Indian Sonar System cleared For Export

India plans to export an integrated sonar system designed for small naval platforms meant for coastal surveillance.

The system called ‘Abhay’ will be deployed on three Abhay-class corvettes in operation with the Indian Navy, The Hindu reported today quoting a spokesperson of a laboratory of India's Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as saying. 

The export variant of ‘Abhay’ is called HMS-X2 and has been cleared for export; the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

The Abhay sonar is capable of detecting, localising, classifying and tracking sub-surface and surface targets in both its active and passive modes of operation. A prototype of the system, installed on a naval platform, has successfully completed all user evaluation trials as stipulated by the Naval Staff Qualification Requirements.

On Friday, including compact Hull Mounted Sonar Abhay, four Naval Systems developed by DRDO will be handed over to the Indian Navy Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba from defense minister.

The DRDO’s Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) will also be delivering a distress-alert underwater sensor system that enables quick rescue of submariners in case of an eventuality to the Navy. Nine of the submarine distress alert systems will be installed on the Navy’s Kilo-class (Sindhughosh-class) submarines.

The deliveries also include HUMSA-UG an upgraded variant of its most successful hull-mounted sonar array system.

While the new-generation HUMSA is already in operation on vessels of various classes in the Navy, its upgraded version, HUMSA-UG with open architecture processor technologies, will be installed on seven naval ships across three classes.

A near-field acoustic characterization system NACS is a health monitoring system that will be used to determine the in-situ performance of the sonars. “It will be used to find the frequency-dependent 3-D transmission and reception characteristics of the sonar.

The NACS has been integrated with a previous variant of the HUMSA sonar, the HUMSA-NG. It will be fitted across platforms now.

Lastly, NPTOL is set to deliver AIDSS, an advanced indigenous distress alert sonar system for submarines. It is an emergency sound-signalling device that will speed up submarine rescue and salvage by indicating that it’s in distress. 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 a long period, so as to attract the attention of passive sonars of ships, nearby submarines and all types of standard rescue vessels.