Maritime Surveillance Sensing Using Underwater High Frequency Acoustic Communication Receivers

High-frequency acoustic modems are required to provide undersea communication networks to support covert surveillance operations. These modems can also be used as platforms for compact, low power surveillance sensors and processing. A natural first step would be to integrate a capability for passive acoustic detection of ships and submarines. A multi-phase effort is proposed for integrating passive acoustic detection, feature extraction, and automated classification into existing undersea modems being developed by SOCOM. A team-based approach will be used to provide the wide range of capabilities required for this effort. Extensive reuse will be made of existing development efforts at Teledyne-Benthos, Analysis, Design & Diagnostics (AD&D), and Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC) to minimize the development risk. The Teledyne-Benthos SM 75 undersea modem will be used as a target platform, providing an undersea networking capability while allowing the team to define the changes required to support an automated passive acoustic detection capability. AD&D will provide expertise in acoustic data collection, data analysis, and passive classification of narrowband, modulated and unmodulated broadband, acoustic intercept, and transient signals. AAC will modify existing CAUSS (Common Airborne USW Sensor Software) sonobuoy processing software to provide passive acoustic detection, feature extraction, and message generation and compression capabilities.