During the Royal Australian Navy-sponsored Autonomous Warrior 2018 (AW18) exercise in Jervis Bay, Australia, the Northrop Grumman Corporation proved its AQS-24B system fully capable of mine hunting and undersea surveillance.
Northrop Grumman MHU towing the AQS-24B mine hunting sensor. (Picture source: Northrop Grumman)
The global security company used its remote controlled Mine Hunting Unmanned Surface Vessel (MHU) to demonstrate the sensor potential.
The AQS-24B sensor is said to address major mine warfare challenges, as it is designed to deliver a faster mine clearance performance and to offer "accurate detection, localisation and identification of undersea ojects". Northrop Grumman also declared the combination of AQS-24B and an unmanned surface vessel (USV) ensured crew safety by being remotely operated.
Equipped with an optical laser line scan sensor, the AQS-24 also boasts the world's first combined operational High-Speed Synthetic Aperture Sonar.
Alan Lytle, vice president of the company, said “the demonstration highlighted Northrop Grumman’s leading role in proving the operational utility of unmanned maritime systems in the mine warfare domain. At operational speeds significantly higher than other mine hunting systems on the market, the USV/AQS-24B combination successfully completed a number of scenarios and challenges that were set by the Royal Australian Navy’s exercise command task group.”
