Towed Acoustic Countermeasures for Defending Acoustic Homing Torpedoes

  • Jomon George DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021
  • P. Sinchu DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021
  • K. Ajith Kumar DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021
  • T. Santhana Krishnan DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021
Keywords: Torpedo defence system, Acoustic decoys, Towed decoy, Decoy signal generation, Towed array sonar

Abstract

The growing torpedo threat to ships and submarines demands effective countermeasures for defence. Detection, classification and localisation of an attacking torpedo is the first step towards launching effective countermeasures. Studies are on the rise to use the existing sonar systems to detect torpedoes and subsequently use countermeasures. The use of towed array sonar systems for torpedo detection and acoustic counter measures are the most recent and not reported much in open literature. This paper presents a modular acoustic counter measure approach using towed decoy against acoustic homing torpedoes. Describes the technologies and algorithms required for different modes of towed decoy, which is effective against both active and passive acoustic homing torpedoes. Towed decoy signal generation schemes and their realisation using digital signal processing hardware are outlined in this paper.

Author Biographies

Jomon George, DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021

Mr Jomon George received his BTech (Electrical and Electronics Engineering) from Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala and MTech (Electronics) from Cochin University. Currently pursuing his PhD at Cochin University. He is working as Scientist ‘G’ at DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi. His research interests include: Sonar system design, Sonar signal processing and Towed array sonar systems.

P. Sinchu, DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021

Ms P. Sinchu received her BTech (Electronics and Communication Engineering) from NIT, Calicut and ME (Signal Processing) from IISc, Bangalore. She is working as Scientist ‘E’ at the DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi. Her research interests include sonar signal processing, active sonar reverberation studies and Sonar target tracking algorithms.

K. Ajith Kumar, DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021

Dr K. Ajith Kumar received his BTech (Mechanical Engineering) from University of Kerala, MTech (Engineering Mechanics) from IIT, Madras and PhD from Anna University, Chennai. He is working as Scientist ‘G’ at DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi. His research interests include: Application of systems engineering in design of major systems, sonar systems design, design of engineering systems for underwater applications and project management.

T. Santhana Krishnan, DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic laboratory, Kochi – 682 021

Dr T. Santhanakrishnan received the MSc (Physics) from Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai, India, MTech (Lasers and Electro-Optical Engineering) and PhD in applied optics from Anna University, Chennai. He is working as Scientist-F at DRDO-Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, Kochi. His research interests include: Development of optoelectronic systems for under water applications, optical interferometry, fiber optic hydrophones, laser-based instrumentation, Big data analysis, sentiment analysis from tweets, polymer composites, underwater target detection and tracking, and thin film PZT sensors.

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Published
2019-12-16
How to Cite
George, J., Sinchu, P., Kumar, K. A., & Santhana Krishnan, T. (2019). Towed Acoustic Countermeasures for Defending Acoustic Homing Torpedoes. Defence Science Journal, 69(6), 607-612. https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.69.13337
Section
Naval Systems