Background: The United States Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) is hosting a workshop to evaluate the progress made in development of acoustic techniques to detect and classify unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the underwater environment and to outline a path for future direction. This includes both high and low frequency; imaging techniques and structural acoustic approaches; and includes proud, partly buried, and fully buried UXO. For each technology, the questions to be discussed include: What is the best level of performance currently available in different environments and for different types of munitions? What is the theoretical best performance that can be expected? What are the understanding and engineering barriers to achieving this performance? More specifically: How much will clutter or noise degrade sensor performance? Are robust target discriminators possible for all types of UXO and in all environments? How does the environment affect sonar performance and what environmental factors are the most critical to understand and predict performance? Can the acoustic systems be used for real-time environmental characterization? What are the optimal configurations for sonar hardware, platforms, and signal processing and are these systems available commercially or can they be adapted from evolving mine countermeasures (MCM) systems? How do we maximize performance of these acoustic systems? Answers to these and other questions will be used to develop future SERDP/ESTCP program direction.

Format: The workshop will begin with introductory presentations and white papers (see list below) on previous and current work, inventory of underwater UXO remediation sites, operational scenarios, and the science and technology of high- and low-frequency acoustic detection and classification. Breakout groups will develop perspectives on current state of underwater UXO research, directions for the future, and system requirements. Full group assimilation of breakout group perspectives and initial vision for the future will follow. A short (10-15 page) report including recommendations will be written shortly after the completion of the workshop.

Number of Participants: 25-40 expected; including participants outside the SERDP/ONR programs to provide new ideas.

List of Invited Participants:

• Dr. Herb Nelson (SERDP)
• Dr. Mike Richardson (Institute for Defense Analyses and SERDP)
• Dr. Shelley Cazares and Mr. Mike Tuley (Institute for Defense Analyses)
• Dr. Kevin Williams, Dr. Steve Kargl, and Dr. Todd Hefner (Applied Physics Laboratory – University of Washington)
• Mr. Bryan Harre, Mr. Steve Hurff,  and Mr. Jeffrey Hoel (Naval Facilities Engineering Command)
• Dr. Jason Stack and Dr. Kyle Becker (Office of Naval Research)
• Dr. Raymond Lim, Dr. Ted Clem, Dr. Timothy Marston, Dr. Daniel Sternlicht, Dr. Joe Lopes, Dr. Jason Isaacs, and Dr. Frank Crosby (Naval Surface Warfare Center – Panama City Division)
• Mr. Andrew Schwartz (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Environmental and Munitions Center of Expertise)
• Dr. Brian Houston, Dr. Joe Bucaro, Dr. Harry Simpson, Dr. Todd Holland, Dr. William Sanders, and Dr. John Dubberly (Naval Research Laboratory)
• Dr. Tony Lyons, Dr. Dan Brown, and Dr. David Bradley (Applied Physics Laboratory – Penn State)
• Mr. Ira Ekhaus and Dr. Peter Weichman (BAE Systems)
• Dr. Jason Summers (ARIA Acoustics)
• Dr. Ahmad Abawi (HLR Research)
• Dr. Margo Edwards (University of Hawaii)
• Dr. Preston Wilson, Dr. Marcia Isakson, and Dr. Nick Chotiros (Applied Research Laboratory – University of Texas at Austin)
• Dr. Yan Pailhas (Harriot-Watt)
• Dr. Larry Mayer, Dr. Tom Weber, and Dr. Tom Lippman (Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping )
• Dr. Alan Hunter (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research [TNO])
• Dr. Roy Hansen (Norwegian Defence Research Establishment [FFI])
• Dr. John Fawcett and Dr. Tara LeBlanc (Defence Research and Development Canada – Atlantic)
• Dr. Warren Fox (Center for Maritime Research and Experimentation)
• Dr. Wolfgang Jans (Federal Armed Forces Underwater Acoustic and Marine Geophysics Research Institute [FWG])

• Introductory Presentations/Papers
• SERDP/ESTCP support for land-based UXO remediation (Dr. Herb Nelson)
• SERDP’s underwater munitions response program (Dr. Mike Richardson)
• ONR’s acoustic mine detection and classification efforts (Dr. Kyle Becker)
• Inventory and description of munitions response sites in the underwater environment (Mr. Bryan Harre)
• Use of MCM sensors for UXO detection and classification (Mr. Steve Hurff and NSWC-PCD)
• High-frequency acoustic detection and classification of underwater UXO (Dr. Daniel Sternlicht)
• Low-frequency acoustic detection and classification of underwater UXO (Dr. Kevin Williams)