Lockheed Martin to build electro-optical surveillance systems for Navy submarines
WASHINGTON - Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Washington are asking Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems in Manassas, Va., to build six AN/BVY-1 Integrated Submarine Imaging Systems (ISIS) for the Navy's submarine fleet under terms of a $13.2 million order.
ISIS provides mission-critical, all-weather, visual, and electronic search, digital image management, indication, warning, and platform architecture interface capabilities for Los Angeles-, Seawolf-, and Virginia-class fast-attack submarines, as well as Ohio-class ballistic missile and cruise-missile submarines.
ISIS 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 electro-magnetic spectrum. The ISIS program seeks to replace the optical light path of existing submarine periscopes with high-definition cameras and fiber-optic digital imagery; use infrared cameras for image enhancements; provide active and passive range finding control; install image enhancement capabilities and analysis tools for real-time and recorded imagery; provide image recording, storage, and recall capabilities; and provide the ability to transmit imagery off the submarine to other naval and joint forces.
ISIS provides digital image enhancement of data from a 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, including visible-light and infrared cameras.
The ISIS system enables a submarine operator to manipulate a photonics mast with a joystick, while looking at digital video on a computer monitor, and share that video in real time with the submarine's combat team on various displays aboard the vessel.
In-Depth Engineering Corp. in Fairfax, Va., under subcontract to Lockheed Martin, serves as the software development lead for AN/BVY-1 ISIS.
On this order, Lockheed Martin will do the work in Manassas, Va.; Northampton and Marion, Mass.; and Chantilly, Va., and should be finished by October 2018.
FOR MORE INFORMATION visit Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems at www.lockheedmartin.com/us/rms.html.
John Keller | Editor
John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.
