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At the Forefront of Technology, Ranges Long in Service Undergo Updating; New Flexible Shallow-Water Range Being Installed
The U.S. Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) is a comprehensive undersea warfare systems test complex located 177 miles from West Palm Beach, Florida, at Andros Island in the Bahamas, adjacent to the Tongue of the Ocean. AUTEC is a detachment of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division, Newport (Rhode Island), which is a Naval Sea Systems Command activity. The AUTEC range and its upgrades are funded by the Chief of Naval Operations and the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR 5.0) as one of the Navy's major range test facilities. AUTEC with its high-precision test facilities has been on the leading edge of undersea range technology throughout its history. Improved tracking accuracy has been realized through enhancements in tracking algorithms, signal processing techniques, and hardware. Evolution in cable design and multiplexing have allowed unprecedented cost savings and flexibility in range improvements and modernization. From its beginning, AUTEC has taken advantage of cable and connector technology and the latest in cable design.
AUTEC's Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO) is a natural deep-water basin that provides isolation from shipping as well as close land proximity. The U.S. Navy has used the TOTO for more than three decades for research, development, testing, and training exercises. The TOTO basin allows relatively short cable runs to shore sites where termination, signal processing, and data telemetry to the main base are accommodated.
Originally conceived in the 1960s with a network of individually cabled bottom-mounted hydrophones and underwater telephones, the AUTEC ranges cover an in-water tracking area of more than 400 square miles. At AUTEC's inception in 1965, a total of 59 hydrophones were installed. The individual Simplex Technologies Inc. (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) hydrophone cables were spliced into wide-bandwidth hydrophones and laid from sea to shore with the assistance of TRW Inc. The hydrophone network has worked flawlessly for some 34 years.
AUTEC was able to take advantage of proven cable technology by utilizing the 1960s standard SX220 underwater telecommunications cable for the hydrophones. This is a cagedarmor coaxial submarine cable, with the armor imbedded inside a high-density polyethylene jacket,...