U.S. Navy officials are looking into developing a single combat system capable of operating on any kind of ship in the surface fleet to reduce the challenges in integrating ships and training service members, Defense News reported Monday. The Navy currently uses different combat systems on its destroyers, amphibious ships and carriers.
Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, chief of naval operations’ director of surface warfare, suggested the service build and deploy an integrated system to expand and speed up its capability to respond to emerging threats as well as reduce maintenance and upgrade costs. Â
“You buy the software and the hardware together. And you can upgrade it, it’s just hard to do,†he said. “If we don’t go to a more adaptable model, we are not going to be able to pace the threat.â€
Boxall also noted the Navy should still use competition in the open-architecture space to build the new combat system for its surface fleet.Â
“If they are properly classified and secured, they should be able to come into a common space and apply their expertise to develop products that we may or may not want to buy,†the official said.
