Lockheed Martin today announced that its Australian entity, Lockheed Martin Australia (LMA) and Computer Sciences Corporation's Australian operation have agreed to implement the Aegis Open Architecture (AOA) solution for Australia's Air Warfare Destroyer (AWD) Program.

The AWD Aegis program will be one of the first international Aegis programs to receive the AOA solution. An open architecture approach will reduce the cost of this best-in-class combat system, enhance its capabilities and extend its service life. The Royal Australian Navy will now be able to exploit commercial computing technology, as well as install software and other technology upgrades faster and more affordably throughout the life of the AWD.

"Open architecture also facilitates other potential Australian participation in ongoing Aegis development activities," said Paul Johnson, managing director of Lockheed Martin Australia. "It allows the isolation of sensor and weapons interfaces and allocation of those interfaces to Australian industry for development. Through the use of published open architecture interface standards, the integration of new or improved tactical software applications developed or in development by Australian industry can be easily fielded in AWD. This is an effective strategy for meeting emerging warfighting requirements of the Australian Defence Force while continually offering new opportunities for the Australian defence industry."

This business approach with LMA follows the successful industry roadshow sponsored by the Defence Material Organisation's AWD Program Office in September. During its portion of the roadshow, Lockheed Martin described AWD- related opportunities for Australian businesses to grow their capability to support Australian maritime needs. In addition to AWD, AOA provides combat system flexibility that can serve the customer and Australian industry needs across multiple Australian Defence Force programs.

"The best practices of commercial computing technology, much of which is already embodied in the Aegis Open Architecture, offers significant efficiencies as well as increased effectiveness to AWD systems," said Mike Shove, managing director of CSC Australia. "We are very pleased to apply 30 years of Aegis experience to this team, which we anticipate will deliver exceptional results in the development of enhanced Australian capability."

AOA is hosted on an Open Architecture Computing Environment (OACE) computing infrastructure. OACE is based on a set of international commercial standards designed to minimize or eliminate the use of custom software, speed the development of new applications and significantly reduce the cost of technology upgrades. AOA is built upon the same architectural framework and standards that Lockheed Martin is employing for DD(X) command and control and the Littoral Combat Ship's COMBATTS-21 combat management system, which provide the U.S. Navy, and now Australia's AWD program, with a common, extensible and affordable computer program architecture.

The U.S. Navy's AOA is led by Lockheed Martin, with significant involvement of CSC and the U.S. Navy's Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, Virginia, Division. In the U.S. Navy program, Lockheed Martin has involved several small business partners who provide a variety of engineering services and expertise to the AOA efforts. LMA and CSCA will use that model as a foundation for the addition of other Australian companies to support the AWD AOA effort.

Founded in 1959, Computer Sciences Corporation is a leading global information technology (IT) services company. CSC's mission is to provide customers in industry and government with solutions crafted to meet their specific challenges and enable them to profit from the advanced use of technology. Headquartered in El Segundo, CA, CSC reported revenue of $14.5 billion for the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2005.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin employs about 135,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

SOURCE: Lockheed Martin