The U.S. Navy has chosen Lockheed Martin to be the Common Submarine Radio Room (CSRR) software design agent and interim Software Support Agent (SSA) for the Seawolf Class submarine. CSRR upgrades are expected to total $20 million over the next two to five years.

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Currently, Lockheed Martin provides CSRR solutions for the Ohio, Virginia and Seawolf Class submarines. Common software baselines for all submarine variants are provided in conjunction with the U.S. Navy's integrated product team.

The CSRR program is the U.S. Navy's communication bridge to common radio room systems across submarines and surface ships. CSRR provides an interoperable subsurface communication system using rapid commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology refresh and commonality that is transferable to surface shipboard systems.

"Extending the common submarine radio room technologies and open system architecture leverages the Navy's investment in warship external communications," says Captain Frank Unetic of the U.S. Navy's Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence and Space.

"The CSRR approach enables the Navy to realize the benefits of common requirements, common architecture, common components, and gateway services that provide a bridge between the ship and joint off-board networks."

The first CSRR was developed for the Virginia class submarine and then extended to the Ohio and Seawolf classes. The design reduces the area of a submarine's radio room 30% and watch stander manning by two-thirds, compared to earlier systems. The Virginia CSRR successfully maintained a common software baseline that has 85% commonality with Ohio class submarines and 91% commonality with Seawolf class submarines. The Los Angeles class submarine is next in line for this update.