Howard A Lazoff

US Patent:

6707760, Mar 16, 2004

Filed:

Nov 22, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/302211

Inventors:

Andrew C. Coon - Columbia MD
Howard Allen Lazoff - Germantown MD
Richard Phillip Taschler - Alexandria VA

Assignee:

BBNT Solutions LLC - Cambridge MA

International Classification:

F42B 1256

US Classification:

367118, 367145

Abstract:

Shells fired from the gun of a ship create an underwater explosion that is used to drive a sonar system. Sonobuoys [ ] and/or a ship-towed array measure acoustic signals caused by the underwater explosion. A ship processing component [ ] analyzes the signals and locates reflections of objects [ ] in the signals. In addition to controlling the location at which to fire a shell, an adjustable fuze on the shell may be set to thereby control the depth at which the shell explodes. The low-frequency impulsive nature of the explosion makes it particularly suited for detecting objects in a littoral environment.