拖曳线列阵声呐的研究现状与发展趋势

王自发，朱克强，张天宇，徐为兵，张洋，章浩燕

(宁波大学海运学院，浙江 宁波 315211）

拖曳线列阵声呐的研究现状与发展趋势

王自发，朱克强，张天宇，徐为兵，张洋，章浩燕

(宁波大学海运学院，浙江 宁波 315211）

对反潜技术的需求促进了拖曳线列阵技术的发展，拖曳线列阵反潜技术的快速发展，使其越来越成为现代反潜战中不可或缺的技术。因此，有必要追踪了解国内外拖曳线列阵的研究现状，并预测拖曳线列阵技术的发展趋势。

拖曳线列阵声呐;反潜技术;发展趋势

0 Introduction

Alongwith the development ofworld economy，many countries paid more attention to ocean resources and were competing for the lion's share of the marine economy cake.However，according to the experience ofWorldⅡ，we know that submarine is the killer weapon in Naval Warfare.Throughout the development of anti-submarine technology all over the worldwide，there are two main methods，one is air anti-submarine aircraftand another is towed line array sonar.Comparing with each other，the tactical advantage of anti-submarine aircraft is the high speed，which submarine can't match with.However，anti-submarine aircraft has many disadvantages.First of all，anti-submarine aircraft operation need the air supremacy of related sea，if else，due to its weak selfdefense ability，it will be easily hit down without escort aircraft.Secondly，anti-submarine aircraft hasmany selflimitations.For example，it can just be aimed at a small piece of sea water.What ismore，radar can't detect the underwater targets.It will cost a lot of time to place sonobuoy.ESM(electronic supportmeasure）is used for capturing the radio signals of submarine.It will be useless if submarine keep silent without long time communications.Finally，Anti-submarine aircraft is not all the time at the event.Most cases，anti-submarine aircraft will take off only to some suspected submarine activitieswaters for anti-submarine operations.

Above，we can see that anti-submarine aircraft is not an ideal and effective anti-submarine weapon for the time being.In fact，towed line array sonar is the ideal weapon.One of the core components is the towed line array sonar，which is commonly known as Big tail.So，what is the towed line array sonar?Towed line array sonar is also called as towed array sonar.Hydrophone was embedded in the cable，which was dragged by ship or submarine at rear to form a line array to detect targets in water. It is mainly used to listen to， remote monitoring，direction finding and identifying by measuring the submarine radiation noise.Some can also be used for distance measurement.Towed line array system contains aligned array，towed cable，retractable device and winch，electronic cabinets，etc.The towed line array is made up of V.I.M(vibration isolation module），non-acousticmodule，hydrophone section and drogue［1］.The array length ranges from tens ofmeters to hundreds ofwith alterable work depth.There are normal two kinds of towed array line sonar-tactical type towed linear array sonar and monitoring type towed linear array sonar［2］.The former is equipped in big medium antisubmarine surface ship and attack type submarine.Total length of towed cable are 1 000 m to 2 000 m，passive detection ranges from 50 n miles to 100 n miles，maximum drag speed can reach to 30 kn.Tactical towed array sonar of surface ship can work in conjunction with the ship the shell sonar or drag body，passively receiving active sonar echo emitted by target，the active detection range is much larger than drag body sonar work alone，thereby increasing the surface ship antisubmarine search capabilities.The latter is mainly installed on ocean surveillance ship.Towed speed is very low.Towed cable with the total length of the line array is above 5 000 m.It can work in whispered band frequency and infrasound，passive detection ismore than 300 nmiles.Typical towed array sonar system is showed in Figure 1.

Fig.1 Typical towed line array system

Equipped with active and passive or united line array surface ships can find quiet type submarinewhich is laying anechoic tiles at greater distance.Submarine by dragging the passive line array sonar can detect low-frequency signal，greatly improve the operational effectiveness.The existing active sonar can'tmeet the detection requirements of submarine laid anechoic titles，for the quiet type submarine radiation noise is less than 100 dB at 1 000 Hz frequency spectrum level［3］.The significant progress of the submarine noise reduction and accurate position of underwater target，anti-submarine warfare sonar is facing serious challenges which forced passive towed array sonar quickly to the development of multi-line array sonar，in order to further lower the work frequency and increase the number of hydrophone channel，improve the detection capability of the towed line array sonar system.

1 Foreign anti-submarine technology

1.1 Foreign towed multi-line array sonar anti-submarine

development history and research status

As early as in the 1950s，navy of the United States，the Soviet Union and the Western European countries had paid great attention to the development of sonar equipments，some sonar products had commonly equipped for surface ships and submarines［4］.Their characters are working in high frequency scope，low transmission power，small work scope and the small size of the transducer array.Based on above，human never stopping developing much more advanced sonar equipment to low work frequency and enlarge work scope.

In the 1960s，the sonar equipments made great progress，which can be able to analyze and deal with complex signals，accuratemeasure and position，following with the increase of transducer array.However，noise of submarine radiated is about135 dB at 1 000 Hz frequency spectrum［5］. Sonar work scope is influenced by hydrological conditions(seawater temperature，salinity，pressure， etc.）especially in summer， when the thermocline happens，therewill be some sonic signal hard-to-reach areas，which happens to be anti-submarine search dead angle［6］. In order to overcome the adverse hydrological conditions bringing into the towed sonar，it works under the thermocline.Towed sonar contains the base array which is placed at the bottom of the tail of surface ships.Due to the adjustable water depth，it is available to overcome the hydrological limitation.

In the 1970s，Western countries are interesting in improving mobility and covering much further sea waters，a new type of sonar equipment-towed line array sonar came into being.It can be installed on the surface ships and submarine，so do the special designed shipocean-going tug boat，wellmake up for the limitation of fixed coast sonar.So，what is the difference between towed sonar and towed line array sonar?All of them and the towed detection equipment，however，towed sonar is concentrated，and the number of primitives of the transducer is limited by the volume of the towed body.Towed line array sonar is distributed，it is a flexible arrays line column，the scale is very long，and some even up to 800 meters［7］.A large number of transducer elements together can excellent detection results.

In the 1980s，there are mainly two kinds of towed line array sonar，passive and active.The directions of passive towed line array sonar are long term array and slender array［8］.In 1983，the U.S.Navy developed a newly type anti-submarine towed line array sonar named TB－20.The towed slender line array sonar TB－23 in 1987，followed with TB －12X in 1990.In 1995，an advanced integrated combat system BYS－2，which was installed on Seawolf class attack submarine，contains TB－16D thick line array and TB－12X slender line array，the new type towed multi-line array sonar.In 1997，the slender line array TB －29 was fielded in the U.S.navy submarine.TB － 29A is the costs type of TB －29，which was fielded in the U.S.navy submarine now［9］.Other countries except USA had developed towed slender line array sonar also，some of them have been fielded，for example，Australian navy Collins class submarines equipped Kariwara(or Narama）towed array［10］.

Regarding active towed line array sonar，including towed acoustic source with independent receiver array structure and a towed line with receive array and transmitting structure.The UK was one of the first to develop active towed line array sonar，named ATAS［11］.The ATAS using first structure，whose operation frequency is 3 kHz. The French company， Atlas developed a new type towed multi-line array sonar named ACTAS in 1992，structurewas shown in Figure 2.Its operation frequency is lower than 2 kHz，using the first kind of structure and a dual-receiver array to resolve port/starboard distinguish problem［12］. France also launched new product in 1994，the first fielded F67 ship SLASM system，including the active 1 kHz lowfrequency transmitting array，and two receivers array towed multi-line array sonar.

Fig.2 The towed slender line array sonar of Virginia class submarine

1.2 Advantages and disadvantages of the main towed multi-line array sonar anti-submarine of foreign

It is well known that towed multi-line array sonar hasmany advantages on anti-submarine technology.

Summarized as follows:

1）Large waters scope of detection.

2）Big gain of array space.

3）Accurate position ability.

4）Lower influence of tow ship or submarine.

5）Adjustable underwater depth of towed multi-line array，which is easy to overcome the adverse hydrological conditions.

6）Array is recoverable and easymaintenance.

However， it has some disadvantages also.Disadvantages of the long line array and slender line array sonar as follows:

1）With the increase of array length，if the diameter of the towed array is certain，then requires sharp increases towed array storage room，which limits the application of the long line array.

2）Sound field coherence problems of the long line array sonar［13］.With the increase of array scale，signal field caused by channel random disturbance is no more relevant，acoustic array space gain reduces and angular resolution decreases.

3）Towed slender line array noise problems［14］.At a certain towing speed，array flow noise raises with towed array outer diameter decreases.

4）Maneuver problems.Adversely affect to the cycle and reverse of towing vessel［15］.

5）Submarine port/starboard distinguish problem.

6）Current towed line array inherent disadvantage［16］.The acoustic segment is flexible and vulnerable to vessels maneuver and ocean currents.If distortion happened underwater，detection performance will be bad and even can't be in work state.Towed line array detection distance is far but accuracy is relatively low.

1.3 Trends of foreign towed multi-line array sonar develop

Sonar is an effective equipment to detect submarine，from its date of birth，is developing with submarine technology.From the current international trends，we can see that:

1）Continues to be lower frequency，higher power，larger array scope direction［1，11］.America AN/SRQ －19 active towed multi-line array sonar is a typical one，for itswork frequency is 1.5 －3.5 kHz，normally，the passive towed multi-line array sonar is 0.1 － 1.5 kHz.So，the strategic early warming sonar only belongs to American.For instance，the towed line length of U.S.surveillance towed array system(SURTASS）is1 828m.

2）Serialization， modular， standardized， high reliability and maintainability direction.This kind of structure has many advantages:good scalability and compatibility， strong facilitate maintenance， better reliability and what ismore，the search cycle is short.For example，the U.S.AN/UYS－1 standardized signal processor and French DIODON type sonar［17］.

3）Computer application sonar is developing forward to intelligent direction［18－19］.The rapid development of computer technology provides technical support for sonar development. For instance， U.S. AN/BQQ － 5 submarine towed multi-line array sonar system is using distributed structure. Due to the remarkable development of neural network research and combined computer technology and signal process，make sonar possible to bemuch smart and intelligent.

4）Develop towed multi-line array sonar to solve the accurate detection problems.Compared with only onedimensional sound aperture，multi-line array sonar can provide two-dimensional or even three-dimensional acoustic aperture to achieve accurate three-dimensional position［20］.For example，LFATS of L － 3 U.S.has four passive towed lines array.SSATA of MARTIN，there are nine parallel lines array behind the towed body. Though there are still some problems， for instance， retractable difficulties， storage capacity problems and unfavorable disguise difficult under active work condition，etc.However，it can't be denied that with the developmentof the technical level，towedmultiline array sonar is applicable to submarine for highprecision three-dimensional position.

5）New advanced development of transducer materials［21］.Piezoceramic material is the traditional material of transducer，newly developed are piezoelectric polymers and fiber optic.Hydrophone，which ismade of fiber optic，is still in research process.However，fiber optic began to be used for underwater stationary hydrophone and transducer of towed multi－line array sonar.When install towed line array sonar on submarine，due to the storage，laying and recycle issues，haven't found any coverage about the fielded of towed multi-line array sonar. However， it can resolve port/starboard distinguish problem and show the target depth information and fulfill accurate position and target identify.Towed multi-line array sonar is promising anti-submarine equipment and was focused on bymany people.

2 Domestic towed multi-line array sonar antisubmarine development history and research status

Early in the establishment of Chinese Navy，we are confined to the economic and technology development，inshore defense is our strategy.Submarine chaser used to be the backbone and themain body of Chinese naval surface anti-submarine system.

In the 1950s，Chinese Navy imported the first6604 type submarine chaser from the Soviet Union，and developed a 037 type submarine chasers by ourselves.Until today，the 037 submarine chaser is the main weapon for inshore anti-submarine and patrol.

In the 1960s，China began to design，build 051 destroyers by ourselves［22］.The 051 destroyer equipped with SJD － 1 type sonar，which is a low-frequency，high-power， large-aperture sonar array， based with diameter which ismore than 2m，the height more than 1 m，weight over four tons，detection range over 6 km.It is the first time that 051 destroyer used bulbous bow and SJD －1 sonar array installed inside in China.

In the 1970s，Chinese Navy reloaded with new lifting type sonar named SJD －3［23］.In the limitation of early age of electronic technology，SJD －3 has better flexibility，but increasing with sonar transmitter power，the size of the transducer group array ismore and more big［24］.Then，it is not an easy thing to go up and down and rotate the huge array.So，we installed the gigantic array in bulbous bow of ship.No longer rotating array approach to change detection direction，we develop a multi-beam and electron beam control to achieve change detection direction.

In the 1980s，in order to further improve the detection ability of Chinese Navy anti-submarine technology，we installed a small new type of towed line sonar named SS－12 which was imported from French，with variable depth.Its foremost advantage is far from the carrier ship，which can reduce the noise of the carrier ship and sonar interference，and also to avoid the impact of the ships.At the same time as the base array is under water，the allowable emission sound power per unit area increases，then we can use high-power transmitter，in additional，towed line depth can be adjusted down to the bestwork depth allows array from harsh climate and sea bubbles layer，but also make better use of water sound transmission routes are effectively improve the working distance of the sonar.However，due to the large size and heavy weight and complex structure，maybe it is much more suitable to be equipped in large and medium-sized vessel.In the 037 type submarine chasers test process，which was installed with SS-12 towed sonar，because of small hull，it is not available to continuously operate in deep sea area，can'tmake the full use of the advantage of channels and favorable ocean environment to detect targets.What'smore，in itsmain active shallow waters，with the increase of seawater background noise，detection performance is not favorable.At the same time，there is a big security risk in the shallow waters，complex background and shipwrecks and reefs clouds for submarine hunting.Ultimately，Chinese Navy didn't reload with towed line sonar for 037 type submarine chaser in large-scale.

Nowadays， due to the change of China ＇s international environment，national defense and naval strategy also will be a major adjustment.In this case，China has carried out the developmentwork of the third generation of surface ships，which are supporting the development of a new generation of anti-submarine system.According to related references from abroad［25］，the most important feature of the new generation antisubmarine system is to increase the H/SJG－206 towed line array sonar for underwater alert search，detection tracking underwater targets，and target data passed to the anti-submarine fire control system，and also have a certain ability to detect surface ships.The entire system includes line arrays，towed retraction system，the depth of monitoring and control system，signal processing system and display control system，data recording system，etc.We urgently need much bigger carrier platform equipped with more advanced anti-submarine sonar system to step into far ocean.

3 Trends of domestic towed multi-line array sonar develop

Form all above，Imade an analysis of the current situation and develop trend of foreign towed line array sonar，which has an important practical significance.To develop and form a batch of advanced towed line array sonar products with independent intellectual property rights.The current Chinese characters as follows:

1）Update sonar technology with low-frequency and large-aperture［26］.Given the propagation characteristics of sound waves in the sea water and the relationship between low-frequency and high-power arrays，develop large aperture with low-frequency sonar technology is base of remote anti-submarine and premise of effective anti-submarine.

2）Develop advanced towed multi-line array sonar.Nowadays，with the transfer of U.S.strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region，a large number of quiet submarine threats to our country will be increasing day by day.For China Navy，one themost essential operational tasks is to maintain the unity and territorial integrity of the country，to defend the national security and maritime rights and interests.All need the Navy continues to entry into far ocean.But，we are facing powerful enemies and the interference of developed countries to maintain sovereignty.Chinese Navy is subject to the challenge from the current international most advanced nuclear submarines.These submarines are equipped with the most advanced integrated sonar system，long range of detection distance，powerful weapons，high accuracy，strong anti-jamming capability，the existing antisubmarine system deal with the threats.

3）Develop new materials.Chinese Navy continues to improve the comprehensive the ability of antisubmarine system，especially in remote detection capabilities of advanced nuclear submarine has become a top priority.The fiber optic hydrophone is a new updated hydrophone， compared with traditional piezoelectric ceramic hydrophone，it has a high sensitivity but low self-noise，small size，light weight，strong anti-interference.We should pay much attention to research and develop new materials.

4）Air gun is a new potential sound source［26］.In the passive joint towed array sonar，we normally use the transmitting transducer arrays.However，we use the air gun to be the sound source in offshore oil exploration.Though ，there is still some difficulties in signal control，considering its small volume and be able to stimulatemore loudly source signal，if a breakthrough occurs in the signal control of air gun，it perhaps to be a new type of sound source.

In view of China＇s basic national conditions and neighboring countries environment，we must find a suitable anti-submarine development way.Towed multiline array sonar is promising but we still find another way tomake a joint anti－submarine system.

4 Conclusions

With the development of submarine technology and anti-submarine equipment，there will bemore and more well behaved towed multi-line array sonar adopted for practical research and anti-submarine［27－30］.Compared with foreign and domestic towed line array sonar develop characters，we can draw some conclusions:

1）Compared with the international community，China currently towed linear array sonar anti-submarine technology has its own character.The anti-submarine technology developing experience and idea of foreign is worth us studying and using for reference.

2）Serialization， modular， standardized， high reliability and maintainability are indispensible developing direction.

3）Research and develop new function materials.Fiber optic is a promising material for the towed line sonar due to its suitable properties.

4）Develop towed multi-line array sonar to fulfill remote accurate three-dimensional and effective detection is the general trend［31］.

5）Anti-submarine integrated combat system.It contains hull active sonar，tactical towed line array sonar，the ship-based helicopter search the latent system and sonar signal processor，anti-submarine fire control systems and sonar status assess system.High efficient and reliable communication data chain will make it perfect.

6）A bolder idea is to changed the basic towed line array sonar structure and design an innovativemodel and push it into reality［32］.

Only continuously attention to relevant study of the towed line sonar，we can get the undated information about the application of towed line array sonar in both military filed and non-military field.

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Evaluation current research status and development trend of towed multi-line array sonar of domestic

CHARLIEW，ZHU Ke-qiang，ZHANG Tian-yu，XUWei-bin，ZHANG Yang，ZHANG Hao-yan
(Institute of Maritime，Ningbo University，Ningbo 315211，China）

The demand for anti-submarine warfare technology promotes for towed line array sonar technology，due to the rapid development，towed line array sonar technology plays an increasingly indispensable role in the anti-submarine warfare.Therefore，it is necessary to track the current research status and development of towed multi-line array sonar of domestic and foreign and predict the promising directions of towed line array sonar.

towed line array sonar;anti-submarine;technology development trend

U666.7

A

1672－7649(2013）07－0001－06

10.3404/j.issn.1672－7649.2013.07.001

2012－11－12

长江学者和创新团队发展计划资助面目IRT0734）;国家自然科学基金资助项目(10572063）

王自发(1988－），男，硕士，助研，研究方向为船船与海洋工程。