Dodge Pond in East Lyme, Conn., is seen in this July 1, 2015 photo. The U.S. Navy has for decades maintained the Dodge Pond Acoustic Measurement Facility as one of a handful of sites where engineers can test new systems that could find their way into the fleet, or to calibrate existing equipment. (Connecticut state government)
MANCHESTER, Conn. (Tribune News Service) — As a global arms race looms larger, a small Connecticut pond is playing an outsized role — as a quiet testing platform for acoustic technologies to plumb the depths for submarines, underwater drones, mines or other perils that could be lurking.
The U.S. Navy has maintained the Dodge Pond Acoustic Measurement Facility in East Lyme dating back to the Cold War, as one of a handful of sites where engineers can test new systems that could find their way into the fleet, or to calibrate existing equipment.
Situated near the middle of a frozen Dodge Pond this week, the facility might pass as a luxury ice fishing shack for the wealthy, at the end of bridge the length of a football field that connects the building to Navy property on shore. But rather than trout, the Navy uses the Dodge Pond Acoustic Measurement Facility to help engineers fish for answers in field-testing sonar equipment and other technologies.
Over the years, both commercial companies and the Navy have conducted a wide range of tests at Dodge Pond. In study results published in 2002, the Navy reported its use of the pond to test the impact of varying frequencies of underwater sonar pings on recreational divers, with 21 Navy personnel having volunteered by diving below the surface during tests.
As the Navy turns to surface and underwater drones to complement its expensive fleet of submarines built by General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton and Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia, contractors are developing mini-sonar systems that can be installed on those drones to hunt subs or for other missions.
In test shafts extending into the water, the facility employs submersible pressure vessels to test transducers and other sonar equipment under simulated, deep-sea conditions — at as much as 1,000 pounds per square inch of pressure, which the ocean exerts at depths around 2,300 feet below the surface. Researchers can also alter water temperatures to suite their testing purposes, on a range of 37 degrees to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
Located just behind East Lyme Town Hall, Dodge Pond was put to use during the era of the New London Underwater Sound Laboratory, which was created in 1945 to coordinate research by acoustic scientists at Columbia and Harvard universities. At that point, Naval Submarine Base New London was entering its fourth decade operating subs built just down river at Electric Boat.
Electric Boat aims to hire as many as 8,000 people this year for its shipyards and offices in Groton, New London, Quonset Point, Rhode Island, and other sites, with plans proceeding to convert Waterford’s Crystal Mall into office space for at least 4,000 employees. In addition to Virginia-class attack subs and Columbia-class missile subs under assembly in Groton, Electric Boat is planning designs and systems for a future attack-class sub fleet the Navy anticipates as eventually replacing today’s Virginia-class subs.
NavSea did not respond immediately to CT Insider queries on Dodge Pond activities today and the workforce affiliated with the center. In a its most recent economic impact review, the Naval Underwater Warfare Center reported having nearly 160 employees in Connecticut. The document did not specify how many of those jobs are attached to Dodge Pond, which has only a handful of parking spots on its gated grounds.
It is one of a number of East Coast test facilities overseen by NavSea’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center Newport Division based in Rhode Island, including an open tank indoors and a pressurized tank system to simulate intense water pressure in the depths of the ocean. Other NUWC installations include the Seneca Lake Sonar Test Facility in Dresden, New York, like the Dodge Pond facility set in the middle of the waterway; the Narragansett Bay Test Facility in Middletown, Rhode Island; and the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.
NUWC has another Florida facility outside Orlando, on a small water body called Bugg Spring where the Navy runs calibration tests for towed sonar arrays used by surface ships and submarines. Unlike Dodge Pond, Bugg Spring is in the middle of a swampy stretch that the Navy describes as one of its quietest “open water” testing facilities.
Dodge Pond offers “ambient noise less than sea state zero” as described by NUWC. A 1993 document touted as well some 30 feet of soft mud at the bottom that offered “low reflectivity” in the testing of acoustic systems.
But Dodge Pond’s location behind East Lyme Town Hall is hardly an insulated oasis from surrounding suburban noise. Homes crowd other parts of the Dodge Pond shore under private ownership, and just south is the commercial center of Niantic, including a lumber yard operated by Ring’s End that operates heavy equipment.
A public boat launch is located at the opposite end of the pond, though motors are prohibited to avoid interfering with any acoustic research.
Dodge Pond offers relatively easy access to the Groton and New London submarine centers; the NUWC headquarters in Newport; and other researchers and engineers in New England and New York. From its headquarters in Groton, ThayerMahan operates an ocean network of buoys and water drones to help federal agencies track vessels for defense or law-enforcement purposes.
Staff writer Luther Turmelle contributed to this report. Includes prior reporting by Paul Schott.
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