Maritime Surveillance Using Underwater Communication Receivers

Many SOCOM-specific, passive, maritime, acoustic-surveillance operations cannot be accomplished using conventional sonar-system technologies. Maritime, passive-acoustic surveillance using some combination of submarines and the Advanced Deployable System is a traditional surveillance mission. But, the deployment and use of these capital-intensive assets for surveillance of many shallow-water passages, ports, and harbors open to use by irregular adversaries is inappropriate. These traditional technologies are also focused on long-range and large-area detection using sensors and signal processing that does not include non-traditional targets such as small surface craft. Our proposal addresses the design, construction and testing of sensors and signal-processing software for unconventional maritime surveillance. The sensors are variants of proven underwater-modem technology. In Phase I, signal-processing software appropriate to the constraints of this sensor and mission will be constructed and tested using data from the Harsh Environments Program.