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From NSWC Carderock Public
Affairs
BAYVIEW, Idaho (NNS) --
Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock’s Acoustic
Research Detachment opened the Navy’s new Acoustic Test
and Analysis Center (ATAC) in Bayview, Idaho on Aug.
13.
The ATAC, a 26,000 square-foot area costing
$7.7 million, is the centerpiece of a major construction
project, consolidating ARD offices, computer
laboratories and industrial facilities into a single,
modern facility.
The project represents the
culmination of the ARD's Facility Master Plan, which is
transforming ARD from a collection of converted World
War II-vintage boat repair shops and 1970-vintage
buildings into a state-of-the-art test facility.
ATAC is a multi-function building, consolidating
80 percent of the primarily civilian government employee
workforce. It houses the capability for analysis of
acoustic data from large-scale model lake tests. ATAC
boasts an approximately 9,000 square-foot secure
laboratory for analysis of model data.
It has
fabrication shops for metal, fiberglass, wood and repair
of boats, motors and equipment, plus offices and
conference rooms for resident and visiting engineers and
analysts, engineers and the detachment managers. Two
rooms also allow video teleconferences.
The
Navy’s Acoustic Research Detachment (ARD) uses
state-of-the-art facilities to test technological
innovations improving submarine signature and
hydrodynamic characteristics. ARD is often the last stop
in the research process prior to full-scale acquisition
decisions.
The earliest experiments at ARD
evaluated acoustic countermeasures. Prior to 1965, the
Navy conducted a variety of experiments including
surface ship sonar calibration, acoustic and radar
countermeasures evaluation, towed array tests, and
acoustic measurement on small, freely rising buoyant
shapes. In 1967, the first large-scale submarine model
arrived and ARD began to play an increasingly important
role in submarine silencing. This model, named Kamloops
after a trout indigenous to Lake Pend Oreille, is a
quarter-scale version of the Sturgeon (SSN 637)-class
submarine.
Success with Kamloops led to
introduction of the Large Scale Vehicle (LSV) Kokanee, a
quarter-scale battery-powered electric motor-driven
autonomous submarine model used to support advanced
propeller development for the Seawolf (SSN 21)-class
attack submarine.
In November 2000 the Navy
christened Cutthroat (LSV 2), a powered scale model of
USS Virginia (SSN 774). Weighing more than 200 tons,
Cutthroat is the world's largest unmanned autonomous
submarine and joins Kokanee in conducting research
experiments in Lake Pend Oreille.
For more news
from the Naval Sea Systems Command, go to their custom
Navy NewsStand Web page at www.news.navy.mil/local/navsea.
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