Preserving capacity, General Tom Lawson, Chief of the Defence Staff, Keys to Canadian SAR
Issue link: http://vanguardcanada.uberflip.com/i/274231
A queSt for SignAture mAnAgement M MaritiMe www.vanguardcanada.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2014 39 Signature significance Every ship emits a variety of signatures. They can vary by location and water depth, climate, above or below water environments, and by the age of the ship and how much she has sailed. From infrared to visual, radar cross section, acoustic, magnetic and electric signa- tures, all can affect how the ship is detected and targeted. The most studied in RIMPASSE, though, was the magnetic sig- nature, which Daya divides into two parts: the permanent and the induced. "The permanent really depends on where the ship was built and what kind of steel was used. The induced depends on where you are in the world. The earth's magnetic field is mapped so the induced part is rather easy to calculate: you put steel some- where, it will have an induced component. The permanent is more difficult. Whenever you put a bunch of iron together, it will have some kind of magnetic field, and each is unique. "Right now, if we send a frigate to the Gulf, it will stop in Au- gusta, Italy, for check ranging to better optimize the signature. But if we had a closed loop degaussing system, in principle you'd never have to do that. You'd be able to optimize on the spot, wherever you are. So with the RIMPASSE data, can we now de- velop the mathematical knowledge and models to be able to do this for any ship? That is direction we are working toward." trial of the seas The trial consisted of a series of experiments in different ranges involving shallow and open or deep water tests, under a tight and demanding schedule. Following a brief preparation period in June and July to es- tablish baseline acoustic and magnetic measurements, Quest de- parted from Halifax on August 3 for Loch Goil and Loch Fyne in Scotland to conduct acoustic noise transfer experiments, static ranging and dynamic ranging. From there, Planet and Quest conducted open sea measure- ments before visiting two ranges in Norway, Herdla, a multi- influence range focused on mine threats with acoustic, pressure, electronic and magnetic sensors, and Heggernes, an acoustic range co-owned by Norway, the Netherlands and Germany. Mea- surements taken at the latter were similar to those in Scotland but under different bathymetries. Quest then had her permanent magnetic signature "de-permed" at Friedrichsort in Germany before proceeding to Surendorf for above water experiments measuring infrared and radar cross sec- tion signatures while the magnetization settled. With the port half of the ship painted grey, Quest provided important infrared imaging data. Experiments were also conducted to understand infrared sig- natures under solar loading conditions and to measure the ef- ficiency of hull water cooling systems. "We were doing sensitive experiments on experimental infrared imaging seekers looking at the ship," Daya explained. "We fired off flares without the system working and with the system working to measure when the ship was detected, or when the missile algorithm breaks lock from the ship and goes for the flare – it was easier to break lock when the ship was cooled down." The ships then conducted electric and pressure signature mea- surements in Auschau, a fixed range site in Germany, before ar- riving at the earth field simulator in Bünsdorf, a unique German (submarine) facility that allows the separation of the permanent from the total magnetic signature. Over six days in early October, Quest was run through a sequence of more than 600 different earth magnetic field settings, replicating signatures from Halifax to the Caribbean and even Australia. "You'll never have a pure reading of the permanent signature after a ship is built, so the question is, if you can understand the permanent part, can you make strides managing the magnetic sig- nature?" Daya said. Quest returned to Halifax on October 31 following a rough crossing of the North Atlantic, before conducting southerly lati- tude measurements near the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. In total, she visited 11 ranges over more than 100 days (Planet, by comparison, saw five ranges in 36 days). Mining the data Since the experiments concluded in 2012, participating countries have been working with the data, with key members develop- ing different projects. Although Canada and Germany were the largest contributors, with Canada availing the signature manage- ment systems onboard Quest and Germany providing extensive use of high-demand ranging facilities, all countries contributed what they could, said Daya, who has been working full time on RIMPASSE since 2009. "It is an international collaboration that would otherwise have been impossible." For Canada, the focus has been on an integrated signature man- agement system. Together with Germany, the Netherlands, Nor- way and Belgium, Canadian researchers are collaborating on what is being called the Onboard Ship Signature Management System through the German-Dutch led Centre for Ship Signature Man- agement. Once a prototype is ready for demonstration, hopefully by 2016, the five countries will then return to the Baltic to con- duct a smaller demonstration trial. "The next step is to have modules that given measurement in- puts will be able to make predictions for signatures in near real- time, and then other modules that given the signatures will be able to assess the susceptibility of the ship," Daya said. "Each country could have its own algorithm in the modules. We could have competing algorithms during the demonstration." "Signature requirement, signature management is a two-way thing. What your threat and operational requirements are will deter- mine your requirements for signatures and signature management. And once you know your signatures and signature management systems, you can determine your response given your threats." DRDC has been working with the Canadian Surface Combat- ant project, he added. "When I look at the body of work that we have synthesized from everything we collected, we have distilled it down into what we believe the signature requirements should be. RIMPASSE made an important contribution to that."