Enabling Test and Evaluation and Training for Undersea Range Programs

This article discusses leveraging test and evaluation (T&E) and training programs in the development, production, and installation of instrumented undersea ranges for the U.S. Navy and other customers. Enabling and leveraging of this capability also touches other nonDepartment of Defense arenas, such as the underwater tracking of marine mammals, with the same infrastructure that the U.S. Fleets use for undersea warfare test and training. This infrastructure includes an underwater sensor grid that is cabled to shore or telemetered to a mobile platform that includes analog and digital signal processing and undersea acoustic tracking and display hardware and software. Additionally, common digital signal processors and universal tracking software will be integrated into programs to avoid nonrecurring engineering and duplications of efforts. This article documents actual programs leveraging and attempts to quantify the value of these opportunities. The future plans for this sharing of undersea range technology are also discussed.