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Boeing, DRS awarded Navy destroyer ethernet contract

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150328-N-EW716-001 PASCAGOULA, Miss. – The future USS John Finn (DDG 113) was launched March 28. John Finn, the first Flight IIA Arleigh Burke class (DDG 51) ship will be equipped with the Navy’s Aegis Combat System, the world’s foremost integrated naval weapons system. Flight IIA ships will provide increased capabilities over previous DDG 51 destroyers, including advances in anti-submarine warfare, command and control, and anti-surface warfare. (Photo courtesy of HII)

Boeing and DRS Laurel Technologies have been awarded a contract to modernize the Ethernet system aboard modernized DDG-51 destroyers.

Under the contract, the two companies will provide “AN/USQ-82(V) Gigabit Ethernet Data Multiplex System (GEDMS) ship set hardware, spare parts and installation and checkout repair for the DDG 51 modernization program, the DDG 51 new construction program, DDG 51 foreign military sales to Korea and Japan, the LHA 8, and Aegis Ashore programs,” according to the Department of Defense contract announcement. “The GEDMS variant of the AN/USQ-82(V) delivers technologically-refreshed IC data network, which enables critical and real-time control system communications throughout the DDG 51-class destroyer.”

The Boeing contract is for $6.9 million, expanding to $116.5 million if all options are exercised. The DRS Laurel Technologies contract is for $8.3 million, expanding to $76.3 million if all options are exercised.

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Michael Peck is a correspondent for Defense News and a columnist for the Center for European Policy Analysis. He holds an M.A. in political science from Rutgers University. Find him at theuncommondefense.com. His email is mikedefense1@gmail.com.