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An Assessment of Undersea Weapons Science and Technology (2000)

Chapter: Appendix B Lessons of the Advanced Rapid COTS Insertion Process

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Lessons of the Advanced Rapid COTS Insertion Process." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of Undersea Weapons Science and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9863.
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B

Lessons of the Advanced Rapid COTS Insertion Process

The committee was impressed by the significant change in process achieved by the submarine sonar community that allowed advanced rapid commercial-off-the-shelf insertion (ARCI) in all submarines. It believes that three important lessons were learned from that experience.

  • Lesson 1: Operational testing must be adequate and must be carried out under realistic conditions. The change was motivated by real-world operational experience suggesting that U.S. submarine sonars were not performing up to expectations. A similar situation is believed to exist with regard to undersea weapons performance based on exercises and simulations. One of the basic tenets introduced into the ARCI process was the extensive use of at-sea data for several purposes: (1) laboratory evaluation of specific algorithms; (2) end-to-end laboratory testing of system upgrades or builds; (3) at-sea testing prior to introduction into the fleet; and (4) feedback from at-sea operations of certified systems.

  • Lesson 2: Degraded performance must be understood at a fundamental level. The increased attention paid to a first-principles understanding of sonar and validations through testing with real data was one of the key factors in the ARCI process. This special process of build-test-analyze-understand-build-test allows new builds to be introduced quickly into the fleet with very short development cycles for most software algorithms. While testing for weapons system science and technology may not need to be so extensive, the Office of Naval Research could incorporate the lessons of the ARCI process as appropriate.

  • Lesson 3: When senior Navy management became involved, bureaucratic barriers fell. In the ARCI experience, the concerns expressed by Admiral DeMars galvanized a multifunctional, expedited approach. A broad-based data-gathering, analysis, and implementation program was successfully and rapidly implemented and appears to have yielded excellent results. In other words, pressure from senior Navy leadership was applied and overcame bureaucratic obstacles to progress.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B Lessons of the Advanced Rapid COTS Insertion Process." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of Undersea Weapons Science and Technology. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9863.
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The Department of the Navy strives to maintain, through its Office of Naval Research (ONR), a vigorous science and technology (S&T) program in those areas considered critically important to U.S. naval superiority in the maritime environment, including littoral waters and shore regions. In pursuing its S&T investments in such areas, ONR must ensure that (1) a robust U.S. research capability to work on long-term S&T problems in areas of interest to the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense is sustained, (2) an adequate supply of new scientists and engineers in these areas is maintained, and (3) S&T products and processes necessary to ensure future superiority in naval warfare are provided. One of the critical areas for the Department of the Navy is undersea weapons.

An Assessment of Undersea Weapons Science and Technology assesses the health of the existing Navy program in undersea weapons, evaluates the Navy's research effort to develop the capabilities needed for future undersea weapons, identifies non-Navy-sponsored research and development efforts that might facilitate the development of such advanced weapons capabilities, and makes recommendations to focus the Navy's research program so that it can meet future needs.

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