Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV) Technology to Enable Readiness of Navy Ranges

The Navy must train and test to assure readiness and maintain undersea dominance. This requires the Navy to comply with federal laws protecting endangered marine mammals (MM) and thus obtain environmental permits and compliance measures (e.g. MM monitoring) to enable readiness on Navy ranges. New and enabling ocean acoustic technologies for large scale spatial and temporal monitoring of MM are needed. Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) methods now exist for detecting MM vocalizations. The primary goal of this project is to develop a cost-effective autonomous UUV-based PAM system with long term endurance and a capable acoustic surveillance system for monitoring MM over large geographic areas. The autonomous system will detect the presence of specific marine mammals, classify the type and provide the location. Detection-classification messages will be exfiltrated via satellite communications to command and control stations. The Phase I effort will conduct a detailed feasibility study, trading off UUV platforms, acoustic sensor type performance, real-time autonomous processing, (all complying with extensive “Minimum specifications” list in the Solicitation), and the resulting optimal cost-effective system for the Phase II prototype will be developed. A build-test-build approach of the prototype will be implemented in Phase II and proof-of-concept testing will occur demonstrating all capabilities.