A decision support system for evaluating systems of undersea sensors and weapons

Abstract

This project developed and analyzed the requirements for a decision support system capable of simulating future naval mine warfare scenarios. As the U.S. Navy explores replacing legacy naval mines with new systems of undersea weapons, it requires the supporting tools to evaluate and predict the effectiveness of these system concepts. While current naval minefield modeling and simulation capabilities provide planners with the capability to design and evaluate the effectiveness of minefields using legacy naval mine capabilities, they are not adequate for the planning and performance modeling of new concepts under consideration. The project addressed gaps in the Navy’s capability to simulate mine warfare scenarios involving arrays of distributed sensors linked with autonomous mobile weapons by reviewing the current innovations in naval mine warfare development, verifying the gap in current modeling and simulation capabilities, and using systems engineering processes to derive solution requirements. Analysis conducted using prototype simulation capabilities, developed as part of this project, indicates that these future systems will likely outperform legacy mine systems at a competitive cost.