Program Executive Office for Tactical Aircraft Programs, NAVAIR Patuxent River, MD.

While the arrival of the Grim Reaper at your door usually isn’t a usually welcomed visitor, the U. S. Navy fleet of Group II E-2C aircraft is eagerly awaiting the arrival of a similar sounding system but with a complete different meaning. The U.S. Navy and its industry partner the Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC), recently introduced a Mission Computer Replacement (MCR) to the E-2C Group II aircraft, referred to as GrIIM RePr, the acronym carried by the program that produced the system (pronounced ‘grim reaper’). Unlike the cloaked figure that frequents childhood nightmares, this GrIIM RePr’s mission is to breathe life back into an otherwise obsolete system, and is proving to be a dream come true for the Group II platform and the U.S. Navy.

The new Group II Mission Computer uses available Commercial Off-The Shelf (COTS) Non-Developmental (NDI) technology that will improve E-2C mission readiness and growth potential to keep pace with increasing Carrier Strike Group (CSG) command and control and net-centric mission requirements, while improving reliability and reducing total ownership costs.

NAVAIR GrIIM RePr program lead John Martin recently attended a ceremony recognizing the team effort in delivering the system to the Fleet and related, ““We came together to celebrate our individual contributions and take pride in our collective achievement. We achieved our goal to engineer, manufacture and field an MCR that is significantly faster, lighter, reliable and capable of adapting to meet future processing requirements.”

The MCR replaces the original Group II Litton L-304 tactical mission computer, used in the Group II aircraft since the late 1960s. The L-304’s high maintenance costs, coupled with limited processing potential and memory capacity had inhibited the ability to integrate modern, more advanced Command, Control, Communications, Computers Intelligence and Surveillance (C4IS) weapons systems into the aircraft. The MCR provides more reliable, high-performance processing with substantial growth provisions to meet current and future operational needs.

The replacement uses industry proven COTS/NDI and reuses existing E-2C flight software to minimize hardware, software and integration costs while requiring no structural, wiring or cooling changes to the aircraft’s configuration. In addition, the mission computer is easier to maintain with a predicted Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of greater than 10,000 hours. This MTBF is attributed to its state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, integration of operationally proven components and a hardware suite that provides 98.7 percent fault detection and reporting capabilities. Software support will also be more easily maintained in either legacy or advanced software support environments and the system’s Open Systems Architecture (OSA) will allow software growth for future C4IS interoperability requirements.

The GrIIM RePr Integrated Product Team (IPT) was assembled in 2000, and in 2001 the prime contract was awarded to Northrop Grumman Space Technologies (NGST). Lockheed Martin Systems Integration (LMSI) was then competitively selected by NGST to provide and produce the COTS and NDI computer hardware. Navy acceptance testing was conducted from December 2003 to June 2004, and in response to the Fleet’s War Fighter Focus Group, the GrIIM RePr IPT developed a compressed testing strategy to gain efficiency and accelerate production and fielding.

All aircraft ground and flight-testing, including carrier suitability flight-testing and electromagnetic compatibility have been successfully completed. Fleet installation is currently underway and is expected to be completed by the spring of 2005.

For more information concerning the GrIIM RePr or the E-2 program, contact Denise Deon Wilson at 301-481-6163 or at [email protected].

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