no need to change hardware or software within the E 2C when loading either program.

DeBlasio explained that any upgrades in the CEC software are supposed to be transparent to the E-2C airborne node. "We don't expect having to change our tactical software program to match up with the baseline 2.1," he said.

Northrop Grumman submitted an unsolicited proposal to the Navy to conduct a TCN experiment with the Hawkeye at the company's lab. "We have not heard back from the government on whether they will fund us to do that," said DeBlasio. Even though the proposal was put together at company expense, he added, Northrop Grumman would not move forward with any experiments unless they were Navy-funded.

The first new Hawkeye 2000 will be delivered in October. That aircraft will not have the CEC suite installed because the CEC hardware will not arrive at Northrop's plant until September, said DeBlasio. "That's too close to the delivery of the aircraft."

In the Hawkeye 2000, the old mission computer was replaced by a lighter system that takes up about two-thirds less space, thus making room for the CEC equipment, said DeBlasio. Because CEC demands more power than average computers, the contractor added more generators.

The Hawkeye functioned as a relay platform during the operational testing of CEC at sea last month, so the data from the E-2C surveillance radar was not taken into account in the CEC evaluation.

The current radar, called the APS-145 does not provide fire-control quality data. But for the CEC program, the issue, rather, is the maturity of the soft ware on the E-2C, said DeBlasio. "The CEC soft ware and our software haven't gone through formal qualification testing," he said. "Our turn comes next year.

In the CEC network, the E-2C will see a threat approaching before the ships can detect it, DeBlasio said. The radar horizon of the ships thus can be expanded. (related story, page 36)

There are long-term plans to develop a new, more advanced radar for the E-2C. The 145 has a mechanically-scanned rotor dome radar antenna optimized for operations over water. The new radar would have electronically-scanned arrays that would fit inside the existing rotor dome. It would enable detection of small targets over land, at longer ranges and track them, even when there is a lot of clutter on the ground. The development of the new radar, which industry sources estimated would cost up to $2 billion, has not been funded yet. Northrop Grumman's director of airborne early-warning systems, Kenneth Tripp, said that the company could have the new radar installed by 2010, if production were approved by 2007.

Northrop's plan is to incorporate this radar into a new generation of E-2C called Advanced Hawkeye, said Tripp in a briefing to reporters. The improved fire-control quality of the radar will help CEC, he said, because it will allow Aegis ships to engage targets at extended ranges using data from other platform sensors. That capability is called engage-on-remote.

Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are hoping that the United Kingdom will buy the Hawkeye 2000, along with the airborne version of CEC. The U.K. government already has purchased ship-borne CEC systems but will not make a final decision on the Hawkeye until it completes a study on its future aircraft carrier.