Fat Line Array Stabilization System (FAST)

The fat line towed array system provides a critical surveillance capability that enables the U.S. Navy to maintain undersea dominance. Submarines tow 300ft long fat line arrays that are equipped with hydrophones that are used to detect, classify, localize and track threat submarines. The turbulent nature of the tow environment causes the low-frequency motions in the aft end of the array, degrading the performance of the acoustic processing and causing mechanical stress and component failures. Makai proposes to address the aft array stability problem by developing an effective and fully passive technology: the Fat Line Array Stabilization FAST System that can be easily attached to the end of the fat-line array. The FAST collapses to a small form-factor to support repeated deployments and recoveries from the stowage tube. During operation, FAST self-deploys to stabilize the array over the full range of operational speeds. FAST’s low-risk results in increased mission effectiveness as well as significant cost savings for the Government throughout the system’s entire lifecycle, from development through production and maintenance. Furthermore, the relatively low technical risk of the proposed solutions enables an accelerated development timeline so the technology can be rapidly transitioned to the submarine fleet.