A Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I study is proposed for the development of a sonobuoy that includes acoustic, magnetic and electric field sensors. This effort will include a brief survey of the various acoustic, magnetic-field, and E-field sensors that will meet the requirements for use in an air-dropped undersea sensor system that will provide an increased detection range. The proposed sensor system will comprise an expendable A-size sonobuoy with an acoustic sensor, a total-field magnetometer, and a 3-axis E-field sensor that will be deployed by the ASW aircraft as part of the detection and localization phase of the mission. Various suspension systems and deployment schemes will be studied to determine the optimum configuration for this application. The performance enhancement of this combined system will be quantified for various sensors, sensor geometries, target signatures, and background noises.
Benefit: The proposed research will provide the US Navy with the design for an advanced sensor system packaged in an A-size buoy. Significant improvements in detection range of this sensor system may be achieved through the application of adaptive noise cancellation as some of the sensors may experience the same noises. Advanced coherent signal processing may provide enhanced detection ranges as signals may appear in the multiple sensors simultaneously. This approach would provide a much more effective utilization of the limited ASW assets in the Navy inventory. Also, the multi-sensor buoy can be used to characterize the electric, magnetic, and acoustic ocean environment through the use of lower cost expendable sensors.
Keywords: Sonobuoy, Sonobuoy, E-field Sensor, adaptive noise cancellation, Acoustic ASW, MAD, Scalar Magnetometer, Vector Magnetometer, Non-acoustic ASW
