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RFID Helps Naval Ships Defend Themselves From Missile Attacks
Lockheed Martin offers RFID functionality with its decoy-launching system, to help international navies ensure they fire the proper rounds.
By Claire Swedberg
Dec. 14, 2009—Two years ago, a NATO member country first began using an RFID component for its navy's automated launch of expendables (ALEX) systems—fire decoys designed to counter inbound enemy anti-ship missiles (ASMs). Mounted onboard the navy's combatant vessels, the decoy launchers, provided by Lockheed Martin, were outfitted with RFID readers from Aviant Systems, and decoy cartridges were fitted with Aviant RFID tags.
The RFID technology offers ship's personnel real-time visibility into which types of decoys are deployed, as well as which barrels they are installed in, and helps ensure that the proper round is fired off, potentially in a split-second decision, while the vessel is under attack. The RFID-enabled automatic round-identification system (ARID) has been successful with that nation's navy, prompting Lockheed Martin to provide the same feature to all of its customers for ALEX systems throughout the world, while also offering to retrofit existing systems with RFID functionality. Purchasers of Lockheed Martin's ALEX system need not buy the RFID system, says Richard Porter, one of the firm's senior engineer, though the company advises that navies do so. "We certainly recommend its use," he says, "It makes the operation of the system much more effective, and ensures adequate system safety."
Most navies currently employ some type of a decoy-launching system, which has been available for many decades. When the ALEX system determines that an anti-ship missile is headed its way, based on cues from shipboard sensors (ESM and/or radar), the decoys are fired accordingly. Decoys deploy material such as chaff—aluminum-coated strands of glass or other material that emit infrared (IR) waves—thus creating false targets to confuse or counter approaching ASMs, and divert them from their intended target. One problem navies face is how to ensure the correct decoy is fired to counter a specific missile threat under battle conditions. Because there are many types of decoy cartridges, all of a similar size and shape, there is a potential for mistakes being made during the process of loading a launcher. Typically, the crew of the combat information center (CIC) room relies on data provided on paper, or over a voice link with the decoy loading crew.
Lockheed Martin worked with Aviant to develop a system that would enable the CIC crew to identify, in real time, the specific decoy in each launcher barrel. The technology was first developed approximately three years ago. At the time, Lockheed Martin sought a system that would automatically identify the type of decoy loaded in each barrel, in order to ensure that the proper decoy was deployed, as well as present the launcher status data on the ALEX system's master control panel.
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Dec. 14, 2009—Two years ago, a NATO member country first began using an RFID component for its navy's automated launch of expendables (ALEX) systems—fire decoys designed to counter inbound enemy anti-ship missiles (ASMs). Mounted onboard the navy's combatant vessels, the decoy launchers, provided by Lockheed Martin, were outfitted with RFID readers from Aviant Systems, and decoy cartridges were fitted with Aviant RFID tags.
The RFID technology offers ship's personnel real-time visibility into which types of decoys are deployed, as well as which barrels they are installed in, and helps ensure that the proper round is fired off, potentially in a split-second decision, while the vessel is under attack. The RFID-enabled automatic round-identification system (ARID) has been successful with that nation's navy, prompting Lockheed Martin to provide the same feature to all of its customers for ALEX systems throughout the world, while also offering to retrofit existing systems with RFID functionality. Purchasers of Lockheed Martin's ALEX system need not buy the RFID system, says Richard Porter, one of the firm's senior engineer, though the company advises that navies do so. "We certainly recommend its use," he says, "It makes the operation of the system much more effective, and ensures adequate system safety."
Most navies currently employ some type of a decoy-launching system, which has been available for many decades. When the ALEX system determines that an anti-ship missile is headed its way, based on cues from shipboard sensors (ESM and/or radar), the decoys are fired accordingly. Decoys deploy material such as chaff—aluminum-coated strands of glass or other material that emit infrared (IR) waves—thus creating false targets to confuse or counter approaching ASMs, and divert them from their intended target. One problem navies face is how to ensure the correct decoy is fired to counter a specific missile threat under battle conditions. Because there are many types of decoy cartridges, all of a similar size and shape, there is a potential for mistakes being made during the process of loading a launcher. Typically, the crew of the combat information center (CIC) room relies on data provided on paper, or over a voice link with the decoy loading crew.
Lockheed Martin worked with Aviant to develop a system that would enable the CIC crew to identify, in real time, the specific decoy in each launcher barrel. The technology was first developed approximately three years ago. At the time, Lockheed Martin sought a system that would automatically identify the type of decoy loaded in each barrel, in order to ensure that the proper decoy was deployed, as well as present the launcher status data on the ALEX system's master control panel.
