Ultra-Short Baseline System for US DoD Underwater Tracking

Advanced Acoustic Concepts has chosen Sonardyne’s portable Micro-Ranger 2 Ultra-Short Baseline (USBL) system to be incorporated into technologies being developed for the U.S. Department of Defense. 

The Micro-Ranger 2 was selected following a market review of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems suitable for supporting existing DoD programs and providing operatives with increased situational awareness during open sea missions.

Micro-Ranger 2 is designed to provide everything needed to track divers, remotely operated vehicles, autonomous or unmanned underwater vehicles or any other subsea targets, from a single IP-67-rated ruggedized case small enough to operate anywhere, from any platform.

The system can track up to 10 targets to over 3,000 ft (995 m) and includes a surface-deployed Micro-Ranger Transceiver, a GNSS antenna, and two of Sonardyne’s smallest transponders, the Nano. The one-box solution also houses a built-in battery to support more than 10 hours of continuous use, as well as ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity to connect to a user’s laptop for fast and easy tracking.

“We’re really excited to be supporting the work of such a technically strong company as Advanced Acoustic Concepts, which plays a critical part in supporting the U.S. Navy,” said Dan Zatezalo, Technical Sales Manager for Sonardyne in the U.S.

“COTS equipment is playing an increasing role in supporting wider military operations and systems like Micro-Ranger 2 are part of that eco-system; providing navies globally with affordable, easy to acquire, mobilize, and dependable maritime technologies.

“The flexibility of the hardware platform and secure digital signal architecture inside Micro-Ranger 2 means that customers can also benefit from being able to use and integrate our different navigation, communications and control mission systems, seamlessly, all with technical and application support from our facilities in the U.S.”