Defence firm Ultra Maritime has carried out trials of a sonobuoy it hopes will be fielded as part of the Royal Navy’s Atlantic Bastion North Atlantic sensor network.
As per a press statement, the firm recently conducted successful trials of its Multistatic Active Receive Sonobuoy (MSARS) in the waters off Scotland.
It called the recent demonstration “a significant milestone in advancing anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities in the U.K.”
It noted: “Amid increasing Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic, enhanced detection and localization of threat submarines and unmanned underwater vehicles are critical to maintaining operational advantage. MSARS is designed to meet this need by delivering improved performance over current Royal Navy sonobuoy systems.”
The company is currently collaborating with General Atomics to integrate MSARS and other G-size sonobuoys onto the MQ-9B SeaGuardian uncrewed aerial system (UAS).
It noted: “This integration will extend operational reach, increase sonobuoy payload capacity and support distributed multistatic ASW operations, strengthening the ability of allied forces to detect and track increasingly sophisticated undersea threats.”
In April the firm revealed it had won an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) order from the U.S. Navy for an undisclosed number of its AN/SSQ-125B sonobuoys. And last month it secured a contract to equip the Royal Australian Navy’s surface fleet with its latest ADC counter-torpedo technology.
The MSARS has been developed in conjunction with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the research arm of the Ministry of Defence, and part of the National Armaments Director Group.
- You can read more details on the Ultra Maritime website