Sea Power: AWD Sonars on track | ADM April 2012
Julian Kerr | Sydney
Mark Anderson, Group Marketing Director-designate of Ultra Electronics, confirmed that development of the sonar system for the Hobart class air warfare destroyers (AWD) was on schedule. This included the shipboard winch which is so large that it must be fitted into the relevant AWD hull modules before they are welded together.
“The relationship with Raytheon (AWD mission systems integrator) is very good, we’re meeting the agreed milestones and we’re currently sitting at about 50 per cent of the software development. The hardware is already being tested in the water at Seneca Lake in upstate New York to ensure it meets its appropriate criteria,” Anderson told ADM.
The integrated sonar suite includes a Type 2150 hull-mounted sonar with a quad directional active-passive receive array, a passive torpedo detection array and a high-powered linear towed array, towed and expendable torpedo countermeasures, and underwater communication.
Anderson, a former nuclear submarine commander and Type 23 frigate captain in the Royal Navy, declined to disclose the delivery timetable. But he said that when complete, the AWD fit would be one of the first truly integrated sonar systems, with the hull-mounted sonar and the variable depth towed array all integrated into a common processing platform and a single display.
“That is achievable now due to the nature of processor capacity and the advantage is that we’ll be able to transmit on both the towed array and the hull and receive on either, and potentially also receive from sonobuoys. That allows us to look for submarines from many different aspects.
“The key is in the writing of individual algorithms; to understand the overall structure and to be able to develop the algorithms in a way that together combines that overall capability.
“We’re designing a sonar that is going to be operated by a relatively young and inexperienced team in an AWD so we’ve got to have a human-machine interface which recognises that and allows them to declare submarine contacts with a high degree of reliability.”
Seaborne end-to-end testing of the capability would not take place until the AWDs put to sea, Anderson said. But Ultra was currently in the middle of what he described as “a very high volume of activity”, preparing to demonstrate the capability in its component parts and readying supporting documentation.