Whale Search Radar

Marine mammals are often found in areas where US Navy ASW test operations are carried out. Several events have raised levels of concern that sonar emission could be causing deleterious impacts on marine mammals. For instance, in March of 2000, a mass stranding of beaked whales [NOAA report Dec 20, 2001] occurred coincident with an exercise of U.S. Navy ships operating mid-frequency sonar around the Bahamas. Other similar events have occurred. The solicitation objective is to detect, classify, and localize whales and other contacts in an ASW test range in a variety of sea-states. This will be accomplished by the Adaptive Methods and SSR Engineering team with a combination of commercial low-cost radar and other sensors, tracking and classification software, and operator controls and display. A system engineering and R&D development approach is given, with recommendations for work to be performance in Phase I through Phase III. A test data collection system and approach is described that uses available assets. Key R&D algorithms required are identified and developed.