N101-042 TITLE: Environmental Wideband Acoustic Receiver and Source (EWARS)

TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Sensors, Battlespace

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-264, Air Anti Submarine Warfare Program; PMA-290

RESTRICTION ON PERFORMANCE BY FOREIGN CITIZENS (i.e., those holding non-U.S. Passports): This topic is "ITAR Restricted." The information and materials provided pursuant to or resulting from this topic are restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), 22 CFR Parts 120 - 130, which control the export of defense-related material and services, including the export of sensitive technical data. Foreign Citizens may perform work under an award resulting from this topic only if they hold the "Permanent Resident Card", or are designated as "Protected Individuals" as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). If a proposal for this topic contains participation by a foreign citizen who is not in one of the above two categories, the proposal will be rejected.

OBJECTIVE: Develop and demonstrate an innovative air-deployable source and receiver combination that is capable of characterizing the acoustic ocean environment over a wide range of frequencies from Navy Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft with the capability of crossing multiple operational environments.

DESCRIPTION: Currently, no calibrated coherent source/receiver combination for environmental characterization exist due to bandwidth and responsiveness limitations of existing transmitter/receiver elements. Innovative sensor technologies are sought with enhanced electromechanical property ceramics with increased bandwidth and responsiveness for the transmitter and receiver elements that are capable of transmitting, collecting, and processing surveillance information. There is a need within the Navy, and other DoD agencies, to characterize the ocean environment for pre-mission planning, environmental analysis, and marine mammal mitigation during training and operational trials. Larger intelligence data demands, reduced inventory, aircraft capacity, and fewer manned aircraft make it difficult to meet all intelligence/ mission planning requirements with existing hardware. Additionally, scenario characteristics such as transmission loss, bottom loss, reverberation, geo-acoustic characterization, obscuration, clutter, multi-path, signal detection, and signal type may limit the performance of current intelligence gathering systems without the capability to gather and disseminate the information. System solutions should include both single unit concepts as well as multi-unit concepts.

The unit should be capable of both shallow and deep water operations deploying the active and passive sensing elements through 500 feet, and have a minimum one-hour life (or 50 pulse seconds). Coherent signals of interest are up to 100 kHz, to include but not be limited to CW and FM waveforms. Communication between the aircraft and sensor unit should be compliant with NATO digital uplink format to the Software Defined Sonobuoy Receiver (SDSR).

This expendable sensor solution should be low power and sized to fit within an "A" size sonobuoy. A-size sonobuoy standards are as follows: dimensions of 4.875-inch diameter x 36-inch length and weight of 40 pounds or less. It is desirable to accommodate the wide band of frequencies in a single transducer or set of transducers within a single unit, though it may be necessary to partition the frequency range into multiple units.

PHASE I: Develop the sensor concept, design details and conceptual packaging details, and demonstrate feasibility.

PHASE II: Develop and fabricate an over-the-side prototype unit(s) required to span the frequency range and demonstrate in both acoustic facilities and the ocean environment. Finalize the concept design and make recommendations for Phase III production-oriented designs.

PHASE III: Develop a production design of Phase II solution. Conduct integrated engineering and operational testing of an air deployed system. Demonstrate full operational functionality in Navy-supported test scenarios. Transition to the Fleet.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Technology developed in this SBIR could be leveraged to achieve smaller and lighter systems. This type of system capability may be of interest to the undersea mapping, exploration, seismology and weather communities and used for monitoring marine mammals or icebergs. Government agencies such as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Commerce are continually trying to upgrade their measurement and data collection capability. These sensors could fulfill a need to provide in-situ measurements at frequencies not ordinarily measured. By developing reliable, low cost sensor components, more capability and performance can be achieved.

REFERENCES:
1. Urick, Robert J. Principles of Underwater Sound for Engineers, 3rd ed. Los Altos Hills, CA: Peninsula Publishing, 1983.

2. U.S. Navy, "Approved Navy Training System Plan for the Navy Consolidated Sonobuoys." [Online] http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/docs/ntsp-Sonobuoy.pdf, September, 1998.

3. Ultra Electronics, Maritime Systems, "Sonobuoys." [Online] http://www.ultra-uems.com/sonobuoys.html, July 14, 2009.

4. Ultra Electronics Ltd, "An Overview of ASW Sonobuoy Types and Trends." [Online] http://www.ultra-scs.com/resources/whitepapers/asw.pdf, March 2003.

5. Baker, Gregory J. et al "GPS Equipped Sonobuoy." [Online] http://www.novatel.com/Documents/Waypoint/Reports/sonobuoy.pdf, 2001.

KEYWORDS: Sonobuoy; Sensor; Hydrophone; Undersea; Active Acoustics; AntiSubmarine Warfare

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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