FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING ANNOUNCES SELECTION OF CVN 77 WARFARE SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR

Warfare system integration includes improving the interoperability between the sensors, communications systems, aircraft control systems, armaments and other electronics systems on the ship. Enhanced integration of the warfare system is key to reducing man-power requirements on future carriers, which will make them more affordable to the Navy during their planned 50-year service life.

Selection of the warfare system integrator is one of many of the Advanced Planning contract tasks NNS is performing. Other tasks include long-lead material procurement, advanced construction of selected hull modules and engineering and program management. The award of a prime contract to NNS for detailed design and construction of CVN 77 is planned for December 2000. 

With the inclusion of the warfare system as part of the company's prime contract for the CVN 77, NNS is expanding its role as total ship integrator. “This is a first for Newport News Shipbuilding," said Irwin F. Edenzon, director, Future Carrier Programs for NNS. "For previous carrier programs, the Navy has provided the warfare system as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE).

“CVN 77 is the first step in the Navy’s three-ship evolutionary strategy for developing the next class of carriers," added Edenzon. "The CVN 77 warfare system will be the first building block to the next class of carriers. Because of that, we’ll work with Lockheed Martin Corporation to deliver an open architecture, COTS-(commercial-off-the-shelf) based system that will allow us to readily support and upgrade the system over its 50 year service life”. By requiring an open architecture, the warfare system design will facilitate the use of COTS components and subsystems and reduce the cost of future upgrades.

Newport News Shipbuilding developed and executed a rigorous competition plan in selecting a winner to perform the warfare system integration effort. “We structured the plan to address three major areas,” says Paul Giaccio, NNS program manager for the CVN 77 Warfare System. “The first priority was to make certain that we achieve the Navy’s Top Level Requirements (TLR). These are a combination of threshold performance requirements and goals established by the Navy. Next we set a Cost As an Independent Variable (CAIV) target, meaning that system performance is balanced against affordability, to ensure we can meet our overall cost objectives for the CVN 77 construction program. And, of course, we’re concerned about the Fleet’s need for the ship, so we’re also focused on maintaining the delivery schedule.”

Newport News Shipbuilding designs and constructs nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for the U.S. Navy and provides life-cycle services for ships in the Navy fleet. The company employs 17,300 people and has annual revenues of approximately $1.8 billion. Visit NNS on the Web at www.nns.com.