Ultra Electronics Underwater Warfare
Benefits of the QUAD® LFA Receiver Array:
• Allows port/starboard signal discrimination
• Redundant data and power routing architectures ensures high reliability
• Cost-effective Anti-Submarine Warfare and torpedo defence solution
• High dynamic range sensor for LFA sonar applications
• Can be deployed in a single tow with Ultra’s Horizontal Projector Array
• Includes health monitoring with continuous built-in test
Maritime Systems
With the proliferation of extremely quiet con-ventional submarines, and a new generation of quieter and more sophisticated torpe-does, rapid underwater threat detection and localization is a critical operational capability.
Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonars using horizontal arrays of omnidirectional hydro-phones form beams that are symmetrical about the array axis, and as such require multiple transmissions to determine wheth-er a target is on a port or starboard bear-ing. On the other hand, LFA sonars using Ultra’s QUAD® receiver array generate full sets of separate port and starboard beams, allowing the sonar to fully resolve the tar-get direction using a single transmission.
Ultra's QUAD receiver array can assist with port/starboard target ambiguity resolution of passive sonars. The operator immediately knows the target’s true bearing without the need for time-consuming ship manoeuvres.
Ultra’s QUAD® receiver array also im-proves detection performance by dis-criminating between the reverbera-tion and noise coming from the port and starboard sides of the receiver array.
Ultra’s QUAD® receiver array is based upon robust omnidirectional towed array tech-nology that was operationally proven in Canada, the UK, Turkey, and New Zealand, .
The design is flexible; inter-element spacing and acoustic aperture can be configured to suit operational and per-formance requirements. Although typi-cally delivered in a two-octave centre nested configuration, single or tripleoctave configurations can be pro-vided. The QUAD® receiver mod-ule can be delivered with an integral high-frequency acoustic intercept receiver and an integrated omnidirec-tional sensor array to support bistatic and multistatic operations with the ship's HMS.
In addition to the QUAD® module, a complete receiver array includes fore and aft vibration isolation modules, non-acoustic sensor mod-ules, plus a rope drogue. Omnidirectional receiver modules can be included to sup-port VLF passive performance or enhanced multistatic operations. Ultra’s on-board ar-ray receiver connects with the array over a fibre-optic tow cable, providing DC power as well as receiving acoustic and non-acoustic data. The array receiver provides acoustic and non-acoustic data to a sonar signal pro-cessor over a standard network interface.
Variants of the QUAD® array are op-erational with the Royal Austral-ian Navy and the Royal Netherlands Navy.
QUAD® LFA RECEIVER ARRAY
High-Performance Low Frequency Active Sonar Receiver
Ultra Electronics Underwater Warfare
QUAD® ArrayTechnical Specifications
Ultra Electronics Maritime Systems Inc.
is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ultra
Electronics Holdings plc. UK.
Ultra Electronics reserves the
right to vary these specifications
without notice.
© Ultra Electronics Inc. 2019
BR817481 v2
Printed in Canada
Ultra ElectronicsMARITIME SYSTEMS40 Atlantic Street Dartmouth Nova Scotia B2Y 4N2 CanadaTel: +1 902 466 7491Email: [email protected] www.ultra-electronics.com
Port-starboard discrimination...........................................................................> 20 dB
Length...........................................................54 m (177.165 ft) (typical configuration)
Weight.....................................................425 kg (936.965 lbs) (typical configuration)
Outside Diameter..................................................................................99 mm (3.897 in)
Operational Speed.........................................................................................4 - 20 knots
Minimum Bend Radius.......................................................................0.625 m (2.051 ft)
Operational Temperature.........................................................................-20C to + 350C
Selected Beam Patterns from a 64 λ Array
Measured Port/Starboard discrimination for Target at 130°