Low Cost, Injection Molded, Universal Hydrophones

Recent advances in towed array electronics, based on NUWC's MASC Integrated Circuit and low cost, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) telemetry electronics, have significantly reduced the cost of towed array electronics. The largest cost element in the towed array is the cost of hydrophone sensors. In this program, MSI proposes an innovative program to adapt its low cost injection molded manufacturing methods to lower the cost of towed array hydrophone proposes to demonstrate two types of low cost hydrophones based on COTS technology and deliver these for testing at Navy test facilities. In Phase II, MSI proposes to extend this work to produce a sufficient number of hydrophone elements to support full scale testing in the TB-29A towed array program using these COTS