Sentinel IDS, our renowned intruder detection sonar, has long been a world leader and the first choice for clients requiring a flexible security solution for vessels, oil platforms, waterside facilities and critical national infrastructure.
With real-world experience and two decades of learning, our research and development teams have engineered a quantum leap in Intruder Detection Sonar systems. Sentinel still fulfils the same role in actively searching for, detecting, classifying and tracking divers, swimmer delivery vehicles and unmanned drones, allowing you to protect your asset or area from any potential threat. However, it now adds a whole new level of detection by simultaneously using Passive sonar. Sentinel is constantly listening for the unintended sounds created by divers or propellors using Wavefront’s unique Simultaneous In-band Active and Passive Sonar (SInAPS®) to create an almost impenetrable net of protection in your underwater domain.
What is SInAPS?
SInAPS draws on the use of both active and passive sonar technologies when tracking low target strength drones, or very slow-moving targets in highly cluttered seabed conditions, typical of some harbour settings. Without compromising the active tracker, SInAPS uses the processing gain of the Sentinel array, along with its high bearing resolution, to simultaneously passively track targets. SinAPS then combines the, spatially co-registered, output from the active and passive trackers.
SInAPS real power lies in its ability to classify and then establish threats that would previously have taken much longer to identify. Imagine a situation where a small drone is moving under cover of a harbour wall; a challenge for any active system. The use of passive sonar allows Sentinel to correlate mechanical noise and intermittent detections to immediately establish the presence of a threat. This reduces time to alert and increases the time to respond.
Both passive and active sonar capabilities run simultaneously without any need to switch between them. They are combined upon the user interface in an intuitive way whilst ensuring the outstanding active performance of the Sentinel sonar is uncompromised.
For our clients, the unique benefit is that a threat can now be ‘heard’ wherever they are. This applies to any intruder hiding in a sheltered area or somewhere that reflects active sonar—for example, a pipeline or harbour wall where detection is difficult with just a traditional sonar solution. Sentinel’s SInAPS technology capability also gives superior tracking ability of submersibles and drone (SDV, AUV & UUV) targets, from a single point sensor.
Underwater Security: Tried and tested
Over the past few years, the SInAPS® feature of Sentinel 2 has been rigorously tested and evaluated by both Wavefront and early adopters. The system has proven incredibly successful in passively tracking targets of interest that have intermittently evaded active tracking. So, for any previously undetected underwater threats, the development of SInAPS, as a feature of Sentinel 2, has left them literally ‘nowhere to hide’.
Finding out more about SInAPS
If you would like to learn more about Sentinel 2 or SInAPS and how it can help protect your vessel or asset, please get in touch with our sales team.