The NATO Research Vessel Alliance is being deployed for the first time during Proud Manta. (NATO)
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This year's edition of the world's largest anti-submarine warfare exercise, Proud Manta, will feature NATO's research vessel Alliance for the first time. (Correction: the ship itself is not new; its participation in the exercise is.)
Held in the Ionian Sea southeast of Sicily, the Feb. 14-26 exercise is meant to help the alliance maintain proficiency and improve interoperability in anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and coastal surveillance.
The 11 participating nations are sending five submarines, 15 fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, and 12 surface ships. Among them is Alliance, a 93-meter, 3,180-ton vessel said by NATO to be the quietest purpose-built vessel in its class. During the exercise, the ship will launch Ocean Explorer autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which will tow sonar arrays and create a multistatic sensor network, said Kevin LePage, scientist in charge on board the Alliance.
The AUVs, which can travel at 2 to 3 knots, have an endurance of eight hours.
“We use them as offboard sensors,” said LePage. “The more spread out the sensor network, the better — the more multiple aspects you have on an individual target.”
Some have suggested that such AUVs could one day take the place of conventional vessels in the hunt for submarines.
During Proud Manta, reseachers will work to optimize sensor performance by running a NURC-developed tactical planning aid in collaboration with the vessel's anti-submarine warfare team. Data on the characteristics of different types of sensors will be input to the planning aid, and the performance of each sensor at different depths or ranges will be predicted.
Alliance will also listen for whales and dolphins as part of an effort to study the effect of high-powered sonars on their nervous systems, LePage said. By listening for the marine mammals' distinctive clicks and whistles, the NURC will attempt to correlate the presence or departure of the marine animals from areas where acoustic events such as Proud Manta are taking place. For this purpose, Alliance will deploy two seabed sensors at 700 meters off Sicily's east coast, plus a third sensor aboard a glider, a winged undersea vehicle that can dive to 1,000 meters and operate for several days.
