Hydrodynamic Control of a Towed Vertical Array

The SURTASS Vertical Array Control System (SVACS) is a technology for direct integration onto the active array to address the problem of off-vertical displacement during operations. This is an important issue to address in order to maintain the overall SURTASS system’s performance in detecting long range subsea threats.The SVACS design consists of thruster modules placed along the length of the array arranged to provide forces capable of restoring the system to vertical and accurately controlling the array shape. Phase I efforts included design development of this concept, hydrodynamic modeling, and risk reduction experiments. These studies provided a high level of confidence that a full-scale SVACS can be designed and built to meet the objectives and constraints of the SURTASS program.Phase II effort includes the design of a full-scale SVACS, build of a prototype, and execution of at-sea tests to demonstrate SVACS performance. Strong emphasis is placed on providing a practical and cost-effective system that can be quickly retrofitted to the current array. SVACS poses a low risk to operations as the thrusters can be powered down from the vessel, resulting in essentially the baseline array. This work will result in developing the SVACS to Technology Readiness Level 6/7.