Innovations  & technologies

BAE developing underwater navigation system for DARPA

BAE Systems has been selected by DARPA to develop a system that will allow underwater craft to navigate accurately even when sailing below the surface of the water.

The project, called Positioning System for Deep Ocean Navigation (POSYDON), "aims to replace current navigational methods that pose a detection risk for undersea vehicles forced to surface periodically to access the space-based Global Positioning System (GPS), which cannot sufficiently penetrate seawater," according to a BAE news release. "In addition, access to above-water GPS may be denied by hostile signal jamming. Under DARPA’s POSYDON program, a BAE Systems-led team will create a positioning, navigation, and timing system designed to permit vehicles to remain underwater by using multiple, integrated, long-range acoustic sources at fixed locations around the oceans."