• Maritime Security Matrix

The Maritime Security Matrix

The possibility of unauthorised access from the sea has up until recently been seen as an optional extra specified by only the most security conscious. However, in recent years, more and more effort has been invested in securing maritime assets against the actions of terrorists and saboteurs.

Developed for the protection of ports, harbours, vessels and offshore installations, Sonardyne's range of innovative sonar and acoustic technologies represent a practical and cost effective solution to identifying subsea threats.

Intruder Detection Sonar

Within the Maritime Security Matrix, Sonardyne's automated tracking sonar technology enables underwater intruders to be reliably detected at long ranges, classified and differentiated from non-threats such as pleasure craft, large fish and cetaceans.

Small and lightweight, the sonar technology can be easily deployed in a vessel or harbour environment to provide 360 degrees of protection. It can operate as a stand-alone portable solution for rapid expeditionary deployment around the globe or configured with multiple, networked sonar heads so that very wide areas, such as large ports and entire water-front locations, can be permanently protected. It can be fully integrated with an external Command and Control (C2) system.

Systems are now deployed and operational in America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia where they are protecting commercial property, strategic infrastructure, coastal zones, ports and harbours, VIPs and military installations.

 

Imaging Sonar

Sonardyne's new generation of sidescan imaging sonar with integrated swath bathymetry delivers a new standard of imaging for a range of seabed search and target classification operations. Designed specifically for operation on small, medium and large AUVs, the sonar increases the operational envelope of a vehicle significantly by providing wide swath coverage at high resolution whilst consuming very low power. This results in high area coverage rates and long vehicle endurance.

Sonardyne have developed a dedicated AUV Imaging sonar, providing class leading resolution (equal to commercially available Synthetic Aperture Sonar) with the range of ‘best in class’ towed systems, but with a dramatically reduced power budget. All this combined with the biggest goal of all; real-time high resolution data to enable onboard computer aided detection and classification (CAD/CAC) and automatic target recognition (ATR).

Existing platforms have no option but to support ‘hybrid’ solutions of heavily modified sonars that were previously developed for hull mounted or towed applications, or worse still originally developed for some of the gargantuan vehicles developed in the late 90’s. SOLSTICE is a modular sonar platform that can be fitted to the smallest vehicles with the capability of ‘diffraction limited’ 5-10cm resolution, with co-registered bathymetry and a unique multipath suppression design that provides shadow classification even in the VSW domain. All this with a power consumption of only 10W, by doing nothing else to an existing platform the operational improvements can be high as 400%.

 

Command and Control - NIDAR

NIDAR is the first fully automated command and control system for the protection of vessels, ports, waterside and strategic offshore infrastructure from the threat of piracy, terrorism and insurgency. The unique browser-based system dramatically reduces operating costs by maintaining a 360 degree security shield around an asset.

NIDAR enables the real-time autonomous detection, tracking, classification and deterrence of multiple targets, with the option of secure remote surveillance and control from networked devices.

NIDAR provides complete situational awareness with a 360 degree surface and underwater security shield for vessels, ports, waterside and strategic offshore infrastructure. The patented system is scaleable to any size of asset integrating local and wide area sensors such as underwater surveillance systems, electrooptic systems, radar, automatic identification system (AIS) and satellite imagery. The system can also be integrated with existing asset security systems such as door locks, CCTV and MARSS’s new generation micro-surveillance radar which detects vessel or platform intrusion.

NIDAR can detect, track and classify threats to the limits set by the integrated sensors and features the option of manual or automatic operation of non-lethal countermeasures such as lighting, surface and underwater loudhailers to deter intruders.

The System operates autonomously 24/7. The flexible intuitive user interface is easy to use and requires little or no operator training. Using a remote device such as a tablet computer or smartphone, secure remote access and control can be undertaken from anywhere in the world where there is a network connection.