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Innovative Product R&D
Modular Launchers
Building on work initiated in 1996, SEA CORP has explored the use of commercial automotive airbag inflators as a source of energy for launching special purpose payloads in air and water. The inflators have many advantages as a source of propulsion energy; they are inexpensive, environmentally friendly, non-explosive, 100% reliable and have a shelf-life of more than twenty years.
The earliest stages of SEA CORP’s research and development were designed to prove that the inflators, originally designed to inflate a zero-mass balloon (the airbag), could effectively propel a projectile from a launch tube at desired acceleration and velocities. This was first proven in a series of three test launches of a six-inch diameter projectile in March 1996. This demonstration successfully completed Phase I of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Project.
With the unqualified success of Phase I, the Company was awarded a Phase II contract to scale-up the results to launch torpedoes weighing as much as 760 pounds and to demonstrate that the launches could be controlled to provide specified and selectable acceleration and velocity. Models were developed to simulate and analyze various combinations of inflators, timing and payloads. Eight test launches in 1997 and 1998 used actual surface vessel torpedo tubes and various types of dummy and exercise torpedoes, in some cases also using actual shipboard fire-control systems. These tests were also fully successful and validated the concept for use aboard Navy ships.
Based on the success of the Phase II Project, the Navy awarded a Phase III development contract to SEA CORP in 2000 to fully explore the feasibility of installing the improved launchers (in several versions) on surface combatants. An additional ten launches were conducted in 2002 to further refine launch parameters and to test specific components for actual shipboard systems. This program continued with additional funding provided in FY 2003 to complete engineering development and qualify the torpedo launcher for service use.
Excellent progress continues to be made on this project. During the spring of 2004 SEA CORP installed and tested the Advanced Surface Launcher (ASL) aboard the Martha’s Vineyard High Speed Ferry “MILLENNIUM”. This test was an unqualified success conducting 31 launches of torpedo and countermeasure shapes over a five day period, at speeds up to 35 knots. Late in 2004 and into early 2005 SEA CORP designed and built the mounting system and tested the launcher on board an 11 meter Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB). This test was also highly successful with nine torpedo shape and three countermeasure shape launches conducted.
In 2001, SEA CORP performed an Internal Research and Development (IRAD) project to explore the use of inflators as a means for launching smaller shipboard countermeasures and decoys. This project, the Surface Combatant Auxiliary Launcher (SCAL), funded and executed entirely by SEA CORP, designed, built and test-fired a nominal four inch diameter launcher to approximate the launch characteristics of future anti-torpedo decoy programs. The SCAL project is especially pertinent because of the similarity of the projectile to a sonobuoy. Fifteen successful launches were conducted, again with no failures. In 2002, SEA CORP was awarded U.S. Patent 6,418,870 for an improved “Torpedo Launch Mechanism and Method.”
 Work continues on other potential applications for this technology. In 2003, SEA CORP was awarded another separate, but related SBIR contract to develop a launcher system for helicopters. Dubbed the “AGILE Sonobuoy Launcher,” this new system will improve the U.S. Navy’s ability to launch special sensors from its helicopters throughout the world’s oceans to find submarines and conduct oceanographic research and analysis.
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Portable Weapons Launch System
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Modern torpedoes are complex machines that normally require a sophisticated fire control system aboard the firing submarine to program various data inputs required before launch of the torpedo itself. Traditionally, the ship's fire control system and the torpedo must be designed at the outset to be compatible. Developed for the U.S. Navy by SEA CORP, the Portable Weapons Launch System (PWLS) is a complete and compact "carry-on" fire control system. Taken aboard any submarine, the PWLS allows that submarine to fire torpedoes not necessarily compatible with its installed combat system. Built of low cost "Commercial-Off-the-Shelf" components, the PWLS is currently configured for the Navy's Mk 48 torpedoes, but may be adapted to a wide variety of munitions and ship types.
In Phase I of the PWLS Project, SEA CORP demonstrated the feasibility of creating a low-cost, man-transportable, COTS-based system. In Phase II, the company applied the knowledge gained in Phase I to build and test an engineering development model. Midway through Phase II, at the Government’s request, SEA CORP redirected its focus from the MK 48 torpedo to the Improved Submarine-Launched Mobile Mine (ISLMM). The prototype, as completed and successfully tested in May 1999, validated the PWLS concept and convincingly demonstrated its ability to provide all required launch data to the ISLMM. SEA CORP convincingly demonstrated the capability to design and build a small, software-based system capable of providing complex presets to a payload (torpedo or mine) and, through closed-loop feedback, have those presets displayed and verified at a location remote from the payload. The experience gained in the PWLS program is readily transferable to other launchers and other payloads. SEA CORP has demonstrated the ability to design, build, program and operate a small-sized software-based system capable of discriminating among sources and payloads, presetting complex controls and receiving feedback from the launcher. PWLS, completed under a SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) contract, is another example of SEA CORP's commitment to advanced concepts to meet today's operational challenges.
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Test & Evaluation Analytical Tools
The test and evaluation of weapon and aircraft control systems is vital to their success. Current weapon and aircraft control systems are software intensive and contain many complex interfaces. Testing these systems requires specialized equipment and personnel trained to operate the test equipment and analyze the data. The complexities of these systems make test and evaluation processes costly and prone to error. There are few automated systems and those that do exist still rely on the interpretation of data by system experts.
Over the past several years, SEA CORP has been developing a number of tools to aid in the test and evaluation process of complex systems. In general, these tools automate the identification of system requirements and the development and execution of test cases.
They use computer-based “intelligent agents” to analyze test data and provide intelligent observations and recommendations. BLACKHAWK, SEAHAWK and IT-DAT are three such developmental testing tools.
- BLACKHAWK
BLACKHAWK is designed to provide an inexpensive, modular, COTS-based tool for the collection and analysis of submarine Tomahawk missile data. BLACKHAWK can be seamlessly integrated into any of the submarine programs that include a Tomahawk Missile capability. It provides a real time method to validate the data being transferred between the submarine electronics and the Tomahawk missiles.
- SEAHAWK
Building on the original BLACKHAWK design, SEA CORP developed an improved tool, “SEAHAWK” to integrate real-time navigation data into the Tomahawk testing process and to accommodate various simulation equipment.
- IT-DAT (Intelligent Test Data Analysis Technology)
Based on research done in its SEAHAWK and BLACK HAWK Independent Research and Development (IRAD), SEA CORP recently won an SBIR contract to improve fidelity in the testing of complex systems. Aimed at major developmental programs, such as the Joint Strike Fighter, IT-DAT will use artificial intelligence to collect test data in several formats from various subsystems, compare and aggregate the various elements then interpret the data at a systems-level and generate results and recommendations.
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Hardware
- Konfigurable Interface Tester (KIT)
For the testing of complex electronic systems (for example the various weapons and their internal guidance and control systems with interfaces to the combat control equipment and sensors installed in a modern nuclear submarine) it is often necessary to connect a myriad of external cables to test equipment. Normally, this is done through the use of a custom-built switching system consisting of special adapters and switches to plug in and turn off and on cables and wires from the various components. This so-called “breakout box,” while functionally adequate, is normally unique to the equipment of a single ship of aircraft. SEA CORP developed a prototype Konfigurable Interface Tester (KIT) which has multiple connectors and a configurable output switching system. This allows the adaptation of the unit to various equipments and system configurations, making possible a “universal” approach, a cost-effective alternative to a single-purpose breakout box which must be custom-built for each test application.
- TARC/VME Interface
Building on its years of support for Navy towed array sonar systems, SEA CORP has developed a Towed Array Receiver Coupler interface, known as the TARC/VME Interface board. This interface board is a VME bus-based data acquisition card for high speed access to acoustic and non-acoustic data. SEA CORP's TARC/VME interface board is currently the only method for transferring acoustic data for display purposes, and ultimately for lab analysis, and is currently being marketed to all Naval labs where acoustic data must be captured and displayed.
- TB29 Record Playback Interface
In another towed array development for Navy submarines, SEA CORP built the TB29Record/Playback Interface which is designed for real time recording and playback of acoustic and non-acoustic data from the newest generation of towed array sonar receivers (known as the TB29). This is the only unit that allows signal recording and playback from the towed arrays. These signals are then available for playback at any time, facilitating analysis and categorization.
- High Speed Differential Bus Interface Board
This interface board, designed and developed by SEA CORP, provides access to operational submarines' combat control systems information in a manner previously impossible. This board interfaces with the submarine's Sonar high speed differential bus data ports and captures the data in blocks for transfer to the standard VME bus. Thus data, that previously could not be stored, is captured and saved for later analysis.
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