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Littoral Warfare facility near completion
(News Herald, The (Panama City, FL) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 23--NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITYPANAMA -- CITY
Stephen Castelin stepped inside the cavernous ground-floor room where a handful of contractors were busily installing electrical cables along one wall. He pointed to a pair of oversized garage-type doors on opposite sides of the space.
"This is the multi-bay integration lab," the Navy project engineer explained, pointing to an overhead crane 27 feet above the ground. "If you have large unmanned vehicles or ISO containers, you can bring them directly inside to work on them."
From the outside, the threestory brick and concrete structure nearing completion next to the Navy base's heliport resembles an ordinary office building.
But inside, its unique mission becomes clear: Here, the Navy plans to mount a revolution in sea warfare.
The Navy is gearing up a new fleet of Littoral Combat Ships and DD(X) destroyers designed to operate and fight in the shallowwater areas of the world. And the service's research and development community is mounting an unprecedented effort to integrate unmanned vehicles on the new warships for surveillance, communications and combat, said Gary KeKelis, Ph.D., director for Littoral Warfare, Science and Technology at NSWC.
"Our goal is, let's be 'platform independent,'" KeKelis said.
Under construction for the past year, the $10 million Littoral Warfare Research Facility will allow scientists and engineers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center to consolidate research and development efforts. It is a mission with the highest priority in the Navy as the sea service reinvents itself to deal with the new era of warfare and terrorism.
The spacious facility has been designed to support ongoing research and development of a wide array of unmanned aerial vehicles, submersibles, surface craft and ground vehicles, said Delbert "Ace" Summey, Ph.D., acting product area director for Littoral Warfare Systems.
"There's not another facility like this to my knowledge," Summey said. "This facility will allow us to see how we will equip and test unmanned systems."
The building will replace a number of older, obsolete structures at the base, many of which will be demolished, officials said. It will accommodate eight to 10 major R&D projects at one time.
The building includes a cluster of large laboratory rooms on the ground floor, smaller lab spaces for internal components on the second floor, and a third-floor administrative area with offices, conference rooms and an operations center. Outside, what appears to be a small swimming pool is actually a test pool where submersible devices can be tested.
The facility will be dedicated to designing and refining unmanned warfare systems, with an emphasis on mine warfare, Summey said. Undersea unmanned vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles are handled by other Naval Sea Systems Command labs in California and Virginia.
The surface warfare center has developed an operational Remote Minehunting System for the Burke-class destroyer that uses a combination of a towed vehicle and tethered unmanned submersible to search for mines. Another Naval Sea Systems Com- mand office last week conducted a key test of the new Fire Scout unmanned rotary-wing vehicle, which was able to make multiple automatic landings on a ship that's under way, officials said.
Both the Army and Navy are developing the robotic helicopter to carry out reconnaissance and precision-targeting support.
Summey said one key role for the new facility would be to help the Navy identify the most promising designs in unmanned vehicles being developed by the military, private industry and universities.
There are currently 90 different types of unmanned aerial vehicles and about 40 unmanned underwater vehicle designs to choose from, he said.
One priority the research center will have is to develop common communications links, computer programs and other support "architecture" for a wide variety of unmanned systems.
"We don't envision a few unmanned systems," Summey explained. "We envision hundreds of unmanned systems helping the admiral or general get their jobs done."
Scientists also are striving to improve the quality of information these remotely operated vehicles will deliver.
"We don't want them to send back data," KeKelis said. "We want them to send back knowledge."
The facility is scheduled to open in late March or early April.
During a tour of the unfinished building, Castelin said officials pressed to put the research center as close to the water as possible.
"We spend a lot of money testing things," Castelin said. "And a lot of the testing money we spend is for transporting things from the lab to the water."
Walking through to the open doorway at the rear of the lab, Castelin gestured toward an unfinished cargo dock and boat ramp on the St. Andrew Bay waterfront just 20 feet away.
"We're right here on the dock," he said. "We can load (the unmanned vehicles) on ships or put them directly in the water."
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