The Naval Surface Warfare Center's Panama City Division is developing innovative mission-control technologies for unmanned systems, targeted initially at the mine countermeasures (MCM) systems that will be operated on board the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The technologies eventually could be extended to antisubmarine and antisurface warfare for the LCS and other platforms.
The effort, center officials say, aims at shifting management of both manned and unmanned offboard systems from a traditional vehicle-centric approach to a mission-centric concept, thereby reducing the workload of the LCS mission crews.
A major innovation of the LCS design is the introduction of separate mission modules for mine, antisubmarine, and surface warfare. The mine warfare team will consist of 14 crewmen and one officer. The full LCS crew, at about 50 personnel, will be dramatically smaller than that of any other Navy surface combatant.
The LCS program, planned for as many as 55 ships configured for agile, close-to-shore operations, has encountered design and cost problems, but remains a major element of the Navy's plan for the surface combatant force.
Warfare Center officials point out that the mine warfare concept of operations for LCS, as for other surface combatants, involves one-on-one control by operators of unmanned mine warfare systems, such as the remote minehunting system, unmanned surface vehicles, and the sonars and magnetic sleds towed by MCM helicopters.
The center's mission-control initiative is an important part of the Sea Shield Fiscal Year 07-01 Future Naval Capability program managed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR). This, officials say, aims at filling a gap in the Fleet's ability to clear large areas of mines. The center's initiative also builds on a 2007 study of common control for unmanned systems by the program executive office for Littoral and Mine Warfare.
The mission-centric approach for LCS consists of two complementary programs: TEAM, (Team-based Execution of Autonomous Missions) and SUMMIT (Supervision of Unmanned Vehicles Mission Management by Interactive Teams). This spring ONR awarded a $3 million contract to Lockheed Martin's Systems Integration-Owego business unit for development of the TEAM system and a second contract, valued at $2.4 million, to Lockheed Martin Advanced Technologies Laboratory for work on SUMMIT.
The TEAM effort, center officials say, will shift mine warfare operations from the current vehicle-centric practice to the mission-centric approach. It will allow a single operator to carry out mission planning and management for multiple unmanned and/or manned mine warfare systems, for example, one or more MCM helos and/or remote minehunting systems.
Lockheed Martin is using its KineForce mission-management system, which it developed for the Army's unmanned combat helicopter program, using the company's Mission Effectiveness and Safety Assessment technology. The TEAM project will produce new software that will be fully compliant with the Navy's Open Architecture initiative, which calls for the maximum use of common software modules that could be adapted for multiple applications and platforms. While both programs are focused on the LCS mine warfare team, they could be adapted to the LCS antisubmarine and surface warfare missions, as well as missions for other surface combatants.
Center officials also note that the SUMMIT effort, which is developing new approaches to displaying mission data for operators, is "based on the same paradigm" of shifting LCS mine warfare operations from a vehicle-centric to a mission-centric concept. SUMMIT, they say, will help operators "share workload dynamically" by enabling them to collaborate with other operators on managing mission control, including handing off systems in the event of problems.
Both project efforts call for an 18-month development phase, to be followed in late FY 2009 with technology demonstrations that will determine which components could be transitioned to the program office for littoral and mine warfare for acquisition.