TIARA - AN ADVANCED TARGETING ALGORITHM USING INTER-ARRAY RANGING

THE NEED EXISTS FOR NEW ALGORITHMS AND METHODOLGIES FOR TRACKING AND/OR TARGETING LONG-RANGE PASSIVE CONTACTS SINCE CURRENT METHODS HAVE INHERENT LIMITATIONS. THE TREND TOWARD QUIETER, MORE ELUSIVE LONG-RANGE PASSIVE CONTACTS ALSO REQUIRES NEW APPROACHES TO LONG RANGE DETECTION AND TMA. THE APPROACH TO BE EXAMINED UNDER THIS PROJECT WOULD BE AN ACOUSTIC TRANSIENT INTER-ARRAY RANGING TECHNIQUE (TIARA) THAT COULD BE APPLIED TO NEW TECHNOLOGIES, SUCH AS THE SUBMARINE FLEET MISSION PROGRAM LIBRARY AND THE ASW TACTICAL DECISION AID, AS WELL AS OTHER COMBAT CONTROL SYSTEMS. TIARA WOULD USE THE CAPABILITIES OF TWO SENSOR ARRAYS, SUCH AS THE AN/BQQ-5 SPHERICAL AND TOWED ARRAY, TO DETERMINE RANGE AND BEARING TO A TRANSIENT SOURCE. USING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TIME OF ARRIVAL OF THE TRANSIENT SIGNALS AT THE TWO ARRAYS, A SET OF HYPERBOLAS WOULD BE GENERATED; THE INTERSECTION OF THE HYPERBOLAS BY A LINE OF BEARING FROM EITHER OR BOTH ARRAYS WOULD PROVIDE A RANGE TO THE TARGET. TMA ALGORITHM WILL USE THE TIARA RANGE AND BEARING TO CALCULATE TARGET SPEED, RANGE AND COURSE. BASED ON SEA CORP'S 10 YEARS OF SONAR EXPERIENCE, THE PROPOSED EFFORT WILL (1) DEFINE THE MATHEMATICAL BASIS FOR TIARA, (2) ANALYZE AN ASSESS THE APPLICABILITY TO AN/BQQ-5 AND RELATED SONAR SYSTEMS AND ARRAYS, (3) DEVELOP A TMA ALGORITHM BASED ON TIARA OUTPUT DATA, (4) SIMULATE SETS OF TRANSIENT DATA TO TEST THE ALGORITHM'S RESPONSE AND (5) ANALYZE TH METHODS/PROCEDURES USED TO DEVELOP THE ALGORITHMS FOR APPLICABILITY TO SFMPL, ASW TACTICAL DECISION AID AND OTHER COMBAT CONTROL SYSTEMS.