The Navy Wants A Rapidly Deployable Version Of Its Cold War Era Submarine Monitoring Network
The containerized concept would allow various types of ships to readily emplace these sonar arrays wherever and whenever necessary.
By Joseph TrevithickFebruary 21, 2020
The War Zone
060214-N-8534H-123
JO3 Barry R. Hirayama
The U.S. Navy is in process of developing a new, more rapidly deployable, fixed, persistent, deep water active anti-submarine surveillance system. This system would consist of large sonar arrays attached to buoys that ships could emplace in a particular spot in the ocean straight from inside a standard shipping container. This is just one part of a multi-tier effort that comes as senior naval officers continue to warn publicly about increasing worrisome submarine activity from potential adversaries, especially with regards to Russian subs operating more regularly off the coast of the Eastern United States.
On Feb. 19, 2020, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) issued a notice on beta.SAM.gov, the U.S. government's central contracting website, asking for white papers detailing possible options to meet the demands for what it is calling the Affordable Mobile Anti-Submarine Warfare Surveillance System, or AMASS. ONR's goal is to eventually develop a "persistent, deep water, active ASW [anti-submarine warfare] system that can detect new emerging threat submarines at extended ranges."
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32319/the-navy-wants-a-containerized-sub-tracking-sonar-that-can-be-left-at-sea-for-long-periods
