Coastal Trident’s Event Kilo Includes a Variety of Experiments Testing Material Resilience, Shipboard Maintenance

Official Statements

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Event Kilo, part of this year’s Coastal Trident series of Advanced Naval Technology Exercises (ANTX-CT26), served as a catch-all for a variety of technical demonstrations and experiments that examined material resilience in maritime applications, antifouling systems and a new tool to assist with remote ship maintenance.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “The experiments and demonstrations were held in the Port of Hueneme and at assets attached to Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division (NSWC PHD), the host organization of the annual Coastal Trident that takes place over the course of several months primarily in and around the waters of Southern California. ANTX-CT26 features discussion-based and operations-based exercises, technical demonstrations and field experiments, all with an eye toward improving the capabilities of the U.S. Navy and its partners to conduct global operations and secure critical maritime infrastructure.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “AmbientSense Technologies Inc.: corrosion sensor ‘stickers’ A naval engineer’s initial design for creating a type of low-cost sensor was the basis for an experiment to see if modified sensors could detect atmospheric corrosion. Portland, Oregon-based AmbientSense Technologies Inc. has developed OxidEyes sensors for continuously monitoring corrosion and material condition. For the experiment, the sensors were affixed to three custom-built holders to test degradation of electrical wiring samples.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Brian McInnis, AmbientSense co-founder and chief technology officer, set up the samples in June near the lighthouse at the Port of Hueneme about 25 feet from the water, using different thicknesses of bare electric wire to see if the sensors capture which wire breaks or fails, and when. The technology uses passive radio frequency identification (RFID) stickers that easily and inexpensively monitor atmospheric corrosion trends in a particular environment or for a particular piece of equipment, according to the company’s website.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “McInnis traveled to the port every two to three weeks to check on the corrosion progression and sensor readability. The experiment was scheduled to wrap up just before the Fathomwerx Summit in October, a two-day “open house” featuring technology exhibitors - many of whom participated in ANTX-CT26 - as well as presentations on how to do business with the federal government.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “This is the first field test we’ve done,” said McInnis, who came to last year’s Fathomwerx Summit to learn more about opportunities to participate in the annual Coastal Trident event. “We’ve conducted a few lab tests in a salt-fog chamber, but lab tests don’t give the same results as field tests.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “In the lab tests, things are stressed in an accelerated timeline, so things will fall apart in less than a day,” McInnis explained. “Some of those same components have been outside in a marine environment for a couple of months, and they are still holding up here.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “McInnis said while creating a corrosion sensor for the Navy is a long-term goal, his company is in the early stages and looking to first work with commercial marine enterprises, placing the sensors inside or outside shipping containers, for example, where public Wi-Fi can be used to transmit the signals without as much concern about security and batteries can be used to power the devices.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “On Navy ships, a use case might be that you have a cabinet filled with electronics and you want to make sure the cabinet isn’t being permeated with a lot of damp, salty air, causing your electronics to fail,” McInnis said. “You would put our corrosion sensors in there to have an effective, low-cost way to monitor that potential intrusion.” He also said the idea of working with naval unmanned surface vessels is intriguing.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “I believe the idea is to leave them deployed in the ocean for long periods of time, which means things will break down over time,” he said. “They are filled with electronic components, and our sensors would be equipped with RFID so they also serve as transmitters that don’t need a separate battery and don’t have an active signal coming off of them.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “The ultimate goal, he said, is to use the sensors to understand the rate of corrosion and then use machine learning models to characterize the surrounding environment and predict future impacts. Those predictions can then be used for maintenance schedules to prevent system failure. McInnis said the data collected from the experiment has been invaluable.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “We are in an iterative phase right now, and we’ve already gotten some important results from coming here,” he said. “We will likely come back in the future with a new version to test, based on what we’ve learned from this experiment.” Bluesonde Technologies: preventing biofouling An in-water test of a commercial buoy sporting ultraviolet (UV) light modules to mitigate sensor fouling from marine organisms also returned positive data for a company participating in this year’s ANTX-CT26 series of demonstrations and exercises.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Portland, Maine-based Bluesonde Technologies Inc. placed its buoy in the water off the docks at the Port of Hueneme on June 17. In just over a month, the underwater sensor compartment without the UV light module was completely clogged with marine organisms and plant growth, while the sensors with the UV lights were unaffected.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “We incorporated two years ago, and last year was the first year with buoys in the water for initial testing,” said Andrew Thompson, CEO and co-founder of Bluesonde. “We are in our first year of commercial sales.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “This is our first engagement in the defense space, and our first test where we have two identical sensors deployed side by side, with UV antifouling enabled on one and disabled on the other to serve as a control,” Thompson added. According to the company’s website, the patent-pending antifouling system uses low-power UV light to prevent biological growth on submerged sensors, helping maintain sensor performance in challenging marine environments.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Bluesonde’s test buoy has three sensor ports. One measures water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen, while the other two contain identical turbidity (water clarity) sensors. One turbidity sensor is protected by the UV antifouling system, while the other serves as a control. The company compares their performances at regular intervals to assess the system’s effectiveness.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “The test is really to showcase that our antifouling system reduces maintenance needs,” Thompson said. “With typical sensors, you need to go out every two to three weeks to clean and recalibrate. That’s a lot of work, and the calibration takes some expertise. “Our goal with the Bluesonde’s antifouling system is to make it more of a ‘set it and forget it’ system,” Thompson explained. “You can deploy it and leave it out there for a year and schedule it just for annual maintenance.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “The system is solar powered and the buoys relay data to a cloud storage every 15 minutes, so if there is a problem with the power or the system, operators will know almost immediately, Thompson said. He added the sensor test in the Port of Hueneme has gone just as expected.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “The next step is to look at areas in the defense space and then determine how we can integrate this antifouling technology into these applications on Navy ships, as well as on uncrewed surface and underwater vehicles that need to stay clean,” Thompson said. Luna Labs: testing with cold, pressure”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “A product development company wanted to test whether the latest versions of its polyurethane gaskets could survive extreme cold and pressure without cracking or breaking, so the company sent a box of its ultra-cold gasket material to NSWC PHD as part of ANTX-CT26’s series of experiments. According to its website, Charlottesville, Virginia-based Luna Labs USA LLC works with government agencies on challenges in defense, industrial and healthcare markets. The purpose of the tests was to assess the capabilities of low-temperature gaskets to improve performance of polyurethane seals over available equipment.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Armen Kvryan, NSWC PHD’s corrosion and additive manufacturing lead, was part of the initial planning and coordination with Luna Labs, working closely with the team to establish the testing approach and logistics. Command Senior Scientist Tim Tenopir carried out the tests and documented the results.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Tenopir set up the company’s experiment Sept. 15 in the CSZ Model MC-3 MicroClimate chamber, part of the Materials Lab Complex that Tenopir manages. The CSZ is a compact environmental chamber designed to simulate a full range of temperature and/or humidity conditions. It is rated to minus 68 degrees Celsius, but for the purpose of the first test, was held steady at minus 64 C.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “The first test involved placing samples of 0.125-inch-thick polyurethane strips that measured 6 inches long by 0.5 inches wide inside the microclimate chamber for a minimum of two hours at a temperature of minus 64 C, then laying the strips over a mandrel bend bar to see if cracks developed or if the strips completely broke. In all, there were six strips, three each from two different types of material. Tenopir examined the samples under a digital microscope to look for damage or cracking.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “According to Tenopir’s official report, all of the series A test strips broke after being frozen and then bent over the mandrel bar, while the B series test strips did not. In addition, he found no cracking on B series strips.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Tenopir also was asked to test two groups of 0.5-inch diameter gaskets or buttons, at a temperature of minus 46 C. The two groups were placed between heavy steel plates that also added pressure before being put inside the environmental chamber. Tenopir’s report noted that both series of test buttons did not fail or crack under the compression loading and extreme cold temperature.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “The test did reveal some very slight dimensional changes in all buttons after the samples were frozen for several hours, then thawed for 30 minutes and measured, then frozen again after being removed from compression plates. While the thickness of these test buttons was affected by both compressive loading and the cold temperature, the most significant change was measured at about one-tenth of a millimeter and was not considered significant, according to the report.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “This third-party validation helps showcase the value of Luna Labs’ materials over a broad range of cold temperatures and applications,” Kirby said. Holochip Corp.: augmented reality goggles”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “NSWC PHD’s Augmented Reality Maintenance System (ARMS) team recently rolled out a software update to the tool that allows Sailors and shore-based subject matter experts to connect live to troubleshoot basic maintenance on noncritical shipboard systems. The team, however, is still searching for that perfect solution to replace Microsoft Corp.’s HoloLens headsets, which the company discontinued in October 2024. The latest iteration of the ARMS kit includes a set of NuEyes Pro 4 smart glasses, connected to the ARMS tablet via a USB-C cord.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “We like them because they are very basic,” ARMS Project Lead Matt Cole said. “They have no computer at all; they work just like a computer monitor you wear on your face. That made integration and security very straightforward.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Now that ARMS is a little more mature, we are looking for ways to add additional capabilities, even if it means accepting more complexity,” Cole added. One company is working on building a product specific for government use, and a representative demonstrated the headset and answered questions Aug. 25 as part of this year’s ANTX-CT26 series of field experiments and exercises.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Sam Robinson, vice president of engineering for Torrance, California-based Holochip Corp., brought a prototype of the company’s H50 XR Goggles to Fathomwerx Lab at the Port of Hueneme, where he met with Cole and other representatives of the ARMS team. NSWC PHD is one of the founding partners of Fathomwerx Lab, opened at the Port of Hueneme in November 2019. Cole and NSWC PHD engineer Fatima Alba Pedroza tried on the goggles while Robinson explained how they worked. He noted the company was still working out a few bugs.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “In December 2024, Holochip was awarded an 18-month Phase II Expansion Small Business Innovation Research contract for an “Augmented Reality (AR) Headset for Maintainers.” Holochip has since been focused on prototyping, system validation and expanded field testing in collaboration with Naval Air Systems Command cybersecurity teams and maintenance personnel, according to a Holochip press release. This effort aims to accelerate the transition of the AR headset toward fleet deployment, the release explained.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Robinson said he is confident his H50 goggles will improve performance and operational suitability for remote maintenance connectivity over available equipment. “We’ve built a device that is government first,” Robinson said. “We are close to a solution that meets the primary needs of the Department of War (DOW),” including comfort, ruggedization, cybersecurity, strong visual imaging, data processing power and more. Robinson pointed out that most commercial AR products use software connected to either Microsoft or Google and are therefore difficult to secure.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “We knew the only way to get around that was to build everything from the ground up in a way that the DOW is allowed to look under the hood, kick the tires and test its security,” Robinson said. “That is what has taken us the most time.” Robinson said his company is still working out a few software bugs and also redesigning the headset for additional ventilation and comfort. He expects the H50 to be ready for field testing before the end of the year.”

• Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division, November 12: “Cole said an ongoing challenge for the ARMS team is finding a headset that does not need to be plugged into an additional device. “A fully tetherless option would be optimal, but there are questions as to how you would install it on the shipboard network in order to be successful,” Cole said. “If we can solve that installation problem, being wireless would be a vast improvement to the Sailors actually using it to support maintenance.”