Northrop Grumman's Maritime and Tactical Systems Integrated Product Team early this summer started a series of flight tests of the airborne laser mine-detection system (ALMDS), a key mine-countermeasures (MCM) sensor system to be integrated within the mine-countermeasures module for the Navy's new littoral combat ship (LCS).
The testing, carried out at the company's Panama City, Florida, site, represents ALMDS developmental testing and will consist of about 40 test flights scheduled for completion this year. The system will operate on board the Navy's MH-60S Seahawk helicopter from the LCS.
Northrop Grumman won a January 2006 Navy contract to act as prime contractor for overall systems integration for the three LCS warfighting mission modules, one of which will be configured for MCM and the other two for surface-warfare and antisubmarine warfare missions. In the Navy's LCS operational concept, ships will be fitted out with one of the three modules based on their assigned missions. Following mission completion, the module may be replaced with one of the other two modules as required.
The Navy's use of deployable modules will provide multi-dimensional mission capability for the single ship class, a concept now also being explored by NATO. Marc DeBlasio, Northrop Grumman's program director for LCS mission-package integration, said that the company has teamed with Nevantia, a Spanish shipbuilder, to evaluate use of modules on board Spanish Navy ships. DeBlasio has been named chairman of a NATO industrial-advisory group that is studying the use of modules on NATO ships for such missions as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
The Navy is currently evaluating two LCS seaframes, one built on a conventional hull by a team led by Lockheed Martin MS2 and shipbuilder Marinette Marine. The second, a "trimarin" design, has been developed by General Dynamics Maritime Systems and built by Austal USA. One of each is in service: the USS Freedom (LCS-1), built by the Lockheed Martin team and commissioned in November 2008, and the USS Independence (LCS-2), delivered by the General Dynamics
led team and commissioned in December 2009. The Navy plans a downselect to one of the two designs this year, aimed at construction of a class of 55 ships.DeBlasio emphasizes that the mission modules are "ship agnostic": the module interfaces already have been tested on board both the Freedom and Independence, and will operate with no modifications needed.
The Maritime and Tactical Systems Integrated Production Team also is heading up the work on two other LCS MCM module systems, the rapid airborne mine-clearance system (RAMICS) and the coastal battlefield reconnaissance and analysis (COBRA) system.
The RAMICS, still in development, uses a laser-imaging detection and ranging system and a 30mm Bushmaster gun that fires armor-piercing rounds. Two variants of the COBRA are being evaluated.
Bill Checchia, Northrop Grumman's ALMDS team leader, says that ALMDS, operating from the MH-60S Seahawk, will provide wide-area reconnaissance and detection of minefields. "The key to ALMDS," he said, "is that nothing dips in the water, so it provides a capability to detect mines rapidly across a given area, using a
push-broom' approach."The ALMDS sensor is a high-powered laser transmitter built by Cutting Edge Optronics, a wholly owned Northrop Grumman subsidiary based in St. Charles, Missouri.
Checchia said that the ALMDS laser is based on Northrop Grumman's 2001
2002 development of a prototype laser for the airborne mine-detection mission. Cutting Edge is the only company capable of building the system, he added.In ALMDS operations, which can be conducted day or night, the MH-60S flies a pattern of wide swaths across a suspected mined area, as the laser scans beneath the surface for objects that could be floating or moored mines. Data on mine-like objects are transmitted to an ALMDS processor, which generates "process contacts" provided to a common console built by Lockheed Martin. The contact data are sent to the LCS for post-mission analysis and, if necessary, for use by the RAMICS to destroy the mine.
The company has completed two low-rate initial production runs for ALMDS and has submitted a proposal for a third run. Successful completion of the development-testing program will lead to the start of operational testing early next year and a production decision in mid-2011.