December
23, 2006: The U.S. Navy is looking to massive computer power, and clever
software, to provide an edge against non-nuclear (and very quiet) submarines
operating in coastal waters. The current system, TAMDA (Tactical Acoustic
Measurement and Decision Aid), does not provide adequate results. The new
systems will use two types of air dropped devices (the ADAR AN/SSQ-101 air
deployable active receiver, and the AXBT AN/SSQ-36B air-launched expendable
bathythermograph, conductivity, temperature, and depth probe sonobuoy.) The new
software, and powerful microcomputer based processing hardware, will look for
faint patterns left by submarines slowly moving through coastal waters. The new
system would also take into account the underground geography, and the activity
of undersea animals and plants. The number and pattern of deployed sensors
would also be taken into account.
To
make this work, new pattern analysis software is being developed, and will be
essential to the success of this approach. The U.S. has been a leader in the
development of pattern analysis software, but mainly for things like marketing
and financial services. The navy is eager to increase its anti-submarine
capabilities, as training exercises consistently show the subs successfully
sneaking up on the surface warships.
