Integrated Acoustic/MAD ASW Sensor Payload for the MQ-8C VTUAV

The MQ-8 vertical takeoff unmanned air vehicle (VTUAV) opens a new era in naval aviation. The C variant of the MQ-8 offers much higher endurance and payload capacity than prior versions, enabling new missions. The Navy seeks to exploit this new capability to perform air ASW with an integrated acoustic/ magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) sensor system. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) has recently developed a low cost, low size, weight and power alkali atom total field magnetometer for air ASW. In addition, PSI is developing the secure/scalable acoustic signal processor (SSASP) under multiple, synergistic SBIR programs. In this program, PSI proposes to merge acoustic and MAD sensors, and fuse the resulting contact data to detect, localize, and track threat submarines from the MQ-8C Firescout using the SSASP as the fusion processing platform. The program leverages PSI?s prior efforts in MAD sensor development, acoustic signal processing, and tracker development and other ongoing Navy R&D efforts for relevant component technologies.