Boeing lands $42.9-million Navy contract

Boeing’s Huntington Beach plant has gotten a $42.9-million contract from the U.S. Navy to sustain and upgrade one of its information-transfer systems.

The contract supports the Gigabit Ethernet Data Multiplex System, which helps “network or connect in a more streamlined way a lot of the basic functions of how ships operate,” said Paula Shawa, a spokesperson for Boeing.

Under the contract, Boeing will also improve data system networks, regulate engineering changes, update technical documentation and devise interface design documents. The contract is part of the Navy’s goal to construct, run and modernize a certain type of guided missile destroyers.

“This flexible, cost-effective network provides optimal shipboard control and provides the Navy with a system architecture that allows ships to introduce network-centric control systems gracefully and with minimal risk, because the migration does not necessitate wholesale replacement of equipment,” said Jay Nieto, the program’s manager at Boeing, in a press release.

The information-transfer system is installed primarily in the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, a guided missile warship capable of achieving speeds of over 30 knots, according to the Navy’s online database. As the system is already in place, the contract will essentially just sustain and possibly update it, Shawa said.

“It’s kind of a spirit of continuous improvement,” Shawa said.

Boeing’s information-transfer system manages data from the ship’s navigation, steering-control, damage-control, machinery-control, and combat and internal communications systems, decreasing the amount of cabling previously needed on guided missile destroyers by using a common cable.

Boeing has collaborated with the Navy for over 35 years to improve information-transfer systems for communication, so this partnering is nothing new. The Huntington Beach division of Boeing used to be based mostly out of Anaheim, but has moved many of its operations and employees to the Huntington Beach plant, Shawa said.

The basic idea behind the system is networking, she said.

“The whole idea of networking is common everywhere now,” since it’s “quicker, faster, easier,” Shawa said.

A Virginia division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center will manage the five-year contract.