Navy Research anddevelopment Activities of the past100 Years

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1 Navy Research anddevelopment Activities of the past100 Years by Harold Merklinger DRDC This illustration depicts many of the systems aboard the Canadian Patrol frigate that benefited from DND-funded R&D (both in-house and contracted). From the earliest colonial days through to late World War I, there were relatively few scientific research or development organizations in Canada. Nevertheless, significant impact was made by Canadians on marine technologies, as illustrated in these examples of individual contributions through to about Canadian Navy: 100 Years, Vol. 5, Special Issue 55

2 Hydrofoil Bell s HD-4 hydrodome on Bras d Or Lake, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, national geographic photo library bell collection drdc atlantic As a historical note, Bell and Baldwin s work was revived in the 1950s, and in the 60s a revised foil configuration with main foil aft and steerable foil forward resulted in a much improved stability in a seaway. Alexander Graham Bell and Casey Baldwin developed marine hydrofoil craft, proposing them as submarine-chasers during World War I. 56 The Journal of Ocean Technology Essays

3 Radar National Research Council of Canada Archives The NRC-developed Cathode Ray Direction Finder permitted instantaneous location of radio transmitters, such as those on submarines. During WWI it was realized that research and development needed to be institutionalized. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) was conceived in 1916, although the work did not really begin until the mid 1920s. In the late 1930s the work took on a clear military character. During WWI many defence-oriented research and development establishments sprang up all over Canada under NRC coordination. NRC s largest effort during WWII was the development of radar for many applications, some of them naval. Although an English invention, radar built naturally on NRC s prior work in radio direction finding, which itself had profound impact on the ability to locate German submarines. In September 1939 work began on a radar for the defence of Halifax Harbour. It was tested about a year later and became operational the first operational radar in North America in the spring of It proved itself immediately in search and rescue operations. Coastal defence radars eventually protected both of Canada s coasts, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The anti-submarine shipboard SW-1C 150-cm radar was developed by NRC and initially built with Navy assistance. Later production was by Research Enterprises Limited. The Type cm radar was demonstrated successfully in mid-1943 and approximately 2,000 sets were built in 1944 the majority going to the Royal Navy (RN). Through an unusual arrangement with NRC, most of the RN officers involved in radar training were Canadians, as were most of the early RN radar officers at sea. Canadian Navy: 100 Years, Vol. 5, Special Issue 57

4 Propellers Wallace R. Turnbull of Rothesay, New Brunswick, perfected the controllablepitch propeller in 1927: an idea adopted into widespread use (in ships as well as aircraft) almost immediately. Harold Merklinger An early model of Turnbull s controllable pitch propeller. Radio Reginald Fessenden of East Bolton, Quebec, is the inventor of radio as we know it. Fessenden s voice modulation of single-frequency radio waves permitted multiple simultaneous communication channels. On Christmas Eve 1906, Fessenden gave the first public radio broadcast. In 1914 he demonstrated the first sonar. During WWI, Fessenden was sent by Canada to England where he developed a system to locate artillery fire and further developed his sonar for U.K. submarines. Canada Science and Technology Museum Fessenden and co-workers working on their radio project in Brant Rock, Massachusetts, The Journal of Ocean Technology Essays

5 SWATH Artist Geoff Bennet s 1984 interpretation of a DE-sized Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) ship a concept proposed by Frederick G. Creed in Geoff Bennett As with the hydrofoil concept, the SWATH idea was later revived (in the 1970s). Here Canadian and Netherlands scientists joined forces to determine SWATH ship characteristics in a towing tank. In 1938 Frederick G. Creed proposed to the British Admiralty (and U.S. Navy) a radical new conceptual design for aircraft carriers: a concept we know today as the SWATH ship (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull). The idea was ahead of its time; the first SWATH vessel was not constructed until The Canadian Hydrographic Service currently operates a SWATH survey vessel named after Creed. Canadian Navy: 100 Years, Vol. 5, Special Issue 59

6 Hedgehog Harold Merklinger Harold Merklinger Former Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve officer (working for the RN) Charles Goodeve supervised development of the WWII Hedgehog anti-submarine spigot mortar seen here aboard HMCS Sackville. HMCS Sackville with U.K. type 271 radar (looking rather like a lighthouse) and Hedgehog ASW spigot mortar. Work by the National Research Council s Division of Mechanical Engineering led to the gyrostabilization of the Hedgehog ASW mortar, permitting its operation in rough weather. Modeling By 1995, significant increases in computing power and numerical physics modeling made this test of ship stability a realistic achievement. Computer-based modeling and analysis capabilities grew rapidly with the ever-increasing capabilities of commercial computers. Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) was at the forefront of advancements in model generation and visualization that made it possible to apply advanced structural analysis to the surface ship and submarine fleets efficiently. Similarly, ship motions and stability could be investigated without ever going to sea. These new methods were to revolutionize ship design and maintenance management, and were regularly applied to all classes of Canadian Forces platforms. 60 The Journal of Ocean Technology Essays

7 Degaussing Ranges Early in WWII it was quickly established that degaussing ranges used to remove the natural magnetic field of all ships, naval and civilian, would minimize vulnerability to the German magnetic mine. About 25 scientific and many naval as well as Nova Scotia Power personnel were soon systematically measuring and de-magnetizing ships at several locations. Where ships could not be fitted with degaussing coils, they were given a temporary deperming using temporary fitted coils. Where possible, ships during WWII were fitted with degaussing coils to reduce their magnetic signature on an ongoing basis. Canadian Navy: 100 Years, Vol. 5, Special Issue 61

8 Torpedos Scientists researched methods of sweeping magnetic and acoustic mines and conducting measurements of the residual electric, magnetic, and acoustic signatures of ships and electromagnetics for harbour defence. (This work was to have a greater and surprising impact after the War.) When German submarines began using acoustic homing torpedoes in September 1943, the Naval Research Establishment was able to examine a German torpedo and develop a countermeasure the Canadian Anti-Acoustic-Torpedo (CAT or CAAT) towed noise maker which was copied by the Royal Navy and U.S. Navy and quickly put into production, largely neutralizing the new menace. An early form of the CAT torpedo decoy noise maker with depth gauge. Later versions of the CAT torpedo decoy were fitted with trip gear to permit switching the noise maker on or off remotely. 62 The Journal of Ocean Technology Essays

9 Bathymetrics The bathythermograph was used extensively by the Navy to map ocean temperature at depth. The bathythermograph, which had been invented at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in 1939, revealed the complexities of the ocean thermal structure in the surface layers where submarines were operating. Dorado, with only its mast showing, proceeds ahead of HMCS Whitehorse. Corrosion Protection It was well understood that the electromagnetic fields exploited for harbour defence during WWII resulted from the battery formed by a bronze propeller connected to a steel ship immersed in a salt-water electrolyte. Sir Humphry Davy had proposed in 1823 that such batteries were the source of the corrosion problems encountered with metalclad hulls. Yet measures to nullify the process often resulted in more harm than good. Through painstaking measurement and analysis Kenneth (Barney) Barnard set out to get the details right. The 10-year research program begun in 1947 resulted in effective corrosion protection for the Canadian fleet by The maintenance required for steel hulls was reduced by a factor of about four. The methods were almost immediately adopted world-wide. Barney received the Order of Canada in 1978 for this work. Early attempts at cathodic protection had zinc electrodes bolted directly to the hull. The revised system had electrodes insulated from the hull, but connected internally through a resistor to the hull or to a controlled current source. Canadian Navy: 100 Years, Vol. 5, Special Issue 63

10 IRMDS Perhaps the most innovative development of the late 1990s is the Interim Remote Minehunting and Disposal System (IRMDS). A remotely operated semi-submersible vehicle was developed that can tow a variable depth side-scan sonar to locate and identify bottom targets. Newly-detected mine-like objects can be compared, if desired, with an earlier database of previously identified targets. A second autonomous vehicle can then be called in to neutralize the mine(s). The developmental prototype is being used to provide an interim operational system for the Canadian Forces in advance of a planned acquisition project. The IRMDS uses an autonomous semi-submersible vehicle to tow a side-scan sonar to map mine-like objects. The semi-submersible Dorado vehicle provides a stable towing platform for the towed side-scan sonar used in Interim Remote Minehunting and Disposal System. 64 The Journal of Ocean Technology Essays

11 Sonar DND The prototype CAST 1/x variable depth sonar, which became the first variable depth sonar (VDS) to become operational as the U.K. Type 199, or the Canadian AN/SQS-504. In 1947 intelligence suggested that fast, advanced-technology submarines of the Soviet Union would soon appear off the coasts of North America. The threat was underlined by hostilities initiated in Korea in In response, the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) initiated a building program of advanced design destroyer escorts, determined that a variable depth sonar (VDS) should be developed to resolve the sonar problem, and called for work to resume on Alexander Graham Bell s hydrofoil concept for a sub-chaser. It was planned that while the RCN engineers (in conjunction with industry) would develop the new atomic-era ships and Canadian-ized versions of three U.K. and U.S. hull-mounted sonars (AN/SQS-501 to 503). The Naval Research Establishment (Dartmouth, NS) would develop a towed variable-depth sonar for later fitment, and assess the prospects for ocean-going hydrofoil craft. The U.S. Navy and Royal Navy did not believe the simple Canadian towed sonar concept could work. But in side-by-side tests in 1958, the Canadian CAST/1x aboard HMCS Crusader and the U.K. Type 192x aboard HMS Brocklesby, yielded near-identical performance. The U.K. elected to buy the simpler Canadian sonar. The USN re-packaged existing U.S. sonars in a form similar to the Canadian system. The first VDS systems in service were the Canadian-built U.K. Type 199 (aboard HMS Leander) in March 1963, and the (identical) AN/SQS-504 aboard HMCS Assiniboine three months later. The Naval Engineers were soon designing an even more capable hull and towed sonar, the AN/SQS-505 (which is still in service). Canadian Navy: 100 Years, Vol. 5, Special Issue 65

12 Towed Arrays Harold Merklinger While early towed array sea trials used U.S.-built arrays, it became apparent that Canada would benefit from developing in-house design capabilities. Here Stu Hutton and Pat Barry display a modern towed acoustic array they built. In the mid-1970s Canada learned from the U.S. and U.K. about progress being made in towed arrays that enabled a passive submarine detection capability for naval vessels. Towed arrays had been tried during WWI, and were later adopted by mineral exploration organizations looking for sea-bed resources. The former Pacific Naval Laboratory and Naval Research Establishment, now renamed DREP (Defence Research Establishment Pacific) and DREA (Defence Research Establishment Atlantic) respectively, conducted a study of these arrays in naval applications. The work included trials where research vessels equipped with towed arrays participated in Navy exercises on both coasts. The evolving Experimental Towed Array Sonar System (ETASS) combined commercial arrays with Canadian-developed processing and display hardware. In the final stage of this work, a half-length U.S.Navy AN/SQR-19 array was substituted for the commercial array and trials were carried out aboard HMCS Fraser with excellent results. The subsequent Canadian Towed Array System (CANTASS) project combining Canadian-developed processing and display systems with the U.S. AN/SQR-19 sensor array delivered systems for the Halifax class frigates of the 1990s. A Canadian scientist (Barrie Franklin) posted to the U.K. to learn the physics of these arrays continued to progress their design after his return. A towed array sensor development project provided towed arrays for Canada s Oberon submarines, and a potential replacement design for the AN/SQR-19 array. The processing hardware developed for CANTASS was also applied to the AN/SQS-505 system, re-designating it the AN/SQS The Journal of Ocean Technology Essays

13 Beartrap Fairley Aviation The Rapid Securing Device, better known as the beartrap, was key to acquiring the helicopter and then moving it on deck. DND Sea King helicopter caught at low hover aboard an improved Restigouche class DDH. In 1956, Experimental Squadron VX 10 had been tasked to investigate whether anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters equipped with dipping sonars could be deployed from destroyersized ships. Tests were carried out first aboard HMCS Buckingham in 1956, then HMCS Ottawa. The innovative Beartrap Helicopter Hauldown and Rapid Securing Device was devised in conjunction with Fairey Aviation and Dowty to make helicopter operations possible in other than calm weather. The first Sea King was hauled down aboard HMCS Assiniboine in December This was to revolutionize ASW operations. Canadian Navy: 100 Years, Vol. 5, Special Issue 67

14 Many of the research and development projects contributed to the Tribal class update program are illustrated here. The foregoing is a brief illustrated account of some of the Naval and maritime science and technology accomplishments of Canadians over the last century. There are, of course, many more that have been omitted. I hope that this will, however, leave you with the knowledge that Canadians, both as individuals and as organizations, have made a strong impact on maritime matters. The emphasis here has been with regard to the Canadian Navy. But parallel contributions have been made across the entire maritime spectrum of activities including fisheries, marine biology, navigation, oceanography, ocean resources, and marine geophysics. Canada has a history of which to be proud. u Thanks to the National Geographic Photo Library, the Department of National Defence, the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the Canada Aviation Museum, the National Research Council of Canada, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and the Shearwater Aviation Museum for the illustrations used in this presentation. Harold M. Merklinger graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in June As a Reserve Entry Cadet he was not obliged to serve with the Armed Forces; instead, he became a scientist at the Naval Research Establishment (NRE) Atlantic in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. On educational leave from that establishment, he obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (U.K.) in 1968 and He then returned to NRE, now named Defence Research Establishment Atlantic (DREA), to resume his work in Underwater Acoustics. He was elected a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America in In 1991 he proceeded to DNDHQ where he acted as Director Research and Development, Communications and Space and then Director of Scientific Policy. In 1994 he returned to DREA as Director Technology Division, then Chief Scientist and finally as Director- General. He retired in June Since then he has co-authored a book on the history of DREA (Seas, Ships and Sensors) and contributed to the book The Naval Service of Canada , edited by Richard Gimblett. 68 The Journal of Ocean Technology Essays