Navy inducts four indigenously developed sonars systems

The systems included Abhay - compact hull mounted sonar for shallow water crafts, Humsa UG - upgrade for the Humsa sonar system, NACS - Near-field Acoustic Characterisation System, and AIDSS - Advanced Indigenous Distress sonar system for submarines.

Navy on Friday formally inducted four types of indigenously developed sonars that will boost its underwater surveillance capability.

Four indigenous sonar systems were developed by the DRDO and handed over to the Indian Navy. (Reuters/Representative Image)

The systems included Abhay - compact hull mounted sonar for shallow water crafts, Humsa UG - upgrade for the Humsa sonar system, NACS - Near-field Acoustic Characterisation System, and AIDSS - Advanced Indigenous Distress sonar system for submarines.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who on Friday handed over the sonars to the Navy, praised the force along with DRDO and said he expects more synergy in the coming days.

The systems have been designed and developed by NPOL, a Kochi based laboratory of DRDO.

With the induction of these four systems, the underwater surveillance capability of the Indian Navy will get a boost, besides providing a fillip to the quest for self-reliance in this critical area of technology.

Abhay is an advanced active-cum-passive integrated sonar system designed and developed for the smaller platforms such as shallow water crafts and coastal surveillance/patrol vessels.

It is capable of detecting, localizing, classifying and tracking sub-surface and surface targets in both its active and passive modes of operation.

Indian Navy has proposed to induct this SONAR on three of the Abhay class ships.

Intensifying the command over the high seas is the Humsa -UG that is designed for upgrading the existing Humsa sonar system.

This system is proposed to be installed on seven ships of three different classes of ships.

AIDSS is a distress sonar is an Emergency Sound Signaling Device which is used to indicate that a submarine is in distress and enable quick rescue and salvage.

It is a life-saving alarm system designed to transmit sonar signals of a pre-designated frequency and pulse shape in an emergency situation from a submarine for long period, so as to attract the attention of passive sonars of ships or submarines in the vicinity and all types of standard rescue vessels in operation.

It is also provided with a transponder capability.