I had an interesting chat yesterday at the Navy Leagues Sea Air Space symposium in Washington with an official from Raytheon who was pitching a new system aimed at communicating with submarines more quickly than previous methods.
The funny thing about it is how simple the system really is. And I kept wondering, Why hadnt anyone thought of this before?
Its called Deep Siren, and its a first step in providing real-time communications with submarines operating far below the ocean surface. It all started back in late 2004, when at a Navy/industry symposium the services then chief of nuclear reactor programs told an audience that industry should get off its duff and develop a way to talk to subs in a timelier manner.
In the past, subs had to come to the surface to communicate, using antennas that received pre-recorded messages from home base. A sub commander read down the list to see which messages he already had and took in the ones he didnt. He then fired off his message, and slinked back to the murky deep. Not exactly a good way to have a timely conversation with your commander, admitted William Matzelevich, electronic systems sales executive for Raytheon.
So, what Matzelevichs team did, is they took a standard Navy sono-buoy, rejiggered the guts a bit, tweaked the algorithms and acoustics and set up a secret decoder ring housed in a laptop that can translate the messages into comprehensible language. Sound strange? It isnt.
Basically, the system Raytheons developed allows a sub commander, or a surface commander, to send a message or data through a commercial Iridium satellite phone connection to one of these communications sono-buoys. The buoy then transmits the message through a series of boinks and bings to the sub, which can receive the signal up to 150 miles away from the buoy. The computer onboard the sub translates the boinks and bings into language: Reposition to coordinates, etc., etc., etc The sub captain can then respond to the message sending his own series of boinks and bings that then rings the ship captains Iridium phone.
It remains to be seen how far this initiative gets. So far, the program is suckling off Pentagon and Navy experimental program dollars that are never very consistent its still not a program of record for the Navy. But the Navy is moving ahead to fund an overall communications architecture for its fleet that will include real-time or near-real-time communications with subs. Hopefully something like this will become standard, especially since todays subs have become an integral part of joint operations where speed is key.
– Christian
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Always wondered if you could use SOSUS for underwater communications, but that only works out in areas with SOSUS, Atlantic/Pacific.
This confuses me a bit, having some parts sounding tactical and some strategic – indicating I a) don’t know enough and b) ain’t that smart anyway. The ‘standard sonobuoy’ is definitely a tactical device, with longevity measured in hours at most (and low numbers of those). So in order for this system to function, there would have to be a sonobuoy in the water close enough to the boat for the message to reach without glitching. This could be extremely useful in tactical situations, such as when a battle group is trying to coordinate with a sub that it knows is nearby and can simply drop sonobuoys overboard if it doesn’t want to use onboard systems. This, in turn, makes me wonder if this (the idea or the announcement) has anything to do with the recent ‘zOMG we lost the San Juan!!?!’ incident.
On the other hand, bidirectional sonar communications with submerged boats is a big nono if they’re engaged in any form of combat or maneuvers, since the entire purpose of having them ‘come to the surface to get mail’ was because they were remaining *stealthy* – which was why they were submerged in the first place. So while it might be useful in a strategic sense (i.e. get a message to a boat that isn’t presently engaged) it sounds counterproductive for tactical use.
Given that this is still just an idea, I can see though how it might iterate; eventually, if you knew ‘roughly’ where a boat was patrolling, you could remotely find a way to pop a sonobuoy near it and ‘ring’ it up. If the boat could, it would then answer, and conversation could occur without delay. If the boat couldn’t answer, it would just remain silent.
But in that case, it doesn’t seem that different from ‘come to the surface and phone home.’
Sounds neat for manuevers in our waters. However, I agree with the earlier post from Mr Zimmerman in that doesn’t this defeat the purpose of submarines in that they are supposed to be stealthy? You know, “a hole in the water”? Why would a Sub Commander expose the whole crew and a very costly piece of equipment in the open ocean or while he is just outside enemy territorial waters?
And just last week, China Spacecom announced that it would be opening a new Iridium gateway in Beijing this year.
Grammar Nazi alert:
antennae are for insects
antennas are electronic chunks of metal
Lost in the story, or at least glossed over, is the fact that subs are nearly always able to receive information via ELF radio. I agree with an earlier commentator that the system would need to be used carefully to avoid alerting an adversary that, hello, there’s a US sub operating over *here*. I have faith in the Navy to work something out, and I applaud the relative simplicity and COTS ingenuity of the approach. Seriously, those ELF antennas at Clam Lake were miles long.
Sounds like a neat idea. But while it could alert a potential enemy about a US sub operating in a given area, it could just as easily spoof them into thinking that we are operating in areas well away from our subs as well. If nothing else, it would be a pys-ops weapon.
Mistake corrected. Sieg Heil, Grammar Nazi Barnes.
Well, the 2 problems I have with this as a submarine radioman are:
1) The obvious – one of those buoys goes off, the enemy knows that there is a U.S. sub w/in 150 miles of it.
2) It’s not much of an upgrade. This new system would be a bit faster (to just suddenly get a message while not at PD, w/no antennas deployed), and safer for the ship than going to PD (assuming that nobody else hears the buoy), but we can already receive messages passively through VLF or satellite, and will be listening to one of those circuits whenever a fast change to something may happen, anyway. These current systems have no chance to reveal our position, unless we are physically sighted @ PD.
IRT “Lost in the story, or at least glossed over, is the fact that subs are nearly always able to receive information via ELF radio.” – not true. The ELF system has been shut down for a while now, and we normally wouldn’t have the wire out to copy it, anyway.
So to summarize, implementing this system would make us trade away some of our submerged stealth to gain… less time w/antennas deployed. It doesn’t really seem necessary.
Oh, and to add to my last comment – for stealth, I’d rather be @ PD transmitting radio back and forth w/a a satellite than staying submerged transmitting sound back and forth w/a buoy. It takes some very good or lucky radar to pick up a mast sticking out of the water. The sound would not be very hard to find, especially if it’s loud enough to travel 150 miles.
Alex,
I stand corrected. I was under the impression that ELF had been handed off to TACAMO- but a quick Google put the lie to that one. Seems a bit of a loss to me, but I’ll defer to an actual sub radioman any time.