RAPVLA: Tracking Stealth Submarines in Deep Water

Submarines with improving stealth and attack capability – particularly modern diesel attack submarines – are proliferating worldwide. Locating these relatively inexpensive but extremely quiet boats presents a challenge to the US Navy, then Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Mullen warned Congress in 2007 testimony [pdf]. To counter this threat, the Navy is investigating a distributed and netted approach to anti-submarine warfare (ASW). Among the ASW programs the Navy is considering is the Reliable Acoustic Path Vertical Line Array (RAPVLA). The RAPVLA is a deep water, bottom-mounted, high-grain sensor system that can automatically detect, classify, localize, track and report contacts of interest, such as stealth submarines. Lockheed Martin recently received a $7 million order for applied research in support of the RAPVLA program… In recent years, the Navy has researched the utility of deep water acoustic sensing technologies that exploit the deep water reliable acoustic path (RAP) using vertical line arrays (VLAs). The first RAPVLA array was large and deployed over the side of a research vessel. The measured acoustic signals were routed to a central node that served as a data recorder. The Navy is investigating development of RAPVLA systems that are smaller and deployed from tactical naval platforms […]