The other components of Deep Siren include computers onboard subs and in communications facilities—which may be located ashore, or onboard ships or aircraft—to access messages, along with special software to interpret them. The software—written by RRK—matches different acoustic tones emitted by the buoys with a set of vocabulary words shared between the sender and receiver, performing the translation from words to tones and back to words again. This methodology allows communications to a submarine in a format similar to text messages that occur on a cell phone or PDA.

Deep Siren acoustic technology uses digital message processing to ensure that the receiver can move at a rate of greater than 30 knots (about 35 miles per hour) without incurring any measurable interference. Deep Siren uses digital signaling capabilities at lower frequencies—less than two kilohertz— and permits signal encryption to achieve secure sonar communications at a substantial range to a submarine at depth. Secure and encrypted signals permit more liberal communication from ship to submarine; enemy units may be able to pick up the signals, but they cannot decode them.

The Navy plans to conduct an at-sea military assessment of Deep Siren in June as part of its Communications at Speed and Depth initiatives.

10 Comments

1. 1. dafydd 06:30 PM 1/18/08

   What happened to ELF radio? Admittedly, the data rate is horribly slow, but it is real-time, and no worse than marine signal flags.

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2. 2. Mike Olson 08:36 PM 1/18/08

   Pretty cool!!

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3. 3. msadesign 12:33 PM 1/19/08

   What is the characteristic of the acoustic signal? will it harm sea life?

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4. 4. sdfiddler 05:24 PM 1/19/08

   For those whom are interested ELF was decomed in 2004. Current communications are restricted to recieve only via a buoy, or transmit/recieve via a mast or the periscope. This article indicated using the Ship's TDU, more likely the countermeasures launcher would be more appropriate, as SSXBT, SSIXS, and emergency transponders are used. I think it's a unique idea in this context. The only issue would be data rate transmissions and range. Good luck to the developers! Kudos to you and my former shipmates in the sub world!

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5. 5. Dennis H 05:34 PM 1/19/08

   As an ex-submariner, this looks great. Coming to PD and running at 5 knots is not a great place to be. This will be especially useful for boats operating in the Med.
   The ELF system we used to use no longer exists. I believe the antenna, which if I remember correctly, was buried up in the UP of Michigan, was de-activated and dug up back in the late 90's.

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6. 6. Dennis H 05:41 PM 1/19/08

   The only problem with using the countermeasures launch tube is that it's not big enough in diameter. The article said the device is 6" in diameter, and I think the countermeasures tubes are only 3" or 4" I.D.

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7. 7. 60bunnies 06:55 PM 1/19/08

   i understand why the navy needs to run tests, but as a peta member, i think doing sonar testings close to where sea mammals live is destroying their lives, and without sealife, our lives as humans could be destroyed too...think about it

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8. 8. musicalspirit 06:13 PM 1/20/08

   Let's tell the world the rest of our military secrets! Although this is fantastic, I think that the media releases too much information on what the U.S. DOD is working on. However I will say,"Hats off to the developer!"

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9. 9. gunondeer 04:27 PM 1/22/08

   Here is my idea:the use of neutrinos(ve) to send messages under water and directionally through the earth to another sub or transmitter/receiver . For example: the neutrino signal never leaves the confinds of the ocean or earth mass and is captured at a far point with a receptor. Interception is impossible. The energy requirement is well within the capacity of most atomic sub reactors. High energy neutrinos doesn't mean high energy use especially since the nano sciences can make all this possible For Example: instead of using the power required by a cyclotron, you scale down he neutrino production to a nano scale that an atomic sub can handle. The signal is detectable regardless of its size and it is capable of traveling in a straight line witout angulation considerations.
   Think about it: a whole new math to logistically figure out where a receptor target is on the opposite side of the earth; or, say from Tampa to Guam under ground and ocean.

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10. 10. USN/USL 02:51 PM 2/23/09

    The submarine community had a covert system for 20 years, N7 turned it off in 1994. So he could retire and reinvent the same sytem under a new name as a contractor. How sad it is to see nothing new, just the same old fraud!

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