Mobile Shallow Water Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW) Target System

The purpose of this SBIR is to develop an air-droppable A-size sonobuoy, which is an echo transponder for low frequency impulsive sound sources. This sonobuoy will be utilized to validate the performance of the IEER and similar active sonobuoy systems at shallow water sites where it is difficult to obtain submarine services because the shallow water and the nearby deployment of impulsive sound sources. The SWT sonobuoy will be utilized to train aircrews with IEER type active submarine detection systems without the need for submarine services. In addition, this buoy can be utilized to collect shallow water ambient noise, reverberation and transmission loss data. The SWT sonobuoy has a unique low frequency sound source, a wide acoustic dynamic range (120 (dB) compared to 40 (dB) for an analog sonobuoy), and a 4-hour in-buoy recording capability for both acoustics and GPS position data.