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Thales Unveils Sonar 76Nano for Uncrewed Undersea Warfare and Seabed Security

A ten‑month prototype heads to a Royal Navy demonstration on 17 December.

Overview

  • Sonar 76Nano uses modular acoustic tiles sized for UUVs, seabed nodes or crewed platforms, allowing arrays to scale up to dozens of panels per flank.
  • The system combines passive and active ASW, medium‑frequency synthetic aperture seabed imaging, acoustic data collection and long‑range underwater communications.
  • Embedded AI from Thales’ Cortex unit triages and processes returns onboard, transmitting concise contact data while storing full datasets for post‑mission analysis.
  • Thales reports successful trials in a UK Ministry of Defence acoustic facility and initial in‑water testing, with production approaches under assessment and no procurement decision announced.
  • Most components are UK‑built, the active transmit element was developed with Neptune Sonar, and the capability is positioned to support RN/NATO distributed sensing efforts such as Atlantic Bastion and Project Cabot.