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Naval Group, parent company for the Royal Australian Navy’s Attack Class submarines, has submitted a proposal to partner with Australian businesses and industry to locally produce the latest generation torpedo countermeasure technology, CANTO.
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Outlined in the proposal is a commitment to transfer skills and knowledge to Australian industry for the manufacture of world-leading torpedo defence technology. This sharing of expertise and experience will not only contribute to Australia’s defence landscape, but boost local manufacturing.
Francois Romanet, Naval Group general delegate for Australia, said, "Naval Group’s mission in Australia is to strengthen the country’s sovereign defence capability, by sharing innovative technology and techniques that have been developed and refined over our 400-year history."
CANTO represents a breakthrough in the field of anti-torpedo defence. The counter-measure is unique as it applies the ‘dilution/confusion’ concept to defend a vessel. This involves generating a high-level, 360-degree acoustic signal as soon as it enters the water to jam the full frequency range of an attacking torpedo.
The CANTO system then generates hundreds of false targets, forcing the attacking torpedo to recalibrate and reposition an attack vector. This overwhelms the torpedo’s sonar and data processing, ultimately depleting its energy reserves.
"The excellent performance, interoperability and application of CANTO makes it a valuable defence asset. The French Navy has already selected CANTO for its SSN submarine and surface fleet. Partnering with local industry will further strengthen our partnership, and with Australia’s defence capabilities," explained Romanet.
CANTO is compatible with over 50 platforms, and is used in conjunction with the CONTRALTO reaction module from Naval Group. Once a threat is detected, CONTRALTO suggests an optimised evasive manoeuvre along with CANTO countermeasures. This makes it one of the most successful systems in defeating torpedo attacks.
The dual role of dilution/confusion also means CANTO requires less space when compared with separate systems that fulfil a single purpose. This is incredibly valuable for submarines, which have a limited number of launch tubes and countermeasures to face subsequent attacks.
Naval Group is the European leader in naval defence. As an international high-tech company, Naval Group uses its know-how, unique industrial resources and capacity to arrange innovative strategic partnerships to meet its customers’ requirements.
The group designs, builds and supports submarines and surface ships. It also supplies services to shipyards and naval bases. In addition, the group offers a wide range of marine renewable energy solutions.
Stephen Kuper
Steve has an extensive career across government, defence industry and advocacy, having previously worked for cabinet ministers at both Federal and State levels.
