Automatic Coating to provide tube assemblies for TR-343 sonar transducers in anti-submarine warfare (ASW)
CRANE, Ind. – U.S. Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) experts needed important components for surface warship ASW systems to detect, track, and attack hostile submarines. They found a solution from Automatic Coating Ltd.
Officials of the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Ind., announced a $13.2 million contract to Automatic Coating Wednesday to build tube assemblies for TR-343 sonar transducers.
Hull-mounted sonar
The TR-343 transducer is part of the AN/SQS-53C hull mounted sonar array subsystem, AN/SQQ-89(V) anti-submarine warfare (ASW) system. The AN/SQS-53 is a component of AN/SQQ-89(V) acoustic sonar weapons system for surface warships.
The AN/SQQ-89(V) is an integrated surface ship undersea warfare (USW) combat system with the capability to search, detect, classify, localize, and attack submarine targets. The ceramic stack assembly provides the required piezoelectric characteristics to produce mechanical motion in the water for generating sonar signals when a large voltage is applied.
The AN/SQS-53 hull mounted sonar array is a large bulb-like structure built into the bows below the water line of U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Ticonderoga-class cruisers, and Japanese navy Kongo-class destroyers. This contract includes foreign military sales.
The surface ship AN/SQS-53 is a computer-controlled surface-ship sonar that has active and passive operating capabilities providing precise information for ASW weapons control and guidance.
Transducer assemblies
The AN/SQS-53C, the latest version of this hull-mounted sonar system, retains the transducer assembly from either the AN/SQS-53A and 53B, yet provides greater range and detection capability with only half of the electronics footprint and less weight than earlier versions.
Constructed in standard electronic modules, the AN/SQS-53C is an all-digital system that provides apparent range, bearing, and true bearing of submarine contacts with active sonar and true bearing of contacts with passive sonar.
Active sonar transmits a ping to bounce sound waves off the hulls of submarines. Passive sonar means simply listening for the sounds of submarines and surface vessels. This system is the basic sonar watch-standers tool to keep an eye on all ship traffic; the system often detects other surface ships at greater ranges than can most radar systems.
The AN/SQS-53 simultaneously can detect, identify, and track several different targets, and interfaces with the host vessel's digital computers. It has three active modes of operation: surface duet, bottom bounce, and convergence zone. It also can ping off buoys to pinpoint its own location in foreign ports.
On this contract Automatic Coating will do the work in Suffolk, Va., and should be finished by December 2029. For more information contact Automatic Coating online at www.aclcoatusa.com, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Crane at www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Warfare-Centers/NSWC-Crane.
John Keller | Editor-in-Chief
John Keller is the Editor-in-Chief, Military & Aerospace Electronics Magazine--provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronics and optoelectronic technologies in military, space and commercial aviation applications. John has been a member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since 1989 and chief editor since 1995.
