Low Cost, Reliable Towed Sensors Handling Systems Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Topic No.: N101-043 Topic Title: Low Cost, Reliable Towed Sensors Handling Systems Proposal No.: N101-043-1959 Firm: Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc. 9063 Bee Caves Road Austin, Texas 78733-6201 Contact: Harry Perkinson Phone: (512) 263-2101 Web Site: www.tri-austin.com Abstract: A systematic evaluation of multiple sensor array handling system concepts is proposed in which the performance of the current systems is used to establish a baseline. All attributes of the existing system are defined. All attributes of the proposed systems are evaluated. The scoring and weighting functions are derived from review of existing test and failure analyses performed on the existing systems. The evaluated concepts are scored and ranked and presented to the Navy for final selection. The selected concept is more evaluated in a second round evaluation effort that is used to define all of the attributes of the system design. The second round evaluation effort results in the definition of the system that will be scale prototyped in the Phase II effort. Benefits: Towed sensor array systems are critical to the Navy submarine fleet being able to prosecute the assigned missions. Reliability and availability of the towed sensor arrays has not been sufficiently high, resulting in degradation of mission performance for the fleet. Approximately 2/3 of the sensor array failures with respect to reliability and availability can be attributed to the handling system. An improved sensor array handling system will improve the reliability and availability of the towed sensor array. Return