Thales announces significant Sonar 2076 upgrade

Thales UK today announces that it has been awarded a contract by BAE Systems to upgrade three Trafalgar-class and three Astute-class submarines with the Sonar 2076 Stage 5 system.

These submarines are currently fitted with the 2076 Stage 4 system. Once all the work is completed, 2076 Stage 5 will be fully deployed across the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) nuclear-powered attack (SSN) submarine fleet.

This contract builds on Thales UK’s relationship with BAE Systems Submarine Solutions, and is a demonstration of the success of the Performance Partnering Agreement jointly put in place.

The ‘Stage 5 Inboard Replacement’ (Stage 5 IR) contract is the latest in a series of developments to improve the capability, efficiency and through-life cost of the system to ensure that Sonar 2076 retains its reputation as the world’s most advanced, fully integrated, passive/active search and attack sonar suite.

Stage 5 IR achieves the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) requirement for reduced through-life costs and the need for rapid capability insertions of new hardware, software functionality and new algorithms to meet the RN’s changing mission requirements.

The upgrade also delivers an open architecture that allows a high degree of commonality with the future Astute and Vanguard-class replacement (Successor) submarines, and supports the MoD’s vision for the evolution of a common sonar and combat system across the RN submarine flotilla.

SONAR SYSTEMS

Deep-sea sonar technology for advanced anti-submarine warfare is aim of DARPA DSOP program

Ocean sensor specialists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va., are asking the defense industry for revolutionary advances in extremely deep-operating undersea surveillance systems to protect U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and their support vessels from quiet enemy attack submarines.

DARPA issued a broad agency announcement (DARPA-BAA-10-20) Friday called Deep Sea Operations (DSOP) for deep-ocean surveillance submarine warfare technologies involving sonar and non-acoustic sensors that take advantage of unique signal propagation in the deep ocean.

Navy fixed-site undersea sensor systems today include the Fixed Distributed System (FDS) and the Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS), which are used in ocean choke points in the Caribbean as well as the straits between Greenland, Iceland, Greenland, and the United Kingdom -- commonly referred to as the GIUK Gap.

For the Deep Sea Operations (DSOP) program, DARPA scientists want to use deep-sea areas known as the sound fixing and ranging channel -- also known as the deep sound channel -- that exists at ocean depths below about 3,000 feet where the water is cold, silent, and dense, and where the speed of sound is at its slowest.

Thales welcomes Royal Navy frigate’s sonar upgrade

One of the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) most advanced Type 23 frigates has re-entered operational service, fitted with Thales’s Sonar 2087 system, following a period of inten¬sive sea trials.

HMS Sutherland has been declared fit for operational service after trials of its major sonar and defensive systems, and now becomes the sixth Type 23 frigate to be upgraded with the Sonar 2087 system.

In November 2008 the Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that HMS Sutherland had left Rosyth dockland for the trials after a multi-million pound refit that included major upgrades to its sonar, Sea Wolf missile defence and gun systems.

The MoD has said the installation of Sonar 2087 will improve the frigate’s submarine-hunting ability. This type of frigate can also carry the Merlin helicopter fitted with Thales UK’s FLASH dipping sonar. The combination of 2087 and FLASH makes the Type 23 a formidable anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platform.

Sonar 2087 is a towed array system that enables Type 23 frigates to hunt the latest submarines at considerable distances and locate them beyond the range at which they can launch an attack.

The 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).

Mike Waldron, Group lead for Sonar systems at the MoD’s Defence Equipment & Support facility, says: “Recent operational deployments using Sonar 2087 against actual ‘threat platforms’ has shown this to be a very capable ASW system, giving these platforms a significant capability enhancement.

“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.” (Original News)

MGK-540 automated sonar complex

MGK-540 automated sonar complex

Designed to monitor surface and underwater situation continually in submarine station area. Installed on nuclear submarines.
- The complex provides for:
- automated target detection, listening and tracking in broad-band and narrow-band listening models in the adio-frequency, low audio-frequency and infra-sound frequency ranges;
- automated target detection, measurement of its range, relative bearing and range rate;
- automated detection and bearing-taking of narrow-band and broad-band signals transmitted by active sonars and measurement of their parameters;
- information exchange and identification of targets over an acoustic channel;
- automated classification of detected targets;
- estimation of acoustic conditions and complex operating range;
- control of acoustic noise interfering with the complex operation.

      

MGK-500 automated sonar complex

Designed to detect and classify targets, determine target designation data and ensure the safety of navigation. Installed on medium and large-tonnage submarines.
The complex consists of:
- listening equipment;
- echo-ranging equipment;
- sonar signal detection equipment;
- communication and identification eqipment;
- infrasonic frequency band target detection equipment;
- MG-519 anchor mine and mine nest unified sonar system;
- MG-518 upward-beam fathometer carried by deep-water submarines and designed to measure the thickness and record profile of the underwater ice, and measure the submarine diving depth;
- MG-533 sonar system used to measure sound velocity in the water;
- NOR-1 ice lane, water opening and separate ice-floe detection and warning system;
- NOK-1 system designed to ensure safe surfacing in water openings and ice lanes;
- MG-512 screw propeller cavitation assessment device.