US Navy Finishes CDR for New LCAC C4N Suite

The US Navy successfully completed the Critical Design Review (CDR) for a new Command, Control, Communications, Computers & Navigation (C4N) suite for landing craft, air cushion (LCAC), Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) announced Oct. 2.

The LCAC C4N suite, also known as the command module electronics package, is the user interface the crew uses to operate the craft. This new C4N suite, the System Baseline Configuration 4 (SBC4) design, employs a modular open scalable approach (MOSA). This approach will improve sustainability while helping the Navy reduce procurement costs.

“The critical design review is an important milestone,” said Senior Software Engineer Lisa Nowalk, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD). “This technical review assessed the system final design and established the initial product baseline for SBC4.”

During the CDR, the NSWC PCD team demonstrated an operational prototype based on the MOSA, along with more than 90 percent of the technical data package completed.

The LCAC C4N suite provides a glass cockpit display environment for the craft’s three-person crew in the command module. The suite consists of a fly-by-wire craft control system with two fully redundant engineering control system processing units, along with four sensor interface units that provide the signal conditioning and conversion of 190 different sensors and alarms on the craft. It includes a fully-integrated navigation system that integrates with a 25-kilowatt surface search radar system, a primary and secondary GPS system, and an inertial navigation system.

Also included is a display system consisting of six sunlight readable, night vision device compatible liquid crystal displays and a common data recorder used to perform mission plan transfers, as well as recording of real-time navigation, audio and engineering data/actions.

This next generation configuration, SBC4, will significantly reduce the footprint of the electronics in terms of volume, weight, and power requirements.

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Press Release, October 03, 2014; Image: US Navy