Naval Group and MacTaggart Scott Australia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during the Pacific Maritime Exposition 2019 last week.
According to Naval Group, MacTaggart Scott has been pre-selected to maximise Australian Industry Capability and to enlarge the company’s Defence Technological and Industrial Base (DTIB) in Australia.
The cooperation between Naval Group Pacific and MacTaggart Scott is aimed at entrusting MacTaggart with the fabrication of equipment composing countermeasures and/or associated launching systems. It is one of nine MoUs related to countermeasures signed by Naval Group Pacific in Australia.
Naval Group Pacific says it is proposing a ‘breakthrough in anti-torpedo countermeasures’ for Australian submarines and surface ships programs (namely the Future Submarine, Future Frigates and upgrades to the Hobart-class Air Warfare Destroyers) with CANTO, a countermeasure generation based on dilution and confusion multi-effects.
This involves generating a high-level, 360-degree acoustic signal as soon as the system enters the water to jam the full frequency range of an attacking torpedo. CANTO then creates and constantly renews hundreds of false targets, saturating the torpedo’s sonar and data processing capability and ultimately dissipating all the weapon’s energy or fuel supply.
The system, fitted with its associated reaction module, CONTRALTO, is in service in the French Navy and in several blue-water navies. Naval Group has previously said it wants to produce CANTO in Australia should this technology be selected by the RAN.