Deployable Command and Control System for Over the Horizon Small Boat Operations

The Deployable Navigation System (DeNS) is a prototype system designed to facilitate Command and Control during over the horizon small boat operations. It is designed to allow small boats to deploy from their host ships with a Bluetooth GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) running the appropriate software which provides a real time navigational picture in terms of position and relation to a predetermined track. This same data is shipped immediately back to the control ship via a wireless network and displayed on a laptop computer to allow the mission commander to monitor the small boat’s progress and position, also in real time. The small boat’s relation to the track is compared on every received fix and appropriate indicators are displayed to inform both users if a predetermined distance from track (track tolerance) has been exceeded. It utilizes jpg formatted maps that are derived directly from the Digital Nautical Chart (DNC) library overlaid with track information. Positions received from the GPS are converted to pixel coordinates that correspond to their original positions on the jpg chart and plotted, providing an electronic display that is very similar in appearance to the traditional plot maintained on paper charts.