Submarine ES System RF Groom&Certification

US Navy submarine forces currently employ an independent team to test, measure, calibrate and certify radio frequency (RF) signal paths through sail mounted antennae to the inboard radio rooms in a process that can take in excess of 60 man-days to complete. Ships personnel have no means of calibrating or performing an operational verification of the ES suite once underway. Ships have no means of performing a comprehensive post-repair retest or comparison to a previously collected RF performance specification. It is strongly desirable for the submarines to have a capability to organically perform these functions, as needed, without significant outside assistance. The shore-based facilities where modernization and maintenance normally occurs are well suited to supporting, with expertise and equipment, the initial groom and certification needs for these submarine platforms. When emergent maintenance needs arise, the navy incurs significant cost and effort to conduct recertification of these platforms. Deployment and mission demands may dictate a need to continue with operations without awaiting the resources and expertise necessary to perform recertification. This may result in compromised system performance, loss of system capability, invalidation of mission-related data collection or threat to ownship due to failure of threat recognition or classification.