As of calendar year 2014, engineers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) have built, designed and fabricated a Universal Test Platform (UTP) capable of launching and recovering the AN/AQS-20A (Q-20) Minehunting Sonar Set.

The Q-20 is a mine-hunting and identification system with acoustic and optic sensors housed in an underwater towed body. Its sensors are designed to detect, classify and localize bottom, close-tethered, and volume targets.

According to NSWC PCD Branch Head for Ranges and Facilities Steve Shoner, the UTP was designed, developed and fabricated to launch and recover the Q-20 from alternate tow platforms to ensure the readiness, reliability and functionality of the Q-20.

"The Q-20 is a component of the littoral combat ships (LCS) mine countermeasures (MCM) mission package (MP)," said Shoner. "The Q-20 is towed by the AN/WLD-1(V)2 remote minehunting system (RMS) remote multimission vehicle (RMMV)."

NSWC PCD Mechanical Engineer Mike Conn said the UTP was designed so it could be deployed from a variety of platforms to increase its availability.

"The UTP was designed and developed for launching and recovering the Q-20 from a variety of platforms," said Conn. "Prior to having developed the UTP, we were restricted to testing the launch and recovery of the Q-20 from particular test boats, which had specific form, fit and functional requirements."

According to Shoner and Conn, their objective was to build a launch and recovery system with maximum versatility.

"This is an extremely versatile platform," said Conn. "We can mount it on almost any craft of opportunity capable of obtaining the Q-20's required towing speed."

Conn added that the design of the UTP had to be built to withstand rigorous testing conditions.

"The UTP launches and recovers the Q-20 system as a variable-depth sonar," Conn said. "This requires our UTP to be capable of playing out and recovering cable and running the system at several different depths while operating."

"We will be also be able to test in a multitude of sea states," said Shoner. "So, this system has enabled us to test under similar RMV operating conditions using a surrogate platform."

"By using the UTP aboard various platforms of opportunity, we have been able to reduce the manning requirements for launching and recovering this type of sonar vehicle," Shoner said. "We could be able to reduce the test deployment crew by two personnel during testing."

Conn added Shoner's initial design concept was to create a launch and recovery system that could work as a plug-and-play module from test-ship platform to test-ship platform.

"What our team has done is essentially is combine all the necessary components together to reduce mounting complexity so we can take it from one ship to another," Conn said. "We've also taken the opportunity to improve some of the components s like improving the A-frame for corrosion as well as making capture functions operate faster. The capture-and-recovery device is more adjustable and faster to operate than the old test system currently in use."

Considering all the improvements and efficiencies designed into this launch and recovery system, setup was another area of improvement, according to Shoner.

"The UTP provides high reliability and should one test platform break, we can quickly put the UTP on a another platform and be up, running and testing in a few days instead of a few weeks," said Shoner.

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