Advanced Signal Processing for Airborne Active ASW Systems in High Clutter Environments

The key to enhanced detection performance of future active ASW sonar systems is the suppression of heavy clutter present in projected areas of operation (e.g., littoral waters). Although improvements can be made in many operational aspects of future systems, the fundamental limitation in performance will remain the heavy clutter, which is now known to be non-Gaussian. The non-Gaussian statistics of the clutter imply that the conventional processing technique of replica correlation (matched filtering) is sub-optimal and may exhibit poor performance since it is designed for Gaussian environments. In order to achieve (near-)optimal performance in these non-Gaussian clutter environments. MultiSpec Corporation has developed a situationally-adaptive technique for non-Gaussian clutter/noise environments to achieve (near-)optimum detection performance via clutter/noise suppression. Preliminary results with real data have shown a ten-fold decrease in false alerts (for the same probability of detection) when MultiSpec's technique is used instead of the conventional replica correlation processing. In Phase I. we propose the thorough testing and evaluation of this innovative signal processing technology using suitable performance metrics of target detection in the context of future airborne active ASW systems. This will include feasibility and cost- effectiveness of system implementation, as well as crisp quantification of the value added to the planned airborne ASW systems. The non-Gaussian statistics of the clutter imply that the conventional processing technique of replica correlation (matched filtering) is sub-optimal and may exhibit poor performance since it is designed for Gaussian environments. In order to achieve (nea In Phase I. we propose the thorough testing and evaluation of this innovative signal processing technology using suitable performance metrics of target detection in the context of future airborne active ASW systems. This will include feasibility and cost-