An excellent JHU Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) July 2017 Youtube. From 1 minute, 3 seconds it illustrates a US submarine using a Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS). Great on submarine and at 2min, 34 secs looks like USNS Impeccableor a sister ship.
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Following The Sea Hunter ACTUV's Over and Undersea Towing Abilities, December 11, 2018 an Anonymous made an interesting comment (below) on Decmber 12, 2018:
Beware of other countries trying to snatching towed undersea arrays. Even manned platforms can be victims:
“The trawlers came within 25 feet of USNS Impeccable, as part of an apparent coordinated
effort to harass the unarmed ocean surveillance ship. A crew member on a Chinese
trawler used a grapple hook to snag the towed acoustic array of Impeccable.”
effort to harass the unarmed ocean surveillance ship. A crew member on a Chinese
trawler used a grapple hook to snag the towed acoustic array of Impeccable.”
Grabbing a Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System (SURTASS) array must have been a nice intel coup for China.
I wouldn't put it past the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, North Koreans etc. to try
grabbing the entire ACTUV if they had a chance. Hopefully, these will only be
deployed in areas where they can be protected by other assets.
Compare this with the more subtle approach used by the U.S. and Britain when
[stealing] someone else's towed array:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9602103/HMS-Conquerors-biggest-secret-a-raid-on-Russia.html
"[HMS Conquerer] was pulling a device long coveted by the British and Americans, a 2 mile
string of hydrophones known as a towed-array sonar. It was the latest thing in
Soviet submarine-detection technology and Conqueror’s job was to steal it. To do so,
the bow was equipped with electronically controlled pincers, provided by the
Americans, to gnaw through the three-inch-thick steel cable connecting it to the
trawler. The name of this audacious exercise in piracy? Operation Barmaid.
[...Towed-array sonar...is passive and does not emit a signal. It floats at a prescribed depth, trailing behind a ship or submarine, simply listening for enemy submarines. Because the hydrophones are spaced out, they can achieve a multi-dimensional fix on a target, and are less vulnerable to noise from the host vessel. The American and British navies imagined themselves to be far ahead in this technology and were disturbed to discover that the Russians were matching them."]
string of hydrophones known as a towed-array sonar. It was the latest thing in
Soviet submarine-detection technology and Conqueror’s job was to steal it. To do so,
the bow was equipped with electronically controlled pincers, provided by the
Americans, to gnaw through the three-inch-thick steel cable connecting it to the
trawler. The name of this audacious exercise in piracy? Operation Barmaid.
[...Towed-array sonar...is passive and does not emit a signal. It floats at a prescribed depth, trailing behind a ship or submarine, simply listening for enemy submarines. Because the hydrophones are spaced out, they can achieve a multi-dimensional fix on a target, and are less vulnerable to noise from the host vessel. The American and British navies imagined themselves to be far ahead in this technology and were disturbed to discover that the Russians were matching them."]