Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2006. / Thesis Advisor(s): Frank Giordano. "December 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-73). Also available in print.

Anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) are proliferating throughout the world, with some nations gaining the potential to launch them from submarines. The long range of these missiles implies that the submarine would rely on target detections from other forces. Communication delays and accuracy of locating data influence shot accuracy. This thesis uses a maneuvering target statistical tracker model (MTST) of target motion and indicates that the submarine can conduct an effective launch with accurate locating information even with long communications delays. The analysis shows that significant degradation of the probability of target intercept occurs for an alerted or evading target. The analysis then determines how this is affected by the presence of other potential targets for the missile. Two assumptions are made about the performance of the ASCM seeker. A simplistic seeker that selects a target at random performs very poorly if other naval escorts and random neutral shipping are encountered. A more intelligent seeker that uses information about the relative size of the ships and attacks the largest one results in greatly improved performance.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Hughes, Wayne P. Second Reader: Jackson, John E. "September 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on December 21, 2009. DTIC Descriptor(s): Airships, Military Operations, Ships, Sizes(Dimensions), Naval Vessels, Ocean Surface, Models, Threats, Navy, Teams(Personnel), Costs, Surfaces, Military Force Levels, Area Defense, Fire Control Systems, Battle Group Level Organizations, Extrapolation, Surface Launched. DTIC Identifier(s): Airship, Fire Control Systems, Blimp, Lighter-than-air, SLAT Missile, Anti Ship Cruise Missile(ASCM), Over-the-horizon Targeting, Theses. Author(s) subject terms: Airship, Blimp, Lighter-than Air, SLAT Missile, Anti-ship Cruise Missile (ASCM), Over-the-Horizon Targeting. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-138). Also available in print.

M.A. (History) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Since the attacks of September 11th, 2001 involving commercial aircraft used as missiles to attack critical assets located within the United States, the U.S has worked diligently to enhance its military air defense posture. Air defense of critical U.S. assets and National Special Security Events (NSSE) have been enhanced by adding static and proposed deployable Ground Based Air Defense (GBAD) systems designed to provide a [beta]last line[gamma] of defense from air attacks over U.S. soil. Currently this last line of defense is incorporated with the air and maritime military air defense forces providing a [beta]defense in depth[gamma] over critical assets, but does not support the air and maritime air defense over broader ranges of U.S. soil where critical assets do not exist. As the U.S. continues to enhance its air defense posture around critical assets and high priority events against terrorist attacks from the air, it is reasonable to assume that the terrorists may adjust their strategy for air attacks. The terrorists may deem it more beneficial to attack targets which lack a last line defense. It is therefore critical to examine new means and methods to provide GBAD in areas which may be determined to be less lucrative targets. In addition to the proposed alternate terrorist strategy, it is also reasonable to assume that increased security measures in the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will deter the terrorists from attempting another hijacking event; thus forcing them to seek other means of attack. Cruise missiles (CM) are a cheap and effective means of causing limited destruction. Cruise missiles can be programmed to maneuver and operate at various altitudes and are small enough to be transported with little to no visibility. A cruise missile in the wrong hands could find its way to within miles of the U.S. borders and coastlines. If launched; a cruise missile could engage random targets throughout the U.S., such as malls or schools, and cause a major upset to our national security. Therefore, a defense system should be established which incorporates GBAD that is capable of engaging the CM threat with little to no notice, over the entire U.S. border and coastal regions.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / We model the minimum-cost procurement and allocation of anti-ship cruise missiles to naval combat ships as a two-period stochastic integer program. Discrete scenarios in two periods define "demands" for missiles (i.e., targets and number of missiles required to kill those targets), which must be met with sufficiently high probabilities. After the former combat period, ships may replenish their inventories from a depot if desired and if the available depot inventory suffices. A force commander optimizes ship-to-target assignments to meet demands. The basic model solves slowly, so we add constraints to enforce reasonable operational directives, and add valid inequalities. These improvements reduce the solution time by 95% for the test case. Instances with up to six ships and five scenarios in each period then solve in less than one hour on a 2 GHz personal computer. / Lieutenant Commander, Israel Navy

The free electron laser (FEL) is proposed to meet the Navy's need for a speed-of-light high energy laser weapon capable of engaging a variety of targets including anti-ship cruise missiles, small boats, and theater ballistic missiles. A key attribute of FELs is good optical beam quality; in other words, they operate in only a few of the lowest-order transverse Gaussian modes. For weapons applications, a good mode quality is desired because it delivers the highest intensity on target ensuring a high level of lethality. A few higher-order modes can arise from the interaction of the electron beam with the optical beam, or from misalignments of the electron beam or resonator mirrors. High intensity on FEL optics can lead to mirror distortion due to heating and insufficient cooling of the mirror substrate. Mirror distortions, including astigmatism, can cause higher-order modes to appear affecting FEL performance. Therefore, it is important to quantify these higher-order modes because doing so uniquely identifies the optical field and may allow for corrective optics to single out the best modes for FEL lethality. This thesis will review free electron laser theory, and for the first time develop analytical solutions to quantify Hermite-Gaussian higher-order modes, develop a diagnostic for modal analysis, and determine the tolerance limits on mirror distortions.

The free electron laser (FEL) is among the latest technologies of interest to the U.S. military, in particular, the Navy. In naval applications, FEL laser would serve as a self-defense weapon system, protecting the ship from an array of threats including anti-surface cruise missiles and small boats. This system's potential range and deep magazine makes it ideal as point defense against incoming missiles. Its inexpensive cost of only a few dollars per engagement and multi-mission capability makes this future weapon system superior to the short-range missile-defense systems employed today. The most powerful FEL is currently located in Jefferson Lab, operating at 10 kW, two orders of magnitude short of the 1 MW power level required for weapons application. This thesis will describe the components and theory of operation of the FEL, as well as analyze two competing designs for the next step in the evolution of the future weapon system, the 100 kW FEL, proposed by Brookhaven and Los Alamos National Labs. Due to advances in NPS simulation techniques for the amplifier configuration, a more in depth analysis including the effects of electron beam tilt and shift is performed for the first time on these proposed designs.

Master of Science

An investigation of the flow field during eject of a cruise missile from the launch tube was undertaken using a "cold" flow simulation. A facility was developed whereby various design changes in the missile ejection apparatus, denoted the vertical support assembly, could be quickly and easily assessed in terms of the relative effects on the flow field. Flow visualization techniques using fluorescent dye allowed for documentation of flow patterns in the baseline configuration, such as backflow, jetting, and recirculation regions, as well as for the location of several potential hot spots. The mixing of the fuel-rich gas generator effulent and the air in the launch tube was assessed by thermocouple measurements; warm water was used to simulate the exhaust while ambient water represented the air initially contained in the launch tube. The results have shown that air is inefficiently mixed in large portions of the vertical support assembly volume. However, strong flameholding zones are established in the region vacated by the accelerating missile, where it is believed that secondary combustion could occur. The flow field characterization has shown that considerable improvements to system performance should be possible through geometrical changes to promote more efficient mixing. / M.S.