By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
By taking off from the deck of the US Navy DDG 51 destroyer USS Dewey, a MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopters are conducting a range of training and war preparation operations in the South China Sea, something likely to enable land-sea island area reconnaissance, sub-hunting and countermine operations.
The MH-60R “Romeo” Navy helicopters, as they are called, are increasingly armed with new generations of sub-hunting technology, mine-detection systems and manned-unmanned targeting. The Navy published photographs of its Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron HMS 37 landing on the USS Dewey in the South China Sea at night, suggesting that perhaps certain critical scout missions can take place under the cover of darkness.
Specifics regarding which technical systems, sensors and weapons were being employed on the Strike helicopters were not published by the Navy, yet there are now several cutting edge MH-60R helicopter modernization efforts underway likely to change the character and tactical approach of warship-launched helicopters. It is conceivable, for instance, that some of the “Romeo” Sea Hawks are deploying with a cutting edge laser-based Mine Detection System called Airborne Laser Mine Detection System, a technology which uses “pulsed laser light and streak tube receivers” to image the “near-surface” water column in search of all kinds of mine variants. The ALMDS became operational in 2016, and in more recent years, Northrop Grumman innovators have told Warrior that efforts have been underway to accelerate the mine-identifying kill chain and integrated AI-enabled computer automation.
The ALMDS pod is mechanically attached to the MH-60S with a standard Bomb Rack Unit 14 mount and electrically via a primary and auxiliary umbilical cable to the operator console, according to a statement from the system’s maker, Northrop Grumman.
“It does not use any bombs. It flies at a certain altitude and a certain speed. The laser emits beams at a certain rate. Cameras underneath the helicopter receive reflections back from the water. The reflections are processed to create images displayed on a common consol on the helicopter,” Jason Cook, the Navy’s Assistant Program Manager, ALMDS, told Warrior Maven in an interview several years ago about the system.
Cook explained that the camera or receiver on the helicopter is called a Streak Tube Imaging LIDAR (STIL). The laser is released in a fan pattern, and photons received back are transferred into electrons, creating a camera-like image rendering.
“Instead of a human out searching and sweeping, ALMDS achieves a higher rate of speed and covers a lot more area,” he added.
Northrop information on ALMDS further specifies that the system can operate in both day and night operations without stopping or towing equipment in the water.
“Allowing unteathered operations, it can attain high area search rates. This design uses the forward motion of the aircraft to generate image data negating the requirement for complex scanning mechanisms and ensuring high system reliability,” Northrop information states.
Navy weapons developers say the camera or receiver on the helicopter is called a Streak Tube Imaging LIDAR (STIL). The laser is released in a fan pattern, and photons received back are transferred into electrons, create a camera-like image rendering.
A 2003 study from the Naval Surface Warfare Center cites how “pulsed light” sent out from a three-dimensional electro-optic sensor STIL system can “identify objects of interest on the ocean bottom.”
Having this technology operational, it seems, offers a few new strategic nuances. First and foremost, detecting mines more quickly and at further ranges of course makes the LCS much more survivable. It will be able to pursue attack, anti-submarine and reconnaissance missions with a much lower risk of mine-attack. Furthermore, identifying the location of mines at greater distances brings the added advantage of enabling lower-risk small boat missions to approach target areas for shore missions, surface attack or recon.
Sonobuoy-equipped MH-60R helicopters launched from amphibious assault ships can search for submarines within a certain reachable radius of its host ship, depending their range and mission endurance, yet the scope of the search is of course limited by the constraints of any manned air platform.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization and Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
