Page 38: of Marine Technology Magazine (May 2019)

Image Courtesy French Navy/RTSYS

Improving French Navy Detection

Capacities on Older Gen Frigate Sonars ince the summer of 2017, four vessels equipped with This system has been installed on three Anti-Submarine analog sonars have been upgraded using RTsys AS3i Warfare Frigates FASM in Brest (Brittany, France) and on one technology (Analog Surface Ship Sonar Improve- Anti-Aircraft Frigate FAA based in Toulon by the Mediter-

Sment), which digitalized and improved the processing ranean French coast, thereby providing them with effective of signals rendered by sensors. digital tools in order to avoid the costly replacement of the

Brittany-based company RTSYS does not only deals with entire sonar system. Improved signal processing signi? cantly

AUV, subsea recorders and buoys, but can also display a full enhances reception especially thanks to the SDA mother- range of sonar systems such as handheld devices for divers board running on all RTSYS products and providing very neat or sonar retro? t. The latter of which led the French SME to acoustic rendering. Thanks to signal digitalization, new User lately offer in summer 2017 its services to the French Navy by Interface is also to be displayed through HD color screens aim- upgrading analogue sonars on four frigates. ing to replace old analog ones. This intuitive Man-Machine

In accordance with the ACORES public procurement pro- Interface allows several screen con? gurations such as active gram (a French acronym standing for Frigate Sonar Capac- or passive mode, torpedo mode, or PPI picture (Plan Position ity Upgrade), RTSYS featured a reliable solution based on its Indicator) and can accept multiples codes (Continuous Waves,

SDA (Synchronous Data Acquisition) technological core to Hyperbolic Frequency Modulation or Combo Mode). It is also digitalize and process the signals received, without any modi- to be noted that this upgrade increases bandwidth along with ? cation on the existing transmitters and transducers. the duration of the pulse which gives crystal-clear signal at the reception and more speci? cally in the reverberation.

RTSYS project manager and ex-French Navy Commander

Christian Nicolas said: “This is a smart system we developed “This system is really easy and convenient to use and we provide constant technical support along with all necessary training to the crew so this technological upgrade goes really smoothly.”

Christian Nicolas is a former French Navy Commander.

He now offers his expertise at RTSYS.

May 2019 38

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