By Geoff Fein

For the Navy to have a successful CG(X) program the service must be able to state the compelling operational need for the ship, leverage existing and mature new applied technologies, and have the support of the nation, according to a Lockheed Martin official.

“The theme of this conference is the road to CG(X), future cruiser and sea-based missile defense. It’s a good theme, but the truth is, if you don’t know where you are going, any road will do,” Fred Moosally, president Lockheed Martin [LMT] maritime systems and sensors, told attendees during an afternoon industry panel at the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) conference in Arlington, Va., Tuesday.

“The destination has to be decided before the journey begins,” he added.

Navy officials have been wrangling with CG(X)’s analysis of alternatives for several months trying to develop specific and detailed requirements for the ship. Navy officials have been mum on what issues are holding up the effort.

The debate regarding CG(X) must not be a debate about ship design or what propulsion plant or what crew size the ship will carry, as much as it should be about answering the three tenants, Moosally said.

Once the Navy establishes the compelling operational need for CG(X), then it can identify the technologies necessary to answer the need, he added.

“That technology doesn’t necessarily have to exist today, but it has to exist when the Navy asks Congress to appropriate the first CG(X). That is the definition of mature applied tech,” Moosally said. “It may be an interesting debate to debate when the first CG(X) will be appropriated, but I submit no one can answer that question without a clear understanding of the acquisition plans for how the technologies required to answer this cruiser’s operational need are going to be matured. The longer that question remains unanswered then the less we will know about the future of CG(X).”

For its part, Lockheed Martin has taken a number of steps to prepare for CG(X), Moosally noted.

For example, as a result of Lockheed Martin’s Aegis open architecture efforts, all the components of the latest combat system baseline are now open with the exception of radar signal processing, Moosally said. “That will be open by 2012.”

Lockheed Martin is also participating in the Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems’ efforts to define a common surface combatant objective architecture, he added.

“This is an exciting new concept in the field of combat systems design. This architecture approach should mean that future combat systems will retain superiority against future threats while allowing for greater industry participation in the development and insertion of individual system components to each successive combat system generation,” Moosally explained.

The most important new technology associated with CG(X), Moosally said, is the next generation air-missile defense radar the company developed for dealing with emerging advanced cruise missile and ballistic missile defense threats, Moosally added.

“Advanced cruise missile threats are characterized by lower signatures, lower flight profiles, higher speed and the ability to maneuver and employ electronic counter measures. This threat will stress the radar’s capability to detect and track these targets,” he said.

Emerging ballistic missile threats share many of those characteristics along with the ability to travel long ranges and separate in flight, he added.

“As the threats advance and become more complex, a highly capable multi-mission radar is needed. In order to balance operational performance, physical requirements, interoperability and affordability, careful trade-offs must be made both across the naval force and within the MDA (Missile Defense Agency) ballistic missile defense system,” Moosally said. “The operational performance of the next generation air missile defense radar will be significantly greater than that of the current systems. Not only will this system need to combat advanced evolving threats, but with its simultaneous mission, there will be greater demand on radar resources and radar sensitivity.”

Having an effective radar development strategy, coupled with the use of reusable common components across radar products, can further speed capability to the warfighter while also reducing life-cycle costs, he added.

Lockheed Martin’s solid state S-Band radar demonstrator has operated since June 2007 and is a fully functional digital beam-forming radar, Moosally said.

“We’re are extending open architecture to high-end sensor hardware and complex real-time digital signal processing hardware and software,” he added. “Lockheed Martin successfully developed and tested an open architecture S-Band radar risk reduction system which reduces CG(X) technology risks.”