Delivering the power and mission adaptability the U.S. Navy needs to meet emerging threats and challenges. A revolutionary littoral combat ship with the size and versatility to meet the U.S. Navy's ever-evolving coastal and littoral needs. A proven, fuel efficient trimaran hull ensures stability and maneuverability. An expansive flight deck and mission bay provide capacity to meet the Navy's diverse conventional and irregular warfare missions. A flexible computing backbone built on open standards eliminates dependence on proprietary hardware and software and enables system operability from anywhere onboard. Stable: Performance in All Conditions General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship (GDLCS) trimaran hull vastly improves performance on a wide range of sea conditions enabling extended warfighting availability to the U.S. Navy. The slender center hull and two smaller side hulls gives the smaller ship the operational characteristics of a larger craft providing greater stability in rough seas and combat conditions. Further improving performance, the aluminum structure and selective use of steel provides huge advantages of stability and buoyancy, improved damage protection, reduced magnetic signature (quieter operations) and significant increases in the ship's usable interior space compared to a monohull design. The General Dynamics LCS has the endurance to travel 4,300 miles and 18 knots. Modular Mission Capabilities The General Dynamics LCS design has the performance to bring more warfighting capability to the mission front. Modular launch systems and an extended flight deck provide maximum flexibility and enable rapid deployment of UAV, sensors and mission personnel. The General Dynamics LCS solution has the speed and capacity to traverse the changing seas of today's asymmetric threats: ■Wider operation envelope (sea keeping, speed, endurance, stability) ■Concurrent helicopter and UAV operations ■Quick mission module change ■Capacity for any two mission packages simultaneously ■Three weapon zones Open Architecture Versatile, Readily Upgradeable The General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) core mission system is built on OPEN CI, a flexible information technology backbone that adheres to industry standards and maximizes the use of commercially available products and published interfaces. This approach enables a business model that prevents any contractor from locking a customer into proprietary systems that shut-out competitors and limit customer access to alternatives. Dependencies on any specific hardware and software products are eliminated. We provide: ■Rapid capability integration ■Lower cost and risk through spiral development ■Elimination of dependencies on any specific hardware and software products ■An open business model, allowing the best of industry to provide components of systems ■A separation between individual software applications, making it possible to incorporate and upgrade functionality at a level that fosters innovation and competition The General Dynamics LCS team has applied its proven open architecture and open business model approach to provide the U.S. Navy with the most capable, most affordable, best-of-industry, non-proprietary solutions for the General Dynamics LCS core mission system. The open architecture and business model approach facilitates capability upgrades and reduces future costs through continual industry competition, resulting in the best solution for the U.S. Navy. Open architecture brings the best of industry together today for the best warfighting capability tomorrow and beyond.

• published: 18 Jan 2012
• views: 23312