A team from Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) has developed and installed a Yagi Passive Antenna System on the attack submarine USS San Francisco (SSN 711).
The system will make sure communication lines are always open aboard the submarine with the help of a strong radio frequency signal.
During emergency situations, communication plays a key role to relay the information between the pier or drydock and the responders.
Installation of the system follows the new fire safety requirement coming into effect, which needed the submarine to use a specific radio type in the situational response deployment.
The NNSY team worked to develop a solution that would meet the requirements of the San Francisco Project.
After the designs were finalised, the antenna was fabricated by the Electronics Shop (Code 950, Shop 67).
Electrical Engineering Division (Code 275) electrical engineering technician Aaron Taylor said: “The Yagi Passive Antenna System is a receiver and transmitter used to extend a radio frequency signal.
“The purpose of it is to boost the signal of Enterprise Land Mobile Radios (ELMR) used by first responders during an incident inside a submarine.
“Before we utilised this new system, the fire department had to deploy their own antenna system from their first responder vehicles down the hatch of the ships during an emergency to be able to communicate from inside the ship to the pier.
“This system, now installed on the San Francisco Project, will take care of that communication step, which could sometimes be forgotten in an emergency. It will ensure clear communication remains a priority throughout the vessel.”
In May, Isotropic Systems secured an antenna evaluation and development contract with the US Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to test the ability of its multi-beam antennas for naval communications.
