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Picking Your Way Through a Minefield…Made Easy

For Immediate Release: Jan 21, 2003

If you know where the mines are, you don't necessarily have to sweep them up—just don't drive over them. It comes down to knowing where you are and what's around you—what the military calls "having situational awareness."

The military calls safe paths through minefields and other obstacles "lanes." On land, if you've got the time, you can mark lanes with signs or even fences. It's a little harder to mark them in the water, which makes a Marine Corps amphibious assault even more dangerous than it needs to be.

To reduce this risk, the Office of Naval Research sponsors the development of a suite of technologies that help Sailors and Marines avoid mines when they hit the beach. At Camp Pendleton, California, four systems are being tested during Exercise Transparent Hunter, 20 - 31 January:

  • Moving Map is the Naval Research Laboratory's low-cost display that keeps an assault craft in its lane and out of harm's way. Assault craft making an amphibious landing through a minefield need cleared lanes. The narrower the lane needed, the faster it can be cleared, and the better able a craft is to stay in its lane, the safer will be its transit. Moving Map can be installed aboard any Amphibious Assault Vehicle (AAV), Landing Craft Utility (LCU), or Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC).
  • Augmented Reality Visualization for the Common Operation Picture (ARVCOP), developed by Technology Systems, Inc., overlays navigation data onto a ship pilot's field of view, displaying both navigational and tactical data on a bridge mounted display. It "augments reality" by merging camera images with computer-generated data. ARVCOP's intuitive presentation of navigational data is especially valuable at night and during other periods of low visibility.
  • The Expeditionary Warfare Decision Support System (EDSS), from SAIC, is a computer program that helps an amphibious landing force plan and execute all phases of an operation. It can be used in everything from a traditional large scale amphibious assault to a Force Recon rubber boat raid.
  • The Littoral Remote Sensing (LRS) program (MITRE Corporation) uses remote surveillance and reconnaissance assets to support expeditionary operations through very shallow water and onto the beach. It gives the Sailor and Marine at the front access to some of the most sophisticated national sensors.

*Developed as part of ONR's Organic Mine Countermeasures Future Naval Capability.

About the Office of Naval Research

The Department of the Navy’s Office of Naval Research provides the science and technology necessary to maintain the Navy and Marine Corps’ technological advantage. Through its affiliates, ONR is a leader in science and technology with engagement in 50 states, 55 countries, 634 institutions of higher learning and nonprofit institutions, and more than 960 industry partners. ONR, through its commands, including headquarters, ONR Global and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., employs more than 3,800 people, comprising uniformed, civilian and contract personnel.