Advances in cots side scan sonar for MCM applications

Abstract

The Persian Gulf War has elevated the awareness to the problems of shallow water mine detection. Today's high technology shallow water anti-invasion mines, such as the Italian made "MANTA" and the Swedish manufactured "ROCkXN", have been designed with stealth shapes and from materials to make detection by sonar systems dificult. Recent trials at NUWC (Naval Underwater Weapons Center), Newport R.I., have demonstrated the advantage of the latest generation of COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) Side Scan Sonars employing full digital designs in detecting these mine types. This poster session will summarize the design features of these new systems and example results will be presented.