The 6th course “Towed hydrophone curtains” ended a few days ago. The course, which was attended by sixteen military personnel from the Defense Staff, Aeronaval Training Center, of ships and submarines, is held at the Submarine School Comflotsom, the Navy's center of excellence for the training of military personnel in the field of acquisition, analysis and management of the latest generation of hydrophone acoustic systems.
It is a four-week theoretical-practical course dedicated to personnel assigned to the operational use of the acoustic sensors of submarines and new generation ships. The course is the first essential step for the training of highly specialized professionals in the sector.
The towed hydrophone array is a sonar antenna that is spun into the sea by a ship or submarine to detect and classify other units above (ships) or below (submarines) the sea surface. The strong point of the hydrophone curtain lies in the fact that when operating at a distance from the driving unit it is little affected by the noise generated by the same unit (for example the propellers). In this way the discovery and classification capacity increases considerably and it is possible to identify a ship or submarine at much greater distances. The system is installed aboard the class submarines Todaro and class units Doria and FREMM.
