SBIR-STTR Award

Since submarine construction and modernization costs are soaring higher and higher, ways to reduce those costs are continually under review. Historically there are many submarine applications for readily available commercial electronics equipment. However, most commercial electronics equipment will not survive and provide the desired performance in the rigorous submarine environment. The cost of adapting commercial electronics equipment to the submarine environment is very expensive and in some cases prohibitive. The development of an innovative low-cost universal submarine electronics equipment packaging alternative to the repackaging approach currently applied to commercial electronics equipment will provide for cost effective submarine adaptation of commercial electronics equipment. The ultimate goal of the Universal Submarine Electronics Equipment Packaging Engineering Development is to reduce the cost associated with adapting readily available commercial electronics equipment for use in the submarine environment and thereby achieve significant overall submarine construction and modernization cost benefit.

Systems Engineering and Analytics, Inc. (SE&A) performed SBIR Topic N92-053 Phase I study to determine feasibility of a Universal Submarine Electronic Equipment Packaging System (USEEPS) Development to fulfill the requirement for a low cost packaging system to accommodate commercial off the shelf (COTS) electronic equipment. During Phase I, the Advanced Mine Detection Subsystem (AMDS) was designated the candidate COTS electronic equipment, and the USEEPS Critical Item Development Requirements (CIDR) were established to guide USEEPS development and assure development success. Achievement of the USEEPS requirements will be accompanied by significant reductions in the amount of the structure, complexity and number of components, overall weight, and cost compared to qualified submarine electronic equipment enclosure systems. USEEPS development includes low technical risk and will produce a low cost universal accommodation of COTS electronic equipment to satisfy the New Attack Submarine Combat System need. The Technical Objectives of SE&A's Phase II USEEPS Engineering Development include: * Demonstrating the Baseline USEEPS Structure Critical Item Development hardware design has the requisite structural integrity to meet USEEPS CIDR requirements. * Generating a USEEPS cooling methodology applicable to the overall COTS electronic equipment accommodation by USEEPS. * Generating a USEEPS cooling subsystem design concept to fulfill the AMDS cooling requirements and the applicable USEEPS CIDR requirements.