Raytheon delivers sonar for DARPA's unmanned anti-submarine warfare vehicle program

: Posted On Friday, 20 November 2015 11:38

Naval Defense Industry News - USA

Raytheon delivers sonar for DARPA's unmanned anti-submarine warfare vehicle program

Raytheon Company has completed delivery of its latest Modular Scalable Sonar System (MS3), the fifth-generation hull-mounted sonar system, for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous TrailUnmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program. The delivery is a culmination of efforts under a subcontract from Leidos, Inc., whose prototype trimaran is designed to serve as the program's unmanned vehicle.

The Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) is developing an unmanned vessel optimized to robustly track quiet diesel electric submarines.
(Picture: DARPA)

MS3 marks an improvement in the performance and reliability of proven sonar technologies. It performs active and passive search and tracking; incoming torpedo warning; and small-object avoidance for safer navigation. Sensor data from the system is used in the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission to help build a common operating picture for ACTUV. MS3 will be integrated into Leidos' trimaran for ACTUV, and will deliver these capabilities in an autonomous operating environment.

"MS3 builds on a legacy of sonar expertise, integrating a host of capabilities in a single sonar system," said Paul Ferraro, vice president of Advanced Technology for Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems business. "MS3 will provide DARPA with exceptional performance – from detection to tracking – from an unmanned platform."

DARPA’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program seeks to develop a new type of unmanned surface vessel that could independently track adversaries’ ultra-quiet diesel-electric submarines over thousands of miles. One of the challenges that the ACTUV program is addressing is development of autonomous behaviors for complying with the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, known as COLREGS. Substantial progress has been made in developing and implementing those behaviors. Currently, ACTUV’s system for sensing other vessels is based on radar, which provides a “90 percent solution” for detecting other ships. However, radar is less suitable for classification of the type of other vessels, for example determining whether the vessel is a powered vessel or a sailboat. Additionally, one of the requirements of COLREGS is to maintain “a proper lookout by sight and hearing.”