Navy To Test Advanced Submarine Capabilities

Naval Submarine League Update
July 05, 2002

From: Bill Decker bdecker@shentel.net
Sent: Saturday, July 06, 2002 9:00 AM

DEFENSE DAILY

 DARPA, Navy To Test Advanced Submarine Capabilities By Hunter Keeter  

The Navy and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) early next year plan tests of advanced submarine warfare capabilities,  including some concepts included in an ongoing advanced sensors and payloads study, such as the launch of missiles from a converted SSGN platform as well as the deployment and control of an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV).

Naval Nuclear Reactors Chief Adm. Skip Bowman last week told a  Navy Submarine League symposium audience in Alexandria, Va., that it was time to "stop studying [advanced submarine capabilities] and start delivering real hardware."

Next year the former nuclear ballistic missile submarine USS Florida (SSBN-728), under orders for conversion to the SSGN conventional missile and Special Operations Forces (SOF) configuration, will test fire two Raytheon [RTN] Tomahawk cruise missiles from a new  multiple all-up-round canister (MAC) developed by Northrop Grumman [NOC].

Additionally, the Navy plans to test release the Seahorse UUV next  year. Three Seahorse-class autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) are being developed for the Navy by Penn State University.

The Seahorse is a 28-foot long, 38-inch diameter torpedo-like system that is designed for underwater survey and bottom mapping, key  missions for both the Navy's oceanic survey force as well as for the  submarine force in assessing threat environments and performing other marine intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.

Seahorse is initially to be supported from surface vessels, such  as USNS Heezen (T-AGS-64) of Military Sealift Command. But the Navy is exploring the possibility of submarine launch and control of systems  like Seahorse, which require larger torpedo tubes or other launch  interfaces than those with which most of current attack submarines are  equipped. Conventional Navy torpedo tubes are 21-inches in diameter.

Bowman said he envisions developing and deploying an "organic  unmanned systems capability" for the attack boat submarine force which could host "multiple UUVs, UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] as off-board sensors launched and managed by covert SSGNs adding new dimensions to our ISR capability."

General Dynamics [GD] is responsible for the overall SSGN  conversion design integration. The company built all 18 Ohio-class submarines, four of which are to be considered for conversion to SSGN. Seven Tomahawks, each housed in a capsule launching system, are to be loaded in each MAC, which is then placed into some number of the 24 converted vertical missile tubes that had housed nuclear ballistic  missiles during the boats' former career as members of the strategic  deterrent force.

Bowman called on the Navy to step up its efforts to study the rapid delivery of "short-fuse" conventional ballistic missile capability for the submarine force to enter the "time critical strike" mission area.  Lockheed Martin [LMT] has proposed a system to the Navy that could  provide enhanced payload capability and time critical strike capability  for submarines. 

Called Transformational Tactical Targeting (T3), the concept is  the product of multiplying the capabilities of several existing systems  in the Navy and Air Force to create a rapid reaction precision strike  capability aboard ships. 

"[T3] evolved from the submarine payloads and sensor program and  the Navy's desire to provide time-critical strike capability," August  Billones, program manager for advanced submarine programs with Lockheed Martin, earlier this month told Defense Daily during an interview at Submarine League's symposium. "While the Navy has TTWCS (Tactical Tomahawk Weapons Control System) for the Tomahawk cruise missiles, T3 will provide submarines with the capability to launch unmodified ballistic missiles, such as the Tactical Missile System (TACMS) and the Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS)...This will significantly expand the suite of weapons that can be targeted by the host ship and it also extends into [unmanned aerial vehicle] planning and control and other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities as well."

Lockheed Martin produces TTWCS for use aboard current Navy ships  capable of firing Raytheon's [RTN] Tomahawk Block IIIC and the upcoming Tactical Tomahawk cruise missiles. Lockheed Martin produces the TACMS and GMLRS for the Army.

In Lockheed Martin's view, a selling point for the T3 concept is that, through software and a minimal installation of added processing  equipment, the submarine force can tie together several elements  already present in the fleet to achieve the T3 functionality without a  lengthy modification process or development program.

T3 integrates the Navy's submarine command and control system as  proposed for the new Virginia-class, the Air Force's Actravis software  toolkit, the maritime global command and control system, the Air  Force's precision geo-location system, the Navy's and Air Force's  automatic target recognition system; and an enhanced version of the  TTWCS called the "Advanced Naval Land Attack System."

Rapid Response Capability Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) developed the video processing system used with the precision geo-location and automatic target recognition portions of T3.

During the study effort into submarine sensors and payloads, DARPA  and the Navy have explored the use of unmodified ballistic missiles  aboard ships to provide a more rapid response capability to time- sensitive target information such as observation data of the location of a mobile transporter, erector, launcher (TEL) system for Soviet-type  Scud ballistic missiles.
 

The Navy in the 1990s explored the development of a naval version of TACMS, called the NTACMS, that would have modified fins and fuselage designed to fit the vertical launch cells aboard Navy surface ships.
 

By 1999 the Navy has selected Raytheon's Land Attack Standard  Missile (LASM) as the near-term land attack missile to complement planned advancements in guided artillery programs, leaving the NTACMS concept shelved for the time being.
 

The Navy in the FY '02 and FY '03 budgets has cancelled funding for the LASM. The service believes the LASM program did not provide the  lethality the Navy needs from its land-attack systems. With both LASM and NTACMS apparently off the scope, the submarine force, working with DARPA, has continued to assess the possibilities of conventional ballistic missile weapons. Lockheed Martin hopes to  translate that interest into a near-term Navy acquisition project for  current tactical missile systems that can be procured off the shelf  adjunct to Army or Marine Corps programs.
 

What has made this possible is the proposal of a new kind of  canister to house the missile that would not require modifications to the weapon for its use aboard submarines.

 

 Also, with the flexibility planned into the launch systems now being designed for the new Virginia-class, the Ohio-class SSGN conversion, and Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), the third and final in the Seawolf-class, the submarine force may soon no longer be limited to weapons of a certain diameter for launch capability.