SEA to Provide KraitSense ASW System for OPV Programme

06 Juni 2023

A country with a vast coastline and high number of islands within their jurisdiction in the South-East Asian region is Indonesia (photo : SEA)

SEA has been awarded a contract to supply two of its innovative ASW systems, KraitSense, to a South-East Asian Navy for a new offshore patrol vessel (OPV) programme.

SEA will deliver the complete, lightweight passive ASW system, which is designed to give smaller, non-specialist platforms such as OPVs, a leading ASW capability. The system contains SEA’s world-leading low-profile sonar sensor, KraitArray, handling equipment, processing hardware and software as well as an interactive user control station to view, analyse, report sonar contact information and to maintain the system.

David Hinds, Vice President of Strategic Accounts at SEA, said: “KraitSense is an extremely capable, yet cost-effective, ASW system with a lower footprint, weight and power requirement compared to alternatives. This means customers such as this Navy can enable ASW capability on smaller vessels that traditionally would not be able to host or financially justify this type of capability previously.

“With a vast coastline and high number of islands within their jurisdiction, as well as a growing underwater threat in the South-East Asian region, bolstering ASW capability is crucial. KraitSense is an agile system that can upgrade their overall capability and we’re delighted to be supplying an end-to-end solution that will help them to deal with increasingly complex threats.”

With low power consumption, drag and weight, the sonar sensor KraitArray also offers significant cost efficiencies when compared to traditional line and towed arrays making it suitable for smaller ships and unmanned vessels.

KraitSense previously demonstrated its capability on smaller vessels during the NATO Exercise REP (Maritime Unmanned Systems) 19, where it detected, tracked, and classified a submarine whilst deployed from a Portuguese Navy OPV. The system was also demonstrated at NATO Exercise REP22 where it was integrated with an Extra Large Uncrewed Underwater Vehicle (XLUUV).

To deliver this ASW system, SEA has collaborated with sonar data processing specialist ELAC Sonar, another of the Cohort Group companies, to provide this South-East Asian Navy with the very best software capability. (SEA)

Improving Sonar Detection Capabilities on Warships, SEA Collaborates with BTI Defence

Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) capability is one of the most important aspects for a modern combat vessel or a warship, especially the one with medium to large tonnage such as destroyer, frigate, or corvette. The capability of doing Anti-Submarine Warfare is of course important for a surface naval ship, enable them to locate enemy submarine position, then tracking the submarine and attack it with the right weapon system, such as anti-submarine torpedo and anti-submarine rocket. Sonar plays a very important role for a ship ASW capability. Sonar can search, track and identify any objects that lay beneath the ocean, not just enemy submarine. It makes sonar so important for any combat vessel, including the one with small tonnage, such as PC-40 class patrol ship and KCR-60 class fast attack craft that belongs to Indonesian Navy.

DRU Shipyard's Offshore Patrol Vessels for TNI AL (image : DRU)

Of course, a hull-mounted sonar can’t ideally be fitted inside a small tonnage ship because a very limited space inside the hull itself and it is too heavy. PT BTI Indo Tekno, together with SEA (Cohort PLC Company) from United Kingdom, has introduced a new SEA towed-sonar technology with a very capable and sophisticated tracking system, with the ability to be fitted in a small tonnage ship, such as PC-40 class patrol ship. Another advantage of SEA towed-sonar is its low maintenance cost and it is easy to maintained. Installing SEA towed-radar will increase PC-40 combat capability, it can coordinate with bigger combatant vessel that carry anti-submarine weaponry and hunt enemy submarine, and also at the same time, reporting other strategical information to the high command.

See full article BTI Defence