Environmental Wideband Acoustic Receiver and Source (EWARS)

The Navy requires a new Environmental Wideband Acoustic Receiver and Source (EWARS) sensor to facilitate the gathering of environmental and intelligence and data from Navy ASW platforms. The newly developed EWARS sensor must be deployable in shallow and deep environments, and be capable of operating over a broad spectrum of frequencies. EWARS also requires calibration accuracy, digital uplink format/precision, and high dynamic range. In this SBIR, RDA proposes the development of a sensor that meets these requirements and also includes the evaluation of some innovative sensor concepts intended to provide added benefit. RDA has analyzed a number of candidate sensor configurations, and our proposed configuration not only meets the requirements of the solicitation but is also feasible from a cost and packaging perspective. To minimize risk, the RDA proposed solution leverages heavily on technology already developed or in development on other U.S. Navy sensors. RDA has also included ERAPSCO as a subcontractor tasked for their expertise, to determine packaging and feasibility of the newly proposed sensor. Our Phase I approach is to establish a baseline set of requirements for the proposed sensor. We also plan to perform analysis and trade studies intended to address some of the more challenging requirements.