Ford Class Carrier, Electric Armor and Anti-Torpedo Torpedoes!

[jonathan]

CHAPTER ONE
Introduction

The U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are arguably
the most powerful warships in any country’s naval forces.
But the Nimitz-class design is more than 35 years old.
Its electrical power-generation capability is insufficient
to support such improvements as the Electromagnetic Aircraft
Launch System (EMALS), self-defense directed energy systems,
or energy-dissipating armor, all now in development.

http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2006/RAND_MG289.pdf


Electromagnetic Armor
by James Dunnigan
August 28, 2007


For several years, up until 2003, the U.S. Navy mentioned
electromagnetic armor, or DAPS (Dynamic Armor Protection
System) being developed for the planned CVN-21 class of
carriers. The basic technology behind DAPS was not complex.
Areas above the waterline would have two layers of thin
armor, separated by a small air space. The two layers of
armor would be electrified, and when the armor was hit by
a shaped charge (favored for cruise missile warheads) the
jet of superhot plasma, formed by the shaped charge
warhead going off, would be broken up by the electromagnetic
field formed when the two layers of armor were forced together.
The big problem with DAPS was the huge amount of electricity
required when the system was turned on. However, in the next
decade or so, warship power plants are expected catch up
with the needs of DAPS systems.

http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles2007/200782802148.asp


Raise the Shields! CVN-21

The USN has seldom been very forthcoming about the protection
of its carriers but it is generally considered that - being
large, distinctive and valuable targets - they carry
substantially more protection than other ships. Protective
measures, including DAPS, are almost certainly concentrated
around the most critical and vulnerable areas of the ship -
magazines, reactors and the combat information centre (CIC) -
rather than being applied generally. The CVN-21 also features
an improved underwater protection system for torpedo defence.

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/502993_CVN_21___Raise_the_shields___.html



Torpedoes

A Key to Survival

Maximizing the survivability of the warfighter is crucial,
and self-defense systems are necessary to ensure that all
platforms have the capability to protect themselves from
attack. Anti-torpedo torpedoes will provide our future
platforms with an additional defense capability. Their
primary mission is to destroy incoming torpedo threats
that may have gotten through a countermeasure field.
Based on technology under development at ONR, a 6.25
inch-diameter self-protection weapon is under study
for the defense of surface ships and submarines using
supercavitation technology. The Advanced High Speed
Underwater Munition (AHSUM) program has already
demonstrated the effectiveness of such high-speed
underwater bullets. Fired from an underwater gun,
these projectiles have successfully broken the
speed of sound in water (1,500 meters per second),
bringing their future application much closer
to reality.

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_14/torpedoes.html



Navy Deploying New Anti-Torpedo Technology
by KRIS OSBORN on OCTOBER 28, 2013
9044

Anti-Torpedo

The Navy is gearing up for deployment and a new round of
tests of its Surface Ship Torpedo Defense System — a high
tech system designed to protect aircraft carriers by
locating, tracking and intercepting incoming torpedoes,
Navy leaders said Oct. 24 at the Naval Submarine League,
Falls Church, Va.

The upcoming tests, slated to take place on the USS George
H.W. Bush, are designed as a follow on to initial end-to-end
testing of an early prototype model aboard the Bush this
past May. The Navy plans to equip all aircraft carriers
with SSTD by 2035.

The SSTD system, which consists of a sensor, processor and
small interceptor missile, is a first-of-its-kind
“hard kill” countermeasure for ships and carriers designed
to defeat torpedoes, said Rear Adm. Dave Johnson, Program
Executive Officer, Submarines.

The SSTD is slated for additional testing on board the USS
Bush next month in what’s called a Quick Reaction Assessment,
Johnson said. The SSTD will be an Engineering Development
Model of the technology, meaning it will be further tweaked
and refined before deploying aboard the USS Bush in the
near future.

Ships already have a layered system of defenses which
includes sensors, radar and several interceptor technologies
designed to intercept large, medium and small scale threats
from a variety of ranges. For example, most aircraft carriers
are currently configured with Sea Sparrow interceptor missiles
designed to destroy incoming air and surface threats and the
Phalanx Close-in-Weapons System, or CIWS. CIWS is a rapid-fire
gun designed as an area weapon intended to protect ships from
surface threats closer to the boat’s edge, such as fast-attack
boats.

Torpedo defense for surface ships, however, involves another
portion of the threat envelope and is a different question.
SSTD is being rapidly developed to address this, Navy
officials explained.

The system consists of a Torpedo Warning System Receive Array
launched from the winch at the end of the ship, essentially
a towed sensor or receiver engineered to detect the presence
of incoming torpedo fire. The Receive Array sends information
to a processor which then computes key information and sends
data to interceptor projectiles — or Countermeasures Anti-Torpedos,
or CAT — attached to the side of the ship.

The towed array picks up the acoustic noise. The processors
filter it out and inform the crew. The crew then makes the
decision about whether to fire a CAT, a Navy official told
Military​.com.

The CATs are mounted on the carriers’ sponson, projections
from the side of the ship designed for protection, stability
the mounting of armaments.

The individual technological pieces of the SSTD system are
engineered to work together to locate and destroy incoming
torpedos in a matter of seconds or less. Tactical display
screens on the bridge of the ship are designed to inform
commanders about the system’s operations.

After being tested on some smaller ships such as destroyers,
the SSTD was approved for use on aircraft carriers in 2011
by Chief Naval Officer Adm. Jonathan Greenert, according to
the Navy.

The SSTD effort is described by Navy officials as a rapid
prototyping endeavor designed to fast-track development
of the technology. In fact, the Torpedo Warning System
recently won a 2013 DoD “Myth-Busters” award for successful
acquisition practices such as delivering the TWS to the
USS Bush on an accelerated schedule. The TWS is made by
3 Phoenix.

The Countermeasure Anti-Torpedo is being developed
by the Pennsylvania State University Applied Research
Laboratory.



Read more:
http://defensetech.org/2013/10/28/navy-deploying-new-anti-torpedo-technology/#ixzz3YqNoCNV4

Defense.org

http://defensetech.org/2013/10/28/navy-deploying-new-anti-torpedo-technology/