Defense Focus: ASW dangers -- Part 2

WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy and major American defense contractors aren't blind to the renewed dangers of submarine warfare in the 21st century: They are working on new high-tech systems to defeat the threat both below the waves and above them.

Remote Multi Mission Vehicles operating below the surface of the sea and MH-60R helicopters operating above them are two of the Navy's high-tech, front-line weapons in the fight against the new submarine threat.

In September 2007, Lockheed Martin handed over its second production Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle to the U.S. Navy.

The RMMV is designed to boost mine countermeasure capabilities for DDG 51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers and the Littoral Combat Ship -- LCS, UPI reported at the time. Lockheed Martin said it handed over its first RMMV to the Navy in April 2007.

Lockheed Martin described the RMMV as "a semi-submersible, semi-autonomous, unmanned vehicle that tows a variable-depth sensor to detect, localize, classify and identify undersea threats at a safe distance from friendly ships."

The RMMV functions as a mobile subsystem for the Navy's AN/WLD-1 Remote Minehunting System -- RMS. The RMMV pulls behind it a sonar sensor, advanced communications equipment and software to integrates the RMS into the host warship's combat system.

Lockheed Martin said RMMV sends real-time mine sonar images to its host ship by data link. The U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command has ordered three RMMVs from the company to be manufactured at Lockheed Martin's Riviera Beach, Fla., plant.

"Delivery of the second production unit, just four months after the initial production unit delivery, clearly demonstrates the RMMV production team's commitment to 'mission success' and ability to deliver results," John Bowen, Lockheed Martin's senior program manager of the Remote Minehunting System Program, said in September.

Lockheed Martin is also building new MH-60R helicopters to increase the U.S. Navy's ASW capabilities. The company says new high-tech integrated systems allow a single MH-60R to operate as effectively as two previous-generation Navy ASW copters.

The MH-60R carries an acoustic sonar suite to give greater range for locating submarines, and a multi-mode, long-range search radar to locate and monitor surface vessels. The equipment is designed to be fitted far more quickly to the helicopters.

The U.S. Navy has signed a $955 million contract with Lockheed Martin for the MH-60R, which the company now describes as "the U.S. Navy's most advanced submarine hunting and surface warfare helicopter."

The MH-60R was designed as a successor for the Navy's current force of SH-60B and SH-60F Seahawk helicopters in ASW and anti-surface warfare operations. They also double for use in search and rescue, vertical replenishment, naval surface fire support, logistics support, personnel transport, medical evacuation and communications and data relay, the company said.

The first MH-60R operational squadron has been designated to be the HSM-71 "Raptors,'" which is scheduled to go on operational duty with an aircraft carrier strike group in 2009.

The RMMVs and MH-60Rs represent a traditionally American approach to new threats at sea: When in doubt, advance the technology and come up with a new generation of weapons or ASW systems utilizing state-of-the-art equipment.

But as the British and Canadian navies discovered during World War II fighting the Nazi U-boat threat, new weapons have to be deployed insufficient numbers, and they have to be integrated with lots of old fashioned, relatively low-tech warships and systems as well, to prove effective against submarine threats.

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Next: New lessons from Britain's Royal Navy