The Dutch Ministry of Defence has ordered containerised towed-array systems that can be rapidly deployed onto a wide variety of surface vessels, giving the Royal Netherlands Navy a way to add anti-submarine sensing to ships not originally designed to carry it, the company behind the technology has announced.
The order, placed with Amsterdam-based OPTICS11, covers the first systems under the Anti-Submarine Warfare In A Box, or ASWINABO, programme. It expands the firm’s OptiArray product line, a fibre-optic towed array that OPTICS11 says can be fitted to a broad range of existing crewed and uncrewed platforms rather than a small number of specialist warships.
Towed array systems have traditionally been integrated into a limited number of dedicated naval vessels. By adapting OptiArray into a portable, containerised system, OPTICS11 says navies can retrofit sonar sensing across many more vessels of opportunity according to operational need, an approach the company argues becomes more valuable as the use of maritime drones expands.
The order comes against a backdrop of growing concern over the security of subsea infrastructure. Autonomous underwater vehicles are becoming more capable, while cables, pipelines and other seabed assets have become targets for espionage, sabotage and hybrid warfare. Northern Europe in particular has had to contend with Russian shadow fleets and spy ships testing the limits of territorial waters.
Unlike conventional electrical towed arrays, which rely on powered electronics throughout the sensing chain, OptiArray is passive. OPTICS11 says this allows it to remain acoustically silent and immune to electromagnetic interference while capturing richer acoustic information, which the company says delivers earlier detection and more accurate target classification. Alongside delivery of the operational systems, the project is intended to establish the production, integration and validation capability needed to support future deployment at scale, with investment in manufacturing readiness and supply chain resilience.
Paul Heiden, CEO of OPTICS11, said:
“The underwater threat environment is evolving rapidly, but advanced threat sensing has traditionally been confined to a small number of specialist naval platforms. By containerising OptiArray, we’re making world-class detection faster, more flexible and cheaper. We want to set the standard for unmanned underwater and above-water drones, as our technology is a perfect fit for doing this: light, small, highly sensitive and very accurate. As critical subsea infrastructure becomes increasingly contested, prevention starts with detection.”
Lucas Leppink, Captain RNLN, Head of the Maritime Systems Department at COMMIT within the Dutch Ministry of Defence, said:
“With ASWINABO, the Royal Netherlands Navy will be able to equip its surface ships, unmanned surface vessels and any other vessel of opportunity with underwater surveillance capability, a game-changer for maritime security operations and undersea infrastructure protection.”
Founded in 2011 as a spin-out from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, OPTICS11 develops passive fibre optic sensing arrays which it says can detect and classify underwater targets up to 100 kilometres from shore. Its portfolio includes OptiBarrier, a seabed-placed system for persistent protection of ports, offshore wind farms and subsea cables; OptiArray, the towed array selected under ASWINABO; and OptiFender, a monitoring solution for high-voltage electrical infrastructure.
Looks good. Royal Navy please note.
I think that’s being covered under Project CABOT. ACUA Ocean has demonstrated this this premise, granted, the vessel only goes a few knots. And the premise has kind of been proven with other equipment like mine sweeping equipment.
This sounds like an interesting development to supplement specialist capability and one presumes potentially applicable to various UK proposed and even existing platforms. Wonder how effective in practice it is in reality.
Sea Ltd in the uk has KraitArray which is very similar and already in testing for drones and small vessels.
👍
What a great bit of kit! This would be a good addition for the RB2s with the lack of ASW frigates.
Yes I know they are am OPV and no I am not trying to make them into one and add every weapon in existence! But just as a sensor platform they would be very useful step in for FRE duties while we transition to the hybrid navy and new frigates.
It’d definitely be worth considering! Could you still do vertical replenishment with this container on the rear deck?
And for T31?
Or anything else that has not been cut or sold off yet.
Indeed my thoughts entirely, we need as much flexibility as we can get as wide as possible especially in the underwater realms which let’s be honest with cyber is going to be the major confrontational area in pre conflict with Russia and a vital one in any conflict itself. Using non frontline military vessels in home waters for tasks of this nature makes a massive potential difference to the effectiveness and use scenarios of our larger navy assets, especially the frigates.
Why put it on a T31. Surely the whole point is that it’s independent of warships. It’s simple cheap and you could have 5 of them (for example) in and around a carrier group. You could have other similar vessels with CAMM in a box for example. You might be able to replace the T31 altogether.
So how about a VLS version next ?
I’m sure we can afford to fit some Towbars to the T31’s 🤔