Coherent Active Sonar Waveform Analysis Using Pressure/Velocity Phase Comparison for Improved Detection and Classification Navy SBIR FY2009.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2009.1 Topic No.: N091-010 Topic Title: Coherent Active Sonar Waveform Analysis Using Pressure/Velocity Phase Comparison for Improved Detection and Classification Proposal No.: N091-010-0424 Firm: RDA Inc. P.O. Box 49 Doylestown, Pennsylvania 18901 Contact: Malachi Higgins Phone: (215) 340-9514 Web Site: rdainc.com Abstract: The objective of this Phase I effort is to develop a new means of detecting undersea targets in the reverberation return as well as in the forward scatter zone. Previous tests regarding Forward Scatter Detection had not been able to establish acceptable False Alarm Rates (FAR), at a sufficiently high Probability of Detection (PD) to warrant further development. However, newer developments using an array of co-located pressure and pressure gradient (i.e. velocity) sensors, showed potential as an undersea target detection mechanism. The proposed effort will follow up on these tests, both from a theoretical and practical measurement sense, to define sonobuoys which are capable of this new detection technique. Potential applications will be to the navy, as well as to homeland security for harbor defense and enemy diver detection. Benefits: Current Active sonobuoys rely on transmitting energy into the water and listening for the return. But especially in littoral areas, reverberation can mask the return from a target, limiting detection performance in the reverberation and forward scatter zones. The techniques under discussion in this SBIR rely on improvements in pressure and pressure gradient transducers, along with developing the requisite signal processing, to demonstrate new methods of detection and classification that are currently un-attainable with the current system. Potential applications will be to the navy, as well as to homeland security for harbor defense and enemy diver detection. Return