Acoustic Intercept Receiver for Naval Special Warfare Undersea Vehicles

NNaval Special Warfare requires a low-power, light-weight acoustic intercept receiver capable of detecting and identifying the acoustic signals of manned or unmanned undersea vehicles. Traditional acoustic receivers in use on current submarine platforms are large, cumbersome and feature-rich. The Special Warfare vehicles require a much smaller, self-contained system without all the submarine’s capabilities. This system must operate with higher frequency operational processing bands, operationally intuitive operator / machine interface (OMI) that function under extreme in-water situations. Signal Processing must achieve high sensitivity with low false alarm rates requiring full spectrum, spectral redundant based signal processing techniques be considered to enhance detection and bearing estimates within limited space/ weight/ volume allocations. Partnered with Pennsylvania State University, our solution leverages acoustic previous acoustic intercept experience to design a low risk, operationally effective, highly reliable system for the Naval Special Warfare community developed with total ownership cost in mind. Our Phase I research weighs processing innovation, risk, and total owner-ship cost to establish a solution that we would be demonstrated in Phase II for future transition. Our integration experience ensures design of fieldable solutions with minimum platform impact that will transition to production in Phase III.