THE AN/WSN-2, A NEW GYROCOMPASS FOR A MODERN U. S. NAVY

J. S. Lipman

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The development of this fully Mil-qualitied stabilized gyrocompass equipment provides a major advancement in military marine navigation. All of the functions of the preceding generation of equipment have been placed into a single-unit, light weight, low-volume console that features the high reliability of solid-state digital electronics and a complete modular insertion maintenance philosophy. Featuring almost twice the precision of the predecessor equipment, this unit meets the needs of a modern Navy, which includes minimum crew/support skill requirements, Iow life cycle costs and, most important, an adaptable built-in-growth-capability design. The development background of the AN/WSN-2 is discussed in terms of differences and comparisons between conventional marine gyrocompasses versus stabilized marine gyrocompasses and ship’s inertial navigators. This is done from a design and operational point of view as well as from a performance/theoretical point of view. In particular the inertial unit of the AN/WSN-2, including the long-life, precision, gas-spin-bearing gyroscope, is the same production equipment currently being used in several thousand airborne inertial navigators manufactured by Litton. Thus a key advantage to the Navy is the fact that this stabilized gyrocompass equipment has gone through a maturation cycle as an inertial navigation system before its selection by the Navy as the new generation stabilized gyrocompass. The AN/WSN-2 is fully described in terms of ita system mechanization and physical implementation. Data and analysis of the performance of the AN/WSN-2 demonstrate its ability to meet SHIPS-G-5683, the new stabilized gyrocompass specification generated by the Navy for this equipment.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 24, Number 3
Pages:	237 - 247
Cite this article:	Lipman, J. S., "THE AN/WSN-2, A NEW GYROCOMPASS FOR A MODERN U. S. NAVY", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 24, No. 3, Fall 1977, pp. 237-247.
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