Carriage, Stream, Tow, and Recovery System (CSTRS)

As the primary contractor on the highly successful Carriage, Stream, Tow, and Recovery System (CSTRS) program, CTC firmly established its role as a full-service provider. . . from design through manufacturing.

The U.S. Navy’s Organic Airborne Mine Countermeasures (OAMCM) program will enable Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) to respond readily to mine threats. This OAMCM capability will be supported by the MH-60S helicopter.  Because the MH-60S is considerably smaller than the current MH-53E, a requirement to develop a small, modular system capable of accommodating both towed and non-towed sensor systems evolved.

CTC successfully responded to this requirement.  Starting with a clean sheet of paper, CTC developed and tested a flight-capable proof of concept system in 18 months.

Subsequently, CTC manufactured two pre-production prototypes to support early airborne test and evaluation.  All of the U.S. Navy’s initial performance criteria were met. This includes:

• Reducing crew size from five to two.
• Providing hands-off operation.
• Ensuring protection of the device.
• Meeting crash-load integrity requirements.
• Providing rapid stream and recovery times.
• Incorporating mission conversion capability.

CTC has manufactured and delivered nine initial production shipsets.  Two additional shipsets are on order.  CTC stands ready to manufacture and deliver all of the shipsets necessary to meet fleet requirements.

CTC’s continuing participation in the CSTRS program includes providing both onsite and distance support for testing conducted in a variety of locations.  In addition, CTC has developed and is managing a comprehensive spares and repairs operations.

CTC is also the primary contractor providing integrated logistics support (ILS) for the CSTRS program.  CTC has built an ILS support team with the requisite knowledge and experience to support a program as dynamic as CSTRS and has invested in logistics support analysis software tools that meet the intent of logistics management information (LMI) and are MIL-STD-1388B compliant.

For the CSTRS program, CTC provided the entire range of logistics and provisioning support including the development of the Integrated Support Plan, Repair and Task Analysis, Logistics Management Information, Functional Requirements Identification, Reliability Centered Maintenance, Level of Repair Analysis, Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals, Direct Vendor Delivery, Technical Data Package, and Pilot/Aircrew Training. 

CTC’s CSTRS program provides aerospace services from clean-sheet design through life-cycle support.

Improved minesweeping capability for U.S. warfighters