SBIR-STTR Award

DBV Technology, LLC proposes to develop an acoustic instrumentation system for the Test & Evaluation of Trident D-5 munitions to support the geo-location of near simultaneous impacts on the sea surface of up to 500 projectiles within a 500 meter radius area to an accuracy less than 1 meter CEP referenced to WGS-84. The proposed system will leverage over ten years of DBV Technology experience in basic and applied research of the acoustic signatures produced by high velocity solid objects impacting gas-liquid interfaces such as the sea surface. It is shown that by applying the first principle physics governing the acoustic signatures of impact events in conjunction with advanced signal processing techniques, state of the art electronics, storage, and acoustic sensor technologies; individual impact events can be resolved (i.e. detected and scored) to within 8 cm spatially or 50 micro-seconds temporally. In addition to the research of splash acoustics, DBV Technology has over ten years experience with design, development, installation and operation of ocean acoustic systems for splash detection and scoring to sub-meter accuracy in support of test and training at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC), Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) Naval Gunfire Scoring System (NGSS), Kwajalein Missile Impact Scoring System (KMISS), Soft Impact Location Capability (SILC), and Integrated Maritime Portable Acoustic Scoring and Simulator (IMPASS) System.

Benefit:
Anticpated benefits and potential commercial applications includem Oil & Gas Exploration and Production, Bio-acoustics measurement for fisheries research and marine mammal monitoring and mitigation, and Foreign Military Sales to allied Navies.

Keywords:
Impact, Impact, Weapon Systems RDT&E, geo-location, underwater acoustics, submunitions, Splash, Projectiles

DBV Technology, LLC proposes to design, build, integrate and test an array of undersea acoustic instruments capable of scoring multiple projectiles impacting the ocean surface closely spaced in both position and time using algorithms developed during Phase I. A 48 month period of performance is proposed consisting of one 12 month base period, with three subsequent 12 month options. Instrument operation and functionality will first be proven in an Engineering Development Test utilizing impulsive sources as surrogates for projectile impacts in a deep water environment representative of missile test areas. Using the data collected during this test, the impact detection and localization algorithms will then be demonstrated. The advantage of this approach is that the instruments can be tested without any disruption to missile test operations and the signal processing and localization algorithms can be demonstrated with unclassified data.

Keywords:
Acoustic Release, Acoustic Release, Underwater Acoustic Recorder, Underwater Instrumentation, Underwater Acoustic Positioning, Splash Localization