Overview
APL has a significant record of key contributions to critical undersea warfare challenges. Our submarine technology work spans more than three decades, from the emergence of the dangerously quiet Soviet SSN threat through today’s multiple challenges in the oceans of the world. APL has been the lead organization for the Navy’s SSBN Security Program since its inception. From that core program, our work has expanded to a broader range of key roles and contributions in anti-submarine warfare and maritime technology, submarine technology, and ocean engineering. APL is a research leader in the efforts to understand the ocean and its properties. We’re one of the largest sea-test specialists, and our teams have collected more data on submarines than any other organization.
The mission of the Undersea Warfare Business Area is to apply its scientific, engineering, and operations analysis skills and experience, coupled with its knowledge of naval operations, to solving critical offensive and defensive undersea-related challenges facing the Navy both in the conventional sense as well as applied to the global war on terrorism.
As is the case for all of the military services, undersea warfare and the submarines that constitute the backbone of this military mission face increasing levels of complexity of environment, new mission requirements, and transformational technologies. Much of today’s focus is on operations in the littoral, the relatively shallow waters near coastlines. While working to solve those challenges, we must stay ahead of the curve in the ability to detect and prosecute submarines in the open ocean.
The submarine community also needs to exploit the opportunities offered by net-centric warfare, which requires solving the fundamental technical challenges of submarine connectivity at speed and depth as sensor detection ranges decrease. National strategic deterrence policy that relies on Trident submarines requires continued attention to ensure their security and survivability. This remains a critical challenge to which APL is making significant contributions. In addition, there is a continuing increase in the potential threat to U.S. naval forces, particularly in the littorals because of improving acoustic and non-acoustic threat sensors, improved mines and weapons, and nonconventional threats such as in-port and near-port vulnerabilities.