SAES has been one of the 11 companies selected by the Office of the Secretary of Defense of United States companies.
Eleven Spanish companies, developers of technological solutions in the defense sector, have met with the acquisition responsible of US Armed Forces (Office of Comparative Technology/Special Operations; U. S. Army/Marine Corps; U. S. Navy and Air Force) in the second edition of the “Spanish Defense Industry Day” organized through the Defense Cooperation Attaché’s Office in collaboration with the International Relations Office of the General Directorate for Armament and Materiel (DGAM).
The SAES product “ROASW – Remote Operation ASW System” has aroused the interest of members of Comparative Technology Office (CTO) belonging to the Office of Secretary of Defense, being SAES one of the eleven companies selected to join this meetings by which the CTO, through the Foreign Comparative Testing Program (FCT), identify, test and evaluate foreign products and military equipment which could become reliable alternatives which might be of interest due to their cost efficiency and ease of acquisition for the U. S. Armed Forces.
This second edition has been in great demand on the part of Spanish companies so that the Office of Evaluation had to make a previous selection process, being overcome by Spanish leading companies such as SAES, Navantia or Indra. “They search new technological developments, competitive price, and products that involve a significant improvement,” says the Head of Anti-submarine Warfare Business Line of SAES, responsible for providing detailed information about ROASW system.
Remote Operation ASW (ROASW) System
ROASW system is a two system segment (Surface Segment ROASW-SS & Airborne Segment ROASW-AS) capable to operate an ASW/ASuW mission by means of controlling remotely from the ROASW-SS manned/unmanned air vehicle in order to receive via data relay (STANAG 7085 compliance) the acoustic and tactical information from sensors (passive, active and digital). Also, the ROASW-SS is capable to receive from the ROASW-AS non acoustic information like Radar and EO.
ROASW system meets with the requirements for improving the success of the ASW missions by reduced impact and cost equipment. Additionally, the system collaborates in a Network Centric Warfare (NCW) allowing quick and agile networked decisions. ROASW provides three communication modes:
• Line Of Sight Surface-To-Helo (S2H): from the ROASW-AS, the ROASW system relays SBY data together with the annotation and complementary data, AWR and FLIR/TV video through a data link (STANAG 7085) to the ROASW-SS.
• Line Of Sight Surface-To-Surface (S2S): tactical and intelligence information is interchanged between two ROASW-SS platforms through a data link (STANAG 7085).
• Surface-To-Satellite (S2SAT): tactical and intelligence information is interchanged beyond LOS through a satellite network.
ROASW system provides a unique, fully integrated ship/air weapon system, initially designed to enhance and extend the ship acoustic sensors. ROASW system also enhances the Anti Surface Warfare (ASuW) and specially the Anti Ship Surveillance and Targeting (ASST) mission extending ship’s horizon of Non-Acoustic Sensors (NAS).
The Swedish Royal Navy has equipped their Visby class corvettes with the ROASW system.