Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC), a joint venture between DRS Technologies and Thales, and the US Navy have successfully demonstrated advanced mine-hunting capabilities off the coast of Camp Pendleton, California, US.
During the at-sea demonstration, conducted as part of the 2013 Fleet Experimentation (FLEX) Unmanned Systems (UxS) campaign, the T-SAS system detected all exercise mines with increased area clearance rates.
The system also provided automatic target recognition (ATR) sonar processing, enabling operators to conduct real-time detection and classification of exercise mines while eliminating the need for post-mission analysis.
In coordination with the US Navy Mine and Antisubmarine Warfare Command (NMAWC), the US Naval Warfare Development Center (NWDC) had requested industry participation for a mine warfare capabilities demonstration intended to enhance large geographic area search or automate detection and classification of undersea mines and maritime IED.
T-SAS provides game-changing capability to the US Navy with increased area clearance rates and reduced the overall mine warfare detect-to-engage timeline.
The high-resolution SAS sensor, when combined with ATR processing, offers improved probability of correct classification and dramatically reduced false alarms for fleet operators.
An upgraded version of the TSM 2054 side scan sonar, the AAC T-SAS system can be towed from both manned and unmanned vessels.
The 2013 FLEX UxS campaign plan aims to identify potential solutions to address the highest priority operational needs of the US Navy fleet, according to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR).
