The U.S. Navy has one ship, Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Winston Churchill, operating with a fully virtualized combat system. Five more ships and four land-based test sites will do the same by 2024. The Navy hopes to deploy an entire strike group operating the Integrated Combat System by the fiscal 2028 or 2029 timeframe.
With the virtualized combat system, the process of updating the software has become significantly faster. The Navy already completed one update in just days and will soon do one in hours. Ships do not have to store the entire software library, but instead pull what they need on demand, which allows for over-the-air software updates similar to those of a cellphone.
Lockheed Martin and the Navy previously demonstrated the ability to run virtualized Aegis software from computers much smaller than those now on ships, due to the information-as-a-service model. Lockheed Martin has also been awarded a contract to serve as the Integrated Combat System systems engineering and software integration agent. This is intended to allow for smoother software updates in the future and for Aegis Combat System functionality to be merged with that of the Ship Self-Defense System, creating a single Integrated Combat System that can run on the new hardware.
Rear Adm. Fred Pyle, the director of surface warfare on the chief of naval operations’ staff, stated that deploying a single Integrated Combat System would be much better from a training and funding standpoint and emphasized the system’s capability to pair any decision-maker, sensor, and desired effect at machine speed.
