Page 6 - Leverage and Learn

Leverage Allied Investments and Combat Learning Experience in Modernizing the U.S. Military

“Indeed,” Truver underscored, “the U.S. Navy’s experience underscores the lethality of the threat. Of the 19 U.S.
Navy ships that have been seriously damaged or sunk by enemy action since the end of World War II, 15 of
them––nearly 80 percent––were mine victims.”

Potential American adversaries are estimated to have on the order of 386,000 naval mines––China has
approximately 80,000, Iran 6,000, North Korea 50,000, and Russia 250,000, according to published
intelligence sources.

The global threat in 2017 includes more than a million sea mines of more than 300 types in the inventories of
more than 50 navies worldwide.

This array of threats coupled with other beneath-the-surface missions demand advanced underwater surveillance
and detection systems.
Potential non-military missions include monitoring and surveying seafloor areas for underwater structures,
pipelines, etc.

The SAMDIS Solution

Advanced Acoustic Concepts, a DRS/Thales joint venture based in the United States, has devised SAMDIS––
Synthetic Aperture and Mine Detection Imagery Sonar––a system with multiple capabilities that can be rapidly
deployed to provide the underwater “big picture.”
Having also developed shipboard hull-mounted sonars, variable-depth sonars, and a fully automated drone
launch and retrieval system, the firm has devised SAMDIS primarily to be deployed from unmanned underwater
vehicles (UUVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), i.e., the so-called “ghost fleet.”
However, the system in a towed configuration with a different form factor called T-SAM (Towed-SAMDIS) can be
deployed from unmanned surface vessels, and it can be deployed and towed in seas up to sea state four.

The SAMDIS multi-aspect AN/ASQ-series sonar currently provides the only technology that can detect and
classify sonar echoes in a single sweep and can collect bathymetry and seafloor imagery simultaneously.

With respect to mine countermeasures, the operational benefit is considerable, particularly when the goal is also
to define the type of device required to destroy the mine.

The SAMDIS system provides a unique capability for multi-aspect processing of ultra-high-resolution synthetic
aperture sonar capability. This multi-aspect photography capability enables it to simultaneously examine an object
on the seabed from three different viewing angles, hence greatly increasing the search rate.
It is also able to provide for single-sweep detection and determination for on-the-fly, real time intelligence of the
seabed.

And, SAMDIS can produce images with far better resolution and contrast than the previous generation of sonar
imaging technology currently in use today by many Navies.

This maximizes detection and classification effectiveness, minimizing the number of false alarms—one of the
major challenges of mine-detection systems—SADMIS users will be able detect and, if necessary, clear mines
more rapidly than with older methods.

While mine countermeasures is a concern of many allied nations, SADMIS also has direct value in several other
areas of undersea warfare and surveillance operations such as “intelligence preparation” of the environment.
Second Line of Defense

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