NEWPORT, R.I. — The Rim of the Pacific Harpoon Demonstration Team (Harpoon Demo) from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport recently won the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) 2018 Lt. Gen. Thomas R. Ferguson Jr. Systems Engineering Excellence Award. This annual award recognizes an outstanding individual or group demonstrating outstanding achievement in the practical application of systems engineering principles, promotion of robust systems engineering principles throughout the organization or effective systems engineering process development.
The U.S. Navy Submarine Harpoon Demonstration Project had the objective of launching an encapsulated Harpoon missile with successful target acquisition at the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in 2018. It successfully met all objectives on July 12, 2018, less than one year from project initiation. The submarine platform, with the NUWC Newport test team aboard, participated in the RIMPAC 2018 Ship Sinking Exercise and launched one encapsulated Harpoon that successfully acquired and impacted the target hulk.
To achieve project success, the team executed a compressed schedule including systems engineering, software development, integration, test, logistics, weapon system safety, alteration development, including obtaining all approvals, which were completed on time and within budget.
The NUWC Newport Harpoon Demo Team performed historical data analysis for previous live fires, submarine underway testing of inert shapes and launched a live-fire missile at RIMPAC. This step eliminated the need for full-scale testing, including flight testing as part of capability validation (operational test) and resulted in $10 million in cost savings.
Additionally, by developing requirements, conducting systems engineering analyses and developing preliminary fleet documentation and logistics products for the follow-on program of record, the team saved another $5 million.
The NUWC Newport Harpoon Demo Team members include from the Undersea Warfare Combat Systems Department, program manager and team lead Edward Rishmany, lead systems engineer William Roman, Timothy Donahue, Michael Gower, Ibrahim Fofanah, George Sabato, William Silveira, and Carl Spicola; from the Platform and Payload Integration Department, senior project engineer Peter Roy, Douglas Duchene, Linda Egan, Adam Floor, Daniel Foley, Louis Krue, Michael Lynch, Geoffrey McNally, Darrell Nelson, Peter Phelps, John Rizzolo, Donna Sjoblom, Andrew Sullivan, Andrew Wesner, Gordon Williams, and Maurice Zimmerman; from the Corporate Operations Department, Janice Burke; and from the Sensors and Sonar Systems Department, Kevin Quinn.
The NDIA presented the award to Rishmany and Roy, on behalf of the team, at the 2018 Systems and Mission Engineering Conference held Oct. 23 in Tampa, Florida.
NUWC Division Newport, part of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), is one of two divisions of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. NUWC Division Newport’s mission is to provide research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, undersea offensive and defensive weapons systems, and countermeasures. NUWC’s other division is located in Keyport, Washington.