By Geoff Fein
The Coast Guard is in the midst of incorporating open architecture to bring commonality and affordability into its fleet of ships and aircraft.
Increment One was a realignment of all software development processes to line up with open architecture, Cmdr. Mike Johnston, deputy project manager, command, control, computers, communication, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) project, told Defense Daily recently.
“Increment One is on the NSC [National Security Cutter] it is a common core design hardware and software that has asset baselines,” he said.
Basically, service and contractor representatives take each requirement and determine how many will be common across all the assets, Johnston said.
The software and hardware designs for both the Long Range Surveillance Aircraft HC-130J and the Medium Range Surveillance Aircraft HC-144A came out of the Increment I core design, followed by NSC, which was the superset for all the surface assets, he added.
“That design has been fielded and been through CSSQT (Combat System Ship Qualifications Trials). It functions and does very well but when we did that Increment One the long- term strategy was to have ICGS (Integrated Coast Guard Systems) maintain and keep those [running],” Johnston said.
In Increment One, the Coast Guard did a lot of fixes, did some capability adds, but mostly realigned the processes by which the software and the design were being developed, he added.
In Increment One, ICGS was the lead systems integrator for the Coast Guard C4ISR recapitalization efforts. Increment Two will provide continued C4ISR architecture functionality, control and documentation that the Coast Guard requires as it fields new assets. The contract’s main focus is to update C4ISR hardware design and software build baselines for the NSC, HC-130J and the HC-144A, according to a Coast Guard spokesman.
“This is necessary because of the rapidly changing technology associated with C4ISR systems,” the spokesman said.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s Acquisition Directorate awarded the Increment Two detail design and development contract to ICGS to support the Coast Guard’s Command, C4ISR Common Operating Picture (COP) project.
“Increment Two continues the Coast Guard’s assumption of the systems integrator and ensures a high level of transparency will be provided throughout the development process and improved checks and balances throughout detail design and development process,” the spokesman added. “This is a requirements-driven and performance-based contract effort that will integrate support processes and capabilities to improve operational effectiveness and reduce total ownership costs.”
It also migrates the C4ISR design accomplishments, achieved in Increment One, toward open architecture hardware and software standards, the spokesman added. “The Coast Guard is moving towards open architecture computer systems that will facilitate the assumption of lead systems integrator for all surface, air and C4ISR systems.”
Basically, Increment Two redesigned Increment One, adding capability and breaking up Increment One up so that now instead of systems being contained in a single big box that the government doesn’t have any insight into, they are broken up into functional categories with areas of expertise, Johnston said.
“We basically said if there is a government or commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) piece, or a government piece that meets that and is proprietary, then we need to replace it,” he said. “That’s how we are doing Increment Two now.”
The Coast Guard just had a requirements review for Increment Two, Johnston noted.
What the Coast Guard plans to do going forward, he said, is to make sure the interfaces, for example, on communications systems, are standard interfaces so that in the long- term if it needs to be changed out it can be. “As long as you control the interface you can drop one in and add a COTS one,” Johnston added.
“We are clearly defining everything that is in side the communication system box,” he said. “We are just now evaluating all the requirements, looking at our enterprise architecture and saying ‘what do we have that meets those now,’ so that we don’t reinvent the wheel. Then, that way we can figure out what should compete and shouldn’t compete.”
Also in the long-term the strategy is to break up C4I systems into big chunks then break up the big chunks into little chunks, Johnston explained. “And control the interfaces and make the interfaces as standard as possible and leverage as much of the [Departments of Defense and Homeland Security] cost share as we can.”