WASHINGTON, 6 May 2007. The Navy has taken delivery of the sixth and final twin-line 29A Array (TL-29A), a passive, low-frequency sensor system towed by the T-AGOS surveillance ship. The final array was delivered to the surveillance community in March 2007.
Each array, built by the Maritime Systems and Sensors division of Lockheed Martin in Syracuse, N.Y., is comprised of a chain of acoustic, telemetry, and interface modules linked together in an integrated system.
The TL-29A's passive acoustic and signal processing technologies can "hear" at long range and in various sea states the new generation of extremely quiet diesel electric submarines operated by foreign navies. It is configured as a pair of mile-long arrays that are towed side-by-side from an electro-optic tow cable attached to a winch on the deck of the ship.
Two critical advantages of the TL-29A in the current threat environment are its endurance and ability to be towed in the shallow waters of the littoral zones.
As a passive sensor, TL-29A does not generate a signal but uses sensitive hydrophones to listen for the faint sounds emitted by "silent" diesel electric submarines.
The TL-29A, along with TB-29A is the first array to use an advanced telemetry called TAIPT (towed array integrated product team). The TAIPT is a COTS-based telemetry architecture built by Chesapeake Sciences Corporation in Millersville, Md. Many of the key modules that comprise the array were built by L-3 Communications of Sylmar, Calif.
