Open architecture computing infrastructure (OPEN CI) enables U.S. Navy to adapt to emerging, complex missions quickly and cost-effectively.

The U.S Navy christened its newest Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the future USS Jackson (LCS 6), at the Austal shipyard in Mobile, Ala., on March 22, 2014. As systems integrator on the Austal USA-led team, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems is continuing to apply its proven open architecture and open business model approach to the LCS program. General Dynamics’ open architecture computing infrastructure, OPEN CI, serves as the technology backbone for the ship’s core mission system and provides the Navy with unprecedented flexibility to rapidly and affordably address mission-critical needs.

"Our open architecture computing infrastructure ensures commonality in the ship's interfaces, allowing for the rapid upgrading and swapping of mission capabilities to enhance performance where and when it's needed most," said Carlo Zaffanella, vice president and general manager of Integrated Platform Solutions at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. "With OPEN CI, we are helping the Navy drive time and cost out, and innovation and capability in."

LCS 6, the third Independence-variant ship to be built for the Navy, includes a significant number of core mission system improvements that are the direct result of the lessons learned and the rapid evolution of technology from the LCS 2 and LCS 4 design to the current version. Applying its open architecture approach to the Independence-variant ships, General Dynamics has made it possible to increase system capability, address obsolescence and maintain compatibility with the ship's many subsystems, while substantially lowering the cost ship-over-ship.