SYSTEMS

Mercury Computer Systems announced its continued involvement with Lockheed Martin in the successful February 2005 firing mission of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system, and the initial delivery of its next-generation PowerStream 7000 RapidIO-based multicomputer. An Aegis Destroyer, USS RUSSELL (DDG_59), participated in the February firing mission. This ship is equipped with the Aegis combat system, including the AN/SPY-1D radar. For the test, the SPY-1D radar was augmented by the Aegis BMD signal processor (BSP). Mercury supplied the 6U RACE++ Series VME integrated signal processing system embedded in the BSP. The processing capability of the Mercury system enabled the SPY-1D radar to achieve real-time detection, tracking, analysis and discrimination of several challenging targets in the BSP's first at-sea participation of a BMD at-sea test campaign. "Mercury's participation in the Aegis program began in 1999 with a RACE Series system for Lockheed Martin and has continued through two generations of our industry-leading multicomputing architecture," said Barry Isenstein, vice president and general manager of Defense Electronics at Mercury. "Our customers require the next-generation data bandwidth while securing their technology investments. With the PowerStream 7000, Mercury provides breakthrough performance density and scalability to address the pent-up demand for ever-more power-hungry applications in the confined spaces of military deployment platforms." Mercury's systems engineering experts are working closely with Lockheed Martin's development team on the next phase of the Aegis BMD program. The initial Lockheed Martin order for the PowerStream 7000 is central to the development of signal processing applications that are planned for deployment on Navy warships. The PowerStream 7000 enables extreme processing density with one TeraFLOPS or more of total processing power within an air-cooled, deployable chassis. It is optimized for the deployment of high-end image and digital signal processing applications in the harsh, confined environments of airborne, oceangoing, or land-mobile platforms. The PowerStream 7000 represents a new generation of multicomputers that delivers Mercury's renowned systems engineering and integration expertise in open, RapidIO-based products. For more information on the PowerStream 7000, visit Mercury's website at its Website.