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New ASW Tactical Assessment System Ready for Fleet Testing

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS040608-04

Release Date: 6/8/2004 11:39:00 AM

From Fleet Anti-submarine Warfare Command Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Barely a month after its creation, the Navy's newest operational command, Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Command (FLTASWCOM), has already reached milestones in its mission to integrate and improve anti-submarine warfare (ASW) in the Navy.

Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Command (FLTASWCOM), along with Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet's ASW directorate and Naval Undersea Warfare Command (NUWC), is developing an ASW tactical assessment tool that will enable Sailors to assess and monitor fleet ASW readiness at the platform, strike group, theater and fleet levels based on standardized metrics.

Called the ASW Tactical Assessment System, the Web-based program is essentially an enormous database -- a centralized warehouse with information from all the Navy's ASW exercises.

"This is a first step as we move toward our goal of improving every aspect of the Navy's ASW, from detection to neutralization," said Rear Adm. John J. Waickwicz, FLTASWCOM's commander.

Simply put, the new system will enable FLTASWCOM to assess current ASW tactics and share lessons learned fleetwide. That will help get new ASW technologies and training to the fleet faster.

The ASW Tactical Assessment System is currently under review by analysts at FLTASWCOM and Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and will be phased in over time.

The new system will get its first test during Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2004, a major maritime exercise scheduled in the waters off Hawaii from June 29-July 27.

"RIMPAC will mark the first time that individual ships, submarines, and aircraft will be able to input ASW data into the integrated database for analysis," explained Mike Coughlin, FLTASWCOM reconstruction and analysis team leader in San Diego. "Exercise observers will also be able to enter comments that will become part of the data. This new capability will greatly enhance our abilities to reconstruct and analyze exercises."

The fleet should be able to access and input ASW data into the system by this fall. Together with NUWC in Newport, R.I., FLTASWCOM is developing tools to enhance data collection by individual units, standardizing the analysis of gathered information and computing standardized metrics. According to Coughlin, operators eventually will be able to automatically input data from exercises, as well as real-world operations, into the system for analysis and evaluation.

The ASW Tactical Assessment System is just the beginning of FLTASWCOM's initiatives as they focus on improving integrated ASW operations, tactics and doctrine, training and exercises, research and development, and education.

"We have the 'best of the best' working together to revitalize, integrate, and improve ASW," Waickwicz said. "We've started down the road to improvement and will continue making strides, as we test and implement this new tool for assessing and improving our ASW performance."

Established April 8, FLTASWCOM is headquartered in San Diego with detachments in Norfolk, Va., and Yokosuka, Japan.