The Turkish Naval Forces’ “Activities Carried Out in the Last Three-Year Period” report revealed an important development that will strengthen the submarine fleet. It was announced that the intercept sonar system, which was designed and produced with national resources for the AY and PREVEZE class submarines, will begin to be integrated into the submarines as of April 2025.
National Shield Against Enemy Sonars
This critical project, carried out under the coordination of the Ministry of National Defense and the Presidency of Defense Industries, once again demonstrates the success of domestic engineering. The developed sonar system acts as a vital sensor to prevent submarines from being identified by detecting enemy sonar transmissions. In this way, the operational efficiency and safety of Turkish submarines will be significantly increased.
Goal: Complete Independence of Critical Sensors
With this project, it is aimed to make all critical sensors used in Turkish submarines domestic and nationally produced. This strategic step is considered as a concrete indicator of Türkiye's determination to reduce its external dependency in the defense industry. Domestic production will also provide significant advantages in logistic support and maintenance processes.
TÜBİTAK BİLGEM and Meteksan Defense Cooperation
The “Intersept Bearing and Range Detection Sonar Development Project” is being implemented through the collaboration between TÜBİTAK BİLGEM and Meteksan Savunma Sanayii AŞ. Within the scope of the project, acoustic receiver arrays that can operate in a wide frequency band (1-100 kHz), front-end electronic units and shipboard units with real-time signal processing software were designed and produced with national resources. The Intersept Passive Sonar system that was produced was exhibited for the first time at the IDEF 2019 fair.
Advanced Features and Operator Friendly Interface
Intercept Passive Sonar (IPS) has its own special operator console to present detection and evaluation results to the user and to provide operator inputs. In addition to its own acoustic unit, the IPS system can also work in an integrated manner with other acoustic sensor arrays present in the submarine. In this way, data flow, analysis and display can be continuously performed simultaneously from both sonar arrays. This national sonar system, which is more sensitive than its counterparts thanks to its innovative and unique technology, has an operator-friendly interface designed in close cooperation with the Naval Forces Command. The system has been successfully integrated into an unnamed submarine. Thanks to the project, a domestically designed sonar system that can provide fast, effective and national service support was developed, and significant foreign exchange savings were achieved. The knowledge and experience gained are also expected to shed light on future sonar development projects.
