FarSounder sonar for research vessel Sir David Attenborough
The dynamically positioned ship will have a range of 19,000 nautical miles, an endurance of 60 days, and will carry up to 60 scientists and 30 crew
Pinpoint Electronics of Devon, UK, is FarSounder’s local representative and will liaise with shipbuilder Cammell Laird at its Birkenhead facility where the Natural Environmental Research Council-commissioned vessel, designed by Rolls-Royce, is being built.
When the 128m-long research vessel enters service in 2019, its FarSounder sonar will provide a key component in enabling safe navigation and obstacle avoidance in some of the most remote aquatic regions on the planet. During ice-breaking operations – the vessel will be capable of breaking 1m-thick ice at three knots – the sonar will be protected by a custom hoist designed and built by C4R Maritime Solutions of Frederikssund, Denmark and tested nearby by Force Maritime laboratories.
