DSTO MEL

DSTO has invested heavily in its ability to support a networked future Navy.
The Defence Science & Technology Organisation (DSTO) has opened two new maritime research facilities at its Edinburgh facility near Adelaide. The Maritime Experimentation Laboratory (MEL) and Torpedo Systems Centre (TSC) will significantly enhance DSTO's ability to conduct research into naval warfighting concepts using virtual environments.

The two purpose-built laboratories cost more than $2.5 million and will support a range of ongoing maritime research programs. They were officially opened by the Chief of Navy, Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie.

Dr Nanda Nandagopal, Director of DSTO's Systems Sciences Laboratory, said the MEL has been built to host a range of Network Centric Warfare experiments in a 'virtual warfare environment'.

"The new facilities in the MEL include a control room where virtual maritime experiments take place across a variety of networked computers, along with an observation area where scientists can observe and comment on experiments and participants without interfering," he said.

"Work will focus on maritime tactical experimentation, including simulating combat situations and complex fleet battle experiments with human interaction."

Dr Nandagopal said experienced Navy personnel would work closely with DSTO researchers to take part in these experiments, which will help define future requirements for a variety of maritime combat capabilities.

The MEL supports the work of three groups within DSTO's Maritime Operations Division: Submarine Combat Systems Group, located at HMAS Stirling, WA; Surface Combatant Combat Systems Group, located at Edinburgh; and Maritime Tactical Experimentation group, also located at Edinburgh, which "owns" the MEL.

The new Laboratory embraces DSTO's existing Virtual Submarine, Frigate and Minehunter and will be the principal mechanism for developing and undertaking experiments and trials. In particular it will help support the Submarine Group's work on development of the Collins-class submarines' Replacement Combat System (RCS) and the Surface Combatant Group's growing workload in support of the Anzac frigate ASMD, the new Air Warfare Destroyer program and the combat system elements of the RAN's new amphibious landing ships.

The MEL is equipped with a range of real and COTS-based ship and submarine combat system consoles running either real-world software, in the case of the Anzac frigate and Huon-class minehunter consoles, or software emulations in the case of the Collins-class submarine; and, of course, consoles representing indicative levels of functionality for the AWD and LHD.

The main focus of the MEL is on command and control system concept exploration, with particular emphasis on tactics, techniques and procedures in order to identify operational requirements and then maximise the potential of the equipment being ordered. The requirement is to help identify optimum combat system configurations and optimised crewing levels consistent with the principal tasks these platforms will have to undertake.

The MEL will become a key mechanism for DSTO's future involvement in the RAN's Headmark experimentation process and the US Navy's Fleet Battle Experiments; the Virtual Frigate and Virtual Submarine both participated in FBE's Juliet and Kilo in 2002 and 2003 as well as in those years' Headmark experiments. In future the MEL will probably be the gateway through which specific simulation assets such as the Virtual Frigate participate in Australian and international experiments and exercises.

DSTO also plans in due course to link the MEL to Air Operations Division's family of simulators to enable real-time distributed simulations of complex task group operations involving ships, submarines, strike aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft and UAVs.

However, in the shorter term the MEL will also carry out some software and integration evaluation and risk reduction activities for the combat system element of the Anzac ASMD program, according to DSTO sources.

The AWD program is starting to ramp up and DSTO now has up to two dozen engineers and scientists from six separate divisions working on this program alone at any one time, studying combat system, weapons, propulsion, platform design issues and other aspects of the AWD.

The Torpedo Systems Centre (TSC) will expand DSTO's scientific support to the development of the Mk48 Mod7 ADCAP (Advanced Capability) heavyweight torpedo being developed jointly by the US and Australia for their respective submarine fleets. The torpedo will enter RAN service from 2007

The Mk48 Mod7 program is the first US weapon development program in which Australia has played a significant role - indeed it is believed to be the first US weapons program to involve intimately any of America's allies. The relationship is analogous to the Australia-US Nulka decoy project, but the partners are more closely integrated.

ADM understands that Australia's close access to the Mod7 project and its technology is in large part due to the fact the project is run on a government-to-government basis with little or no local industry involvement.

In an eight-year program DSTO will work with the US Naval Undersea Weapons Centre (NUWC) in Rhode Island on the development of tracking, detection and classification algorithms for the torpedo's new CBASS (Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System) guidance system. DSTO's particular strengths here are its world-leading expertise in warm and shallow water sonar technology.

DSTO will take delivery next year of a US Navy Torpedo Analysis Facility (TAF) which will enable the TSC to evaluate guidance system software in a highly realistic virtual environment. DSTO will also contribute to the enhancement of the TAF by developing new and enhanced environmental, target and counter-measures models.

As part of the program the US Navy will conduct Mk48 Mod 6 test firings off Australia's NW Shelf next year using an Australian range system with support from the RAN and DSTO.

The TSC will also support trials and evaluation of the ADF's new lightweight torpedo, the Eurotorp MU90 which is due to enter service from next year, as well as the Thales Sea defender torpedo counter-measures suite being developed for the Navy's upgraded FFG-7s. It will also contribute on an ongoing basis to the development of enhanced torpedo countermeasures for the Collins-class submarines as well as detection and tracking algorithms for its fire control system and, in the longer term, acoustic counter-measures for RAN surface combatants.

The development of the new laboratories means the Collins-class submarines will get a new combat system and torpedo which are carefully matched to each other, DSTO sources said, and will help ensure that the RAN's upgraded frigates and new Air Warfare Destroyers interact with each other more efficiently to establish a networked naval force in the coming decades.

By Gregor Ferguson, Adelaide