Modular Expendable Electronic Warfare (EW) Decoy Buoy for Undersea Platforms

Vadum will develop a low-cost, modular decoy buoy (LMDB) that will provide protection to submarines operating at periscope depth by performing Advanced Electronic Attack (AEA) to degrade and deceive advanced enemy radars. As an expendable asset designed for launch from a submarine 3-inch signal ejector, the LMDB will be subject to very challenging Size, Weight, Power, and Cost (SWAP-C) constraints. Vadum will employ its advanced Electronic Warfare (EW) modeling and simulation tools to establish performance criteria for LMDB based on AEA effectiveness. The performance criteria will be used to derive system and subsystem requirements for LMDB. Analyses will be performed for each major system function: power conditioning, technique generation, and RF transmit and receive to further refine performance requirements. Vadum will survey Commercial and Government Off-the-Shelf (COTS and GOTS) components and identify candidate options that conform to the SWAP-C constraints. Selected components will be evaluated against the derive requirements and competing design options will be assessed through system level simulation of the LMDB in a representative, maritime environment using in-house 6-DoF EW engagement modeling tools. The cost vs. value analysis performed in Phase I will result in an innovative concept design and architecture for LMDB that satisfies the AEA mission