Advanced Acoustic Concepts (AAC), a joint venture between DRS Technologies and Thales, successfully demonstrated advanced mine-hunting capabilities with the US Navy during the 2013 Fleet Experimentation (FLEX) Unmanned Systems (UxS) Campaign.
By towing the unmanned high resolution synthetic aperture sonar (T-SAS), the system detected all exercise mines with increased area clearance rates.
According to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), the FY13 FLEX UxS Campaign Plan was developed to identify potential solutions to the fleet’s highest priority operational needs. Specifically, the Naval Warfare Development Center (NWDC), in coordination with the Navy Mine and Antisubmarine Warfare Command (NMAWC), solicited industry participation to demonstrate highly mature mine warfare capabilities that either improve large geographic area search or automate detection and classification of undersea mines and maritime IEDs.