US to upgrade its system for land-to-sub contacts

The Pentagon announced it will build an improved extremely low-frequency communications system with transmitters in Michican and Wisconsin. Monitor correspondent Stephen Webbe reports ELF is a shore-to-submarine device that permits command and control of submarines at operational depths and speeds.

The system, which will cost an estimated $230 million, will upgrade but not enlarge an existing research-and-development transmitter and its 28-mile antenna near Clam Lake, Wis. A second transmitter with a 56-mile antenna will be built in Michigan's Upper Peninsula near Sawyer Air force Base to give two-ocean communications coverage.