Development trend of sonar technology

As an important equipment for detecting submarines, sonar has undergone decades of development. From the sonar equipment are used in the national equipment.the sonar technology researched and developed, the future development trend of sonar technology can be summarized as follows,piezo ceramic continues to develop in the direction of high power, large array and low frequency. Active towing array sonar is the main strategy of anti-submarine in the various countries. It has shifted from deep sea areas around the world to local naval battles and regional conflicts. Due to the great development of submarine noise reduction technology, a "silent" submarine has been produced, which makes the distance of the submarine detection of the passive detection sonar greatly ,which is resulting in the situation that the passive sonar can not find the submarine at a close distance. The poor hydrological propagation conditions in the shallow waters make it difficult for passive sonar to function properly, so countries have begun research in the active array sonar. The United Kingdom was the first country to begin this sonar study, and its ATAS test matrix was highly valued by the various naval countries around the world. This type of sonar uses a large aperture low-frequency line array as the receiving array, and uses a low-frequency high-power transmitting array, which has a strong technical advantage.

Research shows that the research and development of large-aperture low-frequency passive sonar technology is the first condition for effective anti-submarine and solving remote exploration. Passive towed arrays of piezo ceramic tubes are representative of this low-frequency, large-aperture technique. Strategic towed array sonar, such as the US surveillance towed array system (SURTASS) warning array, its line array length of 1828 meters, it does not perform tactical anti-submarine missions, but it has a strong early warning nature. The tactical towed array sonar, such as the US AN/SQR-19 sonar operates at a frequency of 1.5 to 3.5 kHz, while the passive sonar is operating frequency used to install the ship is typically 0.1 to 1.5 kHz, so this type active sonar is a typical representative of passive towed array sonar.

The side array of sonar arrays installed on the sides of the submarine is called the side array. Although the length of the sonar array is generally 2/3 of the length of the submarine, it does not destroy the submarine's maneuverability, but piezoelectric ceramic material has good detection performance. The US 1110 and the French TSM2253 side array are its representatives. . Development towards modularization, standardization, high reliability and reliable maintainability. Due to the short development cycle of the modular structure, it is good development of development funds, strong interchangeability, high reliability and easy maintenance, most of the sonars are now available. even in the design of the future sonar, whether it is a transducer array, or a signal processing cabinet and a display console, etc., all adopt standardized modular structure. The reliability and maintainability that play an important role in the performance of sonar equipment are complementary, and the development of these cylindrical piezoelectric tube is also very important. Generally, the average time between failures of large-scale sonar equipment is 400-450 hours, and the average repair time of faults is within 1 hour. Small and medium-sized sonars are more reliable and maintainable, such as the French DIODON type sonar, which has an average time between failures of 500 hours and an average repair time of 15 minutes.