The unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) developed by Türkiye with local resources means will operate in the air, on land, and above the sea, as well as under the sea. In this context, the activities of submarines in deep waters can be detected by throwing the submarine microphone called “Sonobuoy”, which collects acoustic information underwater, from UAVs. Thus, especially the submarine activity of Greece in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean will be monitored. With sonobuoys listening in the seas like a stethoscope, the Naval Forces Command will be aware of every step in the depths of the Blue Homeland.
Ömer Yıldız, Deputy General Manager of TUSAŞ UAV Systems, told Hürriyet that the sonobuoy throwing and listening capabilities are currently integrated into the UAVs. Emphasizing that the UAVs developed by Türkiye with local resources can perform the same task as the patrol planes, Yıldız said, “The microphones we put in the water listen to the water, broadcast what they listen to with radio waves and perform acoustic analysis. As a result of these analyzes, it receives information such as whether there is a submarine or not and its location. Now we can do this task with ANKA and AKSUNGUR.”
Stating that they will place the computer that performs acoustic calculations on the unmanned aerial vehicles in the next stage, Yıldız said, “Later, we will be able to get information by processing the information over the aircraft without transferring it to the ground. We have a little more time for this, we are working on it.”
WHAT IS SONOBUOY?
Sonobuoys are sensors fired from various aerial and surface platforms. Sonobuoys, which descend to the determined depth after being thrown from the platform they are connected to, collect acoustic information, especially for submarines. This acoustic information is collected by the sonobuoys, and the acoustic data transmitted to it by the sonobuoys, which are usually activated via the VHF channel, are processed by the platform, thus detecting the position information of the submarine. Sonobuoys, the naval version of the radar, are critical for anti-submarine warfare. Sonobuoys can work up to 7-8 hours.