Submarine Sonar

Atlas Elektronik to provide Cerberus portable diver detection sonar for the German Navy F125 frigate

ATLAS ELEKTRONIK will deliver portable Diver Detection Sonars for installation on the latest frigate of the German Navy, Type F125. ATLAS, a leading supplier of naval electronic systems, has been awarded a contract by the German Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB) for the supply of four Cerberus Mod2 portable Diver Detection Sonar (DDS) systems for the four F125 frigates and a fifth system for training purposes. The first system delivery is scheduled for 2012.

Developed by the British subsidiary ATLAS ELEKTRONIK UK, the Cerberus Mod2 sonar will be the first installation of a DDS on a NATO vessel. Cerberus serves to protect military vessels from under-water threats by alerting the operators to the presence of divers, swimmers, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) or Swimmer Delivery Vehicles (SDVs). The system is ideally suited for expedi-tionary use on platforms such as the F125 which will conduct forward operations in potentially hos-tile areas during times of conflict.

                         

ATLAS ELEKTRONIK will deliver portable Diver Detection Sonars for installation on the latest frigate of the German Navy, Type F125. ATLAS, a leading supplier of naval electronic systems, has been awarded a contract by the German Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB) for the supply of four Cerberus Mod2 portable Diver Detection Sonar (DDS) systems for the four F125 frigates and a fifth system for training purposes. The first system delivery is scheduled for 2012.

                         

The system can be operated remotely from the ship’s bridge as well as from a processing and dis-play unit below deck. Cerberus can also be operated completely independently from ships systems with the exception of power which is taken from the ships standard power supply. By positioning several sonars at suitable locations in harbours, wide expanses can be monitored and large numbers of vessels protected. The DDS automatically compensates for ship motion.

                         

ATLAS ELEKTRONIK will deliver portable Diver Detection Sonars for installation on the latest frigate of the German Navy, Type F125. ATLAS, a leading supplier of naval electronic systems, has been awarded a contract by the German Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement (BWB) for the supply of four Cerberus Mod2 portable Diver Detection Sonar (DDS) systems for the four F125 frigates and a fifth system for training purposes. The first system delivery is scheduled for 2012.

Cerberus displays the surrounding area on a sea chart. The position and bearing of the host ship are updated constantly. Once initialized, the DDS generates a visual and acoustic alert to warn against targets approaching in the water. It is therefore not necessary to permanently watch the display.

Thanks to its low weight of 23 kilograms and compact construction, the system can be deployed without the need for a crane or davit; its components can easily be carried and operated by one person.

                         

Abu Dhabi Ship Building, the leading shipbuilder and naval support services provider in the Gulf region, has today launched its first Ghannatha Missile Boat at its Mussafah shipyard facilities. The Ghannatha Phase II program was awarded to ADSB in 2009. ADSB was commissioned to construct 12 new Missile Boats and retrofit the existing ADSB-built Ghannatha Phase I troop carriers into gun boats and mortar boats.

Cerberus Mod2 meets all the relevant national and international military standards (BV and MIL).

James Young, Head of the Surface Ships Division of ATLAS ELEKTRONIK UK, added: “We are delighted with the award of this contract to provide an important security system for the German Navy. Once again, it reinforces our position as a class leader in design, development and supply of high performance Diver Detection Systems, which has been built on our heritage of advanced sonar processing and hardware design. This is a first of many systems to be delivered by us to the war-ship market. Hopefully our other naval customers will follow suit and select the Cerberus system for its superior performance and competitive price ahead of our competitors”.

Royal Navy hails Thales sonar systems as ‘world’s best’

Thales UK’s state-of-the-art Sonar 2087 – fitted to a Royal Navy (RN) Type 23 frigate – has played a vital role in a major international anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise in the Gulf of Oman.

HMS Westminster and a Trafalgar-class submarine led the RN’s involvement in Exercise Arabian Shark, a test of Coalition navies to deal with submarines in the Arabian Sea. During the exercise, the RN described the combined ASW capabilities of the ship and helicopter sonar as being ‘the best in the world’.

    …the world’s best submarine-hunting sonar

Westminster is one of seven Type 23 ships fitted with Sonar 2087, a towed array system that enables frigates to hunt the latest submarines at considerable distances and locate them beyond the range from which they can launch an attack.

This type of frigate also carries the Merlin helicopter that is fitted with the Thales FLASH dipping sonar. The combination of 2087 and FLASH makes the Type 23 a formidable anti-submarine warfare operator.

The 2087 system is a low frequency active sonar, consisting of both active and passive sonar arrays. The system is manufactured at Thales sites in the UK (Cheadle Heath in Manchester and Templecombe in Somerset) and France (Brest).

During the exercise, the Royal Navy described Westminster as having ‘the best submarine-hunting helicopter in the world (an 829 Naval Air Squadron Merlin) and the world’s best submarine-hunting sonar (2087).’

The British duo joined warships from the USA, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan for the exercises which have been held in the Middle East region on a regular basis for the past decade. The exercise involved the ASW surface ships trying to ‘sink’ the hunter-killer submarines, while simultaneously trying to avoid being sunk by their stealthy submariner counterparts. The main aims of the exercise were to strengthen military relationships and improve war-fighting techniques of all the navies involved.

Lt Thom Hobbs, Westminster’s Principal Warfare Officer (Underwater) says “Arabian Shark was a significant international exercise allowing the strong bonds between the participating nations to be reinforced. We are working together to ensure security and stability at sea.”

Phil Naybour, head of Thales UK’s naval business, says: “Thales is proud to be the major supplier of state-of-the-art submarine-hunting sonar to the UK Royal Navy.”

“Our latest Sonar 2087 provides the RN with phenomenal ASW capability.

The History of Sonar

Sonar is a system that uses transmitted and reflected underwater sound waves to detect and locate submerged objects or measure the distances underwater. It has been used for submarine and mine detection, depth detection, commercial fishing, diving safety and communication at sea. The Sonar device will send out a subsurface sound wave and then listens for returning echoes, the sound data is relayed to the human operators by a loudspeaker or by being displayed on a monitor.

As early as 1822, Daniel Colloden used an underwater bell to calculate the speed of sound underwater in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. This early research led to the invention of dedicated sonar devices by other inventors.

Lewis Nixon

Lewis Nixon invented the very first Sonar type listening device in 1906, as a way of detecting icebergs. Interest in Sonar was increased during World War I when there was a need to be able to detect submarines.

Paul Langévin

In 1915, Paul Langévin invented the first sonar type device for detecting submarines called an "echo location to detect submarines" using the piezoelectric properties of the quartz. He was too late to help very much with the war effort, however, Langévin's work heavily influenced future sonar designs.

The first Sonar devices were passive listening devices - no signals were sent out. By 1918, both Britain and the U.S had built active systems, in active Sonar signals are both sent out and then received back. Acoustic communication systems are Sonar devices where there is both a sound wave projector and receiver on both sides of the signal path. The invention of the acoustic transducer and efficient acoustic projectors made more advanced forms of Sonar possible.

Sonar - SOund, NAvigation and Ranging

The word Sonar is an American term first used in World War II, it is an acronym for SOund, NAvigation and Ranging. The British also call Sonar, ASDICS, which stands for Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee. Later developments of Sonar included the echo sounder, or depth detector, rapid-scanning Sonar, side-scan Sonar, and WPESS (within-pulseectronic-sector-scanning) Sonar.

There are two major kinds of sonar, active and passive.

Active sonar creates a pulse of sound, often called a "ping", and then listens for reflections of the pulse. The pulse may be at constant frequency or a chirp of changing frequency. If a chirp, the receiver correlates the frequency of the reflections to the known chirp. The resultant processing gain allows the receiver to derive the same information as if a much shorter pulse of the same total power were emitted. In general, long-distance active sonars use lower frequencies. The lowest have a bass "BAH-WONG" sound. To measure the distance to an object, one measures the time from emission of a pulse to reception.

Passive sonars listen without transmitting. They are usually military (although a few are scientific). Passive sonar systems usually have large sonic databases. A computer system frequently uses these databases to identify classes of ships, actions (i.e. the speed of a ship, or the type of weapon released), and even particular ships.