Lockheed Martin to make major
upgrades to submarine
electro-optical surveillance system
September 25, 2015
WASHINGTON, 25 Sept. 2015. Submarine combat systems experts
at Lockheed Martin Corp. are making major upgrades to a U.S.
Navy electro-optical surveillance system designed for several
classes of attack and guided-missile submarines.
Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington
announced a $120.4 million contract modification on Wednesday to
the Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training segment in
Manassas, Va., to design, test, reverse-engineer, and upgrade
important components of the AN/BVY-1 Integrated Submarine
Imaging System (ISIS).
ISIS provides mission critical, all-weather, visual, and electronic
search, digital image management, indication, warning, and platform
architecture interface capabilities for Los Angeles-, Ohio-, and
Virginia-class submarines, Navy officials say. The system has the
potential for installation on Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines
and other kinds of submarines.
ISIS rolls-up existing components and near-term capabilities into an
architecture for inserting future capabilities as they become available,
including items leveraged from the Virginia-class submarine photonics
program, Navy officials say.
ISIS is a back-fit system to integrate all imaging capabilities on existing
Navy submarine classes. It is part of the Navy's submarine Photonics Imaging
System, a non-hull-penetrating replacement for existing optical periscopes.
The Photonics Imaging System uses a wide portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum with advanced daylight cameras, infrared thermal imaging sensors,
and communications intercept and electronic warfare support.
The ISIS program seeks to replace the optical light path of existing submarine
periscopes with high-definition cameras and fiber optic digital imagery. the
project seeks to use infrared cameras for image enhancement, provide active
and passive range finding control, and install image enhancement capabilities
and analysis tools for real time and recorded imagery.
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The ISIS program also will provide Navy submarines with image recording,
storage, and recall capabilities, as well as provide the ability to transmit
imagery off the submarine to other naval and joint forces.
In-Depth Engineering Corp. in Fairfax, Va., under subcontract to Lockheed
Martin, serves as the software development lead for AN/BVY-1 ISIS.
ISIS revolutionizes Navy submarine surveillance capabilities by integrating
digital video and still images from devices on a submarine's exterior and
presenting real-time imagery and analysis on existing control room tactical displays.
ISIS provides digital image enhancement for data from a modern submarine's
photonics mast, which uses optical fiber to move imaging data from a raised
mast aboard a submerged submarine through tiny openings in the submarine's
hull to tactical displays around the interior of the vessel.
The photonics mast replaces or augments the traditional periscope aboard U.S.
submarines. The photonics mast not only replaces the large opening in the
submarine pressure hull necessary for the optics and hydraulics of a traditional
periscope, but also can blend image data from several kinds of electro-optical
sensors aboard the photonics mast, including visible-light and infrared cameras.
The ISIS system enables submarine crew members to manipulate a photonics
mast with a joystick, while looking at digital video on a computer monitor, and
share that video real-time with the submarine's combat team on various displays
aboard the vessel.
On this contract modification Lockheed Martin will do the work in Manassas,
Va.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Northampton, Mass.; Arlington, Va.; Fairfax, Va.;
and Newport, R.I., and should be finished by September 2016.
For more information contact Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training online atwww.lockheedmartin.com/us/mst.html, In-Depth Engineering Corp. at http://in-depthengineering.com, or Naval Sea Systems Command at www.navsea.navy.mil.
