the detachment will test their equipment at the Navy's AUTEC (Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center) acoustic range in the Bahamas. Then the mission package will be tested aboard LCS. The mission packages will be interchangeable with either of the two LCS seaframes. The first ship, USS Freedom (LCS 1), has been delivered to the Navy at Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wis., and will be commissioned on Nov. 8 in Milwaukee. Freedom is a 379-foot monohull design built by a team led by Lockheed Martin. LCS 2, Independence, will be christened on Oct. 8 at Austal USA in Mobile, Ala. The 417foot trimaran is being built by a team led by General Dynamics bath Iron Works. LSC is a new type of combatant, where the combat capability is carried in changeable mission packages depending on which mission the ship is assigned. There are three "focused" missions for LCS: mine warfare (MIW), anti-surface warfare (ASUW), and ASW. The ship can be rapidly reconfigured from one
mission to another based on warfighting requirements. The first ASW Mission Package will use several different vehicles, including an MH-60R, helicopter, VTUAV, and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV). These platforms can carry various sensors. Among the sensors employed in this first mission package are a towed array sonar; remote towed active source; USV dipping sonar; and a multi-static off-board source. The VTUAV under current configuration will have a sensor package with an electrooptical/infrared ball. These systems together are used to detect, classify, localize, track and engage submarines in the littoral environment. "Because of the modular capability, as we develop new and better ASW technologies, we'll have the flexibility of integrating them into these mission packages. This is not a static business," says Rear Adm. Mike Mahon, deputy director for surface warfare. "This is the future of surface ASW."
Crewmembers unpack the USV following shipment to San Diego. (Photo by Edward Lundquist) www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 19
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