Cost Effective Distributed Buoy Vessel Detection System

A layered approach to Maritime Domain Awareness begins with surveillance of vessel traffic as far offshore as possible to allow the advantage of time and space to identify and intercept threats before they can get close enough to affect the Homeland. The team of Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC) and Sparton Electronics has provided a solution to this deepwater surveillance problem with a lowcost distributed buoy vessel detection and tracking system based on the Navy’s lowcost passive sonobuoy sensor, manufactured by Sparton Electronics, and sonobuoy processing software developed for the Navy by AAC. The Phase I study has indicated that the design will provide a system that can be deployed in water up to 4 km deep and detect all noncooperative vessels approaching US shores while operating autonomously for at least a year. Among the many commercial applications of the distributed buoy detection system are as a "persistent sonobuoy" system for extended surveillance of both friendly and unfriendly waters off foreign shores, as a perimeter protection system for offshore assets and highrisk Navy platforms, and a surveillance system for commercial cruise line shipping lanes. Key Words sonobuoy, ocean buoy system, underwater detection, port security, underwater surveillance, vessel detection,