Improved Airborne ASW Localization to Attack Using Continuous Active Sonar

The Navy's current airborne ASW active sonar systems rely on pulse type sonars to develop accurate localization to attack solutions. To improve this capability, pulse sonars require: 1) higher source level sonobuoys resulting in larger and heavier sources, 2) higher energy sources that may require battery chemistries that have safety issues and/or high costs, and 3) extensive and costly marine mammal mitigation procedures. The OASIS/BBN team proposes to design and analytically demonstrate a continuous active sonar (CAS) approach that will improve target localization performance using smaller and lighter sources that require significantly less source level thus minimizing the adverse impact of active sonar on marine mammals. We will leverage our state-of-the-art understanding of CAS operation (patent application pending) that overcomes the ambiguity in target range and speed inherent in other CAS systems. Our systematic approach to system design will produce an effective and robust sonobuoy-based target localization to attack solution ready for assembly and demonstration in Phase II.