Sandia Software Selected For Navy's DDG 1000 Destroyer

Jess 7.1a3, a popular rule engine created by Sandia National Laboratories, has been licensed by Lockheed Martin Corp. to play a critical role in the Navy’s DDG 1000 destroyer ships.

According to Dr. Greg Harrison, a Lockheed systems engineer, the company chose Jess after extensive and multiple trade studies confirmed the software’s ability to interface with the information in the DDG 1000 knowledgebase. “I feel confident that we made the right choice with Jess,” says Harrison.

Jess was licensed by Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training & Support (STS), a business unit within the company’s Electronics Systems business area. STS is a leader in the development of logistics solutions and military training and simulation, producing air, ground and maritime systems for customers worldwide.

The Navy’s DDG 1000 is a multi-mission, maritime fleet of destroyer ships. It includes a number of advanced technologies and features, including an integrated power system, dual band radar, integrated undersea warfare system, and advanced gun system. Among other intended uses, Jess will help the DDG 1000 ship domain controller with its alarm management function and reasoning about ship system states for safe operation.

Jess enables software developers to embed intelligence in the form of business rules directly into their Java TM applications. Rules-driven programming, says Sandia software licensing manager Craig Smith, allows software to express real-world concepts in a natural, expressive way that helps business and IT professionals collaborate in bringing enterprise applications to life.

Among Jess’s latest features is an integrated development environment (IDE) for rules that increases programmer productivity and enhances collaboration. The IDE is based on the award-winning Eclipse TM platform (www.eclipse.org) and features tools for creating, editing, visualizing, monitoring and debugging rules.

Jess is the only enterprise-capable rule engine to offer both the convenience of an IDE and an unprecedented level of flexibility and openness that makes it easy for developers to add the power of heuristic rules into applications that run on everything from handheld devices to enterprise servers. Jess supports the industry-standard JSR94 Java Rule Engine API as well as its own rich interface. Jess executes rules written both in its own expressive rule language and in XML.

Jess is licensed commercially and is being used in enterprise applications at dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including many in the finance, insurance, security, transportation, and manufacturing sectors. Sandia also offers Jess licenses to academic and government institutions. Jess (along with the textbook Jess in Action) is used as a teaching tool at hundreds of universities around the globe.

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Defense Contractor Delivers Remote Minehunting Vehicle to Navy

A ceremony has marked Lockheed Martin Corp's (NYSE: LMT) delivery of the first production Remote Minehunting Vehicle (RMV) to the U.S. Navy. This delivery is a significant milestone in the development of the mine countermeasures capability for both DDG 51 Arleigh Burke class destroyers and the newer Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the contractor says.

The RMV is a semi-submersible, semi-autonomous, unmanned vehicle that tows a variable-depth sensor to detect, localize, classify and identify bottom and moored sea mines at a safe distance from friendly ships. The RMV transmits real-time mine sonar images to its host ship over a data link system. This mine reconnaissance capability will allow a naval Strike Group Commander to quickly and safely assess the threat of mines in prospectiv eareas of operations, Lockheed says.

In 2005, the Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Lockheed Martin a low-rate initial production contract for three RMVs. In 2006, a contract for four more RMVs was awarded. Total contract value is $118 million. The RMV is produced at Lockheed Martin's Riviera Beach, Fla., facility.

The RMV is the integral mobile subsystem of the Navy's AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System (RMS). The RMS includes the RMV, a launch and retrieval system for the RMV, the RMV-towed sonar sensor, advanced communications equipment and software that integrates RMS into the host ship's combat system.

The RMV is one component of the RMS which is currently installed on USS Bainbridge (DDG 96). The RMS completed an operational assessment in the summer of 2006 and a technical evaluation in March 2007. RMS is expected to conduct an operational evaluation in June of this year. The RMS is scheduled for its first operational deployment aboard USS Bainbridge in late 2007.

"The Remote Minehunting System (RMS) introduces a critical minecountermeasure capability to our forward-deployed naval forces," says Captain Joe Spitz, deputy mine earfare program manager, Program Executive Office Littoral and Mine Warfare. "Sailors now have an organic unmanned mine warfare system that will allow them to detect and classify mines froma safe distance. RMS allows the Navy to send a remotely operated vehicle into dangerous waters, keeping sailors out of the minefield."

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