Menu
Home Explore People Places Arts History Plants & Animals Science Life & Culture Technology
On this page
AN/AQS-20A
Military sonar system

The AN/AQS-20A is a sonar mine countermeasure detection system, developed by Raytheon. The system was initially tested for use on the MH-60S and MH-53E helicopters and as part of the mission package for the littoral combat ships (LCS) and some United States Navy destroyers of the Arleigh Burke class. However, the Chief of Naval Operations excluded the system from use on helicopter assets in March 2012, and only one destroyer has been outfitted with the specific mission package as of April 2009. The AN/AQS-20 naval mine hunting sonar systems will be employed for deeper mine threats. The "Q-20", as it is commonly called, is an underwater towed body containing a high resolution, side-looking, multi-beam sonar system used for minehunting along the ocean bottom. This rapidly deployable system provides real-time sonar images to operators to locate, classify, mark and record mine-like objects and underwater terrain features. The AQS-20 has an active, stabilized underwater vehicle, equipped with advanced multiple-beam side-looking sonar. The underwater body is towed via a small-diameter electromechanical cable, while an operator can view the underwater image and identify objects on a video monitor while recording the data on S-VHS digital tapes for post mission analysis. Operators actually "fly" the device underwater, controlling the depth of the device the same way that an airplane controls its altitude. Once located, the exact coordinates of mine-like objects can be used by explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) personnel to reacquire and neutralize the mine.

In 2016, the Navy canceled the program after purchasing ten systems; the ten systems that had been purchased are slated to be competed against Textron Systems' Fleet-class unmanned surface vessel system and the Knifefish unmanned underwater vehicle by General Dynamics and Bluefin Robotics.

Related Image Collections Add Image
We don't have any YouTube videos related to AN/AQS-20A yet.
We don't have any PDF documents related to AN/AQS-20A yet.
We don't have any Books related to AN/AQS-20A yet.
We don't have any archived web articles related to AN/AQS-20A yet.

Nomenclature

Per the Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), the nomenclature AN/AQS-20A is derived this way:

DescriptorMeaning
ANNomenclature has been derived from the JETDS
AInstalled on a piloted aircraft
QSonar
SUsed for Detecting, Range and Bearing, Search
20Unique designator for this particular unit
AFirst variant on the base unit

See also

  • Electronics portal
  • Aviation portal

References

  1. Eckstein, Megan (March 24, 2016). "Navy's Remote Minehunting System Officially Canceled, Sonar May Live On". Archived from the original on March 25, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160325032019/http://news.usni.org/2016/03/24/navys-remote-minehunting-system-officially-canceld-sonar-may-live-on