Northrop Grumman shows off unmanned mine hunting system

摘要

In May the Northrop Grumman AQS-24B mine hunting system successfully completed trials that demonstrated its synthetic aperture sonar could process minefield data at full resolution at speeds of up to 18 knots. ADM attended a Pacific 2015 briefing given by Director of Littoral & Mine Warfare for Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems Gene Cumm, who indicated that this represented a speed almost double that of the previous model (AQS-24A). The synthetic aperture sonar system improves the resolution of the picture for minefield classification, and was originally developed for the US Navy's MH-53 helicopter program, according to Cumm. The Mine Hunting Unit (MHU) has now been adapted to the USN's unmanned surface vessels (USVs) as the helicopters are very expensive to operate.