US Navy completes two ASW mission package testing milestones

An MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter conducts underway landing operations with USS Coronado. Credit: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jacob I Allison / Released.

The US Navy’s Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) has said that the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission package system has successfully completed two testing milestones.

A ten-day Dockside-1 test event was the first milestone to be completed. It was carried out on the Dual-mode Array Transmitter (DART) Mission System Towed Body and associated launch-and-recovery assembly components in Fort Pierce, Florida, US.

The second was a full-power, in-water active array test at the US Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center Seneca Lake Detachment’s test facility in Dresden, New York.

Littoral Combat Ship Mission Module programme manager captain Ted Zobel said: “The Seneca Lake test was a huge step forward for the DART System and the ASW mission package as a whole.

“This revolutionary technology is critical to countering the rising submarine threats worldwide.”

DART development includes incremental testing of the individual system components, which is followed by more inclusive integration and testing until the full ASW mission package is tested.

Expected to be carried out this autumn, Dockside-2 testing will enable the DART system to integrate three additional Raytheon-built mission modules that would help complete the mission system.

Delivery of the DART mission system to the US Navy is expected to be carried out by Raytheon later this year. The navy then intends to perform additional testing early next year at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center.

The active array test conducted on Seneca Lake demonstrated the technology’s performance capability in an open-water test environment when deployed on a littoral combat ship.

Successful completion of the test provided US Navy officials and industry partners with important information on the performance specifications and options for future upgrades.

The array was previously tested at Raytheon’s shallow-water facilities in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.