yasin_khan
New Member
The destroyer USS Momsen looks like any other greyhound of the sea — sleek and fast, armed with missiles and guns, and equipped with the latest version of the Aegis combat radar system. But in one respect, the Momsen is unlike any other destroyer now in service.
It is a minehunter.
Momsen is the first of six Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that will carry a 6-ton remote minehunting vehicle, part of the AN/WLD-1(V)1 mine reconnaissance system. The gear will allow the Momsen to jump ahead of a strike group, look for and locate mines, and warn other ships. It’s part of the U.S. Navy’s effort to lessen its strike groups’ dependence on traditional slow, short-range minesweepers.Having the system is “very exciting,†said Lt. Antonio Martinez, weapons officer of the new warship. “It’s something combatants usually don’t deal with. We’re basically an air defense platform. The undersea platform brings a lot to the table.â€
“This is an extra, advanced-deployed sensor that gives us more information to really minimize risk in our operations,†said Capt. Barry Dagnall, head of the Navy’s mine warfare branch in the Pentagon. “The idea is to have a sensor that’s out there — operating with the fleet — that can prep the battlespace, learn more about it.â€
The minehunting vehicle is not intended to destroy mines. Rather, it will use a smaller, tethered AN/AQS-20 sonar to detect mines and relay their location to other ships. Later, an explosives ordnance disposal team or a minesweeper can move in.
Commissioned Aug. 28 at Panama City, Fla., Momsen is actually the second ship fitted with the minehunting system, but it is carrying and testing the only remote vehicle now in service.
The Pinckney, commissioned in May, and the four destroyers coming into service behind Momsen also will carry the system. There are no plans to extend the outfit to other Arleigh Burkes.
A Different System
Developed by Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems, Syracuse, N.Y., the Momsen’s minehunting system is different from those aboard current minesweepers, which operate smaller, tethered vehicles weighing about 500 pounds.
The 23-foot, 12,850-pound semi-submersible remote vehicle is powered by a diesel engine. It can be placed in the water in about 45 minutes, and can be programmed to operate independent of the destroyer. Fitted with sonar, transmitters and a video camera, its hull travels just below the water’s surface, but its mast remains above water to carry a second video camera, more transmitters and the diesel’s air intake.
If a “mine-like object†is detected, electro-optic sensors aboard the tethered sonar vehicle send images to the destroyer, which puts them on the Navy’s Global Command and Control System-Maritime network.
The smaller tethered vehicle can carry either a laser-line scan that creates an image, or a volume search sonar which puts out a donut or angel-like pattern, looking for moored contacts. One module carries a laser line scan, which creates an image.
Each destroyer is fitted to carry two of the small sonar vehicles.
“Ideally, you can have one sonar outfitted with one module and one with the other,†said Kevin Rose, the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Remote Minehunting System project engineer in Panama City.
Operational evaluation for the minehunter and AQS-20 sonar are scheduled for spring 2005, Rose said. “We hope to get incremental approval of limited rate production of the [vehicle] in the fall.â€
Momsen will conduct tests while it’s in the Gulf of Mexico, and another vehicle will go aboard the ship when it moves to the Pacific for operational evaluation off the Southern California coast.
A version of the RMS with more and different sensors will be part of the minehunting and anti-submarine warfare mission modules aboard the Littoral Combat Ship when it enters service in 2007. Dagnall said enough vehicles will be available for all six destroyers, with more on order for use aboard the littoral combat ships.
Finding room for the 12-ton mine vehicle aboard the tightly packed destroyer was solved when designers changed the layout of the ship’s rigid-hull inflatable boats on the starboard side, ahead of the helicopter hangar. The boats are stacked instead of set next to each other, allowing room for the mine vehicle and its launch and recovery system, which are exposed to the weather but screened from enemy radar by a metal mesh net.
It’s based on a similar design aboard French Navy La Fayette-class frigates, Rose said.
Rearranging junior officer quarters made room for a classified network and storage space for two AQS-20 sonars, Rose said.
The Navy’s mine leaders and the Momsen’s crew will test the mine vehicles and define operating doctrine for their use, Dagnall said.
“Putting the system on a combatant is a good thing for the [surface warfare] community forcing us to become more involved,†Martinez said.
http://www.isrjournal.com/story.php?F=344800
It is a minehunter.
Momsen is the first of six Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class destroyers that will carry a 6-ton remote minehunting vehicle, part of the AN/WLD-1(V)1 mine reconnaissance system. The gear will allow the Momsen to jump ahead of a strike group, look for and locate mines, and warn other ships. It’s part of the U.S. Navy’s effort to lessen its strike groups’ dependence on traditional slow, short-range minesweepers.Having the system is “very exciting,†said Lt. Antonio Martinez, weapons officer of the new warship. “It’s something combatants usually don’t deal with. We’re basically an air defense platform. The undersea platform brings a lot to the table.â€
“This is an extra, advanced-deployed sensor that gives us more information to really minimize risk in our operations,†said Capt. Barry Dagnall, head of the Navy’s mine warfare branch in the Pentagon. “The idea is to have a sensor that’s out there — operating with the fleet — that can prep the battlespace, learn more about it.â€
The minehunting vehicle is not intended to destroy mines. Rather, it will use a smaller, tethered AN/AQS-20 sonar to detect mines and relay their location to other ships. Later, an explosives ordnance disposal team or a minesweeper can move in.
Commissioned Aug. 28 at Panama City, Fla., Momsen is actually the second ship fitted with the minehunting system, but it is carrying and testing the only remote vehicle now in service.
The Pinckney, commissioned in May, and the four destroyers coming into service behind Momsen also will carry the system. There are no plans to extend the outfit to other Arleigh Burkes.
A Different System
Developed by Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems, Syracuse, N.Y., the Momsen’s minehunting system is different from those aboard current minesweepers, which operate smaller, tethered vehicles weighing about 500 pounds.
The 23-foot, 12,850-pound semi-submersible remote vehicle is powered by a diesel engine. It can be placed in the water in about 45 minutes, and can be programmed to operate independent of the destroyer. Fitted with sonar, transmitters and a video camera, its hull travels just below the water’s surface, but its mast remains above water to carry a second video camera, more transmitters and the diesel’s air intake.
If a “mine-like object†is detected, electro-optic sensors aboard the tethered sonar vehicle send images to the destroyer, which puts them on the Navy’s Global Command and Control System-Maritime network.
The smaller tethered vehicle can carry either a laser-line scan that creates an image, or a volume search sonar which puts out a donut or angel-like pattern, looking for moored contacts. One module carries a laser line scan, which creates an image.
Each destroyer is fitted to carry two of the small sonar vehicles.
“Ideally, you can have one sonar outfitted with one module and one with the other,†said Kevin Rose, the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Remote Minehunting System project engineer in Panama City.
Operational evaluation for the minehunter and AQS-20 sonar are scheduled for spring 2005, Rose said. “We hope to get incremental approval of limited rate production of the [vehicle] in the fall.â€
Momsen will conduct tests while it’s in the Gulf of Mexico, and another vehicle will go aboard the ship when it moves to the Pacific for operational evaluation off the Southern California coast.
A version of the RMS with more and different sensors will be part of the minehunting and anti-submarine warfare mission modules aboard the Littoral Combat Ship when it enters service in 2007. Dagnall said enough vehicles will be available for all six destroyers, with more on order for use aboard the littoral combat ships.
Finding room for the 12-ton mine vehicle aboard the tightly packed destroyer was solved when designers changed the layout of the ship’s rigid-hull inflatable boats on the starboard side, ahead of the helicopter hangar. The boats are stacked instead of set next to each other, allowing room for the mine vehicle and its launch and recovery system, which are exposed to the weather but screened from enemy radar by a metal mesh net.
It’s based on a similar design aboard French Navy La Fayette-class frigates, Rose said.
Rearranging junior officer quarters made room for a classified network and storage space for two AQS-20 sonars, Rose said.
The Navy’s mine leaders and the Momsen’s crew will test the mine vehicles and define operating doctrine for their use, Dagnall said.
“Putting the system on a combatant is a good thing for the [surface warfare] community forcing us to become more involved,†Martinez said.
http://www.isrjournal.com/story.php?F=344800