Classification and Mapping of Underwater Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)

During the summer of 1995, the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center NFESC established a calibrated Unexploded Ordnance UXO test range offshore the Pacific Missile Range Facility PMRF, Barking Sands, Kauai. The objective of the range was to provide an area that could be used to validate the performance of commercially available geophysical sensing systems for the mapping and classification of underwater UXO. The range included a calibration site and an operational site, and covered an area of 1.55 square nautical miles. The University of Hawaii Marine Minerals Technology Center MMTC conducted a demonstration effort on the range. Evaluation of the MMTC demonstration was performed by NFESC. A total of 257 inert ordnance pieces and 41 false targets were precisely placed on and under the seafloor in water depths from 1 to 50 meters. Targets ranged in size from groups of 7.62-millimeter cartridges to single MK83 bombs. This report describes the design, installation, and decommissioning of the range and includes a summary and evaluation of the MMTC demonstration activities.