Submarines: Egypt Puts American Sonar On Their Chinese Ships To Seek Israeli Subs From Germany

Archives

September 16, 2010: The U.S. is selling Egypt a towed array sonar system, for $23 million. The three ton LFATS (Low Frequency Active Towed Sonar) system is compact and can be carried by small warships (large patrol boats or corvettes) and is very good at finding quiet submarines in shallow coastal waters. Egypt plans to equip its Chinese made patrol boats with the new system.

Although a defense system, sometimes towed arrays can have offensive use. In June, 2009, an American destroyer, while training off Subic Bay in the Philippines, had its towed sonar array collide with a Chinese submarine. The U.S. Navy did not reveal if the American ship had detected the sub before the collision. If the array was not activated, its sound (sonar) detectors would not have detected the sub. The Chinese admitted the sub was one of theirs, and the boat was apparently following the American ship unaware that a sonar array (which usually operates over a hundred meters beneath the surface, and up to two kilometers behind the ship towing it) was there.

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close