By Geoff Fein
In light of the recent success of docking the Advanced Seal Delivery System (ASDS) with a converted Ohio-class submarine, Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has no plans to buy anymore of the small submersibles.
“There are no plans to acquire additional ASDS platforms. USSOCOM and the Navy established an ASDS improvement program with the goal of improving ASDS-1’s performance to the required level. Funds that have already been appropriated for ASDS will be used to conduct the improvement plan and keep ASDS-1 operational,” a SOCOM spokesman told Defense Daily.
In late April. ASDS was hosted on the USS Michigan (SSGN-727) during the SSGN’s recent Follow-on Test and Evaluation period (FOT&E), which included as its final phase the operational evaluation of SSGN with ASDS.
SOCOM had been banking on Northrop Grumman‘s [NOC] effort to build a small submersible that could be deployed from an Ohio-class converted submarine to insert and extract special operations forces (SOF). But a series of reliability issues with ASDS-1 led to cancellation of the program in 2005.
Despite the cancellation of the program, the need to clandestinely move special operations forces from a submarine to shore remains a requirement for both the Navy and SOCOM, the spokesman said.
Currently, SOCOM and the Navy are examining ways to meet that requirement, the spokesman added.
“USSOCOM and the Navy are conducting an Alternate Materiel Solutions Analysis to determine how to best meet current and future SOF undersea warfare requirements. This analysis is scheduled to be completed in fourth quarter FY ’08,” the spokesman said.
Northrop Grumman is also evaluating all alternatives to supporting the needs of SOCOM, Jerri Dickseski, a Northrop Grumman spokeswoman, told Defense Daily.
“Northrop Grumman continues to evaluate all alternatives to deliver the most capable and reliable combatant submersibles to support the needs of SOCOM in the shortest and most cost-effective manner,” she said. “Northrop Grumman believes that the recent performance of ASDS-1 has demonstrated that it provides the utility and reliability required by our nation’s special operations forces and is a sound basis for additional combatant submersibles.”
In December 2005, SOCOM and the Navy canceled further procurement of ASDS hulls, instead opting to work out reliability issues in ASDS-1.
Dickseski noted the challenges associated with designing, building, integrating, testing, and deploying a small combatant submersible (i.e. a submarine) meeting all of the design/operational performance parameters, cost and schedule constraints are not unlike any first-of-a-class ship.
“What looks good on paper (or in a 3-D design tool) may prove to be harder than expected to produce; technology development may cost more, take longer to mature than expected, and perform to a lesser standard than anticipated; component and system integration may be more difficult than expected and by nature occurs later in construction; and, reliability can only be proven in-service in real world applications,” she said. “Additionally, as the ASDS design progressed, end-user requirements changed, often impacting work that had already been completed, requiring a significant amount of re-work over the course of the initial construction.”
ASDS encountered a series of failures in various systems during operational testing, Dickseski said. When a failure occurred in the main propulsion system during testing just before the start of FOT&E, the procurement program was halted by direction of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (USD AT&L).
“The USD AT&L directed the Commander, United States Special Operations Command to establish an ASDS-1 Improvement Program (AIP) with the goals of improving ASDS-1 performance to the required level, to insert technologies to avoid obsolescence and to determine areas where improvements should be made to improve overall reliability,” she said.
At the time of the decision to cancel further procurement of ASDS, SOCOM had invested approximately $446 million in research, development, test and evaluation on ASDS-1 (Defense Daily, Dec. 1, 2005).
Northrop Grumman delivered ASDS to the Navy in 2003.
“Westinghouse, a legacy Northrop Grumman Company, was awarded the ASDS design and production contract in September, 1994,” Dickseski said.
The original contract was for $78 million. According to Dickseski, more up front funding would have made a considerable difference.
“Internal government studies conducted prior to the solicitation and award of the contract indicated the costs of the contract should have been on the order of $178 million,” she said. “More funding up front would have allowed more comprehensive component and subsystem level testing and design analysis and uncovered problems in the design phase vice in final testing and subsequent operations. A sizeable portion of the costs for ASDS-1 has been accrued in the integrated testing and post-delivery phases.”
For Northrop Grumman, one lesson learned from ASDS is that the skills available to support the reliability improvement program reside with the submarine builders at Newport News; hence the programmatic leadership change was made from Undersea Systems to Newport News, Dickseski noted.
“The results of the system reliability assessments completed to date show the underlining design of ASDS-1 is sound,” she said. “The system reliability reviews, for the most part, have confirmed the previously identified reliability improvements comprise the majority of the opportunities.”
Following the December 2005 decision to cancel further procurement of ASDS, the Navy, SOCOM and Northrop Grumman have been working on reliability improvements to the mini-sub.
“Changes identified to date have been primarily in the hydraulics, environmental control, and propulsion and maneuvering systems,” Dickseski said. “The previous change in battery technology has also improved the reliability and performance of ASDS-1.”
The Navy moved from silver zinc batteries to lithium ion, which allows ASDS to get batteries recharged faster and with less heat generation (Defense Daily, April 26, 2005).
“Testing has gone very well over the past 18 to 24 months, and has demonstrated the utility and reliability of ASDS-1,” Dickseski said. “This includes the recent trails and certification on USS Michigan.”