San Diego — The Navy purchases systems on a “going-out-of-business profile,” said VADM David Dunaway, commander of Naval Air Systems Command, speaking at the West 2015 conference.
Dunaway was dubious that writing another Department of Defense 5000.02 acquisition document would solve anything. Instead, he said, the service needs to retain data rights, use open architecture for aircraft and look beyond individual platforms to the larger systems they occupy.
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“We fight like a carrier strike group,” he said. “We don’t fight like an F-18.”
As for cyber security, he noted the challenge of developing new techniques and procedures for IT networks on platforms when integration is lacking. “We spend a lot of time in cyber talking about networks, and the network is fantastic,” he said. “But internal to my aircraft, I cannot use conventional network defense techniques because the specificity of my network in the airplane.”
Dunaway spoke as part of a panel on what the sea systems commands will deliver.
VADM William Hilarides, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, told the audience that the Ford-class aircraft carrier is nearly ready for operation, sporting advanced radar systems and other ISR advances.
“I am very confident that ship will be at speed in early 2016,” Hilarides told attendees.
He also noted the littoral combat ship USS Independence had recently crossed the Panama Canal with its full counter-mine mission module and said that the module will prove “dramatically better” than the capabilities of the Avenger-class minesweepers and Cyclone-class patrol boat.
As for cyber security, Hilarides said that he and his fellow commanders have been “manning up to this challenge to go design into our systems cyber security from the ground up, and it’s incumbent upon us to write the specs and standards that go into our contracts, so people will know what to build for us.”
RADM David Lewis, commander for Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), reported that CANES, the Navy’s
next generation tactical afloat network, has been installed on 17 ships with 11 more in progress.
