Navy asks Penn State researchers to find new ways of quieting U.S. missile and attack nuclear submarines

ARLINGTON, Va. – U.S. Navy submarine designers are asking engineers at the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State University at State College, Pa., to develop enabling technologies for quieting next-generation submarines under terms of an $18.1 million contract announced Friday.

Officials of the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Va., are asking Penn State to develop undersea technologies in multi-material propulsor prototypes; Virginia-class submarine propulsor bearing; flow noise; station keeping; and acoustic monitoring.

The goal is to develop enabling technologies for super-quiet submarine propulsion and submarine quieting to improve existing systems significantly beyond the today's state-of-the-art, and meet the needs of future undersea systems, Navy researchers say.

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Multi-material propulsor prototypes and submarine propulsor bearings involve propeller and propulsion technologies to keep U.S. ballistic-missile and fast-attack nuclear submarines even quieter to enemy sonar than they are today.

Flow noise involves reducing the amount of sound the submarine produces as it flows through the water at different speeds. Station keeping involves how a submarine remains motionless at submerged depths without emitting any noise, and acoustic monitoring involves ways to track and reduce the amount of sound a submarine makes during normal and super-quiet operations.

On this contract Penn State will do the work in State College, Pa.; Washington; Newport, R.I.; and Gorton, Conn., and should be finished by February 2027.

For more information contact the Penn State Applied Research Laboratory online at https://arl.psu.edu, or the Office of Naval Research at www.onr.navy.mil.