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	Director, Operational Test & Evaluation
	FY98 Annual Report

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION & CONTRIBUTION TO JOINT VISION 2010

The Fixed Distributed System (FDS) is an ocean surveillance system which employs seabed acoustic sensors distributed over large ocean areas to detect, classify, localize, and track submarine contacts in selected areas of the world. The Advanced Deployable System (ADS) is a deployable undersea surveillance system designed to provide the Joint Force Commander with a timely and reliable picture of undersea activity. Both of these systems contribute to full-dimensional protection through information superiority. FDS consists of two subsystems: an Underwater Segment (UWS) and a Shore Signal Information Processing Segment (SSIPS). FDS was designed to augment the existing Sound Ocean Surveillance System (SOSUS) and be compatible with the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System, including Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SUR-TASS) ships. Similarly, ADS consists of an UWS, a Processing and Analysis Segment (PAS), and a Mission Support Segment (MSS).

Engineering development of FDS commenced in 1989. An initial seabed subsystem for the first FDS was installed and became the test article for OT. Initial operation of this system occurred in 1995. Plans had called for procurement of 11 operational systems through 2006. However, the Navy truncated the program and limited procurement to the engineering development model for the first full field, an additional FDS system, and training equipment. The additional system supported the demonstration of a rapidly deployable variant, FDS-D (deployable) in 1994. This FDS-D experiment proved the deployment and retrieval concepts and successfully demonstrated the FDS acoustic detection and tracking concepts with submarine targets using Navy operators. The FDS-D experiment led to the signing of the ADS Operational Requirements Document (ORD) in 1994. The TEMP was drafted and development proceeded.

After the entire system FDS-1 was installed and operating, and the initial Surveillance Direction System (SDS) software was installed, an OA of FDS (OT-IID / SDS OT-I) was conducted at the FDS-1 site in September 1996. SDS is the command and control component that interfaces the FDS with the Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS). This OA was conducted in lieu of an OPEVAL due to the cancellation of FDS Milestone III in 1994.

OPTEVFOR found FDS potentially operationally effective and potentially operationally suitable but some problems were noted in the areas of tactical support and survivability. FDS achieved FOC in September 1996. Due to the cancellation of OPEVAL and Milestone III, testing in accordance with the FDS TEMP 1009 Rev. 2.3 has been essentially completed. The only additional FDS testing scheduled is the SDS OPEVAL in early FY99.

Initial system-level testing of ADS was conducted in March 1998 in an Integrated Article Test (IAT) designated OT-IA. The test configuration consisted of two complete nodes of the system deployed in shallow water. The objectives included exercising the emplacement procedures and calibrating the in water segment as to location, orientation, and straightness. The arrays were deployed by a general-purpose offshore supply vessel that was modified for ADS deployment, thus demonstrating the ORD requirement for deployment from a surface craft of opportunity (COOP). The PAS was installed in shore based vans. The full system was exercised using the current software build and included classification and target tracking of real targets and a towed projector.

DOT&E added ADS to the oversight list in April 1998 due to its potential tactical significance as a contingency deployable undersea surveillance asset.

Using the IAT results, modeling and simulation reviews, and other development tests dating back to 1996, COMOPTEVFOR completed an EOA of ADS in June 1998. The COOP variant of ADS was potentially operationally effective. Potential operational suitability could not be determined due to system immaturity. Four significant areas of risk were identified by this EOA: (1) Deployment Time; (2) Joint Interoperability; (3) Interoperability; and (4) Tactics. These pre-oversight test results were briefed to DOT&E in August 1998. DOT&E agrees with this assessment and is satisfied with the testing to date.

An Analysis of Alternatives and revisions to the ADS ORD and TEMP reflecting DOT&E oversight are in progress and will be completed in FY99. A full-up, system-level test is planned for April 1999. This Fleet Exercise Test (OT-IB) will be held during a "Kernel Blitz" fleet amphibious exercise.