U.S. Navy to Receive Sonar-Based Underwater Navigation System

The U.S. Navy will soon receive a sonar-based underwater navigation system that will enable submarines and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to maintain position underwater safely by following known ocean-floor terrain features.

According to Militaryaerospace.com, the designers of this technology, which matches sonar images of terrain below the undersea vehicle to known terrain maps of the ocean bottom, are researchers at Penn State University in University Park, Pa.

The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State received the $1.2 million contract from the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

The Broadband Navigation Sonar System program could be applicable to submarines, UUVs, and other subsurface vessels.

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Subsea World News Staff , October 07, 2012