Next generation marine precision navigation system

The US Navy plans to improve its capabilities for precision engagement, full dimensional protection and focused logistics. These objectives will be achieved through network centric warfare, which emphasizes systems rather than platforms, and uses advanced communications to network individual platforms, and provide significant improvement in their collective performance. In order to share intelligence effectively across platforms, each platform must maintain an accurate knowledge of its position. Common to all of the current requirements and future plans is the need to maintain accuracy with reduced dependence on GPS. With a view toward these current and future Navy marine navigation applications, Lockheed Martin Electronics and Surveillance Systems-Mitchel (NE&SS) is attempting to identify common cost-effective solutions for all Navy marine platforms. The objective is to provide accurate navigation and enhanced situational awareness without reliance on GPS. Some of the approaches that are addressed in this paper are extensions of techniques used with exceptional success in the navigation subsystem of the Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) Program. In particular, this paper discusses gravity technology, terrain contour matching fix technology, and sonar velocity technology. The paper also discusses the benefits gravity technology brings to navigation in the littoral.