The UK Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate HMS Sutherland has re-entered operational service equipped with Thales’s Sonar 2087 system, following sea trials.
HMS Sutherland is the navy’s sixth Type 23 frigate to be upgraded with the Sonar 2087 system. The refit work on the warship included major upgrades to its sonar, Sea Wolf missile defence and gun systems.
The Sonar 2087 will be used in coordination with a Merlin helicopter equipped with Thales UK’s Flash dipping sonar, which when used together will make the Type 23 a complete anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform.
Sonar 2087 is a towed array system, a low-frequency active sonar comprising both active and passive sonar arrays.
MoD defence equipment and support facility sonar systems group lead Mike Waldron said that recent operational deployments using Sonar 2087 against actual ‘threat platforms’ had shown this to be a very capable ASW system.
“HMS Sutherland now enters the in-service reliability phase alongside the other five Sonar 2087-fitted platforms so that the MoD and Thales can fully test and assess the system performance,” he said.
