Northern Telecom to build fiberbased sonar system

Under a subcontract with the UK Ministry of Defence, the Secure Communications organization of Northern Telecom Europe (Newport, Wales) will develo¥and build a new sonar transmission system based on special fiberoptic cable for use in the UK`s Trafalgar Class nuclearpowered submarines. The sonar system is designed to listen for other submarines and surface vessels. It uses highstrength fiberoptic cable that is capable of towing a long passive sonar array while simultaneously handling a high volume of acoustic data transmitted from hydrophones. The company will also supply electrooptic conversion and transmission electronics.