The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Newport Division has invited industry and academic institutions to use its virtual submarine (VSUB) to advance submarine technologies in partnership with the U.S. Navy.

VSUB is described as “a set of submarine non-propulsion electronic systems including combat control, radio room, periscopes,  antennas, sonar, and other systems as well as launchers, weapons, and unmanned vehicles that are connected via a secure campus network” that facilitates emulation of any submarine platform in the U.S fleet.

VSUB supports testing, evaluation, experimentation, integration, lifecycle support and rapid prototyping of undersea warfare capabilities. NUWC’s objective is to optimize its systems and any which it supports, and it says collaboration with industry and academia on technology development is the next step toward enhancing naval fleet mission-execution capabilities.

To provide an up-close-and-personal experience with the technology, attendees at the September 19-20, 2017 National Defense Industry Association conference in Groton, Connecticut were invited to tour the VSUB laboratory at Newport and see its new addition: the Virginia Payload Tube Facility (VPTF).

There, attendees saw a Virginia-configured Block III salvo of simulated Tomahawk cruise missiles where the VSUB received mission data and tasking via tactical communications networks from a fleet node in Norfolk, Virginia into the VSUB’s radio room and combat system, where operators planned and executed an end-to-end strike of simulated missiles hosted in the VPTF.

For more information on the NUWC’s virtual submarine, interested parties may contact the U.S. Navy’s John Bowdren or James Broadmeadow or NUWC.