By Geoff Fein
Along with efforts to enable submarines to communicate at speed and depth, the Navy is looking to develop a single buoy fitted with multiple systems as well as a more reliable towed buoy for the SSBN fleet, according to a program official.
Currently Lockheed Martin [LMT] is working on engineering development models for the Comms at Speed and Depth (CSD) Increment 1 effort. Under the Navy contract, Lockheed Martin is developing three buoys: two tethered and one untethered, to enable submarines to communicate with surface ships or shore assets without having to surface to periscope depth and while on the move.
Increment 1 ends in July 2011.
The Navy is also working on an effort called the Tethered Reconfigurable Expandable (TREX) buoy, Brent Starr, the Navy’s communications at speed and depth (CSD) principal acquisition program manager, told Defense Daily recently.
The TREX effort would pick up where CSD Increment 1 stops, Starr said.
While CSD Increment 1 relies on several buoys, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command San Diego has developed a new buoy with multiple payloads included in one system, he added.
“Where a tethered expendable communications buoy (TECB) UHF buoy would only allow you to do UHF, now we are advertising a TREX solution that would give you an AIS (Automatic Identification System) signal, a GPS signal, and an iridium and camera signal all on one buoy,” Starr said. “This is an unfunded effort at this point.”
Starr said he has been seeking Office of Naval Research and Special Warfare funding for it.
“It’s definitely a bang for the buck, taking advantage of where we have come with the technology,” he said.
Starr’s group has also developed a communications buoy for submarines built upon an older technology using High Frequency Internet Protocol (HFIP) in a token ring configuration, he said.
A token ring configuration is a local area network in which, in this case, all the battle group assets are connected in a ring. The HFIP enables a ship to be connected to the ring, Starr said.
“What we did, we looked at that opportunity, at that system and gave a submarine one of these buoyant cable antennas, so it is a floating wire essentially,” he said. “They can stay connected to the battle group via HFIP, while submerged, via this floating wire.”
The Navy had been working on that technology for a few years, and while the testing was successful, the program of record took some funding reduction, Starr noted. “It still hasn’t fully fielded; in fact it is just beginning to field.”
“Due to a funding realignment the system was delayed in fielding by a few years, but it is expected to pick up,” Starr said.
The HFIP program begins fielding later this year, he added.
Starr’s team is working another effort to replace the AN/BRR-6 towed communications buoy used by SSBNs to deliver emergency action messages (EAM).
The BRR-6 buoy is launched behind the submarines and allows it to maintain a communications link while submerged, he added.
The U.S. and the U.K. SSBNs have very similar, in design, missile compartments, Starr said.
The decision was made for the two countries to get together under an official international agreement, called Project Arrangement, to collaborate on an effort to see where they could have as close to one design as possible between the countries, he added. “The goal is to save R&D design dollars.”
Project Arrangement runs from FY ’10 to FY ’15. An analysis of alternatives (AoA) is expected to be released in the October ’10 time frame and the results should be out around May FY ’11, Starr said. “We are in the very beginning stages of that. That system is being designed to be fielded either on the Ohio-replacement or it could be back fitted onto SSBNs.”
The key to the effort, he added, is reliability.
“We understand the requirement to deliver EAM and we know the payload that has to be there,” Starr said. “My direction and vision for the group is to hone in more on the reliability aspects of the buoy. This buoy has to be available at all times, so I am putting more emphasis on the systems engineering effort and the reliability effort than on the actual payload effort.”
The first of two requests for information (RFI) was issued six months ago. Starr said the Navy will release another RFI within the next probably three to four months.
Following the completion of the AoA in May FY ’11, the United States and United Kingdom will move into a smaller development contract to develop a prototype under the Project Arrangement, Starr said.
“You are using equitable investment from both countries to figure out what you want to do, what makes the most sense, and where the best return on investment is given the common design,” he said.
From there, the program will move to develop a component level prototype so that in about the FY ’15 time frame, the prototype can be installed on an existing SSBN, Starr said.
“That will drive down risk as you move forward to a program of record,” he said.
In FY ’16 or ’17 the goal is to award a full-scale development contract, Starr noted. “So a RFP would go out late FY ’14 or early FY ’15.”