The Navy has selected Northrop Grumman [NOC] to perform engineering services work on the Ship Self-Defense System (SSDS) that is fielded on aircraft carriers and amphibious ships and integrates various sensors and weapons, the company said Tuesday.
Raytheon [RTN] is the prime contractor and systems integrator for the SSDS MK2 combat system to counter air threats.
Northrop Grumman will carry out the engineering services work on the hardware portion of the program previously done by Raytheon under an initial award of $12 million on a contract that could reach $61 million over five years.
Mike Barrett, director, maritime combat systems, Northrop Grumman Information Systems said the work involves migrating to more commercial-off-the-shelf equipment to improve performance and increase cyber-security.
Randy Brandenburg, the director of integrated mission systems at Raytheon, said the company did not file a bid for the hardware element which it had previously been doing, to remain focused on systems integration.
The Navy had pulled out the hardware package for an industry competition to build out the system, Brandenburg said. The Navy controls the data rights and therefore was able to compete a Raytheon design, he said.