Developing Undersea GPS

Submarines can raise various antenna masts, radar masts and periscopes to facilitate communications and navigation, but are vulnerable when doing so.

Despite being an integral part of the U.S. Navy’s arsenal, submarines are at risk when attempting to accurately navigate the world’s waterways. In an effort to combat this issue, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has turned to BAE Systems to develop a Positioning System for Deep Ocean Navigation (POSYDON).

Aside from the obvious dangers of putting humans inside heavily armed, nuclear powered capsules deep in the ocean, submarines are often at their most vulnerable while on the surface. Unfortunately, this is a necessary step for determining positioning and navigation. This is due to signals from the space-based Global Positioning System (GPS) being unable to sufficiently penetrate seawater.

In some cases, even being on the surface may not be enough, since hostile signal jamming can still inhibit accurate positioning.

The idea behind the development of the POSYDON program is to create a positioning, navigation, and timing system that will permit vehicles to remain underwater by using multiple, integrated, long-range acoustic sources at fixed locations around the oceans.

This would assist both manned and unmanned undersea vehicles in accurately positioning themselves without the need to resurface. BAE will also be developing the ship-based systems necessary for capturing and processing the acoustic signals used by POSYDON.

(Image courtesy of BAE Systems.)

“BAE Systems has more than 40 years of experience developing underwater active and passive acoustic systems,” said Joshua Niedzwiecki, director of Sensor Processing and Exploitation at BAE Systems. “We’ll use this same technology to revolutionize undersea navigation for the POSYDON program, by selecting and demonstrating acoustic underwater GPS sources and corresponding small-form factor receivers.”

While the new technology will likely face its own set of problems, be they hostile acoustic interference or ecological concerns, as development continues we could soon see humans begin to tame the waves that make up the majority of our planet’s surface.

While information is still being released on the POSYDON project, you can learn more by visiting the DARPA and BAE Systems websites.

For more advancements in Naval technology, meet the U.S. Navy’s most advanced warship: the future USS Zumwalt.