Tactical COMMS/ESM System for Submarines A Front-end Perspective South African AOC Chapter (Aardvark Roost) Conference 25 th - 26 th August 2009 at CSIR Conference Centre, Pretoria uwe.trautwein@medav.de
Overview Introduction & Motivation See also Proceedings Big Crow Conference Nov 2008 : Dirk Baker The Challenges of Developing a COMINT DF & Monitoring Antenna for Submarine Operations COMMS/ESM the acronym puzzle The Submarine as a surveillance platform System Overview Direction Finding Capabilities Conclusions 2
Introduction COMMS Radio communications reconnaissance system Communications Intelligence - Strategic system component /ESM Electronic support measures Tactical system component Identification and tracking of potential threats EOB picture Integration into the Electronic Warfare System Overlap : detection and interception of signals 3
Motivation Covert operation Submarine stays submerged only the antenna is deployed above surface Ideal reconnaissance platform for coastal areas and open sea COMMS/ESM advantage Extended radio horizon for lower frequency COMMS signals Enables the submarine to look behind the horizon Submarine w COMINT antenna d1 d2 Tx antenna h1 h2 ~2 m at periscope depth h1 h2 LOS Distance No refraction 2,0 m 5,0 m 13,0 km 4
Obvious Benefits of the Direction Finding for COMMS Signals Provide a bearing for a detected signal Only this enables ESM capabilities Allows to focus detection on a target area Prerequisite for locating Allows intelligence fusion with other sensor data 5
Some Less Known Benefits of the Direction Finding for COMMS Signals Allows reliable automated emitter detection in dense scenarios By jointly exploiting spectrum and azimuth information Provide SNR gain for the detection of weak signals Separation of stations for certain signal types Frequency hopper networks Duplex communications Separation of multiple co-channel signals 6
The Technical Challenges Wideband DF antenna on very compact space (300kHz 3GHz) Outer antenna diameter (radome): 510 mm High phase accuracy requirements for the DF system Antenna pattern quality impairments expected due to mutual coupling Pressure-tight, thick radome - Probably affecting wave propagation Integrated monitoring capability Existing ESM ELINT antenna on top Electromagnetic coupling, space for cable feed-through Tight specification parameters set by the customer Uncompromised DF accuracy up to 30 deg elevation DF and monitoring operation up to 70 deg elevation 7
System Overview System components Antenna COMINT Rack All liquid cooled Multifunctional Consoles Software defined radio concept Medav CCT receiver with integrated FFT processor, output via Gigabit LAN interface General purpose computer platform for all processing tasks 8
Seamless Submarine Integration MFCC for alternative systems COMMS/ESM (Medav) Brand name: CRS-8000 Communications Reconnaissance System Radar ESM (Saab Avitronics) Radar Optronics Etc COMMS/ESM with up to three simultaneous operator roles Supervisor Wideband operator Tracking operator Post-processing operator 9
Detail of SIGINT Antenna System ELINT unit UHF arrays Radome VHF arrays HF array RF assembly SIGINT antenna comprises ELINT and COMINT antennas on top of one mast ELINT antenna is an existing assembly. COMINT antenna has several key assemblies: * Radome * UHF array * VHF arrays * HF array * RF assembly * Mast interface and clamp * Wet diploops SAAB AVITRONICS 10
Basic Principle of the Correlative Interferometer for Direction Finding Vector correlation of the complex receive voltages with the array manifold The array manifold is obtained by antenna calibration measurements Test signal x Plane wave front k = 2πf c /c H ( ) m c ϕ = a( ϕ) Angular power spectrum 2 φ 1 3 4 r 5 Measurement vector m1 m 2 m 3 = m m4 m 5 [ 51 ] ( ϕ) ˆ ϕ = arg max{ c } m Peak search in the angular power spectrum For free : Quality criterion ϕ Complex voltages! phase synchronous receive chains 11
Wideband coverage Limited array size small phase differences poor correlation properties + high phase measurement accuracy Wideband use trade-off must consider also the upper band edge Very weak spatial selectivity! Correlation 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 30 MHz 130 MHz 230 MHz 330 MHz 430 MHz 530 MHz 630 MHz 0.4 High side lobe 0.2 0-200 -150-100 -50 0 50 100 150 200 DoA [degree] Ideal 5 element array 12
Elevation Coverage - Motivation Operational aspects The submarine is always a Low altitude platform Airborne emissions Tolerate roll & pitch of the boat Discriminate between airborne and shipborne emissions Elevation coverage vs. Elevation estimation Not exactly the same Elevation angle 13
The Common Case: Degradation vs. Elevation Degradation is frequency-dependent visible even for modest elevation angles Degradation can turn into complete failure Full 3D calibration was found to be inevitable Requires optimized calibration grid to limit measurement time Benefit: DF provides elevation information 4.5 4 3.5 3-5.0 deg elev. 5.0 deg elev. 0.0 deg elev. 10 9 8 7 1008.00 600.00-3000.00 996.00 MHz RMS of 2 different frequency subbands RMS error [deg] 2.5 2 1.5 1 RMS error [deg] 6 5 4 3 2 0.5 1 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 Frequency [MHz] 0-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Elevation [deg] 14
Antenna Calibration and Direction Finding Test Setup National Antenna Test Range at Paardefontein, South Africa Fully automated measurements Prototype DF System 15
Thorough Prove of Specification Compliance Factory Acceptance: Measurements over the full specified volume The DF accuracy (RMS azimuth error) The Monitoring Sensitivity (E-Field strength to achieve 10 db SNR) 16
System Performance Achievements All specifications parameters are finally met DF accuracy typically better then 2 RMS Monitoring sensitivity with good margin Even for full elevation range Comprehensive verification during FAT 202,150 total samples over azimuth, elevation and frequency Very good reproducibility between systems Azimuth error [deg] 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 2008-07-03_FAT-UHF_ExtEl_001.df 0.5 0-10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Elevation [deg] / 660.00-3000.00 MHz 17
Emitter Detection in the Joint Power- Azimuth Domain Automated Process of identifying individual transmitters incl. base parameters: fc, B, SNR, phi Used for alarm conditions, reporting, further analysis Exploits 3D cluster structure of FFT based DF results Reliable results for many scenarios where pure power spectrum analysis must fail Raw PSD [dbm] -60-70 -80-90 -100-110 Azimuth [ ] 360 330 300 270 240 210 180 150 120 90 60 Co-sited emissions 30-120 0 390.2 390.4 390.6 390.8 391-130 390.2 390.4 390.6 390.8 391 391.2 391.4 Frequency [MHz] 391.6 Frequency [MHz] 18
Foreword on Polarization Treatment of polarization in the COMINT DF context is rather sparse HF space wave DF = mixed polarization Either monopoles (good Xpol) or combination of monopoles and loops Common approach for VHF/UHF: The system is specified for vertical polarization Important figure: Cross polarization (Xpol) attenuation (db) Horizontal source Vertical element response (HV) Small elements in compact configurations have typically a low Xpol Good values are 15 db and more, less is not uncommon Question: What happens if a Vpol system experiences Hpol? 19
Vertically polarized source DF estimates for a defined DOA 360 330 V-Pol source / V-Pol DF 300 270 240 Azimuth [deg] 210 180 150 Vertically polarized source 120 90 60 30 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 Frequency [MHz] 20
Horizontally polarized source DF estimates for the same DOA Completely useless 360 330 H-Pol source / V-Pol DF 300 270 240 Azimuth [deg] 210 180 150 Horizontally polarized source 120 90 60 30 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 Frequency [MHz] 21
Joint Vertical +Horizontal DF DF estimates for the same DOA Valid DF estimate is retained Source polarization information is provided 360 H-Pol source / V-Pol DF 330 H-Pol source / Joint V-H-Pol DF 300 270 240 Azimuth [deg] 210 180 150 Horizontally polarized source 120 90 60 30 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 Frequency [MHz] 22
Dual-polarization DF Demonstration of joint V-H-Pol DF in a broadcast band with both vertical and horizontal sources 2008-07-03_Env-VHF_AzCut_002 300 Azimuth [ ] 200 100 Elevation [ ] 1000 50 0 H-Pol V-Pol incl. elevation Raw PSD [dbm] -80-100 -120 230 235 240 245 250 Frequency [MHz] 23
Superresolution and the multiple sources problem Superresolution high accuracy of the estimated angles Resolution of multiple signals on the same carrier frequency (Co-channel signals) Conventional DF system result Beam former := Peak search in the power azimuth spectrum In general undefined, depends on power ratio of the sources, the azimuth spacing, the antenna properties, etc. Superresolution DF relies on the suppression of the co-channel signals by a weighted sum of the N antenna signals Theoretical limit for the number of resolvable signals is thus N-1 Important distinction: Uncorrelated/Correlated sources 24
Superresolution DF Test Setup
Superresolution DF The MEDAV submarine based system can resolve up to four cochannels signals by using superresolution DF Music power azimuth spectrum [db] 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 MUSIC pseudo azimuth spectrum with 3 co-channel sources 5 0 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360 Azimuth [deg] 26
Conclusions An ultra compact SIGINT antenna and a completely water-cooled, ruggedized COMMS/ESM system with outstanding DF capabilities was successfully developed, qualified and produced. It forms an integral part of the submarine s combat management system. It can be used for tactical reconnaissance and radio communications intelligence gathering. Significant contribution to upgrade the capabilities of submarines for new tasks. 27
Sea Trials in Progress 28