Thales Underwater Systems
525 Rte Des Dolines
Bp 157
06903
Sophia Antipolis
06903
France
| Tel: | +33 4 9296 3000 |
| Fax: | +33 4 9296 46 30 (international Marketing Directorate) |
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UNDER WATER SYSTEMS FROM THALES AT UDT EUROPE 2004 Thales, the acknowledged leader in Underwater Systems for Navies world-wide is displayed its complete capability at UDT Europe 2004 in Nice. The major supplier of Minewarfare systems to the world’s Navies, Thales’ recent proven successes include the outstanding performance of its Sonar 2022 Mk3 Hull-mounted and Propelled Variable Depth sonar systems in recent Exercises in the Baltic Sea on the upgraded French Navy Tripartite Minehunters. One of these vessels, the Orion, is open for visits in Nice harbour during UDT 23 – 25 June. In addition, the first upgraded UK Royal Navy Hunt Class minehunter recently demonstrated the spectacular performance of its new minehunting Sonar 2193. SPARTAN The Naval Programmes Service (SPN) of the French Ministry of Defence (DGA) has awarded a contract to Thales Underwater Systems for the Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) module of the US-French collaborative SPARTAN USV programme. The DGA has entered this Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration programme, led in the USA by NAVSEA-NUWC, the aim of which is to demonstrate the Military Utility of USVs for Assured Access and Force Protection in the Littorals, in integrating demountable mission modules on a remotely-controlled Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB). The programme will pave the way for surface drones that could equip the future US Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), and the Franco-Italian Multi-mission frigates (FREMM). The novel feature of the ASW module of SPARTAN, now led by France, is that Thales will utilise the FLASH dipping sonar and its winch, mounted on the RHIB. Best known as the leading helicopter-borne ASW sonar, FLASH will be complemented by an NRBC (Nuclear, Radiological, Biological, and Chemical) detection capability, and an Obstacle Avoidance function. The FLASH helicopter sonar system has already been chosen by the Navies of the USA, UK, France, UAE, Norway and Sweden. This contract acknowledges its versatility and capacity for use on surface as well as airborne platforms. OPEN SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE (OSA) Thales Underwater Systems has fully embraced the OSA approach for its sonar systems and taken the benefits to new levels of achievement. As well as contracting for delivery of new systems that have an open architecture central to the design, the company has been actively addressing the complexities of introducing OSA into large in-service (legacy) systems. At the same time, Thales has recognised that OSA and COTS enable a completely new approach to providing a total full-life sonar solution. This has been captured in S-Cube, their new submarine sonar solution. S-CUBE S-Cube is the latest generation Thales Underwater Systems submarine sonar system for the SSK market and is a natural evolution of the highly successful TSM 2233 series. S-Cube follows the TSM 2233 tradition of utilizing latest available COTS hardware but introduces truly open system architecture. Key drivers in the S-Cube design were: · To create a system which can easily accept change – either from COTS obsolescence or capability improvement. · The system must be able to accept capability improvements from Thales or third parties (local or international industry, government research laboratories or universities). · To create a long term logistics support capability based on COTS obsolescence management (technology refresh to replace the traditional heavy spares loading, whilst at the same time giving the potential for further long-term incremental system growth) and system operational availability. · S-Cube must be able to be integrated with any submarine combat system. (TSM 2233 already integrates with ease into the UDSI SUBTICS combat system). To maintain the integrity of the sonar system, Thales will remain responsible for the system integration throughout its life. The S-Cube Solution: The heart of the system is the ‘cube’ – the open architectural framework and common services connecting the sensors to the consoles. The front end network, linking the arrays and front end conditioning to the processing modules is a fast link utilising Fibre Channel and can be easily adapted to other future high speed solutions (using PCI mezzanines providing, for example, Infiniband). Based on the use of Ethernet technologies, the back end network makes use of open internet communication standards (Corba and UDDI) to maximise the opportunities to incorporate third party functionality. A set of shared functions resides within the cube as common software utilities, available for access by the processing modules. These address issues such as: · System Start-Up · Component Registration services · Supervision services · Configuration and software maintenance services · Performance monitoring and fault localisation (PMFL) · Analogue Audio · Screen hardcopy · Navigation Host services embedded within the cube provide the management of the system including HMI and database management. The current operating system utilised is LINUX. Into this Cube a variety of sonar functions can be inserted to satisfy specific mission requirements: S-Cube Multi-Mission Sonar Suite: The core sonar capability within S-Cube consists of a Multi-Mission Sonar Suite with world class short to long range ASW performance. This set has been configured to provide the user, in a coherent manner, with advanced intelligence gathering, target tracking and weapon delivery capability. The suite comprises the sonar sub systems detailed below and taken from the TSM 2233MkIII: · Cylindrical Bow Array · PVDF Planar Flank Arrays · VELOX M8 Intercept Array · Distributed Arrays for ranging · Self Noise Hydrophones Included within the functionality (again, from TSM 2233MkIII) are the FAST adaptive beamforming technique, supplied as standard to both the bow and flank arrays, and transient detection. The current software languages used by Thales within the system are JAVA, C and C++. The Multi-Mission Sonar Suite has an impressive pedigree, gained from the Thales Underwater Systems domestic submarine sonar programmes in the UK, France and Australia, together with the operational feedback from the TSM 2233 export platforms. As an example, the PVDF Planar Flank Array- (P)FAS – fitted to French platforms, the Australian Collins Class and various SSK platforms, has proven high levels of performance in both cold, deep waters and in warm waters of less than 50 metres. There is no noticeable degradation of performance at medium and high speeds. Thales has over 25 years experience in the development and supply of sonar towed arrays (over 350 arrays delivered of 34 product types). However, it is recognised that some navies do not require a towed array as a basic fit. Thales, therefore, offers towed array capability to the sonar as optional fits, as included in the following S-Cube Optional Enhancements. S-Cube Optional Enhancements The Multi-Mission Sonar Suite can then be built upon at customer request from a series of Option packages to address specific operational needs. These comprise: Advanced Tracking Options – for highest levels of ASW performance · Bow Array Vertical Beamforming · Conformal Bow Array · Active Processing · Extended Flank Array (either in length for increased range detection or in frequency for enhanced classification) · High performance clip-on Towed Array, with FAST adaptive beamforming Shallow Water Options - for enhanced operational performance and safety in the littoral · Mine & Obstacle Avoidance System · Reelable Towed Array for ease of operation in shallow waters, with FAST adaptive beamforming Mission & Training Options – for knowledge and efficiency improvement and Network Centric Operation · Environmental Assessment · Combat Team & Sonar Operator Training · Tactical Training · Acoustic Data Transmission · Multistatic Processing The customer can select one or more options from each Option Pack. Again, the importance in the S-Cube open system architecture design is that the customer has the freedom to select options from the above either directly from the existing Thales equipment catalogue or from alternative suppliers – industry, research labs or universities. The freely available industry standards used in creating the S-Cube enables the easy integration of other party hardware and software. Provided that the third party utilizes these standards, their equipment, whether of bespoke or COTS design can be integrated. Third party equipment can be integrated within the S-Cube equipment cabinets, or , provided space onboard is available, the third party can deliver it’s own equipment cabinet and still integrate the capability into S-Cube. Third party algorithms can be accepted into the system by 2 methods – a) delivered to the system already embedded in hardware, in which case the rules above apply and b) as software only. S-Cube Full Life Service: Thales has created a full life service package for S-Cube that provides major benefits over the traditional maintenance, spares and repairs approach. This package encompasses a number of core elements: · Incremental upgrade capability. The open architecture enables enhancements to be included incrementally throughout the life of the system. This enables the customer to plan future upgrades without the capital expenditure of major mid-life upgrades. · Technology refresh. A characteristic of COTS hardware is that it rapidly becomes obsolete. However, the up front procurement of spares will be less expensive due to the life of the COTS hardware and the need to cater for obsolescence resolution will not be required. Obsolescence will be managed through regular ‘technology refresh’ periods. Replacement of the COTS hardware can be either with like-or-like processing power or by higher powered machines, enabling in-built spare processing capacity to accept additional future upgrades. · Contracting for system Availability. An existing project between Thales and the UK MoD has demonstrated that significant customer cost savings are achievable by contracting for system availability. Under such an arrangement the customer would contract with Thales to guarantee an agreed level of system availability and Thales would then procure whatever spares were required (based on usage, not large stocks), under take any necessary repairs or conduct any other support task to ensure the agreed level of availability is maintained under the fixed price contract. · Local Industry Support structure. Thales would seek to create a partnership with a local support company in order to ensure the best level of service. This would include maintenance and rectification activities to support system availability. It can also include the local replacement of COTS hardware for technology refresh. In creating S-Cube, Thales has concentrated in designing a flexible system that can easily integrate any array, processing or function in an incremental approach to ensure the optimum compromise between missions requirement, system performance and budget constraint.
For more information contact: Thales Underwater Systems 525 Rte Des Dolines Bp 157 06903 Sophia Antipolis 06903 France
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