The Navy accepted on Nov. 30 the last component of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission package (MP), the Dual-mode Array Transmitter (DART) mission system, the service said on Dec. 4.
DART was accepted only after finishing a “rigorous” acceptance test regime at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Fort Pierce, Fla.
DART is one of the four major components of the ASW mission package along with the SQQ-89 acoustic processing, the Multi-Function Towed Array, and the MH-60R helicopter.
The Navy said having DART with the ASW mission package will significantly increase ASW capabilities in the service, making it able to maneuver active and passive sonars above and beyond the thermocline layer. The thermocline divides rougher upper waters from deeper calm waters, acting as a thin layer where temperature changes faster with depth than in the layers above or below it.
Capt. Ted Zobel, LCS Mission Module program manager, argued DART is an “essential component” of the LCS ASW package and when combined with the other three they “make up an ASW MP that will provide revolutionary capabilities to the fleet.”
The Navy said the pre-production test article (PPTA) stayed on schedule and met all contractual milestones since it was awarded in March 2017.
The service now plans to put the DART PPTA on a craft of opportunity and then make its way to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center for an in-water demonstration of the LCS ASW MP’s Escort Mission Module before formal development testing starts on the Freedom-variant USS Fort Worth (LCS-3).
Following the acceptance of the DART PPTA, the Navy plans to embark the system on a craft of opportunity and proceed to the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center for an in-water demonstration of the of the LCS ASW Mission Package’s Escort Mission Module before formal developmental testing on the Fort Worth.
“Tactically, this should be a game changer for the Surface Navy,” LCS-3 Senior Chief Sonar Technician (SW) Joseph Hart, who is with LCS ASW Detachment 2, said in a statement.
Sailors attached with LCS-3 Gold Crew detachments one and two played a large role in testing and evaluating the DART mission system.
After these tests, the future of the ASW mission module is uncertain since Congress slashed funding for all of the mission modules in the FY 2019 budget. The ASW modules specifically were cut from a request of $57 million to zero citing “ASW mission modules ahead of need.”