Daewoo awards Atlas Thai sonar contract
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has awarded Atlas Elektronik a contract to develop two sonar variations for the Royal Thai Navy’s new frigates.
Announced on 18 December, the award will see Atlas develop and integrate a bow sonar (ASO) as well as a low-frequency active towed array sonar (ACTAS) for the new vessels that DSME was contracted to build in April 2013.
By using the two sonars, the navy will be able to detect, track and classify underwater vehicles such as submarines, torpedoes and UUVs, as well as detecting and classifying small speedboats, divers and floating obstacles.
The ASO bow sonar operates at a frequency ranging between 6 and 9 kHz and provides a surveillance radius of up to 15km around the ship, according to Atlas, which makes it most suitable for the self-protection of the ship.
The ACTAS, meanwhile, operates in a lower frequency range from some 2 kHz, and permits observation of the sea space at ranges above 60 km, depending on the propagation conditions of the water.
‘This gives the sonar an operational range that by far exceeds that of radars and the weapons range of submarines,’ Atlas said in a statement. ‘The system is therefore not only ideal for hunting submarines but also for the wide-area reconnaissance of surface combatants.’
Both sonar systems represent Atlas’ newly-developed signal processing methods, as well as offering a ‘unified hardware design’ with the corresponding servicing and support, the company said.
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