SURVEY AND EVALUATION OF TECHNIQUES FOR MEASUREMENT OF ACOUSTIC SENSOR POSITION IN LONG TOWED ARRAYS, USING INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL DATA OR

THE PROPOSED PHASE I EFFORT CONSISTS OF ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF TECHNIQUES FOR MEASUREMENT OF ACOUSTIC SENSOR POSITIONS IN LONG TOWEDARRAYS FOR USE IN REDUCING PERFORMANCE DEGRADATIONS DUE TO ARRAY MOTIONS AND DISTORTION. PRESENT AND FUTURE ARRAY DESIGNS AND OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS WILL BE CONSIDERED, WITH SPECIFIC ATTENTION TO NONACOUSTIC SENSOR SUITES AND CAPABILITIES. A SURVEY OF SHAPE ESTIMATIONMETHODS USED OR BEING CONSIDERED FOR USE IN TACTICAL AND SURVEILLANCE ARRAYS, AS WELL AS IN COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS, WILL BE DOCUMENTED, WITH AN EVALUATION OF CAPABILITIES AND LIMITATIONS. PARTICULAR ATTENTION WILL BE APPLIED TO PROCESSING ALGORITHMS THAT USE DATA FROM ONE OR MORE HEADING SENSORS WITHIN THE ARRAY WITH EMPHASIS ON IDENTIFYINGADDITIONAL DATA THAT WILL IMPROVE ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CURRENT TECHNIQUES, AND ON IDENTIFYING METHODS OF SATISFYING THESE ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS. CONSIDERATION WILL BE GIVEN TO: THE ARRAY AND SENSOR SUITE; SOURCES AND DATA FROM THE TOW PLATFORM; THE USE OF DEPLOYABLES;AND EXPLOITATION OF OTHER EXTERNAL ELEMENTS IN THE UNDERSEA WARFAREENVIRONMENT. A DETAILED RECOMMENDATION AND TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION WILL BE PROVIDED WITH A PLAN OF ACTION FOR IMPLEMENTATION AND DEMONSTRATION OF A PREFERRED METHOD IN SEA TESTING.