Indian Defence Review

•  From Big Data to artificial intelligence, new digital technologies support real-time decision-making on anti-submarine warfare missions.

•  Thanks to real-time processing and fusion of heterogeneous data from complementary acoustic sensors, BlueScan will enable operators to master the underwater acoustic situation at every decisive moment.

•  The BlueScan system has been chosen by the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) to equip France’s five future FTI medium-size frigates.

At Euronaval 2018 future naval technologies exhibition in Paris, Thales is launching BlueScan, a new integrated acoustics system featuring real-time multi-sensor data fusion and analysis. The system is designed for naval forces conducting anti-submarine warfare missions and will equip the French Navy’s FTI future intermediate-sized frigates.

Anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions are crucial to the ability of naval forces to manage tactical situations of ever-increasing complexity and to make the right choices at decisive moments. The BlueScan integrated acoustics system from Thales gives naval forces a tactical advantage by adopting a collaborative approach to acoustic detection with multiple sensors operating in multistatic mode when needed. The solution leverages advances in real-time Big Data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide automatic fusion, technical analysis and classification of heterogeneous data from acoustic sensors deployed by surface ships, aircraft, unmanned systems and sonobuoys.

The sonars in service today deliver increasingly high performance and relay acoustic data in such huge quantities that it is becoming more and more difficult to process by humans. The BlueScan system will provide sonar operators with an accurate picture of the acoustic situation and transmit only high-value data. With its open, scalable architecture, BlueScan is designed to adapt to evolving operational requirements while keeping through-life support costs under control and accommodating incremental capability enhancements to meet the priority objectives of naval forces.