Undersea Warfare

The NPS USW academic program is administered by the Undersea Warfare (USW) Academic Committee, composed of faculty from numerous supporting academic departments. Professors, students and research staff are both U.S. and international.  The curriculum educates Naval officers and laboratory researchers in the engineering fundamentals, physical principles and analytical concepts that govern operational employment of undersea warfare sensors and weapons systems.

Topics

The USW program is interdisciplinary and integrates many subjects: acoustics, electrical engineering, mathematics, meteorology, oceanography, physics, operations analysis, human factors, computer science, and robotics. Our naval focus includes Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Mine Warfare (MIW). A high point for each degree is authoring a Master's Thesis on relevant, cutting-edge research topics.

Degrees Offered

USW students earn accredited master's degrees in any one of the following disciplines:

• Engineering Acoustics with emphasis on shallow-water acoustics, impact of littoral variability on sonar performance, acoustic communications and underwater weapons,
• Physical Oceanography with emphasis on the prediction of the littoral battlespace environment, ocean acoustics and environmental effects on sonar performance,
• Electrical Engineering with emphasis on signal processing,
• Operations Research with emphasis on tactical applications and decision analysis,
• Mechanical Engineering with emphasis on Unmanned Systems, or
• Applied Science specializing in technical focus areas such as Mine Warfare.

Who Can Enroll

NPS USW masters students include active-duty and reserve military officers, civil-service laboratory engineers, international military officers, and Navy ensigns in the Immediate Graduation Educational Program (IGEP).

Publications

• USW curriculum brochure (ppt).
• Overview by Barb Honegger from the Undersea Warfare magazine, Summer 2005, pp. 16-19, "NPS Pushes USW Envelope"  (pdf)

Additional Offerings

We offer a 4-course distance-learning certificate program for the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Certificate (pdf). Questions are welcome, please send inquiries to Asw-Certificate.