Advanced sonar technologies for autonomous mine countermeasures

The U.S. Office of Naval Research is developing synthetic aperture sonars for the detection, localization, and classification of mines, for protection of sea lines of communication and Naval operating areas, and for support of amphibious operations. This paper reviews several evolving mine countermeasures sonars deployed on autonomous undersea vehicles that operate stand-alone and in coordination with complementary sensors, including the Small Synthetic Aperture Minehunter (SSAM), the Autonomous Topographic & Large Area Survey (ATLAS) sonar, and the Buried Object Scanning Sonar (BOSS).