HELRAS or the Helicopter Long Range Active Sonar is a
naval helicopter undersea sensor, a dipping
sonar (a form of
towed array sonar), deployed by
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...
s of many
naval air forces around the world to detect
submarine
A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...
s; it is a form of
geophysical MASINT.
History
HELRAS was first developed in the 1970s by
Bendix, FIAR and
British Aerospace. Another rival system was called FLASH (Folding Light
Acoustic System for Helicopters). In the 1980s, the system was supplied by Bendix.
A competitor of HELRAS is the
Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS).
Capability
It can detect submarines up to 60NM.
Manufacture
Parts for the system are made by
Rolls-Royce North America
Rolls-Royce North America, Inc. is a subsidiary of multinational corporation Rolls-Royce plc. The American unit operates under a Special Security Arrangement which allows it to work independently on some of the most sensitive United States de ...
.
Deployment
The system has been fitted to EH101, S70B, NH90, CH-148, AS532SC, AB412, and AS565 with helicopter of navies such as Italy, Turkey, Greece, Netherlands, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Chile, Brazil, Indonesia, and Morocco. The system has also been fitted to unmanned surface vessels Seagull and RHIBs for Israel and USN.
See also
*
AN/SQQ-89
*
HIDAS, made by
Selex GalileoHIDAS
/ref>
* Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System
* Searchwater (radar), made by Thales UK
* SOSUS
* USHUS
References
Anti-submarine warfare
Helicopter components
Military sonar equipment of the United States
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