Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2022 - 43

Tech Briefs
Investigation of Requirements and Capabilities of NextGeneration
Mine Warfare Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) tools, including functional flow block diagrams and
functional hierarchies, are used to logically define mine countermeasure (MCM) UUV operations
and support the development of alternative concepts of operations.
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterrey, California
T
he current fleet of United States
Navy (USN) Mine Countermeasures
(MCM) ships, the Avenger class, is
reaching the end of its planned service
life. To fill the capability gaps left by
removing these ships from the fleet,
and to take advantage of technological
advances in environmental sensing
and unmanned underwater vehicles
(UUVs), the Navy will be acquiring
new systems to perform the MCM mission.
The Department of Defense
(DOD) acquisition process aims to fill
capability gaps with materiel solutions
through development of new or
improved systems or the purchase of
existing systems. Beginning the acquisition
process with ample knowledge of
potential materiel solutions and their
expected performance improves the
likelihood of program success.
This research examines the current
state of UUV technology and technological
capabilities anticipated to be
available within the next 10 years. It
identifies the impact to system performance
based on changes to system
characteristics that drive the operational
performance and provides recommendations
to MCM decision makers
about system attributes that will result
in capability improvements for UUVs in
support of the MCM mission.
This capstone project utilized a tailored
system engineering trade-off analysis
process, resulting in a framework
that connects current and near-term
MCM mission requirements with the
anticipated performance of a set of proposed
system architectures. The characteristics
identified for detailed assessment
were communications during the
mission and data processing location.
Three possible communication states
were identified, which are no communication
(NC) with the command ship,
intermittent communications (IC) with
Communications Cadence
No Communication (NC)
Off-board
UUV
On-board
UUV
Alternative 1. PostMission
Analysis [Status Quo]
Alternative 4. RTA with
Physical Transfer of MILECs
Table 1. Proposed System Alternatives.
Locomotion
Launch Time
Endurance
Speed
Track Buffer
Surface Time
Dive Time
Recovery Time
Replenish Time
Data Processing
RTA Rate
Off board Raw Sensor
Analysis Rate
Sub-Surface Data
Transfer Rate
MILCO Analysis Rate
Manual Download Rate
MILCO Data Buffer
Table 2. System Design Parameters Investigated.
the command ship, and constant communication
(CC) with the command
ship. It was decided that data processing
could only occur either off-board the
UUV via post mission analysis (PMA) or
on board the UUV via Real Time Analysis
(RTA). Completing the problem,
space exploration and identifying key
characteristics enabled the team to
develop candidate system architectures.
Six alternative functional architectures
were developed and detailed using
model-based systems engineering
(MBSE) tools, summarized in Table 1.
To understand and demonstrate the
benefits offered by adding communication
or onboard processing to the MCM
UUV, the analysis process began by
modeling each alternative in the discrete
event simulation software, ExtendSim,
using a set of 18 initial design
Aerospace & Defense Technology, September 2022
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parameter inputs that represent a feasible
level of performance based on existing
technology within the USN portfolio.
Next, a design of experiments (DOE)
analysis was performed to analyze the
impact of individual design parameters
across the system architectures. Table 2
shows the design characteristics investigated
during the design of experiments
portion of the analysis.
This work was done by Miguel Camacho,
David Galindo, Daniel Herrington,
Thomas Johnson, Ali Olinger, James
Sovel, William Stith, Jeffrey Wade, and
Peter Walker for the Naval Postgraduate
School. For more information,
download the Technical Support Package
(free white paper) at mobilityengineeringtech.com/tsp
under the Data
Acquisition category. NPS-0024
43
Maximum Scan Speed
Data Collection Rate
Communication
Surface Data
Transfer Rate
Data Collection
Sensor Range
Intermittent
Communication (IC)
Alternative 2. IC with Offboard
Data Analysis
Alternative 5. RTA
with IC of MILECs
Constant
Communication (CC)
Alternative 3. CC with
Off-board Data Analysis
Alternative 6. RTA
with CC of MILECs
Data Processing
Location

http://mobilityengineeringtech.com/tsp http://www.mobilityengineeringtech.com

Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2022

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