Navy Currents
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December 2010 Issue
U.S. Participates in RIMPAC, World's Largest Multinational Maritime Exercise
ONR, NSWC to Attempt World Record With 32-Megajoule Rail Gun Test Shot
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Dahlgren, Virginia, plan to attempt a 32-plus-megajoule rail gun test shot in December.
The shot, triple the energy of the current world record NSWC Dahlgren established in 2008, is equivalent in energy to a one-ton vehicle moving at about 600 miles per hour. The ONR said that the 32-megajoule shot would be able to shoot a guided projectile more than 100 nautical miles from ship to target with a Mach 5 impact velocity.
Testing for New Diving System Under Way in Florida
Naval Experimental Diving Unit, Panama City, Florida, recently completed the first manned dive of the saturation fly-away diving system (SAT FADS), Naval Sea Systems Command announced in November.
SAT FADS is designed to be deployable worldwide and to support sustained diving operations to depths of 1,000 feet of seawater. The system will replace two decommissioned Pigeon-class submarine rescue units that operated to 850 feet of seawater.
"This system will allow us to put U.S. Navy saturation divers on the bottom of the ocean to conduct deep-ocean salvage and submarine recovery operations," said Paul McMurtrie, program manager for SAT FADS.
SAT FADS is designed to support six saturation divers for a period of 21 days, with an additional nine days of decompression. Commissioning will continue through an operational evaluation and a series of manned dives pier-side, culminating with a 1,000 feet of seawater dry saturation dive.
Navy Completes Developmental Flight Testing Of Airborne Laser Mine Detection System
The U.S. Navy concluded developmental flight testing of the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City, on October 27.
The ALMDS underwent testing on 30 flights over 33 days, which included day and night operations. Mounted on a helicopter and deployed from a littoral combat ship as part of its mine countermeasures package, ALMDS rapidly detects and locates surface and near-surface mines so they can be neutralized before damaging U.S. and allied military and commercial ships.
"We are a step closer to putting a revolutionary capability into the hands of our warfighters," said E. Anne Sandel, program executive officer for littoral and mine warfare.
The Navy said that the system addresses the surface and near-surface component of the mine threat and represents a capability that does not exist in the current mine countermeasures inventory.
Navy Seeks to Build More Littoral Combat Ships Sooner
Competition between industry bidders to build the littoral combat ship (LCS) has led the U.S. Navy to begin asking key defense committee members about the possibility of gaining congressional authorization to award both LCS bidders, Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, Maryland) and General Dynamics (Falls Church, Virginia), a 10-ship block buy.
If congressional approval for a dual block buy is not received, the Navy said it will proceed to select a single bidder, in accordance with the terms of the current solicitation.
"This option is good for the taxpayers because it enables us to buy more ships for the same money and allows us to lock in a lower price for all 20 ships," said Ray Mabus, secretary of the Navy. "It's good for the Navy because it gets us more ships faster and increases our flexibility, and it's good for industry because it maintains and even expands jobs at two shipyards."
Unlike the current solicitation, this option would require congressional action to authorize two block buys by mid-December, when the bids expire.
The Navy said it remains committed to the LCS program and the requirement for 55 of these ships to provide combatant commanders with the capability to defeat anti-access threats in the littorals, including fast-surface craft, quiet submarines and various types of mines.
ONR Developing Airborne Imagery Surveillance Systems
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) recently awarded Logos Technologies (Arlington, Virginia) a $9.5 million modification under a previously awarded contract to develop and produce four prototype 59-megapixel lightweight expeditionary airborne persistent surveillance systems for field user evaluation.
2011: JAN | FEB | MARCH | APRIL | MAY | JUNE | JULY | AUG | SEPT | OCT | NOV | DEC
2010: JAN | FEB | MARCH | APRIL | MAY | JUNE | JULY | AUG | SEPT | OCT | NOV | DEC
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