Improved Stealth and Lower Cost Operations for U.S. Navy Ships using High-Performance Cordage Deck Edge Netting (HPC DEN)
NCMS Project #: 140432
Problem: Presently, the U.S. Navy uses two styles of deck edge netting; metallic netting and nylon netting both are machine-made and do not allow for maintenance or repair away from port.
Nylon netting is lightweight and has no radar signature. However nylon nets are typically replaced every 18 to 24 months due to UV degradation, shrinkage and abrasion. These nets are all hand-stitched and due to the short life span, these nets have high lifecycle cost.
Benefit: The template system will provide a basis for net standardizations and provide a database for evaluating net performance.
The maintenance actions to replace the current netting would eliminate two to three other maintenance requirements and add one month to ship readiness. The assumption is the new netting is projected to last four years longer than current netting. If one year equates to one week, one month would be added to the ship readiness.
Solution/Approach: Deploy fall protection deck-edge netting for Navy applications, which provides reduced lifecycle costs through increased life, reduced fabrication costs and reduced maintenance costs.
With further modification, this high-performance cordage netting also has the potential to replace CRES wire rope netting which would result in weight savings and reduction in the ship’s overall radar signature.
Impact on Warfighter: The cost for the new solution would be $40K which would provide a projected cost savings of $80K per DDG-51 outfitted with the newly designed net systems. Fleet wide expectations of 60-75% cost avoidance savings per ship.
DOD Participation:
- U.S. Navy (NSWC Carderock)
- U.S. Navy (NSSC)
Industry Participation:
- QinetiQ North America – Technology Solutions Group
- Diamond Nets, Inc.
- NCMS