The United Kingdom Surface Ship Torpedo Defence (SSTD) system entered into service with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
in 2004. The system is produced by
Ultra Electronics[SSTD Datasheet at the Ultra Electronics website]
and is known as S2170 or Sonar 270 by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...
and as Sea Sentor in the export market.
The system consists of
* an acoustic passive towed array
* a towed acoustic countermeasure (flexible)
* a single-drum winch
* a processing cabinet
* 2 display consoles
* 2 expendable acoustic device launchers (1 port, 1 starboard)
* 16 expendable acoustic devices (8 in each launcher)
The system is a footprint compatible
[ replacement for the AN/SLQ-25 Nixie system previously installed on RN warships.UK MOD project status]
The passive acoustic towed array is specifically designed to detect torpedoes (unlike traditional ASW sonars) and has additional in-built non-acoustic as well as acoustic intercept sensors. Through advanced AI processing it is able to generically identify torpedoes as well as classify specific weapon types and modes and undertake threat evaluation and posturing analysis. The system provides tactical advice dependent upon the specific threat weapon, mode and posture to maximise vessel survivability, which typically involves vessel manoeuvres and also includes the deployment of countermeasures. The countermeasures - both towed and expendable variants - lure the threat away from the vessel in a soft-kill manner.
Ultra Electronics also produces a hard-kill variant known as the
TRAPR DCL system currently under development for the
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
.
References
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Close-in weapon systems
Military equipment of the United Kingdom
Naval warfare
Weapons countermeasures