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The second Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has proven so much more reliable than the first that the Navy has been able to experiment with a new expeditionary maintenance model to extend the reach of the ship, the program executive officer for LCS told USNI News last week.
Rear Adm. Brian Antonio said that “as challenging as Freedom was, Fort Worth has just been phenomenal” in terms of material condition and ability to meet its operational requirements. Antonio previously served as the U.S. Pacific Fleet fleet maintenance officer when USS Freedom (LCS-1) made her maiden deployment, so he said he is intimately familiar with the number and severity of the casualty reports (CASREPS) that ship had.
USS Fort Worth (LCS-3), in stark comparison, in her maiden deployment has had “an order of magnitude [fewer CASREPS], in the order of hundreds of hours of corrective maintenance compared to thousands of hours of corrective maintenance, Fort Worthcompared to Freedom. Fewer CASREPS, casualty reports; less severe casualty reports; less time to clear the casualty reports with CASCORS, casualty correction reports. Overall, we are experiencing with Fort Worth what we expect the class as it gets out in numbers to be more like, as opposed to Freedom.”
Antonio said that, for example, the Pacific Fleet opted to cancel one of Fort Worth’s maintenance availabilities so it could help search for the missing AirAsia Flight 8501 in January. Freedom, in comparison, spent more time than expected in maintenance and canceled operational obligations.
As a result, Freedom could not stray far from its maintenance hub in Singapore, whereas the Navy has begun experimenting with extending the reach of Fort Worth.
“One of the feedbacks we got back from the fleet with Freedom was that her legs weren’t very long, in that every 25 days or so she needed to come back to Singapore to get a maintenance availability – which means you can only go a certain number of days out, and its’ a big ocean,” Antonio said.
Fort Worth, on the other hand, just finished a maintenance availability in Sasebo, Japan, which Antonio said would not have been possible with Freedom. The fleet created a “maintenance in a box” concept, which included pre-staging two trailers in Sasebo – one filled with all the parts the ship and its mission package might require, and one with the tooling the maintenance workers would need to perform the work away from the hub in Singapore.
Antonio said the experiment was highly successful.
Going forward, the LCS program is looking forward to seeing its 3-2-1 deployment plan implemented in earnest – three crews for two ships, with one always deployed. Fort Worthwill hit the halfway mark of her 16-month deployment this summer, and Freedom will go out as soon as Fort Worth comes home.
Meanwhile, in June Freedom will go through the ship class’s first ship restricted availability, an extended maintenance period, which Antonio said will be a learning opportunity for all involved.
By 2018, Antonio said all three mission packages will be tested and have reached initial operational capability; two ships of each hull variant will be deployed in Singapore; and a request for proposals will be out to industry for the LCS follow-on program, the new frigate.
From USS Fort Worth Successfully Tested Overseas Maintenance Outside of Singapore Hub - USNI News
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Imaging that
. I new program has a few problems in the first system, but then they are worked out and the program proceeds as planned. Seriously people, just because it has teething issues doesn't mean the program is a failure
!Th LCS is just fine, people are just too impatient and too quick to label a project a failed investment.
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Navy Frigate Requirements Will Be Finalized Soon, Will Inform Decision on Hull Downselect
The Program Executive Office for Littoral Combat Ships (PEO LCS) is working with both its shipbuilders to determine how to bring the current LCS designs into a more lethal and survivable frigate design, while it works with other Navy offices to finalize the frigate requirements.
The Navy decided the last 20 of its 52 LCSs would instead be a modified LCS, later renamed a frigate. Though many details are still being worked out, PEO LCS Rear Adm. Brian Antonio told USNI News in an interview at Washington Navy Yard that the frigate will be an LCS, plus more guns, a multi-functioned towed array for submarine detection, over-the-horizon radar and a light-weight torpedo countermeasure, plus the potential to add “capability enhancement” packages – either a 30mm gun and rigid-hull inflatable boats for visit, board, search and seizure missions, or additional sonars.
The program office is also working with the Navy’s Surface Warfare Directorate, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems and more to refine the frigate requirements and clearly document them. The Navy will need to work through how to integrate new systems into the combat management system, what hull, mechanical and electrical changes may be needed, how many people will be part of the core crew of the ship, and more.
Antonio said the requirements will be finalized “this year, as soon as we can.”
Surface warfare director Rear Adm. Peter Fanta will lead a series of requirements resource review boards for the frigate, the first of which will look at the combat management system and upgraded over-the-horizon radar, Antonio said.
“We’ll get into what the requirements are for those, and then that will sort of free us up [for] getting into the design work,” he said, adding that would happen “in a matter of weeks as opposed to months.”
The Small Surface Combatant Task Force estimated it would cost about $75 million more per frigate than LCS, Antonio said. The current LCS is about $100 million less per ship than the congressional cost caps, so he said he was confident the small surface combatant portion of the fleet would remain affordable.
One big question looming is whether both LCS designs – a monohull by Lockheed Martin and a trimaran by Austal USA – will move into the frigate program or if the Navy will downselect to one variant. Antonio said all options are being kept open at the moment, but he noted the advantages of keeping both designs in production.
“I have said as PEO, there are great advantages for competition,” he said.
“It provides the opportunity to make sure that we benefit from competition. I think industry actually benefits from competition, it keeps pencils sharp.”
To keep all options open, Antonio said his office has established contractual relationships with both shipbuilders to look at the LCS-to-frigate transition.
“We haven’t set an acquisition strategy in place that says we’re going to continue to build equal numbers of the variants going into the future, but we want to keep that option open as we get closer to FY ‘19,”Antonio said.
“So we’re working with both shipbuilders, saying, what do we need to do to each variant to make these changes to turn it into a frigate based on what the decisions were that came out of the secretary of defense?”
By 2019, when the Navy will need to issue its first frigate contract, two of each variants of LCS will be in Singapore, so the fleet will have the opportunity to provide feedback ahead of a contract decision. Though the sailors operating the ships won’t have the final say in the matter, “they’ll have a say in how the requirements go,” Antonio said.
Once the frigate requirements are set and design work begins, Antonio said he also expects some upgrades may work their way into the Fiscal Year 2017 and 2018 LCSs. The acquisition strategy for those years is not finalized yet, but “what we anticipate doing is combining those two years so we only have to do one solicitation. And we’re still coming through what that RFP [request for proposals] will look like and the overall acquisition strategy. We owe [Navy acquisition chief Sean] Stackley an acquisition strategy approach and will get that approved through the proper chains and be able to come out with an RFP in late 2016 timeframe so we can negotiate an award in ’17.”
In designing the RFP, Antonio said “we have opportunity to say, hey shipbuilders, we eventually want to incorporate as much of the frigate attributes back into LCS over time. We have an opportunity with those last six LCSs, if we’ve got high capability impact, low-cost changes that we can incorporate – armoring, weight reduction, configuration changes where they make sense and still retain the modularity – then let’s go ahead and get those priced in, and if we can afford it we’ll go do it.
“And then what that does, it has several advantages. One is, it gets the shipyard ready in terms of a learning-curve effect, it gets them ready to incorporation of the frigate when we award frigates, regardless of which shipbuilder it is, or both shipbuilders. …. For us, as we come to negotiations and awarding for the ’19, now we have actual return costs on some of these, so we both know across the aisle what some of these changes may cost. So that’s an affordability aspect that’s sometimes lost on people as we move forward.”
For the existing LCS hulls, Antonio said the Navy would look at taking out weight or adding in armor during post shakedown availabilities or other yard maintenance periods to help close the gap between the LCS and the frigate.
Also awaiting final requirements is a decision on which over-the-horizon missile to use on the frigate. Asked about a timeline for the decision, Antonio said “the first thing we need to do is get the requirements set from the Pentagon.”
Given time constraints, he said he was not interested in any kind of development effort; rather, the missile he picks will be a system of record in the U.S. Navy, a system used in other navies or one that industry has matured and could easily integrate with the frigate.
“The advantage of an over-the-horizon missile, though, is undeniable,” he said, saying the fleet has asked for it and it has proven itself in several wargames.
“It’s going to be successful, it’s just a matter of getting the requirements set down, taking a look at what material solution can meet that requirement, and then looking at the integration piece onto the ship,” Antonio said.
From Navy Frigate Requirements Will Be Finalized Soon, Will Inform Decision on Hull Downselect - USNI News
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Navy: P-8A’s Acoustic Sensor System Twice as Effective as the P-3’s
The acoustic sensor system of the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft proving to be twice as effective as that of the older P-3C Orion.
Capt. Scott Dillon, the Navy’s program manager for maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, speaking to reporters April 14 at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea-Air-Space Exposition, said, “Acoustics is the area where the aircraft has been shining,” while noting that that he has been “getting extremely favorable reviews of the aircraft’s real-world performance.”
The Boeing-built P-8 is likely to deliver even better acoustic detection and tracking capability with the introduction of Increment 2 upgrades, which include the Multistatic Active Coherent Capability (MAC).
MAC, an evolution of Improved Extended Echo Ranging used on the SSQ-110 sonobuoy, uses the SSQ-125 sonobuoy. The SSQ-125 generates loud sounds electronically rather than using small explosive charges to generate sound as in the SSQ-110. The long-range echoes from a target are intercepted by the sonobuoy and relayed to the aircraft’s sensor system. Dillon said the electronic sound sources generate fewer false returns than the explosive charges.
The MAC capability became operational on the P-3 last year. It has passed its operational evaluation, although the full report has not yet been signed out. The next P-8 squadron to deploy, scheduled for September, will incorporate this capability as the Navy has begun retrofits of MAC into the already delivered P-8s.
MAC is one of three major improvements being implemented in the Increment 2 upgrade. The others are the Automatic Information System and the High-Altitude ASW Weapon (HAAWC) system. HAAWC is a Mk54 torpedo with a Boeing-built wing kit, a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a data link with the aircraft. The weapon can glide from high altitudes — allowing the aircraft to maintain a wide search area and increased standoff ranges from threats — and deliver the torpedo to a water entry point. In conjunction with HAAWC capability, the sonobuoys will have a GPS capability to enable the aircraft to maintain a precise plot of the sonobuoy field at high altitude, 10,000 feet or higher.
Dillon said the acoustic tracking capability of the P-8 is so precise that the decision to delete the magnetic anomaly detector, used by the P-3 at low altitude, from the P-8 design has been validated.
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
LOCUST: Autonomous, Swarming UAVs Fly Into the Future
A new era in autonomy and unmanned systems for naval operations is on the horizon, as officials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced today recent technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — part of the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program.
LOCUST can launch swarming UAVs to autonomously overwhelm an adversary. The deployment of UAV swarms will provide Sailors and Marines a decisive tactical advantage.
“The recent demonstrations are an important step on the way to the 2016 ship-based demonstration of 30 rapidly launched autonomous, swarming UAVs,” said ONR program manager Lee Mastroianni.
The LOCUST program includes a tube-based launcher that can send UAVs into the air in rapid succession. The breakthrough technology then utilizes information-sharing between the UAVs, enabling autonomous collaborative behavior in either defensive or offensive missions. Since the launcher and the UAVs themselves have a small footprint, the technology enables swarms of compact UAVs to take off from ships, tactical vehicles, aircraft or other unmanned platforms.
The ONR demonstrations, which took place over the last month in multiple locations, included the launch of Coyote UAVs capable of carrying varying payloads for different missions. Another technology demonstration of nine UAVs accomplished completely autonomous UAV synchronization and formation flight. A Coyote UAV can be seen at the ONR booth at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea-Air-Space Exposition.
ONR officials note that while the LOCUST autonomy is cutting edge compared to remote-controlled UAVs, there will always be a human monitoring the mission, able to step in and take control as desired.
“This level of autonomous swarming flight has never been done before,” said Mastroianni. “UAVs that are expendable and reconfigurable will free manned aircraft and traditional weapon systems to do more, and essentially multiply combat power at decreased risk to the warfighter.”
UAVs reduce hazards and free personnel to perform more complex tasks, as well as requiring fewer people to do multiple missions.
Lowering costs is a major benefit of UAVs as well. Even hundreds of small autonomous UAVs cost less than a single tactical aircraft — and, officials note, having this capability will force adversaries to focus on UAV swarm response.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert’s Sailing Directions to the fleet note that over the next 10 to 15 years, the Navy will evolve and remain the preeminent maritime force. It directs: “Unmanned systems in the air and water will employ greater autonomy and be fully integrated with their manned counterparts.”
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
Navy Research Chief: LDUUV Scheduled for Ocean Voyage off California
The chief of naval research announced that the Large-Diameter Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) will demonstrate its endurance during an open-ocean voyage off California in 2016.
Speaking to an audience April 14 at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea -Air-Space Exposition, Rear Adm. Mathias W. Winter said that the LDUUV will proceed from the ocean off San Francisco to San Diego.
Winter also said the LDUUV, displayed publicly for the first time at the expo, has two more years of development ahead before it makes the transition to a program of record.
Calling the LDUUV “off-the-charts revolutionary,” he described the UUV as a payload and also “a platform in and of itself.”
The Navy still is assessing the endurance of the payload-agnostic LDUUV, which is mission-dependent, but confirmed that it has operated at sea for more than 30 days at a time.
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
The acoustic sensor system of the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft proving to be twice as effective as that of the older P-3C Orion.
Capt. Scott Dillon, the Navy’s program manager for maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft, speaking to reporters April 14 at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea-Air-Space Exposition, said, “Acoustics is the area where the aircraft has been shining,” while noting that that he has been “getting extremely favorable reviews of the aircraft’s real-world performance.”
The Boeing-built P-8 is likely to deliver even better acoustic detection and tracking capability with the introduction of Increment 2 upgrades, which include the Multistatic Active Coherent Capability (MAC).
MAC, an evolution of Improved Extended Echo Ranging used on the SSQ-110 sonobuoy, uses the SSQ-125 sonobuoy. The SSQ-125 generates loud sounds electronically rather than using small explosive charges to generate sound as in the SSQ-110. The long-range echoes from a target are intercepted by the sonobuoy and relayed to the aircraft’s sensor system. Dillon said the electronic sound sources generate fewer false returns than the explosive charges.
The MAC capability became operational on the P-3 last year. It has passed its operational evaluation, although the full report has not yet been signed out. The next P-8 squadron to deploy, scheduled for September, will incorporate this capability as the Navy has begun retrofits of MAC into the already delivered P-8s.
MAC is one of three major improvements being implemented in the Increment 2 upgrade. The others are the Automatic Information System and the High-Altitude ASW Weapon (HAAWC) system. HAAWC is a Mk54 torpedo with a Boeing-built wing kit, a Global Positioning System (GPS) and a data link with the aircraft. The weapon can glide from high altitudes — allowing the aircraft to maintain a wide search area and increased standoff ranges from threats — and deliver the torpedo to a water entry point. In conjunction with HAAWC capability, the sonobuoys will have a GPS capability to enable the aircraft to maintain a precise plot of the sonobuoy field at high altitude, 10,000 feet or higher.
Dillon said the acoustic tracking capability of the P-8 is so precise that the decision to delete the magnetic anomaly detector, used by the P-3 at low altitude, from the P-8 design has been validated.
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
LOCUST: Autonomous, Swarming UAVs Fly Into the Future
A new era in autonomy and unmanned systems for naval operations is on the horizon, as officials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced today recent technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — part of the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) program.
LOCUST can launch swarming UAVs to autonomously overwhelm an adversary. The deployment of UAV swarms will provide Sailors and Marines a decisive tactical advantage.
“The recent demonstrations are an important step on the way to the 2016 ship-based demonstration of 30 rapidly launched autonomous, swarming UAVs,” said ONR program manager Lee Mastroianni.
The LOCUST program includes a tube-based launcher that can send UAVs into the air in rapid succession. The breakthrough technology then utilizes information-sharing between the UAVs, enabling autonomous collaborative behavior in either defensive or offensive missions. Since the launcher and the UAVs themselves have a small footprint, the technology enables swarms of compact UAVs to take off from ships, tactical vehicles, aircraft or other unmanned platforms.
The ONR demonstrations, which took place over the last month in multiple locations, included the launch of Coyote UAVs capable of carrying varying payloads for different missions. Another technology demonstration of nine UAVs accomplished completely autonomous UAV synchronization and formation flight. A Coyote UAV can be seen at the ONR booth at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea-Air-Space Exposition.
ONR officials note that while the LOCUST autonomy is cutting edge compared to remote-controlled UAVs, there will always be a human monitoring the mission, able to step in and take control as desired.
“This level of autonomous swarming flight has never been done before,” said Mastroianni. “UAVs that are expendable and reconfigurable will free manned aircraft and traditional weapon systems to do more, and essentially multiply combat power at decreased risk to the warfighter.”
UAVs reduce hazards and free personnel to perform more complex tasks, as well as requiring fewer people to do multiple missions.
Lowering costs is a major benefit of UAVs as well. Even hundreds of small autonomous UAVs cost less than a single tactical aircraft — and, officials note, having this capability will force adversaries to focus on UAV swarm response.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert’s Sailing Directions to the fleet note that over the next 10 to 15 years, the Navy will evolve and remain the preeminent maritime force. It directs: “Unmanned systems in the air and water will employ greater autonomy and be fully integrated with their manned counterparts.”
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
Navy Research Chief: LDUUV Scheduled for Ocean Voyage off California
The chief of naval research announced that the Large-Diameter Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) will demonstrate its endurance during an open-ocean voyage off California in 2016.
Speaking to an audience April 14 at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea -Air-Space Exposition, Rear Adm. Mathias W. Winter said that the LDUUV will proceed from the ocean off San Francisco to San Diego.
Winter also said the LDUUV, displayed publicly for the first time at the expo, has two more years of development ahead before it makes the transition to a program of record.
Calling the LDUUV “off-the-charts revolutionary,” he described the UUV as a payload and also “a platform in and of itself.”
The Navy still is assessing the endurance of the payload-agnostic LDUUV, which is mission-dependent, but confirmed that it has operated at sea for more than 30 days at a time.
SEAPOWER Magazine Online
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Navy will test railgun aboard DDG-1000
The Navy is evaluating whether to mount its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun weapon aboard the high-tech DDG 1000 destroyer by the mid-2020s, service officials said.
The DDG 1000’s Integrated Power System provides a large amount of on board electricity sufficient to accommodate the weapon, Capt. Mike Ziv, Program Manager for Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems, told reporters at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea Air Space symposium at National Harbor, Md.
The first of three planned DDG 1000 destroyers was christened in April of last year.
Ziv said Navy leaders believe the DDG 1000 is the right ship to house the rail gun but that additional study was necessary to examine the risks. A rigorous study on the issue should be finished by the end of this year, Ziv said.
“I think it’s an ideal platform. There is a little bit more work needed to understand the details,” he added.
The DDG 1000 is 65-percent larger than existing 9,500-ton Aegis cruisers and destroyers with a displacement of 15,482 tons,.
The DDG 1000’s integrated power system, which includes its electric propulsion, helps generate up to 58 megawatts of on-board electrical power, something seen as key to the future when it comes to the possibility of firing a rail gun.
It is also possible that the weapon could someday be configured to fire from DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
“We’ve looked at ships as small as DDG 51s. It takes something of that size. This isn’t something you are going to put on an LCS,” Ziv added.
Meanwhile, the Navy plans to test-fire its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun at sea for the first time in the summer of 2016 from on board the USNS Trenton, a Joint High Speed Vessel, service officials said.
The test shots will take place at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. During the test, the rail gun will fire a series of GPS-guided hypervelocity projectiles at a barge floating on the ocean about 25 to 50 nautical miles away,
“We’re going to fire it against a floating target. We’re trying to gauge the ability to engage a target over the horizon,” Ziv explained. “We’re going to have a gradual ramp up and gather data. This is a significant event but it is also a key learning point.”
The Navy is developing the rail gun weapon for a wide range of at-sea and possible land-based applications, Ziv said. The weapon can fire guided, high-speed projectiles more than 100 miles, which makes is suitable for cruise missile defense, ballistic missile defense and various kinds of surface warfare applications.
The railgun uses electrical energy to create a magnetic field and propel a kinetic energy projectile at Mach 7.5 toward a wide range of targets, such as enemy vehicles, or cruise and ballistic missiles.
“The weapon works when electrical power charges up a pulse-forming network. That pulse-forming network is made up of capacitors able to release very large amounts of energy in a very short period of time. The weapon releases a current on the order of 3 to 5 million amps — that’s 1,200 volts released in a ten millisecond timeframe. That is enough to accelerate a mass of approximately 45 pounds from zero to five thousand miles per hour in one one-hundredth of a second,” Ziv added.
The hypervelocity projectile is a kinetic energy warhead, meaning it has no explosives engineered into it. This lowers the cost and the logistics burden of the weapon, Ziv said.
The rate of fire is 10-rounds per minute, Ziv said.
Due to its ability to reach speeds of up to 5,600 miles per hour, the hypervelocity projectile is engineered as a kinetic energy warhead, meaning no explosives are necessary. The hyper velocity projectile can travel at speeds up to 2,000 meters per second, a speed which is about three times that of most existing weapons.
Although it has the ability to intercept cruise missiles, the hypervelocity projectile can be stored in large numbers on ships. Unlike other larger missile systems designed for similar missions, the hypervelocity projectile costs only $25,000 per round.
The railgun can draw its power from an onboard electrical system or large battery, Navy officials said. The system consists of five parts, including a launcher, energy storage system, a pulse-forming network, hypervelocity projectile and gun mount.
Read more: http://defensetech.org
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Navy prepares amphibs for first F-35B deployment
The Navy and Marine Corps are preparing their amphibious assault ships for the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter’s first ever deployment slated for 2018.
The Marine Corps short-take-off-and-landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35B, will be the first ever fifth-generation aircraft to deploy. The Navy is working to prepare the flight decks, sensors and weapons systems on board several amphibs are ready in 2018, service leaders told reporters April 7.
“We are making sure that the amphibs are ready to take the F-35 because they are going to be the first ones out. We will have the first F-35s deployed out in the world – of any service in any country. They will be on big deck amphibs. That’s exciting but it’s a real challenge to move forward with that,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, Navy Director of Expeditionary Warfare.
The Navy is set to provide the modifications to the USS America, the amphib commissioned this past October. It is the lead ship in a series of 11 planned America-class big-deck amphibs.
“The ship’s going through hull, mechanical and electrical mods for the F-35, including environmental mods. Some of it is deck related and some of it is lighting related. It lands on the deck differently than the Harrier,” Walsh said.
The USS America will undergo a series of intense modifications to ensure the flight deck can withstand the heat of the F-35B vertical take-offs-and-landings. Navy engineers are installing a new heat-resistant material designed to prevent heat from the aircraft’s engines from burning a hole in the flight deck, Navy officials said.
The flight deck modifications entail adding intercostal structural members underneath flight deck landing spots numbers seven and nine, a Navy official said. With the added structure, these two landing spots will provide the capability to perform closely timed cyclic flight operations with the F-35B without overstressing the flight deck, he added.
Also, some of the modifications may involve re-adjusting some of the ship’s antennas in order to allow for a clear flight path for the JSF.
These efforts involve reinforcing the flight deck with additional structural materials and moving items further down below the deck.
“Much of the effort in the America, the very time-consuming piece, is going inside the ship and dropping lighting and ventilation and piping wiring and everything down far enough so you can install new material and weld it in place and then restore all that stuff,” said Rear Adm. David Gale, Program Executive Officer, Ships.
The modifications planned for the USS America will emulate those already completed on board the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship which has been testing with F-35Bs for months. The Wasp is slated for F-35B operational testing next month.
“A lot of this is structural flight deck work. We’ve learned a lot on the WASP from a back-fit perspective. A lot of the effort involves having to draw services inside of the ship out of the overheads, take out insulation and go strengthen the flight deck,” Gale said.
The second America-class big-deck amphib, the USS Tripoli, is now being built with the F-35B modifications built in from the start.
“On the Tripoli, the deck is thicker right from the start. The structural supports for the deck are being built into the ship,” Gale added.
The USS Tripoli will be delivered to the Navy in 2019.
Unlike previous amphibious assault ships, the first two America-class big deck amphibs are being built without a well deck in order to optimize the platform for aviation assets such as the MV-22 Osprey and F-35B.
The third America-class amphib, called LHA 8, will feature the return of the well deck.
Walsh said the Navy is outlining how operations will change with the F-35B versus the Harrier jets the fifth generation fighter is replacing.
Harrier jets, which also have the ability to conduct vertical take-off-and-landings, are multi-role jets primarily designed for light attack missions. The Joint Strike Fighter brings a wide range of new sensors, weaponry and aviation technology to the Corps.
“What are the C5I (command, control, communications, computers, collaboration) requirements for the F-35B because they are not going to be how we operated the Harrier. What is the requirement for the F-35 to be able to disseminate data across the battlefield? What pipes need to be there?” Walsh asked.
Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, Director of Surface Warfare, said the F-35B brings a much different capability to the amphibious force, compared with Harriers.
“Having lived with Harriers on big decks – Harriers are relatively short-legged, short, operational rapid turn-around assets. Now we’re putting out an aircraft that can go for hours and travel long distances,” Fanta said.
Fanta also said that sensors, radars and weaponry on board amphibs are also being upgraded to better integrate with the F-35. For example, elements of a combat system called Surface Ship Self-Defense System are being engineered to work with Joint Strike Fighter technologies.
Fanta said the Navy is also upgrading the seeker on various ship defensive systems such as the Rolling Air Frame missile and NATO Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile to an active seeker.
“They are both going to higher threats and higher maneuver capability,” Fanta added.
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USS America Performing Well in Trials; Shipbuilder Looking for Further Efficiencies
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Post-delivery testing on USS America (LHA-6) went far more smoothly than on previous big-decks, and the Navy and Ingalls Shipbuilding are trying to leverage this success as they move forward with the next two amphibious assault ships.
Capt. Chris Mercer, amphibious warfare program manager at Naval Sea Systems Command, said USS America’s (LHA-6) sea trials – which most recently include Combat System Ships Qualification Trials (CSSQT) in March and final contract trials (FCT) this month – “went very well across the board.”
Through almost 500 different test events in the one-week FCT two weeks ago, Mercer said “the trial went very well, especially compared to previous efforts on large decks – probably half the number of deficiencies identified, really great grades throughout. The combat system has been performing excellent, we got perfect grades across the board on our detect-to-engage.”
Brian Cuccias, president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, said that America is the 14th big-deck amphib to join the fleet and was the first ever to make it through a sea trial with zero starred cards, which indicate critical deficiencies.
Mercer said the ship would go through a few more test events this month, would do joint testing on its warfare systems at Point Mugu, and then go into a 40-week post-shakedown availability starting in June. After a few more trials, America will go into basic phase workups, probably participate in next year’s Rim of the Pacific international exercise, complete initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) and then deploy.
Mercer told USNI News after his presentation that, since America has an enhanced aviation design and no well deck, the Navy and Marine Corps have spent two to three years working on the tactics for the ship that will direct how it deploys.
“In the beginning it’s just going to be a traditional [Amphibious Ready Group] deployment,” Mercer said. “She may even deploy with Harriers her first time” until the Marine Corps has enough of its Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), he added.
USS Tripoli (LHA-7) will also be aviation-enhanced, and LHA-8 will be the first to re-introduce the well deck to allow surface connector operations.
Cuccias said that Tripoli is ahead of schedule, being already 25 percent erected with higher levels of outfitting than America at this stage in construction. Ahead of its 2018 delivery, though, Cuccias said Ingalls Shipbuilding is trying to find other ways to take more cost out of the ship in innovative ways, such as simplifying the ventilation system to save time and money.
Tripoli will also have some modifications made to its flight deck to make it JSF-compatible, whereas those modifications will have to be backfitted into America. Mercer said America would have the modifications made during a maintenance availability, Tripoli would have the modifications added into the contract via engineering change proposals, and future amphibs would include them from the outset.
“Tripoli does have the flight deck mods in the contract, and so since Tripoli is the sister ship of America we really know exactly what it takes to go do that, we’ve offered our assistance to the Navy and they are using some of our technical assistance,” Cuccias said.
It is unclear at this point if Ingalls Shipbuilding will build LHA-8. The Navy decided earlier this year to combine the LHA-8 contract with the T-AO(X) oiler replacement contract into a single competition between Ingalls Shipbuilding and General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard. Each builder would get one program, and the winner with the lowest combined bid would win engineering work on the LX(R) amphibious dock landing ship replacement program, which will be based off of Ingalls’ San Antonio-class LPDs.
Cuccias said he could not talk about the company’s bidding strategy yet because the Navy had not provided information on how the bids would be evaluated.
“I think we’re treating them both with parity,” he said.
“I don’t know how the outcome will come out, I don’t want to pre-predict on how I think the solution will be in how we approach the bid. We’re going to aggressively go after both and have a solid proposal on either side.”
“Certainly the large deck is the more complicated ship to build, LHA-8 is a significantly more complex, much more difficult program and product to implement than T-AO,” he continued.
“We just have to evaluate that when we look at our bidding approach, our build approach. …. We look at what we’re building and we look at how we build it, and you take that into consideration on both projects.”
He did not say which program he would prefer to win, but he said he was pleased the work is guaranteed to be split between the two yards and all their subcontractors.
“I really want to applaud the Navy in addressing the industrial base, I think the industrial base is hugely important,” he said.
The Navy is evaluating whether to mount its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun weapon aboard the high-tech DDG 1000 destroyer by the mid-2020s, service officials said.
The DDG 1000’s Integrated Power System provides a large amount of on board electricity sufficient to accommodate the weapon, Capt. Mike Ziv, Program Manager for Directed Energy and Electric Weapon Systems, told reporters at the Navy League’s 2015 Sea Air Space symposium at National Harbor, Md.
The first of three planned DDG 1000 destroyers was christened in April of last year.
Ziv said Navy leaders believe the DDG 1000 is the right ship to house the rail gun but that additional study was necessary to examine the risks. A rigorous study on the issue should be finished by the end of this year, Ziv said.
“I think it’s an ideal platform. There is a little bit more work needed to understand the details,” he added.
The DDG 1000 is 65-percent larger than existing 9,500-ton Aegis cruisers and destroyers with a displacement of 15,482 tons,.
The DDG 1000’s integrated power system, which includes its electric propulsion, helps generate up to 58 megawatts of on-board electrical power, something seen as key to the future when it comes to the possibility of firing a rail gun.
It is also possible that the weapon could someday be configured to fire from DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
“We’ve looked at ships as small as DDG 51s. It takes something of that size. This isn’t something you are going to put on an LCS,” Ziv added.
Meanwhile, the Navy plans to test-fire its new Electromagnetic Rail Gun at sea for the first time in the summer of 2016 from on board the USNS Trenton, a Joint High Speed Vessel, service officials said.
The test shots will take place at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. During the test, the rail gun will fire a series of GPS-guided hypervelocity projectiles at a barge floating on the ocean about 25 to 50 nautical miles away,
“We’re going to fire it against a floating target. We’re trying to gauge the ability to engage a target over the horizon,” Ziv explained. “We’re going to have a gradual ramp up and gather data. This is a significant event but it is also a key learning point.”
The Navy is developing the rail gun weapon for a wide range of at-sea and possible land-based applications, Ziv said. The weapon can fire guided, high-speed projectiles more than 100 miles, which makes is suitable for cruise missile defense, ballistic missile defense and various kinds of surface warfare applications.
The railgun uses electrical energy to create a magnetic field and propel a kinetic energy projectile at Mach 7.5 toward a wide range of targets, such as enemy vehicles, or cruise and ballistic missiles.
“The weapon works when electrical power charges up a pulse-forming network. That pulse-forming network is made up of capacitors able to release very large amounts of energy in a very short period of time. The weapon releases a current on the order of 3 to 5 million amps — that’s 1,200 volts released in a ten millisecond timeframe. That is enough to accelerate a mass of approximately 45 pounds from zero to five thousand miles per hour in one one-hundredth of a second,” Ziv added.
The hypervelocity projectile is a kinetic energy warhead, meaning it has no explosives engineered into it. This lowers the cost and the logistics burden of the weapon, Ziv said.
The rate of fire is 10-rounds per minute, Ziv said.
Due to its ability to reach speeds of up to 5,600 miles per hour, the hypervelocity projectile is engineered as a kinetic energy warhead, meaning no explosives are necessary. The hyper velocity projectile can travel at speeds up to 2,000 meters per second, a speed which is about three times that of most existing weapons.
Although it has the ability to intercept cruise missiles, the hypervelocity projectile can be stored in large numbers on ships. Unlike other larger missile systems designed for similar missions, the hypervelocity projectile costs only $25,000 per round.
The railgun can draw its power from an onboard electrical system or large battery, Navy officials said. The system consists of five parts, including a launcher, energy storage system, a pulse-forming network, hypervelocity projectile and gun mount.
Read more: http://defensetech.org
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Navy prepares amphibs for first F-35B deployment
The Navy and Marine Corps are preparing their amphibious assault ships for the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter’s first ever deployment slated for 2018.
The Marine Corps short-take-off-and-landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35B, will be the first ever fifth-generation aircraft to deploy. The Navy is working to prepare the flight decks, sensors and weapons systems on board several amphibs are ready in 2018, service leaders told reporters April 7.
“We are making sure that the amphibs are ready to take the F-35 because they are going to be the first ones out. We will have the first F-35s deployed out in the world – of any service in any country. They will be on big deck amphibs. That’s exciting but it’s a real challenge to move forward with that,” said Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, Navy Director of Expeditionary Warfare.
The Navy is set to provide the modifications to the USS America, the amphib commissioned this past October. It is the lead ship in a series of 11 planned America-class big-deck amphibs.
“The ship’s going through hull, mechanical and electrical mods for the F-35, including environmental mods. Some of it is deck related and some of it is lighting related. It lands on the deck differently than the Harrier,” Walsh said.
The USS America will undergo a series of intense modifications to ensure the flight deck can withstand the heat of the F-35B vertical take-offs-and-landings. Navy engineers are installing a new heat-resistant material designed to prevent heat from the aircraft’s engines from burning a hole in the flight deck, Navy officials said.
The flight deck modifications entail adding intercostal structural members underneath flight deck landing spots numbers seven and nine, a Navy official said. With the added structure, these two landing spots will provide the capability to perform closely timed cyclic flight operations with the F-35B without overstressing the flight deck, he added.
Also, some of the modifications may involve re-adjusting some of the ship’s antennas in order to allow for a clear flight path for the JSF.
These efforts involve reinforcing the flight deck with additional structural materials and moving items further down below the deck.
“Much of the effort in the America, the very time-consuming piece, is going inside the ship and dropping lighting and ventilation and piping wiring and everything down far enough so you can install new material and weld it in place and then restore all that stuff,” said Rear Adm. David Gale, Program Executive Officer, Ships.
The modifications planned for the USS America will emulate those already completed on board the USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship which has been testing with F-35Bs for months. The Wasp is slated for F-35B operational testing next month.
“A lot of this is structural flight deck work. We’ve learned a lot on the WASP from a back-fit perspective. A lot of the effort involves having to draw services inside of the ship out of the overheads, take out insulation and go strengthen the flight deck,” Gale said.
The second America-class big-deck amphib, the USS Tripoli, is now being built with the F-35B modifications built in from the start.
“On the Tripoli, the deck is thicker right from the start. The structural supports for the deck are being built into the ship,” Gale added.
The USS Tripoli will be delivered to the Navy in 2019.
Unlike previous amphibious assault ships, the first two America-class big deck amphibs are being built without a well deck in order to optimize the platform for aviation assets such as the MV-22 Osprey and F-35B.
The third America-class amphib, called LHA 8, will feature the return of the well deck.
Walsh said the Navy is outlining how operations will change with the F-35B versus the Harrier jets the fifth generation fighter is replacing.
Harrier jets, which also have the ability to conduct vertical take-off-and-landings, are multi-role jets primarily designed for light attack missions. The Joint Strike Fighter brings a wide range of new sensors, weaponry and aviation technology to the Corps.
“What are the C5I (command, control, communications, computers, collaboration) requirements for the F-35B because they are not going to be how we operated the Harrier. What is the requirement for the F-35 to be able to disseminate data across the battlefield? What pipes need to be there?” Walsh asked.
Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, Director of Surface Warfare, said the F-35B brings a much different capability to the amphibious force, compared with Harriers.
“Having lived with Harriers on big decks – Harriers are relatively short-legged, short, operational rapid turn-around assets. Now we’re putting out an aircraft that can go for hours and travel long distances,” Fanta said.
Fanta also said that sensors, radars and weaponry on board amphibs are also being upgraded to better integrate with the F-35. For example, elements of a combat system called Surface Ship Self-Defense System are being engineered to work with Joint Strike Fighter technologies.
Fanta said the Navy is also upgrading the seeker on various ship defensive systems such as the Rolling Air Frame missile and NATO Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile to an active seeker.
“They are both going to higher threats and higher maneuver capability,” Fanta added.
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USS America Performing Well in Trials; Shipbuilder Looking for Further Efficiencies
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – Post-delivery testing on USS America (LHA-6) went far more smoothly than on previous big-decks, and the Navy and Ingalls Shipbuilding are trying to leverage this success as they move forward with the next two amphibious assault ships.
Capt. Chris Mercer, amphibious warfare program manager at Naval Sea Systems Command, said USS America’s (LHA-6) sea trials – which most recently include Combat System Ships Qualification Trials (CSSQT) in March and final contract trials (FCT) this month – “went very well across the board.”
Through almost 500 different test events in the one-week FCT two weeks ago, Mercer said “the trial went very well, especially compared to previous efforts on large decks – probably half the number of deficiencies identified, really great grades throughout. The combat system has been performing excellent, we got perfect grades across the board on our detect-to-engage.”
Brian Cuccias, president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, said that America is the 14th big-deck amphib to join the fleet and was the first ever to make it through a sea trial with zero starred cards, which indicate critical deficiencies.
Mercer said the ship would go through a few more test events this month, would do joint testing on its warfare systems at Point Mugu, and then go into a 40-week post-shakedown availability starting in June. After a few more trials, America will go into basic phase workups, probably participate in next year’s Rim of the Pacific international exercise, complete initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) and then deploy.
Mercer told USNI News after his presentation that, since America has an enhanced aviation design and no well deck, the Navy and Marine Corps have spent two to three years working on the tactics for the ship that will direct how it deploys.
“In the beginning it’s just going to be a traditional [Amphibious Ready Group] deployment,” Mercer said. “She may even deploy with Harriers her first time” until the Marine Corps has enough of its Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), he added.
USS Tripoli (LHA-7) will also be aviation-enhanced, and LHA-8 will be the first to re-introduce the well deck to allow surface connector operations.
Cuccias said that Tripoli is ahead of schedule, being already 25 percent erected with higher levels of outfitting than America at this stage in construction. Ahead of its 2018 delivery, though, Cuccias said Ingalls Shipbuilding is trying to find other ways to take more cost out of the ship in innovative ways, such as simplifying the ventilation system to save time and money.
Tripoli will also have some modifications made to its flight deck to make it JSF-compatible, whereas those modifications will have to be backfitted into America. Mercer said America would have the modifications made during a maintenance availability, Tripoli would have the modifications added into the contract via engineering change proposals, and future amphibs would include them from the outset.
“Tripoli does have the flight deck mods in the contract, and so since Tripoli is the sister ship of America we really know exactly what it takes to go do that, we’ve offered our assistance to the Navy and they are using some of our technical assistance,” Cuccias said.
It is unclear at this point if Ingalls Shipbuilding will build LHA-8. The Navy decided earlier this year to combine the LHA-8 contract with the T-AO(X) oiler replacement contract into a single competition between Ingalls Shipbuilding and General Dynamics NASSCO shipyard. Each builder would get one program, and the winner with the lowest combined bid would win engineering work on the LX(R) amphibious dock landing ship replacement program, which will be based off of Ingalls’ San Antonio-class LPDs.
Cuccias said he could not talk about the company’s bidding strategy yet because the Navy had not provided information on how the bids would be evaluated.
“I think we’re treating them both with parity,” he said.
“I don’t know how the outcome will come out, I don’t want to pre-predict on how I think the solution will be in how we approach the bid. We’re going to aggressively go after both and have a solid proposal on either side.”
“Certainly the large deck is the more complicated ship to build, LHA-8 is a significantly more complex, much more difficult program and product to implement than T-AO,” he continued.
“We just have to evaluate that when we look at our bidding approach, our build approach. …. We look at what we’re building and we look at how we build it, and you take that into consideration on both projects.”
He did not say which program he would prefer to win, but he said he was pleased the work is guaranteed to be split between the two yards and all their subcontractors.
“I really want to applaud the Navy in addressing the industrial base, I think the industrial base is hugely important,” he said.
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What It Feels Like to Shoot With the Military’s Experimental Smart Scope
You’ve probably never fired an M4 carbine. Until a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t either. But at a recent DARPA demo day, I loaded a magazine (also a first for me), snuggled up to the deadly assault rifle, and looked through one of the most technologically advanced smart scopes ever built. Then I pulled the trigger.
“That’s a hit,” I heard a voice say behind me. The target was only about a hundred yards away, but I hadn’t fired a gun since I earned my rifle shooting merit badge in Boy Scouts. I couldn’t count the number of processes going on inside the futuristic computer on top of the gun, but there were at least four visible sensors on the front. Facing me was a crisp display slightly smaller than a credit card showing crosshairs and some basic ballistics information. In the near future, a weapons system like this might also shoot self-guided bullets—more on that in a second.
The craziest thing: The scope isn’t just built to improve accuracy. It aims to improve everything.
The Need for a Super Smart Scope
The M4 carbine is a popular gun in the United States military, but it’s one of many weapons used by soldiers. Virtually all of these have rails that support a seemingly limitless number of accessories, from the most basic optical scope to the most expensive thermal imaging technology. Since each combat scenario requires a unique set of tools, soldiers maybe find themselves weighed down with extra accessories or, worse, swapping out components on the battlefield.
So there’s a demand for an all-in-one scope, one device that simplifies the whole setup. Companies like TrackingPoint have been making futuristic digital optics systems for years—including set ups that designed to make the gun aim itself. They’re prohibitively expensive, however, and literally limited in scope.
This is where DARPA comes in. The military’s research and development arm excels at solving impossible problems, and the challenge of building an affordable super smart scope is exactly that.
Imagine a scope that not only incorporates all of the bulky components a soldier would ever need as well as offer features that top brass have only dreamed about. Imagine a network-connected scope that sends ballistic data back to base. Imagine a scope that not only helps soldiers aim but also tells them who not to shoot. And imagine if that scope fit in the palm of your hand and weighed only a few ounces.
That’s the scope I looked through at my recent visit to Fort AP Hill. (Sidenote: This is the same base where the Army built a fake village—complete with a mosque and subway—for training.) The day’s main event was a live fire demo of DARPA’s newest super smart scope. To be precise, it was a working prototype that’s about twice the size of the final design. The scope works, though, and it could change the way we fight wars
It’s somewhat humbly called the Computational Weapon Optic (CWO). Built within DARPA’s Transformative Applications (TransApps) ecosystem—the same system that DARPA developed to power smartphones and tablets on the battlefield—the device is exactly what it sounds like: a computer that you attach to a rifle.
What It Feels Like
I was the only journalist at DARPA’s recent demo day, surrounded by high-ranking officers of several branches of the military, most of whom were wearing fatigues. The live fire demo served as a proof of concept for the Computational Weapon Optic, as well as a chance for the top brass to decide if they might devote some budget dollars to developing the technology further.
By the time Doran Michel, the (now former) program manager of the TransApp program wrapped up the demo day, I was sold. I’m pretty squeamish at the thought of technology that’s designed to help soldiers kill better, but the emphasis DARPA placed on the Computational Weapon Optic seems geared towards more efficient defense rather than more vicious offense. Or at least that’s the pitch I got.
I asked if I could look through the scope to get a better idea of the experience. A few minutes later I had a magazine in one hand and the M4 carbine in the other.
There’s nothing about holding an assault rifle that doesn’t feel dangerous or deadly. Mind you, I’m just nerdy blogger with no military experience. So when I tucked my cheek down onto the cold steel, my hands were sweaty. When I flipped the safety switch off, my finger was shaking a little bit. I can’t imagine what an 18-year-old in Afghanistan must feel like at that moment.
When I looked into the high res display on the Computational Weapon Optic, the first thing I thought of was Call of Duty. This is pretty silly, since I’ve never played Call of Duty—though Iwas a pretty big DOOM enthusiast back in the day. Something about crosshairs on a digital display gave me feelings, though. I have mixed thoughts on the military and games, but something about that screen made me wonder. I squeezed the trigger.
Firing an M4 carbine kind of hurts. It’s an extremely loud and powerful weapon. Frightened as I secretly was, though, the super smart scope made everything seem more controlled. Maybe it was something about the comfort of a computer doing calculations while I re-learned the feeling of firing a weapon. Maybe it was something about the display blinking with information. Maybe it was the DARPA pitch.
The Features
The natural assumption is that a smart scope helps you see your target better in a variety of conditions. But like I said before, the Computational Weapon Optic is designed to make everything better.
For starters, the scope makes it quick and easy to zero the scope, when it’s first mounted on the rifle. (Zeroing a scope is usually a time-consuming process that amounts to calibrating the optic after it’s first mounted.) The Computation Weapon Optic’s connectivity also makes it easy for a coach to guide a new shooter through the process through a tablet. Like the rest of the TransApp ecosystem, the scope runs a highly customized version of Android that’s compatible with a number of devices. The whole system is also controlled with three simple buttons on the top of the scope.
The Computation Weapon Optic also helps soldiers work together. Multiple scopes can be networked through the standard issue Type-1 handheld radio, so shooting can be synchronized. Soldiers already do this in order to fire at a target without giving away their position, but it’s currently done with voice commands over the radio. Radio chatter, quite ironically, is a great way to give away a soldier’s position. So instead of hearing a countdown, the soldiers see commands on the scope’s display.
This is where things get really futuristic. The Computational Weapon Optic is not only equipped with an optical scope but also night vision and thermal imaging. There’s a laser rangefinder and magnetometer to help determine distance to target. Thanks again to the networking capabilities, fellow soldiers can see the expected trajectory of their bullet on a smartphone or tablet as well as the exact distance to their target. This obviously makes aiming easier.
You can see where this is going. If the networked Computational Weapon Optic can communicate with Type-1 radios, it can also determine where those radios (read: soldiers) are. Perhaps the most powerful feature of the scope is that it warns the shooter when the rifle is aimed at one of his fellow soldiers. The military calls this fratricide prevention, but you can just think of it as a solution to the military’s endemic friendly fire problem.
All that, and the whole setup could be cheaper than some of the military’s more complicated solutions that offer fewer features. Meanwhile DARPA’s developing other smart scope technology, like the One Shot XG for snipers. Then there’s the Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) ammunition project. That’s the self-guided bullets mentioned above, but it’s also designed for snipers. The Computational Weapon Optic can communicate could help any soldier with a rifle.
The Future
This is only the beginning. When I visited DARPA’s TransApp program office last year, I wasn’t struck by how advanced the software was. I wasn’t even blown away by the implications, as vast and exciting as they truly are. I was stunned at how out of touch the Pentagon was in terms of innovation.
Soldiers told me how some troops in Afghanistan were still using paper maps from the 90s. So an Army private being deployed might be navigating his hometown with GPS on a smartphone one day and then confined to a pencil and protractor in combat in Afghanistan a few weeks later.
There are a lot of reasons why every soldier isn’t issued a smartphone along with a rifle, but over the past five years DARPA’s TransApp program has made progress in building a foundation for a tech-first future. The software ecosystem not only makes smartphones and tablets useable and useful on the battlefield. It enables all of the technology in a soldier’s toolkit to work together. Now, the software can power weapons systems like the Computational Weapon Optic as well as cheap helmet-mounted displays that put satellite imagery and maps right in front of soldiers’ eyes. The TransApp team has already built one, in fact.
Now think even further ahead. What could the military do with virtual reality? Well, the TransApp program already thought of that, too. The DARPA team came up with something called Crystal Hull for armored vehicles. Using a VR headset like the Oculus Rift a low cost 360-degree camera, this system would enable tank drivers to see in every direction, while making use of the TransApp mapping features. Mission data is stored automatically, just like the ballistics information from the Computational Weapon Optic, so commanders can keep track of their soldiers in real-time without dangerous radio chatter.
I tried out Crystal Hull myself and navigated through city streets as if my vehicle were made of glass. To access mission data, I used a standard Xbox controller, which the TransApp team liked because it would make immediate sense to soldiers. Again, it felt weird to treat war like a video game. But really, these types of innovations are just making use of the same technology that makes video games work. They’re making the military work better, too.
The demo day took place during Doran Michels’ last week at DARPA. The budget for the TransApp program expired this spring. So Michel’s, a former Army infantry officer and FBI Special Agent, will move on to other projects. The TransApp project will continue, nevertheless, through the Army’s Nett Warrior project. Again, the effort to bring mobile apps to the military has only just begun. If the TransApps ecosystem continues to win support from top brass, it’s highly plausible that all soldiers will be using apps that power all of their equipment on the battlefield in the very near future. (Some already are, actually.)
There are a lot of reasons why the military may or may not arm soldiers with DARPA’s latest creation—many of them involve taxpayer dollars. But as I drove away from the base, my finger stinking like gunpowder, I thought of one reason why any peace-loving American should care. The military is treating technology and innovation differently. And it’s a very good thing to see the Pentagon bucking its overly bureaucratic past and trying to act more like Silicon Valley.
You’ve probably never fired an M4 carbine. Until a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t either. But at a recent DARPA demo day, I loaded a magazine (also a first for me), snuggled up to the deadly assault rifle, and looked through one of the most technologically advanced smart scopes ever built. Then I pulled the trigger.
“That’s a hit,” I heard a voice say behind me. The target was only about a hundred yards away, but I hadn’t fired a gun since I earned my rifle shooting merit badge in Boy Scouts. I couldn’t count the number of processes going on inside the futuristic computer on top of the gun, but there were at least four visible sensors on the front. Facing me was a crisp display slightly smaller than a credit card showing crosshairs and some basic ballistics information. In the near future, a weapons system like this might also shoot self-guided bullets—more on that in a second.
The craziest thing: The scope isn’t just built to improve accuracy. It aims to improve everything.
The Need for a Super Smart Scope
The M4 carbine is a popular gun in the United States military, but it’s one of many weapons used by soldiers. Virtually all of these have rails that support a seemingly limitless number of accessories, from the most basic optical scope to the most expensive thermal imaging technology. Since each combat scenario requires a unique set of tools, soldiers maybe find themselves weighed down with extra accessories or, worse, swapping out components on the battlefield.
So there’s a demand for an all-in-one scope, one device that simplifies the whole setup. Companies like TrackingPoint have been making futuristic digital optics systems for years—including set ups that designed to make the gun aim itself. They’re prohibitively expensive, however, and literally limited in scope.
This is where DARPA comes in. The military’s research and development arm excels at solving impossible problems, and the challenge of building an affordable super smart scope is exactly that.
Imagine a scope that not only incorporates all of the bulky components a soldier would ever need as well as offer features that top brass have only dreamed about. Imagine a network-connected scope that sends ballistic data back to base. Imagine a scope that not only helps soldiers aim but also tells them who not to shoot. And imagine if that scope fit in the palm of your hand and weighed only a few ounces.
That’s the scope I looked through at my recent visit to Fort AP Hill. (Sidenote: This is the same base where the Army built a fake village—complete with a mosque and subway—for training.) The day’s main event was a live fire demo of DARPA’s newest super smart scope. To be precise, it was a working prototype that’s about twice the size of the final design. The scope works, though, and it could change the way we fight wars
It’s somewhat humbly called the Computational Weapon Optic (CWO). Built within DARPA’s Transformative Applications (TransApps) ecosystem—the same system that DARPA developed to power smartphones and tablets on the battlefield—the device is exactly what it sounds like: a computer that you attach to a rifle.
What It Feels Like
I was the only journalist at DARPA’s recent demo day, surrounded by high-ranking officers of several branches of the military, most of whom were wearing fatigues. The live fire demo served as a proof of concept for the Computational Weapon Optic, as well as a chance for the top brass to decide if they might devote some budget dollars to developing the technology further.
By the time Doran Michel, the (now former) program manager of the TransApp program wrapped up the demo day, I was sold. I’m pretty squeamish at the thought of technology that’s designed to help soldiers kill better, but the emphasis DARPA placed on the Computational Weapon Optic seems geared towards more efficient defense rather than more vicious offense. Or at least that’s the pitch I got.
I asked if I could look through the scope to get a better idea of the experience. A few minutes later I had a magazine in one hand and the M4 carbine in the other.
There’s nothing about holding an assault rifle that doesn’t feel dangerous or deadly. Mind you, I’m just nerdy blogger with no military experience. So when I tucked my cheek down onto the cold steel, my hands were sweaty. When I flipped the safety switch off, my finger was shaking a little bit. I can’t imagine what an 18-year-old in Afghanistan must feel like at that moment.
When I looked into the high res display on the Computational Weapon Optic, the first thing I thought of was Call of Duty. This is pretty silly, since I’ve never played Call of Duty—though Iwas a pretty big DOOM enthusiast back in the day. Something about crosshairs on a digital display gave me feelings, though. I have mixed thoughts on the military and games, but something about that screen made me wonder. I squeezed the trigger.
Firing an M4 carbine kind of hurts. It’s an extremely loud and powerful weapon. Frightened as I secretly was, though, the super smart scope made everything seem more controlled. Maybe it was something about the comfort of a computer doing calculations while I re-learned the feeling of firing a weapon. Maybe it was something about the display blinking with information. Maybe it was the DARPA pitch.
The Features
The natural assumption is that a smart scope helps you see your target better in a variety of conditions. But like I said before, the Computational Weapon Optic is designed to make everything better.
For starters, the scope makes it quick and easy to zero the scope, when it’s first mounted on the rifle. (Zeroing a scope is usually a time-consuming process that amounts to calibrating the optic after it’s first mounted.) The Computation Weapon Optic’s connectivity also makes it easy for a coach to guide a new shooter through the process through a tablet. Like the rest of the TransApp ecosystem, the scope runs a highly customized version of Android that’s compatible with a number of devices. The whole system is also controlled with three simple buttons on the top of the scope.
The Computation Weapon Optic also helps soldiers work together. Multiple scopes can be networked through the standard issue Type-1 handheld radio, so shooting can be synchronized. Soldiers already do this in order to fire at a target without giving away their position, but it’s currently done with voice commands over the radio. Radio chatter, quite ironically, is a great way to give away a soldier’s position. So instead of hearing a countdown, the soldiers see commands on the scope’s display.
This is where things get really futuristic. The Computational Weapon Optic is not only equipped with an optical scope but also night vision and thermal imaging. There’s a laser rangefinder and magnetometer to help determine distance to target. Thanks again to the networking capabilities, fellow soldiers can see the expected trajectory of their bullet on a smartphone or tablet as well as the exact distance to their target. This obviously makes aiming easier.
You can see where this is going. If the networked Computational Weapon Optic can communicate with Type-1 radios, it can also determine where those radios (read: soldiers) are. Perhaps the most powerful feature of the scope is that it warns the shooter when the rifle is aimed at one of his fellow soldiers. The military calls this fratricide prevention, but you can just think of it as a solution to the military’s endemic friendly fire problem.
All that, and the whole setup could be cheaper than some of the military’s more complicated solutions that offer fewer features. Meanwhile DARPA’s developing other smart scope technology, like the One Shot XG for snipers. Then there’s the Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) ammunition project. That’s the self-guided bullets mentioned above, but it’s also designed for snipers. The Computational Weapon Optic can communicate could help any soldier with a rifle.
The Future
This is only the beginning. When I visited DARPA’s TransApp program office last year, I wasn’t struck by how advanced the software was. I wasn’t even blown away by the implications, as vast and exciting as they truly are. I was stunned at how out of touch the Pentagon was in terms of innovation.
Soldiers told me how some troops in Afghanistan were still using paper maps from the 90s. So an Army private being deployed might be navigating his hometown with GPS on a smartphone one day and then confined to a pencil and protractor in combat in Afghanistan a few weeks later.
There are a lot of reasons why every soldier isn’t issued a smartphone along with a rifle, but over the past five years DARPA’s TransApp program has made progress in building a foundation for a tech-first future. The software ecosystem not only makes smartphones and tablets useable and useful on the battlefield. It enables all of the technology in a soldier’s toolkit to work together. Now, the software can power weapons systems like the Computational Weapon Optic as well as cheap helmet-mounted displays that put satellite imagery and maps right in front of soldiers’ eyes. The TransApp team has already built one, in fact.
Now think even further ahead. What could the military do with virtual reality? Well, the TransApp program already thought of that, too. The DARPA team came up with something called Crystal Hull for armored vehicles. Using a VR headset like the Oculus Rift a low cost 360-degree camera, this system would enable tank drivers to see in every direction, while making use of the TransApp mapping features. Mission data is stored automatically, just like the ballistics information from the Computational Weapon Optic, so commanders can keep track of their soldiers in real-time without dangerous radio chatter.
I tried out Crystal Hull myself and navigated through city streets as if my vehicle were made of glass. To access mission data, I used a standard Xbox controller, which the TransApp team liked because it would make immediate sense to soldiers. Again, it felt weird to treat war like a video game. But really, these types of innovations are just making use of the same technology that makes video games work. They’re making the military work better, too.
The demo day took place during Doran Michels’ last week at DARPA. The budget for the TransApp program expired this spring. So Michel’s, a former Army infantry officer and FBI Special Agent, will move on to other projects. The TransApp project will continue, nevertheless, through the Army’s Nett Warrior project. Again, the effort to bring mobile apps to the military has only just begun. If the TransApps ecosystem continues to win support from top brass, it’s highly plausible that all soldiers will be using apps that power all of their equipment on the battlefield in the very near future. (Some already are, actually.)
There are a lot of reasons why the military may or may not arm soldiers with DARPA’s latest creation—many of them involve taxpayer dollars. But as I drove away from the base, my finger stinking like gunpowder, I thought of one reason why any peace-loving American should care. The military is treating technology and innovation differently. And it’s a very good thing to see the Pentagon bucking its overly bureaucratic past and trying to act more like Silicon Valley.
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The Navy's Most Shadowy Spy Is 450 Feet Long & Named After Jimmy Carter
Submarines are a lot like Batman, they are covered in rubber and are great fighters, but they are gadget toting stealth detectives at their core. Of the Navy’s sub force, there is no boat more capable at sleuthing under the high seas than the heavily modified Seawolf Class submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter SSN-23.
The 12,150 ton displacement USS Jimmy Carter, whose namesake qualified in Submarines during his pre-Presidential naval career, is one of only three Seawolf Class submarines ever built. The Seawolfs are relics of the final stages of the Cold War and are the most lethal fast attack submarines ever created. The F-22 Raptors of the sea, they could dive incredibly deep, could haul along at speeds approaching 40 knots, and they were quieter than any other nuclear submarine on the planet. They were also armed with a cache of 50 weapons and wide 660mm torpedo tubes.
Seeing as the first boat was launched during the “peace dividend” years of the 1990s, its $3B price tag was thought to be too high and its ‘blue water’ sub hunting mission was becoming a secondary priority for the US Navy as the majority of Russia’s submarine fleet was rotting next to a pier. Instead, future subs would need to be more multi-role minded, cheaper to acquire and be more at home in shallow, littoral environments close to shore. As a result, the Seawolf class was replaced by the smaller, cheaper, and somewhat more flexible Virginia Class that remains in serial production today.
Regardless of the type’s cancellation, the Navy did receive three Seawolf Class boats, the Seawolf, Connecticut and the Jimmy Carter. With the Jimmy Carter, the Navy took advantage of the Seawolf Class’sdeep-diving and ultra-quiet capabilities and created a one-off subclass that would become part of a small but very proud lineage of shadowy American submarines that were highly modified for clandestine surveillance and espionage operations.
The Jimmy Carter, which was commissioned in 2005, differs from the standard Seawolf Class submarine via a slew of modifications made during her initial construction. A massive 100 foot long hull extension gives the Jimmy Carter a length only second to the massive Ohio Class Submarines (SSBN/SSGN) in US inventory. This extension, called the Multi-Mission Platform, is described as a ‘moon bay’ with an hourglass shaped passage running down the center of it.
This rounded underwater hangar of sorts can hold outsized deep-diving vehicles, unmanned vehicles, custom-built heavy machinery, spools of cable, special forces supplies and craft, deployable sensors and weapons, along with just about anything else you can imagine. Through a lockout chamber system built within the MMP hold, divers, commandos and remotely operated vehicles can be deployed and recovered.
Other modifications to the Jimmy Carter include a set of precision thrusters, both fore and aft, that allow the sub to hold its position perfectly within space while conducting sensitive mechanical operations or when quietly trawling shallow waters. The Carter also has a large reconfigurable cargo bay, just off the MMP’s lockout chamber/ocean interface, for servicing vehicles and preparing for clandestine missions.
A modular command center can also be tailored to the specific mission at hand, with different configurations available for special operations, deep sea espionage, mine warfare, specialized sensor or unmanned systems deployment and just about any other mission you can think of.
The Jimmy Carter’s mast can be easily adapted to sport unique, purpose-built electronic surveillance and communications sensors. There is also said to be a remotely operated vehicle handling system that may feature the ability to recover autonomous vehicles and even aerial drones with limited human direction.
Finally, SSN-23 can accommodate an extra 50 commandos or mission personnel above the standard crew size of about 130. Instead of sleeping in the torpedo room or other improvised areas as is common for special operations soldiers aboard submarines, this berthing was built into the original ship’s design, making long endurance deployments more palatable.
Because the hull was lengthened 100 feet to accommodate many of the Jimmy Carter’sadditional capabilities, the boat did not have to give up the baseline Seawolf Class fast attack and strike abilities. This means the vessel can protect itself in hostile waters or be tasked for traditional fast attack submarine duties, although it seems like this may be a fairly rare occurrence.
So what does the Jimmy Carter do with all its modifications? Like its USS Halibut, USSSeawolf, USS Richard Russell and USS Parche, which were modified ‘special mission’ subs that came before it, the Jimmy Carter conducts espionage, and could even conduct sabotage, in a variety of manners.
Its ability to hold perfectly on station at great depths, all while deploying custom built ROVs and other elaborate hardware, allows it to tap communications and data cables running along the sea floor. In the past, this was done by splicing in tailor made recording devices, leaving them for a period of time, and recovering them at a later date for exploitation. Today, in an age of fiber optics, more exotic forms of real-time seabed-based communication eavesdropping could theoretically be facilitated by the Jimmy Carter, with the NSA rumored to one of the boat’s biggest ‘customers.’
Tapping the world’s massive underwater arteries of data is one thing, but the Carter could also be able to sabotage communications nodes via simply cutting through the wire with large claws or torches, or by setting up mechanisms that could do similar tasks on command sometime in the future, should the need arise. Much of this technology has been pioneered in the deep sea oil drilling field (think Deepwater Horizon), which can be adapted and used ‘off label’ for military purposes. Such an ability could partially blind the enemy and limit their global situational awareness and command and control capabilities during a time of war without actually ‘kinetically’ attacking land targets in a traditional sense.
The Carter can also use its underwater manipulation abilities and sensors to find things that foreign governments have lost. Not only can it examine those things up close on the sea floor, but if they are within the dimensions of the sub’s MMP bays, it can recover them and transport them to a safe place for further examination.
The Jimmy Carter can also perform passive signals and communications intelligence missions via moving in close to a country’s shoreline and utilizing its easily customizable mast to deploy aerials that are purpose built to pickup particular radio frequency transmissions. This can be as focused as searching for a single cellular phone transmission in a city, to soaking up an enemy’s electronic order of battle, including air and sea defense radar emissions and command and control communications and data exchanges.
Although all fast attack and guided missile submarines have these capabilities to varying degrees, the Carter’s modular mission center and adaptable systems allow for the installation of new, experimental sensors and command and control interfaces without heavily interrupting the boat’s normal operations or demanding long in-port modification timelines.
Because SSN-23 has what equates to large hangar bay, berthing for 50 and a configurable command and control space, the Jimmy Carter is a special forces dream machine. It can carry out-sized payloads inside its MMP bays, such as boats and underwater speeders, as well as throngs of sensitive gear and dozens of commandos in comparative luxury within its pressure hull. It can also deploy small UAVs for special operations overwatch and communications relay, not to mention it can also carry a standard seal delivery vehicle dock on its spine.
Because of its unique modular nature, the USS Jimmy Carter can act as something as anoperational test ship for leading edge technologies. It is rumored that it was the first submarine to be equipped with an aforementioned unmanned aerial vehicle, which it supposedly launched shortly after North Korea barraged a South Korean island with artillery shells, to assess the damage.
Because of its large MMP bay, and its ability to carry ‘piggyback’ payloads, just like other fast attack and guided missile submarines, it would be the perfect vessel to field unmanned undersea combat vehicles. Not only could these be used as scouts, navigating closer to foreign shores for spying purposes, but they could also act in concert with the Carter for hunter-killer operations. Because these vessels are unmanned, they could use complex, coordinated tactics, data-linking their information to their Carter mothership. By fusing their sensor data with the Jimmy Carter’s, a large increase in situational awareness and survivability may be possible. Just like unmanned combat aircraft, they could range out a distance from their mothership turn on their active sonars, giving away their position but obtaining critical sensor data, all the while the Carter’s stays masked in silence a distance away.
Mine warfare, of both a defensive and offensive nature, is another aspect of undersea combat that the Carter is remarkably well suited for. Its massive cargo space can be used to house mines and other autonomous weapons, while the boat’s ROVs can help deploy them. These same attributes can also be used for deploying unmanned craft and external sensors for detecting and disabling enemy mines, especially high-end ones that can lay on the sea floor for long periods of time, just waiting for the right acoustic signature to come alive and prosecute a surprise attack from below.
Finally, so many of the same warfighting and espionage capabilities that this unique machine possesses can also be used for oceanic research. The craft’s amazing array of sonars, both passive and active, could be re-roled for scientific exploration, from mapping the seabed to seismic research. I know what you are thinking, why wasn’t this incredible asset used to search for MH370, or any advanced military submarine for that matter. Sadly, I cannot answer that question aside from the possibility that operating around a foreign coalition could give away some of the boat’s unique capabilities and expose some of its inherent limitations. This goes for any advanced submarine really.
With the threat of a new Cold War possibly emerging and with China’s rapid expansion, both as an economic and military power, the USS Jimmy Carter is probably in more demand than at any time in its decade long career. When you consider how wide ranging we have discovered the government’s domestic communications spying programs are here at home, you can use your imagination as to just how busy the NSA and other US spy services have been abroad. Just like how the CIA went to the Navy SEALs for one of the hardest clandestine special forces operations in history, the NSA calls upon the Navy’s giant multi-purpose spy ship to do the same, that being the one of a kind USS Jimmy Carter.
Submarines are a lot like Batman, they are covered in rubber and are great fighters, but they are gadget toting stealth detectives at their core. Of the Navy’s sub force, there is no boat more capable at sleuthing under the high seas than the heavily modified Seawolf Class submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter SSN-23.
The 12,150 ton displacement USS Jimmy Carter, whose namesake qualified in Submarines during his pre-Presidential naval career, is one of only three Seawolf Class submarines ever built. The Seawolfs are relics of the final stages of the Cold War and are the most lethal fast attack submarines ever created. The F-22 Raptors of the sea, they could dive incredibly deep, could haul along at speeds approaching 40 knots, and they were quieter than any other nuclear submarine on the planet. They were also armed with a cache of 50 weapons and wide 660mm torpedo tubes.
Seeing as the first boat was launched during the “peace dividend” years of the 1990s, its $3B price tag was thought to be too high and its ‘blue water’ sub hunting mission was becoming a secondary priority for the US Navy as the majority of Russia’s submarine fleet was rotting next to a pier. Instead, future subs would need to be more multi-role minded, cheaper to acquire and be more at home in shallow, littoral environments close to shore. As a result, the Seawolf class was replaced by the smaller, cheaper, and somewhat more flexible Virginia Class that remains in serial production today.
Regardless of the type’s cancellation, the Navy did receive three Seawolf Class boats, the Seawolf, Connecticut and the Jimmy Carter. With the Jimmy Carter, the Navy took advantage of the Seawolf Class’sdeep-diving and ultra-quiet capabilities and created a one-off subclass that would become part of a small but very proud lineage of shadowy American submarines that were highly modified for clandestine surveillance and espionage operations.
The Jimmy Carter, which was commissioned in 2005, differs from the standard Seawolf Class submarine via a slew of modifications made during her initial construction. A massive 100 foot long hull extension gives the Jimmy Carter a length only second to the massive Ohio Class Submarines (SSBN/SSGN) in US inventory. This extension, called the Multi-Mission Platform, is described as a ‘moon bay’ with an hourglass shaped passage running down the center of it.
This rounded underwater hangar of sorts can hold outsized deep-diving vehicles, unmanned vehicles, custom-built heavy machinery, spools of cable, special forces supplies and craft, deployable sensors and weapons, along with just about anything else you can imagine. Through a lockout chamber system built within the MMP hold, divers, commandos and remotely operated vehicles can be deployed and recovered.
Other modifications to the Jimmy Carter include a set of precision thrusters, both fore and aft, that allow the sub to hold its position perfectly within space while conducting sensitive mechanical operations or when quietly trawling shallow waters. The Carter also has a large reconfigurable cargo bay, just off the MMP’s lockout chamber/ocean interface, for servicing vehicles and preparing for clandestine missions.
A modular command center can also be tailored to the specific mission at hand, with different configurations available for special operations, deep sea espionage, mine warfare, specialized sensor or unmanned systems deployment and just about any other mission you can think of.
The Jimmy Carter’s mast can be easily adapted to sport unique, purpose-built electronic surveillance and communications sensors. There is also said to be a remotely operated vehicle handling system that may feature the ability to recover autonomous vehicles and even aerial drones with limited human direction.
Finally, SSN-23 can accommodate an extra 50 commandos or mission personnel above the standard crew size of about 130. Instead of sleeping in the torpedo room or other improvised areas as is common for special operations soldiers aboard submarines, this berthing was built into the original ship’s design, making long endurance deployments more palatable.
Because the hull was lengthened 100 feet to accommodate many of the Jimmy Carter’sadditional capabilities, the boat did not have to give up the baseline Seawolf Class fast attack and strike abilities. This means the vessel can protect itself in hostile waters or be tasked for traditional fast attack submarine duties, although it seems like this may be a fairly rare occurrence.
So what does the Jimmy Carter do with all its modifications? Like its USS Halibut, USSSeawolf, USS Richard Russell and USS Parche, which were modified ‘special mission’ subs that came before it, the Jimmy Carter conducts espionage, and could even conduct sabotage, in a variety of manners.
Its ability to hold perfectly on station at great depths, all while deploying custom built ROVs and other elaborate hardware, allows it to tap communications and data cables running along the sea floor. In the past, this was done by splicing in tailor made recording devices, leaving them for a period of time, and recovering them at a later date for exploitation. Today, in an age of fiber optics, more exotic forms of real-time seabed-based communication eavesdropping could theoretically be facilitated by the Jimmy Carter, with the NSA rumored to one of the boat’s biggest ‘customers.’
Tapping the world’s massive underwater arteries of data is one thing, but the Carter could also be able to sabotage communications nodes via simply cutting through the wire with large claws or torches, or by setting up mechanisms that could do similar tasks on command sometime in the future, should the need arise. Much of this technology has been pioneered in the deep sea oil drilling field (think Deepwater Horizon), which can be adapted and used ‘off label’ for military purposes. Such an ability could partially blind the enemy and limit their global situational awareness and command and control capabilities during a time of war without actually ‘kinetically’ attacking land targets in a traditional sense.
The Carter can also use its underwater manipulation abilities and sensors to find things that foreign governments have lost. Not only can it examine those things up close on the sea floor, but if they are within the dimensions of the sub’s MMP bays, it can recover them and transport them to a safe place for further examination.
The Jimmy Carter can also perform passive signals and communications intelligence missions via moving in close to a country’s shoreline and utilizing its easily customizable mast to deploy aerials that are purpose built to pickup particular radio frequency transmissions. This can be as focused as searching for a single cellular phone transmission in a city, to soaking up an enemy’s electronic order of battle, including air and sea defense radar emissions and command and control communications and data exchanges.
Although all fast attack and guided missile submarines have these capabilities to varying degrees, the Carter’s modular mission center and adaptable systems allow for the installation of new, experimental sensors and command and control interfaces without heavily interrupting the boat’s normal operations or demanding long in-port modification timelines.
Because SSN-23 has what equates to large hangar bay, berthing for 50 and a configurable command and control space, the Jimmy Carter is a special forces dream machine. It can carry out-sized payloads inside its MMP bays, such as boats and underwater speeders, as well as throngs of sensitive gear and dozens of commandos in comparative luxury within its pressure hull. It can also deploy small UAVs for special operations overwatch and communications relay, not to mention it can also carry a standard seal delivery vehicle dock on its spine.
Because of its unique modular nature, the USS Jimmy Carter can act as something as anoperational test ship for leading edge technologies. It is rumored that it was the first submarine to be equipped with an aforementioned unmanned aerial vehicle, which it supposedly launched shortly after North Korea barraged a South Korean island with artillery shells, to assess the damage.
Because of its large MMP bay, and its ability to carry ‘piggyback’ payloads, just like other fast attack and guided missile submarines, it would be the perfect vessel to field unmanned undersea combat vehicles. Not only could these be used as scouts, navigating closer to foreign shores for spying purposes, but they could also act in concert with the Carter for hunter-killer operations. Because these vessels are unmanned, they could use complex, coordinated tactics, data-linking their information to their Carter mothership. By fusing their sensor data with the Jimmy Carter’s, a large increase in situational awareness and survivability may be possible. Just like unmanned combat aircraft, they could range out a distance from their mothership turn on their active sonars, giving away their position but obtaining critical sensor data, all the while the Carter’s stays masked in silence a distance away.
Mine warfare, of both a defensive and offensive nature, is another aspect of undersea combat that the Carter is remarkably well suited for. Its massive cargo space can be used to house mines and other autonomous weapons, while the boat’s ROVs can help deploy them. These same attributes can also be used for deploying unmanned craft and external sensors for detecting and disabling enemy mines, especially high-end ones that can lay on the sea floor for long periods of time, just waiting for the right acoustic signature to come alive and prosecute a surprise attack from below.
Finally, so many of the same warfighting and espionage capabilities that this unique machine possesses can also be used for oceanic research. The craft’s amazing array of sonars, both passive and active, could be re-roled for scientific exploration, from mapping the seabed to seismic research. I know what you are thinking, why wasn’t this incredible asset used to search for MH370, or any advanced military submarine for that matter. Sadly, I cannot answer that question aside from the possibility that operating around a foreign coalition could give away some of the boat’s unique capabilities and expose some of its inherent limitations. This goes for any advanced submarine really.
With the threat of a new Cold War possibly emerging and with China’s rapid expansion, both as an economic and military power, the USS Jimmy Carter is probably in more demand than at any time in its decade long career. When you consider how wide ranging we have discovered the government’s domestic communications spying programs are here at home, you can use your imagination as to just how busy the NSA and other US spy services have been abroad. Just like how the CIA went to the Navy SEALs for one of the hardest clandestine special forces operations in history, the NSA calls upon the Navy’s giant multi-purpose spy ship to do the same, that being the one of a kind USS Jimmy Carter.
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Those types of landings require a rear-door helicopter whose rear wheels are forwards of the door opening - to allow for enough stability and clearance during a landing. It's most commonly seen with the Chinook though:
However, these types of landing would be extremely dangerous on a conventional configuration due to limited tail clearance and the presence of a tail rotor or jet which could interfere with any debris, vegetation or personal nearby the helo when attempting a landing:
Despite having a rear door, these types of landings would be hazardous using a helo of this type. It's not unique to the Chinook, but it is most commonly done using one.
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Assorted Pictures of the United States Navy
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Transhumanist
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