The US Navy requires on-demand acoustic sensing throughout the worlds oceans to identify, localize, and track adversary submarines. An improved hydrophone array that maintains the current A-size Sonobuoy payload form factor would be of high value to the Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) community. Boston Engineering Corporation has developed the Hydraulically Extended Longeron Isogrid matriX (HELIX) program to model, simulate, build, and test a novel sonobuoy payload system that provides a significant expansion ratio. Boston Engineering proposes a deployable structure that is highly stable, resists bending, and is inherently torsion resistant for structural evaluation, acoustic analysis, and scaled testing. Boston Engineering and our team (Dr. Henrik Schmidt, Moonprint Solutions, and Ultra USSI) apply our collective understanding of maritime hydraulic inflation, acoustics simulation, softgoods, and high quantity sonobuoy fabrication to streamline efforts, decrease overall technical risk, and maximize the potential for transition.
Benefit: The benefits of the Hydraulically Extended Longeron Isogrid matriX (HELIX) to the submarine community are straightforward. Increasing sensing capability can resolve adversary submarines at longer distances, filter noise more effectively through straightforward beamforming techniques, and identify potential unique signals emanating at novel angles of attack. Other groups within the US Navy could also benefit from HICA outputs, including teams requiring acoustic sensing fields in very deep water where transit time can be costly, as well as blue-team sensing ranges. Other federal (NOAA) and commercial (O&G) oceanographic players may also benefit from HICA as a low-cost solution and expendable solutions could provide significant acoustics capability in remote or areas challenging to access by vessel.
Keywords: undersea sensor, undersea sensor, ASW, Structure, Collapsible, deployable array, Sonobuoy, A-size, Array
