Sea Power: Sea 1429 - Heavyweight Torpedo continues testing | ADM April 2012
Nigel Pittaway | Melbourne
Observed by both RAN and US Navy project personnel, the firings are part of the operational test and evaluation process of the operational software build, known as Advanced Processor Build (APB) 4. The trials count towards US service release of the weapon and if as successful as expected, clear the way for Chief of Navy VADM Ray Griggs to approve operational release to the Australian fleet in early 2013. Project Sea 1429 Phase 2, or Pammandi, is a joint development program with the US Navy. It is acquiring the new torpedoes for the Collins submarines and is being carried out in parallel with Sea 1439, the Collins Combat System Upgrade. The project is an Armaments Co-operative Project (ACP) rather than an FMS acquisition.
To give the new weapon it’s full, if acronym heavy, name, it is the Mark 48 Mod.7 Advanced Capability (ADCAP) Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System (CBASS) Heavyweight Torpedo. A digital weapon, it is replacing the analogue Mk.48 Mod.4 in RAN service and is an improvement on the US Navy’s digital Mk.48 Mod.6 baseline weapon.
As a digital weapon, CBASS is software driven and therefore designed to be upgraded over time as a result of software development. It also has hardware improvements to its propulsion system to make it harder to detect when it is running in the water. From a USN perspective, it will improve the weapons ability in shallow water environments against multiple complex countermeasures over the Mod.6 baseline.
Operational testing
The recent round of trials were monitored by the RAN Test and Evaluation Analysis Authority and the US Navy’s Commander, Operational Test and Evaluation Force and took place over a two-day period. The APB.4 software under test includes some algorithms developed by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) and is an example of Australia’s contribution to the joint program, over and above funding.
“The trial was conducted against some pretty advanced US countermeasures, off one of the Collins boats,” said Walt Daly, Sea 1429 project manager. “We are testing real-world scenarios, such as a diesel submarine employing advanced countermeasures in a littoral environment.
“Testing CBASS against a Collins boat as opposed to a US nuclear submarine is a high-fidelity operational test – something the US cannot do alone. Australia uniquely brings our diesel submarine experience in a littoral environment to the partnership,” he said.
“There are quite a large number of these firings to undertake in the joint program and Australia is contributing its fair share.”
The firings also count towards US acceptance, hence the bipartisan scrutiny of the trial. Testing is also being conducted in the US. Physical testing should be completed in the September timeframe and will be followed by the lengthy process of data analysis and report writing. The APB.4 version is the final software upgrade covered by Sea 1429 Phase 2 and replaces the first version (APB.1) which was operationally released by the Chief of Navy during 2008.
With the planned operational release of APB 4 to the fleet early in 2013, Sea 1429 Phase 2 will essentially draw to a close. The only outstanding item will be the successful trials of HMAS Collins in 2015, once she comes out of her full cycle docking program that year. Platform modifications for Sea 1429 are being carried out as each Collins submarine undergoes its maintenance cycle and HMAS Collins will be the last and project closure will occur during 2016.
“We’re standing up the Undersea Weapons Continuous Improvement Program, so we will basically transition from acquisition to sustainment next year,” explains Daly. “We’ll keep Phase 2 open in the background to fund those platform modifications at ASC.”
Australia has a Memorandum of Understanding with the US Navy until 2019, which will include support and sustainment of the software as well as hardware maintenance.
The last of the torpedoes funded by Sea 1429 Phase 2 were delivered to Australia in January, the maintenance of which is overseen by the Guided Weapons System Program Office –West at the Torpedo Maintenance Facility at HMAS Stirling, in Western Australia.
The facility has been upgraded to undertake intermediate maintenance and Progressive Depot Level Maintenance activities for CBASS.
“All the upgrade effort is complete and the support infrastructure is in place and it formally transitioned to the Guided Weapons SPO in December 2009, so they’re up and running,” said Daly.
Project history
Sea 1429 is a two-phase program which began over a decade ago, with the aim of delivering a specified number of weapons and integration of the system into the Collins submarine. Phase 1A was a Request for Proposals to industry for heavyweight torpedo options, which ultimately produced a shortlist of three competitors in November 1999.
The US Navy offering was the Mk.48 Mod. 6 ADCAP torpedo, which later became the Mk.48 Mod. 7 ADCAP CBASS. STN Atlas offered their new generation DM2A4 weapon, a successor to the DM2A3, and Whitehead Alenia Sistemi (WASS) proposed the Black Shark, an evolution of the A184 Mod.3 torpedo.
Phase 1B of the project began focussing on the analysis of the three weapons, culminating in the release of a Source Solicitation Document to the manufacturers in October 2000. The Project Office was still soliciting technical and cost data when the tendering process was terminated by then Defence Minister Peter Reith in July 2001.
The reasons detailed in Minister Reith’s press release cited closer ties with the US Navy: “The Government has decided that a comprehensive arrangement with the US Navy on submarine issues is in Australia’s best strategic interests and has therefore decided that the selection of the combat system for the Collins Class submarines cannot proceed at this time,” it said.
“Recent developments in the relationship between Australia and the US on submarine issues, together with the accumulated experience and emerging understanding of the operational potential of the Collins Class submarines, have made this decision most appropriate in our strategic circumstances.”
The announcement also terminated the Heavyweight Torpedo tender process and heralded a new co-operation agreement between the Australian and US Navies.
“The benefits of this decision include greater access to US Navy tactical information, resupply in time of need and
the provision of torpedo firing exercises with US submarines. The Government is committed to achieving the best possible long term military capability for Australia’s six submarines,” concluded the Minister’s release.
On March 31st 2003 the RAN signed the MoU with the US to participate in the Mod.7 program, which integrates Northrop Grumman’s Common Broadband Advanced Sonar System (CBASS) with the Raytheon's Mk.48 ADCAP.
Sea 1429 Phase 2 oversees the acquisition of the CBASS and the integration into the Collins weapons system. It is also responsible for delivering the necessary logistic support infrastructure. CBASS Developmental and Operational Testing (DT/OT) was first successfully conducted in Australian waters during late 2005 and follow-on firings were conducted in US waters the following March. HMAS Waller was the first vessel to receive the modifications for CBASS and fired the first warshot CBASS during Exercise RIMPAC 2008, sinking the retired US destroyer
USS Fletcher at Barking Sands off the coast of Hawaii.
In November 2009 the original MoU with the US was renewed and is set to remain in effect until 2019. The Chief of Navy approved both the Sea 1429 modifications and the Replacement Combat System, delivered under Sea 1439, to Waller and the operational support facilities, and granted Operational Release in March 2010.
Following Waller’s modification, HMA Ships Farncomb and Dechaineux have been completed as they have undergone their maintenance cycles. HMA Ships Sheean and Rankin are currently undergoing their full cycle docking programs and, as noted, Collins is due to complete the program in 2015/16.
Future developments
As a software-driven weapons system CBASS will continue to be upgraded into the foreseeable future.
“The weapon is an autonomous weapons system, so software upgrades can be made independently of the submarine platform,” said Daly. “One of the advantages (and obligations) of the Armaments Co-operative Project is that we are in at ground level. We are not buying something after the fact and we are contributing to its development as well as the testing and acceptance. That means the RAN has an input, an influence into the development of the weapon and the priorities for development into the future. It also means we have an obligation to contribute to the test program.
“There is no intention to develop a Phase 3 of Sea 1429 at this point. The Undersea Weapons Continuous Improvement Program will pick up the ongoing software and hardware changes. The ongoing relationship with the US ACP will be managed out to 2019 and then beyond, pending further decisions on Navy requirements and the necessary Government approvals.
“We’ll continue the support arrangements under the MoU until 2019 and we will deliver APB or spiral developments of the software under the sustainment model,” he concluded.