USS E 4 Chapter 4 Pages From Enterprise

8/13/2019 USS E 4 Chapter 4 Pages From Enterprise

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102 USS Enterprise CVA(N) / CVN-65: The Worlds First Nuclear-powered Aircraft Carrier

that timely response was affected. Workin the 1950s ended with the developmentof NTDS.

InEnterprisesNTDS the radar con-soles were all connected to a centralcomputer, the CP-642 A, which created

graphics for all the systems consoles. Thusinformation was broadcast automatically.Raw data from all Big Es sensors as wellas her orbiting aircraft and escort shipsalso equipped with NTDS could befed in, processed, and presented. Rapiddetection, location, tracking, velocity,identity, and size of both friendly andenemy vessels, aircraft, and missiles were

calculated in the multi-transistor proces-sors. These were the pre-microprocessordays of the silicone chip. The processedsolutions were automatically displayed onthe NTDS scopes in CIC, allowing rapidand simplified assessment of a complex

and changing picture, doing away withmultiple human steps. The NTDS pro-vided data linking between Enterpriseand her aircraft and ships, so that vitalevolving tactical information was quicklyexchanged between the units with noneed for analysis by operators, or plot-ting and the relay and verbal exchange byplotters to controllers, backwards and for-wards. Information flow sped up, giving

commanders onEnterprisean immediatepicture and the defenders of the ship andfleet a timely heads up on threats andmissions. Although NTDS was installedfirst aboard the Pacific Fleet carrierUSSOriskany (CVA-34)for evaluation, fol-lowed by two frigates (DLGs),Enterprisewas immediately provided with this newdigitized data system and became a flag-ship, both in evaluation and service, for

NTDS in the Atlantic Fleet.2The NTDS was a semi-automatic

data processing and communicationsystem that could evaluate threat andassist the CIC officers with solutions tothe threat in millionths of a second. Thecomputer was a large system of proces-sors and consoles connected together ina network a very early intranet both onboard Big E and off board between her

ships and planes. It was not to becomea true internet that is, between shipand shore or other commands untilthe 1990s. Six hundred and fifty miles ofcable went into Big Es NTDS wiring,3,000 times the ships length. The entiresystem as initially installed composed of adata processing subsystem, a data displaysubsystem, and a data communications

Big Es CIC in 1989 utilized the original NTDS. This was upgraded in the1990s to the ACDS, with its associated big-screen displays. Up until the1990s much information had to be analyzed, summarized, transferred fromradar, and presented in an analogue fashion, plotting in reverse with greasepencils behind Perspex status boards. When the technology evolved toprovide huge flat panel displays all this could be done in real time, updatedinstantaneously. Here operators are seen seated at NTDS consoles, withPerspex status boards lining the CIC space for all to see. With the advent

of supersonic in-coming missiles, plotting with grease pencils becameineffective.

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103Chapter Four: The Sensors and Nerves

subsystem (see Table 4.2). AlthoughNTDS was a new and complex system,expedited for early installation inEnter-priseand Long Beach, it performed verywell. By 1964 there were five NTDS-equipped ships operating at sea. The two

Atlantic Fleet test ships,EnterpriseandLong Beach, met in the MediterraneanSea in August of that year to exercisetogether, for the first time evaluatingtheir NTDS interoperability. A favor-able report was made by Rear Adm.Bernard M. Strean, Commander CarrierDivision Two (designated Nuclear TaskForce One, so named for Operation SeaOrbit), who reported in a speech during

the round-the-world cruise:I have had the privilege of using the

Naval Tactical Data System as a Com-mand and Control tool. Its effectivenessis such that I consider the evaluation ofthis system to represent the biggest stepforward in tactical direction since theinvention of Radar. The equipment reli-ability is of very high order. The downtime over the past few years being mea-

sured in minutes instead of hours ordays.3

The NTDS was upgraded fully inEnterprises 1973 refit. This was thefirst upgrade to Big Es system and wasto coincide with the F-14A Tomcatdeployment aboard in 1974. Her CICunderwent extensive modification, bothof equipment and space. The NTDSreceived a new computer program with

upgraded computers AN/UYK-7, whichprovided enhanced fighter control withthe Tomcat and her AWG-9 radar/firecontrol system. Augmentation of fighterdirection or air intercept control wasachieved with upgraded data links pro-viding the controller on Big E with theairborne F-14 track info and air searchradar presentation on his NTDS air

intercept control scope in CIC. Therewas a new integration of four NTDS/AIC console scopes into the display anddecision module in CIC, which madeavailable a large space for the installa-tion of the Anti-submarine Command

and Control Module that was to beinstalled in 1975. Thereafter Enterpriseembarked a full anti-submarine forceof SH-3 helos and the new S-3 Vikingfixed wing ASW, and ceased to be anattack carrier CVA(N)-65 becom-ing a multipurpose carrier CVN-65.New communications equipment wasalso installed in CIC, bringing her up todate. The NTDS remained in this form

until her major overhaul in 1979.4

There were two main data linksemployed by Big Es NTDS in the 1960sand 1970s. Link-A, also known as Link-11, was an HF- and UHF-secure nettedcommunications data link. The HFrange provided up to 300 nautical milesrange and the UHF 25 nautical milesship to ship and 150 nautical miles shipto air. The other data link was Link-C,

or Link-4A, which was a reliable, non-secure, easily operated data link usedmainly for aircraft control. Operatingin UHF, Link-4A provided support forCarrier Air Traffic Control, AIC, ACLS,and CAINS.

2. Radar

Enterprise was completed with radi-cal new air search radar sets, the AN/

SPS-32 and AN/SPS-33 long-range,electronically scanned, phased array oragile beam billboard radar. Hughes Air-craft Company designed and built thisrevolutionary system, known as SCAN-FAR, which rather than a mechanicallyoperated (rotating antenna) scan, utilizedFRESCAN, or frequency scanning. Theyhad been working on frequency scanning


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from the early 1950s. Another projectwas the high-speed hemispheric searchand guidance radar, the AN/SPG-59Typhon, which utilized electronic beamsteering through cylindrical Luneburglenses. After installation and testingaboard the guided missile ship USS

Norton Island (AVM-1) in 19621963the project was cancelled. However, itsegued into the FRESCAN concept,which had already been developed andembedded into AN/SPS-32/33.6

Two arrays were required to providea 3D scan. Each fixed panel encasedradiators that embodied electronicallycontrolled phase shifters that could

Table 4.2

The NTDS, consisting of three subsystems, as delivered to USS Enterprise(CVA(N)-65) in 19615

1. Data processing subsystem 2. Data display subsystem 3. Data communications subsystem

CP-642 solid state, militarized unitcomputer

CV-1123 keyset central MX-3195 universal keyset

TS-1538 keyset central tester RD-243 magnetic tape system

RD-231 paper tape punch and reader C-3674 / C3675 two-computer- and

three-computer-system monitoring panels

AN/UGC-6 modified teletypewriter

SB-1299 data signal distributionswitchboard

CV-0191 / SYA-3 interconnecting digital-to-analogue converter

PU-491 motor generator C-8066 motor generator control panel

AN/USM-142 universal maintenance cardtester

OA-3069/SYA-1 input display console

OA-3070/SYA-1 user display console OA-3072/SYA-1 auxiliary readout console

OA-3071/SYA-1 height size console OA-3075/SPS-33 height size console for

AN/SPS-33 radar C-3497/SPS-33 AN/SPS-33 radar control

station CV-1054/SPS-32 radar azimuth converter

for AN/SPS-32 radar CV-1055/SPS-33 radar azimuth converter

for AN/SPS-33 radar

CV-1057/SYA-1 synchro radar azimuthconverter

SB-1229 radar distribution switchboard

AM/2865/SYA-1 central pulse amplifier OA-3074/SYA-1 symbol generator group

OA-3074/SPS-33 symbol generator groupfor AN/SPS-33 radar

LS-468/S radio and telephone intercom-

munication control station

SB-1228/SP interphone distribution panel SM-242/SYA-1 video signals simulator

TS-1453/SYA-1 display electronics moduleset.

AN/SSQ-29 A-Link data terminal set

C-4577 A-Link terminal remote control AN/SSM-4 electronics module test set

for AN/SSQ-29

AN/SRC-16 communications centralhigh frequency radio complex

O-1107/SRC-16 frequency standard CM-270/SRC-16 signal comparator

AN/SRM-13 module test set for AN/SRC-16 radio

AN/SSW-1 interceptor control link dataterminal control set

MX-3502 C-Link data terminalequipment

AN/SRC-17 UHF transmitter receiver forinterceptor control or C-Link

OA-2099/SRC-17 one kW poweramplifier.

change the phase sequence and shapeof the emitted radar beam. The entirearray consisted of eight sizable billboardantennas, placed on the four sides of BigEs purpose-designed island, a pedestaledcuboidal island superstructure, so thatthe flat rectangular radar panels could be

affixed. The same system and similarlydesigned superstructure (although non-pedestaled) was installed upon only oneother ship, the nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser USS Long Beach(CGN-9),which was to serve as a task/battle groupteam mate with Enterprise intermit-tently for many years. Even when apartEnterpriseand Long Beachwere bound by


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105Chapter Four: The Sensors and Nerves

their nuclear power and unique SCAN-FAR billboards. These operated at fourtimes the data rate, at much greater rangethan any conventional radar at the time.Their addition would make Enterpriseand Long Beachan unbeatable team or

would they?

AN/SPS-32

The larger of the two antennas,AN/SPS-32 provided 2D (direc-tion and range) long-range search.Its four billboards measured 40 feetwide by 20 feet high, and weighed48.5 tons each. They were a verylong-range P band (impervious

to signal noise created by rain),electronic, frequency-scanningair search radar positioned on theright side of each face of the island.The four panels gave a 360-degreeair space coverage with no arcobscuration. One reason for theheight of the island was to clear thetails of nearby spotted planes. EachSPS-32 consisted of 36 panels set

in 18 columns, consisting of a total1,100 feet of cable compressed asserpentines into the 40-foot width.Radiators were set in plastic todampen in the event of blast. Thedetection range of SPS-32 wasoutstanding at 400 nautical miles on a good day!

AN/SPS-33

The heavier, but smaller, of thetwo antennas was the AN/SPS-33.Providing the 3D elevation andoutputting it as digital track datarequired computerized processing.The SPS-33 measured 20 x 25feet, and being of greater depththan SPS-32, each weighed amassive 125 tons, positioned on

Big E visited BostonHarbor on July 4, 1962,

when this photo was takefrom the water level. Itshows well her futuristicbeehive with the AN/SPS 32 and 33 billboards,and the backup air searchAN/SPS-12 on 011 signaldeck.

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the island to the left beside eachSPS-32. This billboard consisted

of frequency-scanning pipes in onedirection all fed from one radiationsource, feeding into banks of ferritephase shifters in the other direc-tion, providing frequency scanningin one direction and phase shiftingin the other. It therefore produced arapidly moving pencil beam in thevertical plane. This was analogous


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to the height finder in any 3Dair search radar system. It proved,however, to be a difficult radar tooperate and maintain, more so thanthe SPS-32.

SCANFAR was the predecessor tothe Aegis systems SPY-1 radar used fromthe 1980s in Aegis cruisers and destroy-ers. The new radar system needed NTDS

to optimally function, but even then AN/SPS-32/33 was way ahead of its time andthe technology of the new digital datasystem was not yet sufficiently power-ful to make the most of it. The AN/SPS32/33 also lacked its own Identification

Friend and Foe (IFF) antenna, vital to allair search radar. An independent direc-tional IFF was installed on Big Es portyardarm shortly after completion. This

AF-408, Bu. No. 134555from VA-65 Tigers, sittingunder the island withwings folded effectingefficient deck space use,

in 1962 during the firstcruise. On the starboardaft quarter of 011 weatherdeck we can see thebackup air search radarAN/SPS-12, which was tobe relied on for more thanbackup during the yearsof troubled operationof the AN/SPS-32 and33 SCANFAR system.On a good day, though,

the billboards did indeedscan far. Note on theport yardarm the half-round cheese antenna.This was the AS-1065/UPX independentIdentification Friend Foe(IFF) transmitter, requiredbecause the SCANFARsystem lacked IFF. TheAN/URN-20 TACANsits atop the mast.

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