Nov. 30 -- GROTON -- From the oceans' depths, ThayerMahan's Outpost system hears all.
But it's some noise above the surface that has the local high-tech vendor angling for a significant role in undersea warfare. Simply put, ThayerMahan executives believe the technology they've developed and deployed can provide some relief for a U.S. submarine industrial base with lagging production schedules.
"They're on the right track," U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said this week, referring to ThayerMahan's pitch.
Reports of delays in submarine production have appeared in recent weeks in military publications, with National Defense quoting Rear Adm. Jonathan Rucker, the Navy's program executive officer for attack submarines, as saying it will be a challenge to meet a 2028 production goal of three submarines a year -- two of the Virginia-class fast-attack variety and one of the ballistic missile-firing Columbia class -- while maintaining existing boats.
Rucker, who spoke at a symposium, said U.S. shipyards will not meet a goal of 1.5 submarines this year, instead coming in closer to 1.3 boats.
In October, General Dynamics' chairman and chief executive officer, Phebe Novakovic, said Electric Boat's work on Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines at its yards in Groton and Quonset Point, R.I., would be scaled back because of supply-chain issues that delayed delivery of construction components.
Into the fray comes ThayerMahan, whose Outpost system can perform undersea surveillance for a tiny fraction of what a submarine costs. An Outpost consists of an unmanned surface vessel that tows an array of acoustic sensors that scan the depths, collecting digital data and transmitting it to an onshore base where processors communicate with users in near-real time.
ThayerMahan collaborated on Outpost with Ocius Technology, an Australian developer of unmanned vessels, and has taken delivery of two of them. In an April demonstration, Outpost identified undersea surface and airborne contacts near San Diego.
"An Outpost system costs 'on the order of $2 million.' With it operating 90% of the time...an Outpost can last three to five years," Michael Connor said.
"A Virginia-class submarine...costs up to $5 billion to build," he added.
Deploying an Outpost system requires sending four or five people to sea. On shore one pilot could operate 10 to 20 Output systems while at ThayerMahan's Operations Center one acoustics analyst can review data from five to ten systems.
"Where we are today was foreseeable," Connor noted about current submarine production challenges due to loss in skilled workforce capacity and industrial might advantage."
"We need to do things more cost-effectively."
ThayerMahan has taken a "Silicon Valley approach" by advocating for innovation needs raising private capital securing Navy interest which provided support funding independent study confirming system meets requirements