Kongsberg Maritime has successfully delivered the first Helicopter Operations Surveillance System (HOSS) for amphibious ships to the U.S. NAVY as part of an $11,000,000 Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) fixed price, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract awarded in December 2008.
The new contract is a follow-on to the original HOSS contracts awarded in 2007 which saw the successful development, qualification and delivery of 13 HOSS for amphibious ships, with the final system being delivered November 2008. Previous ship systems included seven Landing Ship Dock (LSD) and six Landing Helicopter Assault and Dock (LHA/LHD)-class variants.
Included in the new contract are design upgrades to the original system equipment specifications (second generation), and delivery of numerous amphibious ship systems for up to five years. To date, four additional ship systems (ships 14-17) have been awarded and will be delivered from fall 2009 to winter 2010.
The design and implementation of the HOSS programme allows safer missions by permitting operational leaders more visibility of spaces on the ship and wider, zoomable views of places the previous legacy camera systems covered.
The second generation Helicopter Operations Surveillance System for amphibious ships is a highly robust multi-drop, low light-capable TV camera system with telemetry control via RS485 serial protocol.
Five different camera types are used within each system. The above deck camera uses high resolution monochrome sensors capable of operating daylight to quarter moonlight. The below decks camera uses the latest colour camera sensors suited to low ambient lighting conditions.
The HOSS for amphibious ships went through months of rigorous qualifications before the first system was successfully accepted and shipped.