DSIT Solutions, a subsidiary of Acorn Energy, has announced today that it will officially introduce its new lightweight, compact, portable Diver Detection Sonar (DDS) system, the PointShield™ DDS at two exhibitions taking place in Europe and the United States this month.

The first is the Underwater Defence Technology (UDT) Conference and Exhibition that is taking place 8 to 10 June in Hamburg, Germany and the second is the Maritime Systems and Technology (MAST) Conference and Exhibition taking place 22 – 24 June in Washington, DC. The company will present a paper about its comprehensive concept of underwater site protection at MAST.

The PointShield™ DDS, a smaller, lighter version of AquaShield™, will better meet the protection requirements for on-water facilities in small, restricted areas, such as water intake channels, canals or narrow entrances. In addition, naval customers have also voiced a need for a lightweight compact version of the AquaShield™ DDS system.

The 2 June 2010 issue (Volume 47) of Jane’s Defence Weekly noted that DSIT “stands as one of the pioneers in the DDS marketplace, through the development of its widely sold AquaShield DDS System.”

The article also quotes an industry source as saying that, “There are billions of dollars worth of facilities and structures under or adjacent to the sea. Governments, and particularly the energy industry, are finally waking up to their vulnerability to attack.”

The recently attempted strike by a terrorist scuba diving team off the Gaza coast in the Mediterranean Sea illustrates further the threats that water based facilities are facing.

Dan Ben-Dov, DSIT’s VP of sales and marketing said, “The PointShield boasts a unique modular design that enables tailoring of the system to customer requirements and site specific geography. This new tough but light DDS offers detection for even the weakest of targets, and can easily handle hundreds of tracks simultaneously. DSIT has ensured the same winning features in the PointShield that have made the AquaShield name synonymous with underwater site security – fully automatic mode of operation, very low maintenance requirements and high system reliability.”

DSIT’s CEO, Benny Sela, remarked, “Even before its official introduction to the market, three PointShield units have already been ordered and delivered. We are very pleased with the excellent results we are seeing from this compact system, which has been successfully tested against divers in several locations, including the USA.”