The fundamental
building block of our network is a central hub responsible for detecting,
tracking, and classifying contacts of interest, and forwarding critical
target data. Our workhorse is the
large UUV called Sea Predator, this is an autonomous version of the Seal
Delivery Vehicle which was presented in a Postgraduate School Mennekin
Lecture in July by David DeMartino from NAVSEA in Panama City. NAVSEA mechanical engineer Steven Albertson
provided the TSSE team with Sea Predator 3D CAD files to which we were able
to add our own features. |
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Our Sea Predator
carries a heavy external payload, this sled is essentially a motherboard for
our fixed network. It includes a built
in acoustic modem, deployable communications buoy, docking transducers, and hydrophones. |
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Two 21” diameter shapes fixed to the sled serve
as box launchers for man-portable deployment vehicles and their respective
spools of data transmission cable. |
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The Sea Predator
carries an internal payload of six LWV’s, 4 of these provide the hub with
power while the other 2 handle sensor processing and communications
functions. |
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