AROUND THE FLEET
WAVES OF
THE FUTURE NEW TECHNOLOGY COULD IMPACT NAVY Story by David Smalley Office of Naval Research
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ollowing sea-tests that concluded Sept. 18 off the California coast, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division (NSWCCD) and other partners see a future of predicting the strength and size of the next wave. The Environmental and Ship Motion Forecasting (ESMF) system, a Future Naval Capability effort supported by ONR’s Sea Warfare and Weapons Department, seeks to provide sea-based forces with new capabilities for difficult operations like ship-to-ship transfer of personnel, vehicles or materiel-giving operators sea condition information at levels of accuracy never possible before. The system combines new hardware and software that will let Sailors and Marines know ship and wave movements up to 30 seconds before they actually happen, providing operators precious extra seconds to make adjustments to avoid collisions or other dangerous situations for the crew. “This is literally unchartered territory in seabased operations,” said Dr. Paul Hess, program manager at ONR. “It’s like a window into the imminent future for the operators of ships and ship systems.