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Missile Electronic Simulator Mk 101 Upgrade Successfully completed

NAVSEA News Wire

Release Date: 10/10/2003

By Peter Roy, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport Division

Newport, RI - The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) completed the modification/conversion of 50 Tomahawk All-Up-Round Electronic Simulators (AURES) MK 101 from Mod 3 to Mod 4. The Mod 4 will provide simulation capability for the new Tactical Tomahawk (TACTOM) missile, which is scheduled for Fleet introduction in CY '04. Fifty units have been converted, of which thirty-three are in the fleet, twelve are in the NUWC Combat Systems Lab, and five are on reserve status for future swap-out with Fleet assets, as needed.

The AURES MK 101 Mod 4 is a stand-alone portable unit that simulates normal and abnormal conditions of vertically launched Tomahawk Land Attack Missile variants, 109-C, D, and E (TACTOM). Uses include Combat Control System (CCS) development and design testing, submarine grooming, Fleet training, and submarine CCS troubleshooting.

The AURES, when interfaced with a load bank, provides a relatively high fidelity simulation of a Tomahawk missile. It can be placed topside and connected to the missile tube, or placed in an All-Up-Round Volumetric Shape and loaded into the tube. In this configuration, it is known as an All-Up-Round Simulator, or AURS.

The three-year development effort to convert AURES Mk 101 units to Mod 4 configuration began in 1999 and was funded by PMS-392. The upgrade was planned to add TACTOM capability (sponsor request), and to improve missile simulation fidelity (Submarine Tomahawk Action Board (STAB) recommendation). Major enhancements include expanded remote fault and override selection, alignment data validity processing, alignment progression/regression, missile representative digital data link, and the ability to declassify the random access memory without shutting down. In addition, the unit also now operates in two modes, remotely selectable, which are the simulator mode providing missile representative response times, and CCS test mode, which operates at a higher fidelity and allows for quicker test runs. The latter mode is especially useful for CCS Lab and platform troubleshooting.