Military Technology 06/2021

34 · MT 6/2021 THEME: Homeland Security to maritime security threats and incidents in port and coastal waters […] Coastal Trident combines scenario-based training, technical demonstra- tion, field experimentation, and exercise activities, and involves the partic- ipation of more than 150 public and private sector organizations.” Applegate said the exercise provides a unique opportunity for the small companies that participate, because they may not otherwise work with the Navy, or have an adequate understanding of the Navy and its opera­ tional requirements. It also exposes those small companies to those who would best benefit from their technologies. “We have an environment where we can get a lot of organizations to- gether to look at the technologies from a number of different perspec- tives, so there are more paths to success,” he said. “We can introduce our participants to all the different parties, the companies that are developing the technology, people who are going to use it, the program offices that are going to help acquire it, and the people that are going to be part of the logistics and sustainment pipeline. So, the goal is to bring all those people together in some form or another throughout the process.” SpotterRF CEO, Frank Cristophersen, said the ANTX provided a valuable opportunity to bring together a team – especially a group of small companies who might not normally be engaged with each other – to collaborate. “We had the opportunity to demonstrate a creative tech­ nology solution, with the Navy providing targets, instrumentation and ob- servers from the warfare centers and other organizations that otherwise would not be available to the individual companies.” ANTX/CT21 concluded with an open house at Fathomwerx for all stakeholders. “The open house has always been a popular event,” Applegate said, “because participants meet people they don’t usually connect with and can begin building new relationships and possible future collaborations.” Coastal Trident takes advantage of the facilities and capabilities of NSWC PHD and the Ventura Tech Bridge to support high-velocity learning and accelerate development, evaluation, and identification of technology implementation to support naval forces with in-service engineering, main­ tenance and supportability; sensor data fusion, maritime communica­ tions, and decision support; multi-spectral sensing, augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR), and digital engineering; and unmanned systems (UxS) applications and countermeasures. “The Navy is looking at everything from a much broader perspective,” observed Alan Jaeger, the Director of the Ventura Tech Bridge and the Office of Research & Technology Applications Manager for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division. “That’s why we’re put- ting together teams representing different disciplines and functional areas across the military, industry and academia to tackle problems. We are aligned under the Navy’s NavalX and Tech Bridge technology accelerators and innovation programs. This allows us access to a nation-wide network of federal laboratories, experts and innovators that further supports the NSWC PHD mission of delivering innovative and new capabilities to the Navy’s fleet and warfighters. Fathomwerx is the hub where those efforts come together.” Fathomwerx provides stakeholders with laboratory, manufacturing, testing and collaboration space. “Fathomwerx Lab is the physical manifestation of a unique partner- ship […] It’s 5,500 square meters of awesomeness,” commented Jaeger. “Hosting ANTX/CT21 allowed all of our stakeholders to witness and demonstrate new and better ways to ensure maritime domain awareness and port security […] This program supports our innovation pipeline as a low-risk way to get capabilities into a representative environment so we can learn and adjust quickly.” larger and smaller models – and is powered by regular 117v AC current or a small 24-hour battery. Despite the fact that the demonstration took place during intermittent thick fog at the harbor entrance, the SpotterRF was not only able to de­ tect the approach and track the target boat as well as the UAV, but it could also differentiate between the drone, sea birds, floating objects in the wa­ ter and even pedestrians on the shore, and track them all continuously. ANTX CT-21 demonstrated the feasibility of deploying non-kinetic effectors from unmanned aerial and surface platforms. “The demonstra- tion displayed a system-of-systems that can monitor a controlled space and deploy autonomous platforms to engage intruders with non-lethal effectors – a means to buy time for manned units to arrive,” commented Searles. “The system demonstrated the ability to detect small targets and direct countermeasures to intercept. Hopefully, this is a first step to fielding this sort of capability.” Searles said the system-of-systems demonstrated a potential total port security package for both fixed installations and expeditionary environ­ ments, such as naval vessels calling in foreign ports. “The system is com- pact, can monitor security zones and detect incursions before deploying unmanned platforms to engage with non-kinetic effectors. The worst case for an intruder is minor inconvenience for intercepting an innocent by- stander. Hopefully, the team can make domestic and overseas sales of a port security package covering the whole kill chain from detect to defeat.” “From a C2 perspective, the decision optimization provided the oper- ator with real time data, which is critical information in this scenario,” ex­ plained ION’s Dave Gentle. “We achieved the integration to demonstrate the capability. It would be a relatively small step to tailor that to another specific purpose. The collaboration between the partners was, of course, key to making this happen. The opportunity to work with partners and their technologies and capabilities was invaluable. ION’s mission is to support the individual systems, while at the same time aggregating the capabilities to address a complex requirement as simply and effectively as possible. I was encouraged by the willingness [demonstrated] by all of the partners to help each other out and support the overarching group objective.” More Paths to Success According to NSWC PHD’s Brendan Applegate, the director for the exercise, Coastal Trident is an operational research programme, conducted to advance the state of the art in countering threats to port and maritime security and the global operations of naval forces. “ANTX- Coastal Trident is not just a Navy exercise, but rather a ‘whole of govern- ment’ effort to bring together [and] involve non-DoD federal, state, and local government partners, as well as academia and industry, to respond An exercise with the US Coast Guard’s Maritime Security Response Team-West was leveraged to conduct Advanced Naval Technology Exercise experiments with wearable sensors and remote physiological monitoring. (Photo: Port of Hueneme) f