To construct the proposed undersea warfare training range, the Navy would instrument a 500-square-nautical mile area of the ocean offshore of the east coast of the United States. The range would be equipped with undersea cables and sensor nodes, and would be connected by a single trunk cable to a landside cable termination facility (CTF). The Navy would use the area for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training that would typically involve up to three vessels and two aircraft on the site at any one time.
The USWTR would require logistical support for ASW training, including the launch and recovery of non-explosive exercise torpedoes and submarine target simulators.
The Navy used an extensive site selection process to first identify areas that would meet water depth and operational requirements, eliminate any portions of these areas not proximate to Fleet’s homeport and training resources and select candidate sites from the remaining areas, and evaluate candidate sites against specific criteria.
Potential site alternatives that resulted from this process included: a site offshore of northeastern Florida in the Jacksonville Operating Area (OPAREA) called Site/Alternative A, a site offshore of central South Carolina in the Charleston OPAREA called Site/Alternative B, a site offshore of southeastern North Carolina in the Cherry Point OPAREA called Site/Alternative C, and a site offshore of northeastern Virginia in the Virginia Capes (VACAPES) OPAREA called Site/Alternative D. 
