Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division, a trusted leading supplier of rugged data storage solutions, today announced that it was awarded a contract by the Naval Surface Warfare Center to provide its Removable Memory Cartridge (RMC) technology for use in a planned future upgrade for the navy’s fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines.
The RMC is a rugged direct-attached storage device based on industry-standard 2.5-inch SATA solid-state drives (SSD), and is scalable from 128 gigabytes to 4 terabytes today, and adaptable to support new SSDs in the future. Specifically designed for rugged, deployed applications, the RMCs will support the system upgrade effort to achieve increased performance while helping to mitigate obsolescence. Featuring a 100,000 insertion cycle connector, the RMC is designed to withstand years of insertion and removal for data storage and transport.
The RMC storage cartridges are part of a network attached storage (NAS) system that includes Curtiss-Wright’s DTS3 rugged NAS, which hosts three RMCs. The RMC can be used to store data and then transport the data between locations. Under the contract, shipments began in June, 2019 and will continue until October, 2024. The initial contract is valued at $4.5 million, with $3.35 million provided by the U.S. Navy and $1.19 million resulting from associated foreign military sales. The estimated lifetime value of the contract is $9.9 million.
“We are very proud to have been selected by the Naval Surface Warfare Center to provide our rugged data storage technology in support of the important upgrade of the fleet of Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines,” said Lynn Bamford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Defense and Power.
Curtiss-Wright is manufacturing the products covered by this agreement at its facility in Fairborn, Ohio. The products are being shipped to the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana.