Context
Importance of Maritime Travel
• 70% of Earth is covered in water, 80% of the human population lives within 60
miles of coastal areas, and 90% of global commerce is conducted by sea
• Inland waterways link coastal area and cities to the open oceans, and
experience heavy commercial and military traffic
Importance of Naval Operations
• It is critical that waterways remain clear of threats for the unimpeded conduct of
Coast Guard and Navy missions.
• Underwater mines can block waterways and severely hinder the progress of a
naval fleet.
Gap
• Cost to lay a minefield can be 0.5%-10% the cost of clearing a minefield
Design Alternatives
Problem & Need Statements
Problem Statement
 Mines are a very effective method of blocking shipping lanes, restricting
Naval operations.
 The placing of mines in waterways can have severely negative economic
and environmental impact.
 The ability to clear waterways of mines is slow and costly.
Surface
Alternatives
Textron Fleet-Class
Common Unmanned
Surface Vessel
Need Statement
There is a need for the U.S Navy to improve the effectiveness of mine
clearance systems by
 Reducing operational cost
 Increasing the rate of detection and neutralization of underwater mines
 Removing health risk of personnel
Underwater
Alternatives
Lockheed Martin Remote MultiMission Vehicle (RMMV)
• Take up to 200 times longer to clear a minefield than to lay the same minefield
Sonar Operation Procedure to clear a minefield
I. Sends sound waves
II. Receives sound wave echoes
III. Towed through the water
 The threat of underwater mines is increasing
because they are easy to build and difficult
to detect/neutralize.
Airborne
Alternatives
U.S. Marine
Corps K-Max
Underwater Mine Clearance Process
U.S. Navy Fire
Scout
1st pass: Mine detection
2nd pass: Mine neutralization
3rd pass: Verification
Limitations
Sonar
Alternative
• Transportation and manning contains majority of cost
• Operating speed is limited by sonar
Thales T-SAS
Method of Analysis
Mission Requirements
MR.1 System operators shall be protected from mine explosions.
Method of Analysis
Future Work
Energy to Cost Calculation
Energy
Joules
Volume of
Gallons
Fuel Cost
$
 Determine the time it takes for each
alternative to clear the area of mines,
and how much energy was used. The
energy can then be converted to a fuel
cost. Fuel cost will be added to cost of
manning requirements, acquisition
cost, and lifecycle cost to find a total
system cost.
MR.2 The system shall detect underwater moored mines.
Energy Density for:
MR.3 The system shall cover XX square miles in XX hours.
MR.4 The system shall be transportable on current Navy ships.
• Diesel = 128,450 BTU/Gal.
• Gasoline = 116,090 BTU/Gal.
Concept of Operations
Value Hierarchy/Tradeoff
Utility
Simulation
 Simulate time and total cost needed to clear 1 square mile
 Energy will be converted to a fuel cost.
 Total Cost = Fuel cost + cost of manning requirements
+ acquisition cost + lifecycle cost .
Assumption
 Acceleration forces are negligible
 Tow angle is same for all vehicle alternatives
 Rate of detection needs to be
considered as an input to the
simulation.
Input/output Block
Diagram
1.2
Utility
1. Vehicle tows a sonar through water using existing sonar
and vehicle systems
2. Sonar Alternative: pair 3 vehicles with 2 sonar alternatives
3. Time and cost calculations
Raytheon AN/AQS-20A
 Possible correlation between
variable inputs for the simulation
need to be addressed.
1
0.8
 Current technology will be
considered as a baseline.
0.6
0.4
Process Time
(h)
Safety
0.2
0
Cost ($)
 Upon completion of simulation, Sensitivity
Analysis and Tradeoff Analysis will be
performed before the presenting a
recommendation upon project completion.