In-Air Sound Sources for Anti-Submarine Warfare Navy SBIR FY2012.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2012.2 Topic No.: N122-122 Topic Title: In-Air Sound Sources for Anti-Submarine Warfare Proposal No.: N122-122-0717 Firm: Applied Physical Sciences Corp. 475 Bridge Street Suite 100 Groton, Connecticut 06340 Contact: Kevin Cockrell Phone: (619) 795-6510 Web Site: www.aphysci.com Abstract: With the continual reduction in radiated acoustic levels of submarines around the world, active sonar has become essential in all aspects of Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) operations. Further, bistatic and multistatic active sonar systems increase the spatial diversity of detection systems and afford improvements over monostatic systems in performance against potential threat submarines. Source development has been a focus, but the size and complexity of source designs, particularly at the lower frequencies necessary for longer range acoustic propagation, makes this aspect of the active sonar system technically challenging. This is especially true for air-deployable multistatic active sonar systems. An airborne acoustic source, combined with a field of air-deployed acoustic sensors in the water, has the potential to enable a wide area, active, search capability that limits the ability of submerged threats to effectively predict source location and reduce their own vulnerability to detection. The purpose of this SBIR proposal is to:  Assess the feasibility of airborne acoustic sources for active sonar  Develop source concepts that provide the ensonification levels and source waveforms necessary for submerged threat detection, and  Plan at-sea experiments to validate the concepts for development. Benefits: The proposed effort is focused on improving ASW operations for Maritime Patrol Aircraft and helicopters. Successful conclusion of the Phase I effort results in the design of an airborne sound source capable of being deployed on an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) and used to validate the benefits of the in-air acoustic source for multistatic active sonar operations. Incorporating flexibility into the design of the airborne sound source will enable the U.S. Navy to adapt the source characteristics to achieve a variety of research goals, such as implementing the airborne source for use in conjunction with surface ship ASW operations. An effective airborne sound source could also be adapted for the oil and gas industry as a rapidly deployable source approach to oil exploration. Return