July 20,
2008: The U.S. is installing a new Ship
Self Defense System (SSDS) on aircraft carriers and amphibious ships. The SSDS
is easier to upgrade with new software and commercial hardware improvements (more
powerful CPUs, hard drives and memory). SSDS uses the increasingly popular (for
the military) "open architecture" approach.
In the
last three decades the military has had to abandon its long time practice of
designing specialized (for military use) electronics. New commercial equipment,
capable of doing the same thing, was being developed more quickly than similar
custom military gear could be. It became clear that other countries could use
the commercial stuff, and have cheaper and more powerful systems than American
ships.
The SSDS
is meant for ships armed mainly with anti-missile systems (the 20mm Phalanx gun
or missiles). SSDS collects information from several radars and other sensors
more quickly, and gives watch officers and commanders are better picture, more
quickly, or approaching threats (including suicide boats or whatever.)
The
carrier USS Nimitz is the first ship to get SSDS Mk 2.
