US Navy Helicopter Strike Squadron Patrols South China Sea

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.